A retrospective: Cinco de Mayo pasts (Part 2)
El Paso, ca. 1880. Photo by F. Parker of El Paso. Public domain.
On May 7, 1889, the El Paso Times carried news of the Cinco de Mayo celebration across the border in Juarez. “A day as dear to Mexicans as is the Fourth of July to Americans.” The Texas-based reporter said that “a large number of Americans from El Paso went over to participate in the festivities of the occasion.” No festivities noted in El Paso itself.
El Pasoans also attended the grand ball held at the Juarez theater. The paper deemed the ball “a brilliant social success.” That reporter erroneously stated that Cinco de Mayo celebrated Mexican independence.
May 4, 1897, while Mexico was still governed by Díaz, the Laredo Daily Times said that the “Junta Patriotica” in Laredo — not across the border in Nuevo Laredo, but in Texas — would honor Cinco de Mayo in Laredo. At dawn on May 5, 1897, there would be a 21-cannon salute, followed by raising the Mexican flag “on all buildings of Mexican societies” in Laredo. There would be a parade “accompanied by the civil and military authorities.”
The Grand Marshal of the Cinco de Mayo parade in Laredo that year was an up-and-coming attorney named Charles Cushman (“C.C.”) Pierce. Not yet forty, C.C. had settled in Laredo in 1880, moving to that border town from Brownsville, where he had married a Mexican national named Josefa Paz in 1878. The newlyweds had four children. C.C. quickly turned his legal skills into political power, serving in various municipal positions. He died with his boots on, serving as representative for the Webb County district in the Texas state legislature for two successive terms.
These details from 1897 demonstrate the fluidity of life on the Texas border.
Also in 1897, the Mexican consul in Brownsville gave the city a copy of a book entitled Cinco de Mayo de 1862. The Brownsville Herald noted that May 5 is “a great national holiday in Mexico.”
Victoria, Texas joined Laredo in 1898, throwing a Cinco de Mayo bash for its residents. The editors of the Victoria Advocate said that “Valleyans” (people from South Texas) had traveled to Victoria, near Houston, to attend the festivities. Cinco de Mayo festivities were held at the German Schützen (shooting club) facilities in Victoria. In addition to singing Mexican songs, a brass band from Corpus Christi provided dancing music.
The prejudice against their Mexican-American neighbors comes through loud and clear in the article’s closing statement. “Those that were at the grounds say that the Mexicans behaved nicely throughout the entire day.”
By 1909, Cinco de Mayo carnivals had spread to Elgin, Texas. My great-grandfather Sachs had gotten his ‘real’ start in brickmaking in Elgin, but in 1862, he settled in Houston. When Elgin City Park hosted Cinco de Mayo in May 1909, the town was booming. Bricks and cotton, those fueled industry in Elgin. Although the city fathers consented to use of the city park, they still saw it as something for the Mexican working-class population.
Surprisingly, smack dab in the middle of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Mexican troops marched in a double celebration in Juarez, across the border from El Paso. In addition to celebrating Cinco de Mayo, the troops honored Mexico’s new president, Venustiano Carranza. Reading the story in the El Paso Times, it’s strange that the editors only mentioned the inauguration, without any context.
Then again, directly under the Cinco de Mayo story, those same editors published an Associated Press story that supported the notion that women were not capable of doing the same work as men at Lloyds of London. World War I was in its final stages, and Lloyds threatened to stop insuring ships altogether if they were forced to hire women.
May 1920, Houston Post editor George M. Bailey alluded to the ongoing brutality and craziness of the Mexican Revolution. In a section entitled “Early Morning Observations,” mixed in with wry remarks about life in Houston, Bailey said, “Don’t think harshly of Mexico. She is no crazier than the rest of the nations. She has merely been in a frenzy longer.”
A most cryptic note followed. “May Day projected no crimson flood in the United States. Can Mexico start something on Cinco de Mayo?” In the first sentence, Bailey doubtlessly referred to the bloodshed that had taken place at the May Day march in France, May 1, 1919, when French police fired upon and killed several protesters. The Waco Times-Herald had noted on May 2, 1919:
The disturbances are generally deplored by public opinion. Before the war [WW1], it is pointed out, such incidents as the day brought forth would have seemed trivial in comparison of those with other May days but is considered deeply regrettable that after so much French blood had been shed upon the battle fields, any more should have been spilled upon the streets of the capital.
Why Bailey would wish more bloodshed on Mexico as it celebrated Cinco de Mayo a few days later? It’s beyond me.
