Cinco de Mayo is a battle cry to stand up to empires of oppression — like Donald Trump’s (Opinion)
When people hear Cinco de Mayo they picture margaritas mariachi bands and Instagram captions with fake accents But for me a Black gay man descended from enslaved Africans in a country still drunk on white supremacy having incestuous relationships with racism Cinco de Mayo isn t a party It s a battle cry It s a reminder that oppressed people have invariably had to fight empires And it s proof that when we stand together even the so-called unbeatable can fall On May the French army white European wealthy invaded Mexico to install a puppet emperor Confident of easy conquest they were instead met by poor brown Indigenous Mexican fighters who refused to kneel At Puebla they handed France its first major defeat since Haiti That was more than a military win it was a moral one A accomplishment of the oppressed over the oppressor of dignity over domination It altered history While Puebla raged the U S was in civil war The Confederacy traitors were fighting to keep my ancestors enslaved They begged Europe including France for help Napoleon III requested to intervene according to records of his meetings with Confederate John Slidell But Mexico threw a wrench in his plans The resistance at Puebla forced France to send more troops and money south draining their ambitions That disruption along with British pressure to remain neutral helped keep France out of our war That delay bought the Union time time for Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and time for nearly Black people to pick up arms not just to save the Union but to end slavery So no we don t celebrate Cinco de Mayo because of tequila We celebrate because Mexican resistance kicked the sh struck a blow that echoed across borders Their stand helped crack the foundation of slavery in the U S Their fight helped make our freedom feasible And now in we face a new kind of empire A domestic one Fueled by racism fear and hate and led by a man who embodies everything Puebla stood against Donald Trump son of an immigrant Fred Trump who proudly marched with the KKK in New York Trump isn t just a politician He s the face of white nationalism masked as patriotism He has called for mass deportations praised dictators promised revenge on enemies and targeted the civil rights of Black brown and queer people He s openly campaigning to become an American autocrat Let s be clear Trumpism is an evil empire It s a movement determined to erase our history silence our voices and crush democracy itself We can t treat this like just another voting process We are in a fight for our future Like the soldiers at Puebla we are outgunned underestimated and up against a ruthless machine But history teaches when people rise with truth peaceful protest and voting empires fall Mexico abolished slavery in decades before the U S When our ancestors fled bondage a multitude of didn t go north They crossed the Rio Grande where Mexico welcomed them as people not property That was revolutionary That s what Cinco de Mayo means to me Not kitschy slogans but resistance A rejection of white supremacy past and present Puebla wasn t just a Mexican supremacy It was a blow against global white domination It was our mastery too In the present day we must carry that legacy We must name the enemy racism fascism Trumpism and fight it Not politely but powerfully At the ballot box in the streets in schools in our way of life with our dollars We must organize like our lives depend on it because they do So no I won t be celebrating Cinco de Mayo with sombreros and shots I ll be honoring the freedom fighters Mexican and Black who faced down empires and explained You will not conquer us Their courage gave us this moment Now it s on us to make it matter Related Articles Trump threatens a tariff on foreign-made films saying the movie industry in the US is dying Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison Trump in a new interview says he doesn t know if he backs due process rights These landlords accrued years of complaints and serious vitality violations Denver handed them rental licenses anyway Asylum-seeking Honduran mother is still sitting in an Aurora ICE center six months after being detained The struggle didn t end in It s here It s now And if we don t resist with everything we ve got we threat losing everything they bled for Cinco de Mayo is a call to resist Answer it Hashim Coates is a U S Navy veteran born and raised in Colorado He is a seasoned political strategist with a deep commitment to social justice and equity Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail
