About

I'm Mike Pope. I live in the Seattle area. I've been a technical writer and editor for over 30 years. I'm interested in software, language, music, movies, books, motorcycles, travel, and ... well, lots of stuff.

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The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary.

James D. Nicoll (#)



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Blog Statistics

Dates
First entry - 6/27/2003
Most recent entry - 6/27/2023

Totals
Posts - 2648
Comments - 2662
Hits - 2,599,741

Averages
Entries/day - 0.36
Comments/entry - 1.01
Hits/day - 352

Updated every 30 minutes. Last: 8:04 AM Pacific


  01:27 AM

Today is Cinco de Mayo, which has become a pan-Hispanic holiday in the U.S., something like the latino version of St. Patrick's Day. Some people mistakenly believe that this is Mexican Independence Day, perhaps. It's not, tho -- that's September 16.

Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday, but it's not the biggest one by any means. The place it's particularly important is in the Mexican city of Puebla, which was the site of a battle that took place on May 5, 1862. Mexican troops defeated a French expeditionary force that was intent on taking Mexico City.

How exactly a day commemorating a military victory (in a war that was ultimately lost) came to be such a big deal in the U.S. is sort of mysterious. It's been adopted by folks from all over the Spanish-speaking world as Fiestas Patrias, a celebration of Hispanic pride. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's not as if most other holidays haven't become unmoored from their putative origins and adapted into something that better suits the celabrants.

So happy Cinco de Mayo! Raise a glass to our southern neighbors and to the many ways in which we in the U.S. have uniquely benefited from the contributions of Mexican culture -- in language (savvy, mesa, macho, patio, siesta), food (chile, salsa, tacos, others too numerous to list), dress (sombrero, rebozo, huaraches), sport (rodeo), music (conjunto, norteña, mariachi, marimbas, maracas), dance, holidays (Dia de los Muertos, Cinco de Mayo), art (Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, pre-Columbian native work), literature (Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Zaid, Laura Esquivel), film (Dolores del Río, Anthony Quinn, Los olvidados, Y tu mamá también, Amores Perros), ancient culture (Aztecs, Mayas), hospitality (Mazatlán, Cabo, Cancún, and everywhere in between), and plenty more.

And hey, the next time the French invade, remember Cinco the Mayo and the battle of Puebla.

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