Texas Tech in Lubbock showed its then-progressive nature – what happened, Tech?! – by holding a Cinco de Mayo party in 1930.
Then — there seems to be a gap in mentions of Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Mexico. Did the holiday fall out of favor in that country once Díaz was finally unseated?
On March 15, 1931, the Brownsville Herald reported that Governor Francisco Castellanos, Jr. of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas had granted Luis Rendon permission to build an 8000-seat bullring in Santa Cruz, across the river from Brownsville. Bull fights at this arena were mentioned for several decades, with the last one held on December 18, 1983.
The first mention I found of a ‘joint’ Mexican-US Cinco de Mayo celebration: El Paso-Juarez, May 5, 1941. Although the reporter for the Pampa Daily News erroneously wrote that they were celebrating “Mexican Independence Day,” and claimed that Mexico defeated “Emperor Maximilan’s French forces,” the rest of the news story is heartwarming. Both cities held independent Cinco de Mayo festivities.
Better still, top officials from both the US and Mexican governments issued declarations of friendship. Secretary of State Hull sent a message to the US consulate in Juarez, duly read aloud for the benefit of Mexican dignitaries. Hull said that Cinco de Mayo “symbolizes the desire of the government of the United States to promote all that makes for the welfare and friendship of the two republics.”
Mayor Anderson of El Paso pronounced Cinco de Mayo an official municipal holiday, which the Mexican government described as a “gesture of international friendship.” A ceremony similar to the one held in Juarez was performed at the Mexican consulate in El Paso.
That particular Cinco de Mayo would be long remembered in Juarez. A prankster of the Juarez Chauffeurs Union thought it would be hysterical if their funeral ceremony that same day would “precede” the Cinco de Mayo parade. The mayor of Juarez didn’t think it was all that funny and fined the union.
The El Paso Times further identified the Marcos Armijo post of the VFW and the El Paso Junta Patriotica as two organizations on the Texas side of the border that marched in that “twin” parade on the Texas side of the border. Both groups coordinated their efforts with Mexican military and civil leaders.
November 1941, not even a month before Pearl Harbor, a Mexican general named Jesus Jaime Quiñones made the Fourth of July, Cinco de Mayo, and Armistice Day international holidays in the USA and Mexico, at least in the territories over which he had control. Quiñones had emerged from the Mexican Revolution as a strong international leader, using sporting events and the language of sports to bring people together.
The next year, El Paso and Juarez turned their twin celebrations into a true joint celebration. US and Mexican soldiers marched together. School children and labor organizations from both sides of the river marched side by side on May 5, 1942. Speeches made by Major Gen. Swift of Fort Bliss and Brig. Gen. Quiñones of Mexico hailed the mingling of the troops as “a symbol of hemispheric solidarity.”
As World War II dragged on, and Mexico joined the Allies in the war effort, that solidarity was increasingly on display. The Mexican consul in Dallas, Luis Perez-Abreu, combined a Cinco de Mayo party and a Pan-American dinner at the Kinsloe House in Dallas on May 5, 1943. Perez-Abreu promoted Mexico’s contribution to the Allies’ militarily, as well as improvements in Mexico’s educational system. Kinsloe House exhibited a dozen Mexican posters, which remained on display at the Hall of State in Dallas. Good neighbors!
May 5, 1944, the solidarity between Mexico and the United States was at an all-time high. Although McAllen refused to join the Mexican Cinco de Mayo celebrations, Laredo and Nuevo Laredo emulated El Paso and Juarez. That year, the festivities carried on the double emphases from Dallas in 1943, as military and education shared the stage. Perez-Abreu expanded the Dallas socials, encouraging Mexican-Americans living there to ‘beautify’ their homes and gardens.
At least in Texas, celebrating Cinco de Mayo was beginning to become more routine, more matter of fact. Except for McAllen, places seemed to vie with one another as the extravaganzas became more colorful. Mexican culture and folklore went public.
Even tiny Elsa, Texas — near McAllen, but not at all like McAllen — joined in the fun in May 1945. The thousand or so residents of Elsa put their unique touch on their Cinco de Mayo festivities, calling it the First Annual Cinco de Mayo Tomato Fiesta and Rodeo. Astonishingly, Elsa — still tiny — just celebrated its 80th Cinco de Mayo Tomato Fiesta and Rodeo on May 5, 2025. Although now the party lasts four or five days… By 1948, it had already been extended to five days, with Miss Ruth McDaniel of Sharytown crowned festival queen that year.
Keep in mind, in 1945 Elsa was still very much German!
