PUEBLA DE LOS ÁNGELES, Mexico -- The authentic Cinco de Mayo, like Ireland's Solemnity of St. Patrick, is quite different from the ersatz celebrations in the United States conjured by the beer barons and their marketing wizards, dousing Kowalskis, Smiths, and Changs with Budweiser or Schlitz until they become Mexicans-for-a-Day.
In Mexico the Fifth of May is an "optional" national holiday, with a few schools and offices closed. With the exception of Puebla, most communities in the country do not have a celebration. September 16, not May 5, is Mexican Independence Day. On the panoramic Rorschach of Mexican identity and history, Cinco de Mayo is scarcely a smudge: It recalls that rarity of rarities, a Mexican military victory in an international conflict.
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