by Karina Guzzi
Daily Lobo
El Centro de La Raza is on a mission to inform people what Cinco de Mayo is really about.
"It's about a battle, not booze. Our culture is not for sale," is the slogan for the event in the SUB today.
Angelica Delgadillo, co-organizer of the event, said as Cinco de Mayo gets closer, people see more billboards and beer commercials advertising it as a drinking holiday.
"We're just going to show the true meaning of Cinco de Mayo," Delgadillo said. "It's about the Battle of Puebla."
Alex Salcido, another organizer, said Cinco de Mayo celebrates a battle between Mexico and France.
He said Mexico was in financial debt to France when the French crossed the Atlantic on a quest to conquer Mexico.
"After July 16, the Mexican Independence Day, Mexico was free from the rule of Spain but was still in debt," Salcido said. "The economy was down. The country of Mexico fought and won."
Salcido said in Mexico, a lot of people don't celebrate by getting drunk and clubbing.
He said organizers of the event are against companies that use Cinco de Mayo as a way to sell alcohol.
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Joaquin Griego, future grad student at UNM, said even in Mexico, the tradition of Cinco de Mayo is used as a marketing tool for Mexican beers, and companies try to capitalize on the holiday.
"It's become exploitative, an excuse to party and drink up," he said. "You hardly ever hear about the triumphal battle over the French by the newly formed republic of Mexico," Griego said.
Salcido said those companies don't even know what Cinco de Mayo is about.
"They just want to take advantage of the day," he said.
Griego said Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of liberation and struggle of Mexican people.
To have it celebrated as a drinking holiday is bad for Chicano culture, he said.
"It's frustrating - a slap in the face," he said.
Griego said he has put together a performance to pay homage to the late Corky Gonzales, who died in April.
Gonzales was important to the Chicano movement, he said.
"He was at the forefront of the Chicano movement in the 1960s and '70s," Griego said. "He fought for the advancement of the Chicano people and equity in the society."
He said the play will incorporate Gonzales' famous poem "Yo Soy Joaquin," the poem "Message to Aztl†n" and a narrative. He said a guitarist will play background music while the poems are read.
Griego said he picked "Yo Soy Joaquin" because it is an epic poem of the Chicano experience.
"From this poem, we can learn who we are and who our people are," he said.
Enrique Lamadrid, director of the Chicano-Hispano-Mexicano Studies Program is a guest speaker for the event and will explain the history of Cinco de Mayo.