By 1949, reports of Cinco de Mayo in Texas newspapers seem to fade. The Lubbock Evening Journal found it appropriate and necessary to announce on May 4, 1949: “No celebration of Cinco de Mayo, Mexican holiday, will be staged in the Mexican quarter of Lubbock, it was learned Tuesday. The celebration hasn’t been staged here for several years and is only observed by those Mexicans who live closer to the border.”
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times similarly announced on May 1, 1952 that the Mexican consulate in that city would be closed Monday, May 5 for “the Cinco de Mayo celebration of the battle of Puebla. … The consulate will be open as usual on Friday.”
An anonymous journalist with the Brownsville Herald wrote a somewhat longer article on May 5, 1954. I wish there had been a byline.
On both sides of the Rio there is a spate of celebrating today in honor of the battle of Cinco de Mayo when a ragged army of Mexicans stood off the expeditionary forces of Napoleon III in the state of Puebla.
It was 92 years ago today that the Mexicans put the run to the Frenchmen. It was not, unfortunately, a decisive battle; but it has become a sort of symbol where valour and honor outweigh the military importance of the engagement.
To us of the Border Gringo tribe, Mexico is the part of Brownsville that lies across the river, which is an altogether unfair and inaccurate presumption.
At the time when the Mexicans were fighting the French, our own United States had been free of European domination for 86 years.
The reporter detailed how Mexico and the United States developed, parallel and unequal. His treatise is a reminder of how lucky we’ve been, we “Border Gringos.” We did not have to suffer “the Spaniards, the oppression of the clergy, the French, the corruption of a series of military dictators, wars with three strong powers.”
Then he held up a mighty fine mirror. “As a nation which has enjoyed internal stability for 200 years longer than the Mexicans, we have not set a good example. We have squandered our own liberty for a series of gimmicks and slogans. The Mexicans enjoy more freedom than they did 200 years ago; we have less.
“Who, therefore, has made the real progress?”
The reporter’s history lesson concludes with the following.
It has occurred to us that if the United States, Canada and Mexico were to join hands in a genuine effort to extend liberty to its citizens, there would be no stopping the three of us.
There is nothing so “catching” as freedom; nothing so invigorating; nothing so terrifying, demanding, precious and prodigal; nothing so easily spent.
Is it not paradoxical that nations which have written into their histories such events as the Fourth of July and the Cinco de Mayo can behave ignobly when it comes to protecting individual liberty?
We win the battles for liberty; and we lose our freedom.
There is no army, no H-bomb and no radar system that will protect any citizen from his own government, from his neighbor and from himself.
But somewhere – sometime – there must be a philosophical Cinco de Mayo, a political Fourth of July, where man will reassert his independence from all slavery, even the domestic variety which he has voted upon himself.
Anonymous, May 5, 1954. Brownsville. Yes, Texas hasn’t always been crazy.
1954 would also be the year that Lubbock rediscovered the magic of Cinco de Mayo. This time it wasn’t relegated just to the “Mexicans” in the city. Although it’s likely that “Latin Americans” (per the Lubbock Evening Journal) were primary attendees.
Del Rio finally joined El Paso-Juarez and Laredo-Nuevo Laredo by hosting a joint celebration with its sister city, Ciudad Acuña, on May 5, 1958. The Good Neighbor Committee coordinated the festivities. City fathers of both Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña proposed and implemented the notion of an “open bridge policy.” During Cinco de Mayo events, which lasted from May 3 through May 5, residents of Mexico could cross into the United States without the usual formal permits. Apparently Mexico did not require permits from its US neighbor.
The Del Rio News Herald article about the planning for the 1958 festival mentions that theirs was the first joint celebration. However, since 1958 was the first time that Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña had hosted this party, they clearly were unaware of previous US-Mexican celebrations.
Laughlin Air Force Base together with the Lackland Air Force Base band, provided the majority of the military spectacles for Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña. The Del Rio News Herald did not mention participation by Mexican troops.
The same group planning for Cinco de Mayo was also involved with the Pan-American highway that would connect Del Rio to Mexico City. I find it fascinating that that Pan-American highway that had been dreamed into existence, now runs about 19,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay. The last portion to Tierra del Fuego National Park in Argentina has not been completed as of May 5, 2025.
Even more powerful: The Good Neighbor Committee, now the International Good Neighbor Council, still exists and still promotes peace between the United States and our southern friends.
