Why should we celebrate Cinco De Mayo?
By crippling the French army to the point that they could not go to North America to ally with the Confederate army, Mexico's independence helped end slavery. Celebrate with Throw dat Dirt on May 5.
A friend of mine recently asked me why was I hosting Cinco de Mayo at the Throw Dat Dirt ATV Park in Baton Rouge Louisiana without alcohol featuring a live zydeco band. Well, I can answer in a few simple words, but I will give you a little cultural background. It is very important for Louisianians to know and understand their rich history with South America, and Mexico, which existed long before the Civil War in both Mexico and North America. The original people, also known as indigenous people were living in the Americas and governing themselves long before the immigrant invaders migrated from Europe. The original people didn’t have a concept of race; however, they did have a concept of tribe.
Once the invasion started, many of the original/indigenous people practiced “indigenous flight” meaning, they moved away from the areas where the dangerous immigrant European invaders were. The three gangs of invaders were known to them as the Spaniards, the French, and the English. There were also some hostile criminal, indigenous people that aided the invaders. This “indigenous flight“ left a void in qualified skilled labor, so the European immigrant leaders, decided that the best solution to the workforce problem would be to go to West Africa, kidnap Africans and rebrand them as savages to justify their imprisonment in a lifelong torture known as slavery.
Many of the Spaniard/European traders would bring Africans to the port of Veracruz Mexico. From 1500 to the 1800s more than 300,000 Blacks were brought to Mexico alone. This does not include the rest of South America, Central America and North America. Once in Veracruz the traders would sell the slaves inland because the demand for free labor was high.
At the time, Veracruz had one of the largest populations of Afro-Mexicans, but now many Afro Mexicans, live in Costa Chica region in the south eastern part of the country. During the 300 years of Spaniard rule over the indigenous, people in Mexico, many Afro Mexicans, were worked to death or died due to harsh living condition. Mexico grew to have the largest population of enslaved people in Central, North, and South America. Many Afro Mexicans/ Africans would escape to the mountains and build their own communities.
Gasper Yanga was one of the most famous Africans to escape slavery. He established one of the most significant free communities in the state of Veracruz in 1570. This community fought and resisted European rule for over 40 years, and is known as San La Reno’s de Los Negros in 1932 the city was renamed in honor of Gasper Yanga. “De Los Negros” means “from the Blacks” in Spanish.
Afro Mexicans were some of the leading fighters in the war for Mexican independence from European rule. “The dark Army” as it was called was the first to initiate the revolution because they were at the bottom of the slave system in Mexico. One of the Afro Mexican revolutionaries was general Vicente Guerrero who became the second president of Mexico. Afro Mexicans helped to develop the country in many industries, including the silver mines, sugar mill farming and music with songs like the world, famous “La-la la Bomba”, which comes from the African Croce genre of music!
The majority of Africans that escaped from slavery in Louisiana, and parts of Mississippi, did not use the underground railroad to go north towards Canada. The majority went South often traveling to Mexico, or through Mexico into Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and even Cuba where my maternal grandparents came from, and my wife’s maternal grandparents came from Haiti.
Mexico’s independence helped end slavery, not just in Mexico, but also in North America because the Mexican army crippled the French army to the point that they could not go to North America to ally with the confederate army and help refuel the confederacy supply lines.
This brings us back to the original question of why should we celebrate Cinco De Mayo? We believe we have a divine right to love the land and the people of Mexico, and all of South America, because we have so many family ties, and so much history together. We are grateful to the indigenous people of Mexico, and all of South America for helping our Ancestors escape an unjust system of slavery that robbed our ancestors of freedom, self-respect, and dignity.
Join our family oriented cultural celebration at the Throw Dat Dirt ATV Park located at 11890 Gibbens Road in Baton Rouge, this Sunday, May 5th from 12-4PM.
Thank you for allowing me to share a few words.
—Louis Ali, Baton Rouge
Great article filled with rich history