Que es el Cinco de Mayo?

Growing up on the U.S. Mexican border meant we celebrated holidays such as Cinco de Mayo. Celebrating this Mexican holiday has become increasingly popular (and very commercialized) along the U.S. Mexico border. Many people wrongly confuse Cinco de Mayo with Mexican Independence Day, which was on September 16, 1810 - nearly a fifty year difference. But what the hey! - it's an opportunity to have a celebration with great food, music, drinks, and dancing! Even though I'm over 600 miles away from home (but still in Texas), we've still been able to enjoy these festivities from time to time. A couple years ago, we were able to attend a local Cinco de Mayo festival and watched beautiful Folklorico dancers while we enjoyed savory food and cold horchata (drink made of rice, almonds, canella (cinammon), lime zest and sugar) - this drink is rumored to be a cure for a hangover and is frequently served at breakfast time (with Menudo). Even though horchata has a milky appearance, it's totally dairy-free and oh, so delicioso! During the summer of 2005, while in Juarez, Mexico, I picked up this adorable muñeca and the tiny dress below, and this year - finally have a little lady to wear it.

Just for grins, I'm sharing this photo of me wearing a Folklorico dress which was taken a couple years ago. Since I had such a large population of students that year with a Hispanic heritage, I decided to have a Cinco de Mayo unit. At the end of the week, the students and I had fun dressing up and the school got a huge kick out of my class that year.