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 Health & Beauty | May 2006 
An Annual Plea For A Sober Cheer For Cinco De Mayo
 Mary Sanchez - Ventura County Star
| | Here's to Cinco de Mayo, the memory of a long-ago battle won by a ragtag army. Sip a glass of tequila or two and discover its true qualities in their honor. |
Here's an annual plea for Cinco de Mayo: Save it from going the way of St. Patrick's Day - a day of commercially driven binge drinking by people claiming to be "Irish for a day."
This time of year calls for bracing against an onslaught of liquor-industry promotions. The ads usually push slamming tequila shots and gulping beer. Cinco (five) beers for cinco ($5) misses the point. High grades of tequila make a fine drink - deserving more respect than normally received in America.
I suspect some of the "Mexican-for-a-day" drinkers envision themselves downing tequila shots, thinking they are being one with their brethren in Mexico. Sorry, but no.
Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in Mexico, but it is actually more of a Mexican-American tradition. The date commemorates an important battle won by the Mexican army. It is not the Mexican Independence Day. That date is Sept. 16.
On May 5, 1862, the Mexican army was victorious over Napoleon's French army in the Battle of Puebla. At least for a moment; the French trounced the Mexican army about a year later.
But the brief Mexican victory is significant, in part because the period is considered the beginning of the Mexican national identity. The blended race of the mestizos, people of Spanish and Indian descent, was beginning to assert itself.
Benito Juarez was president, Mexico's first indigenous leader. He declared a moratorium on paying off Mexico's foreign debt, which ticked off Spain, Britain and France, who were owed.
In response, the European powers occupied the eastern seaport of Veracruz, using the taxes they collected to pay off the debt. Spain and Britain eventually pulled back.
That left the French who were eyeing a takeover of Mexico City. They marched for the attack, but the French were stopped at Puebla. There, the Mexicans were outnumbered six to one, and many were armed with nothing more than pitchforks and machetes.
It was an impressive David-versus-Goliath victory. A battle worthy of commemorating with a fine class of tequila. But not the rotgut alcohol tequila is assumed to be. Good tequila is a fine liquor to be savored. I sip mine over ice. Tequila is as much a source of pride to its finest producers as cognac is to the French or highland malt whiskies to the Scots. And tequila's predecessor, pulque, is historically significant. Pulque was a drink of the Aztecs. It is made from the fermented sap of the agave, a succulent plant. Many open-air markets in Mexico still sell pulque, often directly from barrels.
An anthropologist in Cuernavaca, Mexico, once told me of an Aztec legend that says if you drink five cups of pulque, you will go to the land of 400 rabbits. I could never choke down enough of it to test the theory. To me, pulque tastes like cheap beer stirred with weak lemonade. But my anthropologist friend tried to find the truth in the Aztec legend. She didn't know the size of the Aztecs' cups, so she just drank a lot of it.
No rabbits.
And really no other drunken reaction either, save for the urge for a bathroom.
The Aztecs are said to have first used pulque in religious ceremonies. Social drinking was prohibited. Drunkenness was punished by death. The priests and their sacrificial victims were the only ones allowed pulque.
Later, it became a drink of the military and elite. Eventually, the Spanish conquistadors brought the art of distillation to Mexico and transformed pulque into tequila. Now, most tequila comes from the Mexican state of Jalisco, which has the blue agave plant, considered the best for tequila-making.
So, here's to Cinco de Mayo, the memory of a long-ago battle won by a ragtag army. Sip a glass of tequila or two and discover its true qualities in their honor.
Just don't find yourself in the land of 400 rabbits. |
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