Tag: cinco de mayo

I made tacos. Which is about as authentic Mexican as anything that happens on St. Patrick’s Day is authentic Irish, so gimme a break. This is how things go; and the alternatives to this sort of hyper-casual cultural assimilation can get messy, so count your blessings, ¿Comprende?

I’m mostly of Irish descent, you understand. So it is with no little sympathy and a certain amount of shared life experience that I watch, along with you, as a minor Mexican holiday gets turned into this fascinating extravaganza dedicated to the noble cause of getting plastered on tequila and/or Negra Modelo. :shrug: Anglos. Whaddya gonna do?

[UPDATE]: HeartbreakRidge from Twitter notes this:

:pause:

HAHAHAHAHA!

…Happy Another Excuse To Drink Day!  I know, I know, any random Latinos reading this: it’s not that big a deal in Mexico.  Neither is St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland; but it’s all part of the Assimilation Tango.  You want cultural acceptance? Give Americans a holiday where we can go boozing, or at least eat well.  I expect that the next one is gonna be Juneteenth.  The calendar’s not too full (Father’s Day, and that’s about it) and June 19th is usually a fine time to fire up the grill.

Moe Lane

PS: Actually, a margarita doesn’t sound half bad.  Not that I’d be going on the road tonight under any circumstances.

I think that I’ve mentioned this before, but I feel a certain amount of sympathy for Mexican-descended Americans who get to watch what was a minor holiday for their ancestors be turned into a booze-drenched bacchanalia (yes, yes, that’s redundant). It’s a detached sympathy, because that’s what exactly what American culture did to St. Patrick’s Day and nobody said boo then – but, hey, this is all part of the assimilation process.

But still: Happy Cinco de Mayo! Stay off of the roads, please.

And to any readers of mine of Mexican descent, let me once again assure you: I feel your pain.  No, really, I do: I happen to be almost pure Irish-American, so I am intimately familiar with the way that America can appropriate a cultural holiday and turn it into a booze-soaked bacchanalia. Not that this is such a bad thing, really: at least it means that your particular ethnic/cultural group is assimilating on schedule.

Still, no, I’m not going to get drunk tonight on tequila and start shouting phrases in what I fondly consider to be Spanish.  No, I’m just going to stay home and sober.  Because I’m a giver that way.