By 1960, Cinco de Mayo had become an integral part of Texas’ political scene. While campaigning for a third term as governor of Texas, Gov. Price Daniel showed up at Corpus Christi’s International Good Neighbor meeting for a speech. Of course, he also congratulated Mexico on its May 5, 1862 victory in Puebla! “The spirit of Cinco de Mayo has seen citizens of Mexico through some troubled times, just as our recollections of the great deeds of our forefathers in Texas and the United States have been a source of inspiration to us through the years.”
Price Daniel knew which way the wind was blowing. Although Cinco de Mayo had not yet reached the status it enjoys these days, thanks to beer commercials!, in 1960 Gov. Daniel converted a campaign rally into a “Cinco de Mayo Fiesta.” He appeared with Dr. Francisco Villagran, consul general of Mexico, at the Memorial Coliseum in Corpus Christi. Daniel stressed his close cooperation with Mexican governors. “The Rio Grande serves, not as a barrier between Texas and Mexico, but as a link.” So said Daniel.
The program had begun with Villagran leading the parade into the Coliseum, carrying the US flag. Daniel followed, bearing the Mexican flag. Throughout the ceremony, Villagran remained next to the US flag, Daniel beside the Mexican flag. The band played the national anthems of both countries.
Many Democratic dignitaries attended the rally, speaking on behalf of Daniel’s election. Dancers danced, musicians performed, singers sang. The ‘standing room only’ crowd ate it up. Police had to turn away thousands more. The singing, dancing, and music-making ended with the crowd toasting Mexico. Not toasting Daniel. Toasting Mexico.
Villagran closed the ceremonies with a toast of his own, wishing “peaceful coexistence between all nations of the world.” That signaled time to release pigeons from the stage, flying into the audience. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times refrained from mentioning the results of pigeons and people.
And Price Daniel did in fact win that third term as governor of Texas. Despite being a Baylor grad.
Perhaps 1963 and 1964 represented the sharp turn to popularity of Cinco de Mayo among more than merely the “Mexican” residents of the United States. Three clippings bear witness to this pivot point.
First, on May 5, 1963, long before the first beer commercial, Frost Brothers ran a prominent ad in San Antonio’s Express and News. “Cinco-de-Mayo / Salute to Mexico! Congratulations to Mexico on the Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, a symbol of freedom. Attend the Sunday morning caravan to Goliad, Texas… and the afternoon celebration here in the Buena Vista Gardens. For information, call the Mexican consulate general. FROST BROTHERS.”
Also in 1963, J. Frank Dobie — that beloved Texas writer and folklorist, liberal down to the tips of his toes, friend of LBJ — treated Cinco de Mayo as a holiday that surely every Texan knew. He penned a May 5, 1963 column carried by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram entitled “Variations Rebuke Forecasters.”
This piece is to be released on the Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, one of the two most celebrated holidays of Mexico. I will not bet even money that it rains on the Cinco de Mayo but will come nearer betting on rain within ten days of the Cinco de Mayo either before or after that that date than on rain on any other date. Yet I never considered myself a prophet or posed as one. The reason I won’t bet absolutely on rain on the Cinco de Mayo is that there are variations.
Dobie should have wagered. Apparently it rained 0.75” in Fort Worth on May 5, 1963.
The next year, Texans openly embraced at least one hero of Cinco de Mayo as their own. February 23, 1964, the Tyler Courier-Times published an article entitled “Goliad Bore Many Heroes,” by Ed Syers. The hero they chose to embrace? None other than Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza.
A researcher from Corpus Christi named W.M. Neyland had traveled to Mexico in 1940. He was surprised to find many streets named Zaragoza and many statues of a soldier on horseback commemorating that general. A plaque on one such statue stated that Zaragoza was born on January 14, 1828, in La Bahía, Texas. [Either Neyland copied the date incorrectly, or the statue had it wrong, or Syers wasn’t a good journalist. Zaragoza was born on March 24, 1829.]
Syers conveniently overlooks that in 1828/1829, La Bahía was a city in the Mexican state of “Coahuila and Texas,” a state that had existed since its founding by Alonso De León in 1689-1690. Yes, in the seventeenth century. For over 150 years, La Bahia was located in a Mexican state. Various Mexican governors wrangled over governance of Texas, with Coahuila and Texas sometimes unified, sometimes separate, sometimes ignored, sometimes a point of conflict. However, the Mexican Constitution of 1824 defined the state as Coahuila and Texas. The Texas State Historical Association has a fascinating Web page about its complex history.
Since La Bahía means the bay, on February 4, 1829, Mexico renamed La Bahía as Goliad. Perhaps the statue in San Luis Potosi misquoted Zaragoza’s birthdate so they could show him as born in La Bahía and not the hated Goliad, Texas.
