Cinco de Mayo: A Profoundly Researched Insight

It's Cinco de Mayo! To look at this traditional Mexican-American feast in greater depth I turned to Wikipedia and the Urban Dictionary, where the first definition put the feast in a somewhat insensitive but likely accurate nutshell:

Photo: El Castillo at Chichén Itzá [Wikimedia Commons] by Eric Baetscher (March 29, 2008)
Licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

1 : literally, the fifth of May

2a : a holiday celebrated by millions of Mexican nationals in America with notable festivity and drunkenness to commemorate their heritage and pride in the greatness of a country they couldn't wait to leave

2b : a holiday celebrated in Mexico by a small number of Mexicans with overwrought sadness and drunkenness to lament their expulsion from America by the Border Patrol <see also, el día de los muertos>

"Cinco de Mayo [Urban Dictionary], by J. Myars (May 5, 2009)

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Despite desultory research I have mostly found references, partly of the boozing variety, to this year's celebration among the yanquís whom I follow on Twitter. Martha Stewart was first on the field with a cluster of tweets, including this margarita recipe:

"in ice filled blender-4 oz best tequila;5ozfresh lime juice;2 oz cointreau;sugar to taste (add raspberries,strawberries)"

The Library of Congress intervened soberly with a historical perspective from Francisco Macías (Senior Legal Information Analyst), which like the Relevant Wikipedia Article (r.W.a. for short) stresses that Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day.

Apparently America and Mexico have a salient point in common, mainly disrespect for the military prowess of the French, whom Mexico won against in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, four decades into (nominal) independence from Spain.

In the meantime the LA Times is promoting festive gluttony in its food section:

Cinco de Mayo: 23 recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen

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In the bookshop we have one novel essays by Carlos Fuentes, Los cinco soles de México in German translation, so I drew a little sign for it and learned how to half-sketch the eagle on the Mexican flag. That was my contribution.

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I apologize for not having material that is from Mexico.

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Edited To Add: Mexico's President Felipe Calderón did attend a reenactment of the Battle of Puebla today. ("Calderón presencia Batalla del 5 de Mayo" [El Universal], by Jorge Ramos y Xóchitl Rangel)