I’m wondering how many more incidents we’re going to hear of in the next few days similar to the Mexican Civic Society of Illinois’ upcoming festival in conjunction with the Cinco de Mayo holiday?
The society had been planning a festival to be held near downtown Chicago to commemorate the date in 1862 when forces of a Mexican resistance were able to drive French troops from the city of Puebla.
WHILE THERE ARE many communities that have Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and even in the Chicago area there will be a few, this festival had the advantage of entertainment, vendors and even a few government officials coming from Mexico.
It would have added a certain authenticity to the event over places where locals dress up in vaquero costumes, a mariachi band plays, and a few overly soggy tamales are sold. In some places, Cinco de Mayo becomes the generic excuse for Latino ethnic recognition – even though the date has no historic significance outside of Mexico.
But some of those officials are having trouble getting flights into the United States. Others don’t want to go through the hassle of traveling at a time when the swine flu is reaching a peak in Mexico.
In short, the festival got taken out by the health hazard.
NOT THAT I’M getting all worked up over the thought of one less Cinco de Mayo celebration. I’m sure if I really scour the neighborhoods this coming weekend, I can find somewhere to go if I really feel the need to be surrounded by people doing the Mexican hat dance.
But my concern is that some people are going to think that somehow, the festival itself has the potential to spread disease. As though it is somehow due to exposure to anything Mexican that causes the virus to spread.
That nitwit attitude is evident in so many places, including some rhetoric that recently came from Israel Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman, who said the current outbreak should be called the “Mexican flu” instead of “swine flu,” because if it truly were “swine flu” then Jewish people would not be capable of getting it because of the abstention from pork products on religious grounds.
He has a point in that swine flu, strictly speaking, doesn’t come from pigs. Contact with them, or eating food products produced from them, does not put anyone at risk. The fact that Egypt is now slaughtering all pigs in the country is about as irrelevant a gesture as a nation could make toward trying to control spread of the virus.
BUT THE IDEA that this has any real connection to a country is ridiculous. The list of nations on Planet Earth who have had people contract the virus ought to discredit that notion right away.
And the idea that any contact with anything that brings to mind the culture of a country is somehow harmful is absurd.
So go out, find a festival, preferably one with decent Mexican food (since there’s nothing more disgusting than overly mild, third-rate takes on food from the rest of the Americas).
Because it would be just as irrelevant a gesture to start penalizing Cinco de Mayo celebrations that take place this weekend in anticipation of the actual holiday on Tuesday.
WE SHOULD CONTINUE our celebration of the Mexican victory at Puebla, where what could be described as rag-tag forces were able to defeat the French army – thereby giving Mexican people a sense of hope that they could somehow drive France and its puppet Austrian emperor, Maximillian, out of control in Mexico City.
It was a moment that even spills over to impact U.S. history, since the fact that Mexican rebels fighting to get back control of their country were able to put up such a fight for the next few years that French forces were not able to follow through on their long-term plans to provide military assistance from Mexico to the so-called rebels trying to split up a country.
None other than los Estados Unidos itself.
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EDITOR’S NOTES: Chicago will have one less Cinco de Mayo celebration, due to the (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/cinco-de-mayo-fest-canceled-over-swine-flu.html) swine flu outbreak that may have hit Mexico hardest but now threatens the globe.
Israel officials are being ethnically offensive in their own right when they criticize (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ieHZRubAS3lyjn2GBiCPkXkHrXwwD97QROAG0) officials for being insensitive to the cultural realities of Jewish people.
While I’m not sure I agree with all his song choices, I do believe there ought to be some variety (http://www.dallasobserver.com/2009-04-30/news/this-cinco-de-mayo-give-the-mariachis-a-break-from-the-old-standbys/) in a Cinco de Mayo celebration.
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