Six years after Zaragoza’s birth, on October 9, 1835, settlers in Goliad attacked the Mexican fort near their town. The fort: Presidio La Bahía. A freed slave named Samuel McCulloch Jr. was the first “Texian” to be wounded on behalf of Texas independence. When later laws prohibited freedmen from Texas citizenship, the Republic of Texas made an exception in McCulloch’s case.
The war for Texas independence, therefore, essentially started in Goliad, although it had been boiling beneath the surface years before.
The Mexican army did not forget. On Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, the Mexican army slaughtered 425-450 POWs that had been assembled in Goliad. President and General Santa Anna himself had decreed in December 1835 that all Texians fighting against Mexico were to be shot as traitors. Records indicate that he hoped his harsh measures would discourage the United States from defending its southern neighbor, the department of Texas.
It had the opposite effect. US citizens flocked to Texas, taking up arms on its behalf. Without US aid, Mexico would have quickly quashed the Texians’ uprising. The Goliad massacre was all but forgotten once the battle at the Alamo took place. Yet without the Goliad massacre, there would have been no battle at the Alamo.
Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza’s father Miguel fought with the Mexican army during the Texas war of independence. Once the Republic of Texas had been established, Miguel Zaragoza moved his family from Goliad to Matamoros, Mexico, and later to Monterrey.
Originally intending to become a priest, Ignacio Zaragoza entered the Catholic seminary in Monterrey. That did not suit his personality, so he followed his father’s footsteps and joined the army. Where Miguel had fought for Santa Anna, Ignacio joined the liberal forces under Benito Juárez, fighting against Santa Anna.
So yes, Ed Syers and W.M. Neyland, Ignacio Zaragoza was technically born in Goliad. It’s doubtful he’d have enjoyed the association with Goliad. Nevertheless, it’s surprising that in the 1960s, a Texas reporter would fete a Mexican military hero. Small victories where you can get them.
The same year (1964), Gen. Charles de Gaulle of France ordered that Mexican battle flags captured during the Second Franco-Mexican War be returned to Mexico. Three of those flags were placed in front of a statue of Gen. Zaragoza.
That said: Ed Syers, for a teasip, your contribution to Texas history was immense and profound. Mexican heroes born and raised in Texas deserved recognition, deserved to have a spotlight shined on their accomplishments.
May our United States of America, together with its truest of friends, Canada and the Estados Unidos Mexicanos, once again find the backbone to recognize one another’s heroes, to celebrate one another’s histories, to know one another’s back stories.
The Fourth of July is about far more than fireworks, picnics, and barbecue.
Canada Day is about far more than the ringing of bells and “bonfires, fireworks, and illuminations, excursions, military displays, and musical and other entertainments” (Allan Levine, The Evolution of July 1).
And Cinco de Mayo is about far more than parades, dancing, and shooting cannons. Much less about guacamole and Mexican beer.
Ed Syers would have appreciated Brig. Gen. Jesus Jaime Quiñones’ attempt to recognize US and Mexican holidays on both sides of the border. Quiñones and Syers would have liked Price Daniels’ vision of the Rio Grande as link, not border, between the United States and Canada.
And all would have welcomed that anonymous Brownsville reporter’s comments in 1954:
It has occurred to us that if the United States, Canada and Mexico were to join hands in a genuine effort to extend liberty to its citizens, there would be no stopping the three of us.
There is nothing so “catching” as freedom; nothing so invigorating; nothing so terrifying, demanding, precious and prodigal; nothing so easily spent.
It’s high time we started living up to the idealism of mid-twentieth century America. And make it so.
Postscript: Writing about the idealism of mid-twentieth century America by no means indicates that we accomplished everything we set out to do. But we made a damn good start.
So, two steps forward, one step back. It’s time for twenty steps forward. High time.
Comments worth sharing
Such a great article. I'm a Native Texan and a Texas history buff. Those contemporaneous news stories are solid gold. Beside being excellent history, it is also interesting to see the topics they covered in local papers and how well-written (if not necessarily well-researched) they were.
Sometimes for fun, I delve into the online archives of old newspapers from my hometown, enjoying stories about the places and families that were there a hundred years before I knew them in the 1960's when I was a kid there. These slices of life are revelatory. Many of the family names from the 1870's onward are still there to this day!
--Cynthia Phillips, May 7, 2025.
Interesting article! I wonder who that “anonymous Brownsville reporter” was. He had excellent insights!
--Gwen Miertschin, May 14, 2025.
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