Why You Should Celebrate Cinco de Mayo!
A Jose Guadalupe Posada historic woodcut of Mexicans partying. Shake it, don’t break it, it took your mother nine months to make it.
Why You Should Celebrate Cinco de Mayo!
The 5th of May is for everyone, and it’s not just an excuse to drink tequila or Corona beer, which invented the holiday to spur beer sales in the U.S. It’s not really commemorated traditionally in Mexico!
The Mushroom Dorado taco and Jamaica tea (iced herbal hibiscus tea, pronounced “hamaica”) at Lenora, in Portland, Maine.
Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Battle of Puebla, the triumph of Mexican forces over French invasion forces in that city, eventually regaining Mexico’s independence from European colonial powers. El Dieciséis de Septiembre (September 16th) celebrates Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, another day to celebrate Mexican culture and food. (Mexicans eat Mexican food daily.)
While the U.S. was otherwise too engaged in the Civil War in the 1860s to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, a French noble, Maximilian, claimed title by descent as emperor of the independent nation of Mexico, and arrived with an occupying force. He situated his palace in in the center of Mexico City’s central park, atop Chapultepec Hill, in what was the historical capital of the central valley of Mexico for thousands of years. The French were decisively kicked out of Mexico with U.S. help in 1867.
In the course of our World of Flavor tour, I often make the point that foodways often illustrate some of the positive aspects of colonialism: cultural hybridity, as in Vietnamese cuisine’s mix of Southeast Asian and French cuisine, Italy’s mix of New World ingredients and Asian noodles, India’s strong brewing tradition derived from its time as a British colony, and London’s vibrant food scene built upon South Asian foodways. Aside from European plunder of natural resources and exploitation of indigenous people, and most important for our purposes, colonialism makes for interesting food. In the U.S., we are the ultimate hybrid migrant culture, with substantial cultural influences from all over the world, and food is a terrific way to demonstrate it.
Haddock tacos at Andy’s Old Port Pub, Portland, Maine. Not a bad approximation of what people in Maine were eating thousands of years ago! The fish is far fresher than that.
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the return of Mexico’s independence from European powers. It is one of the great indigenous civilizations of the world, with a population and land mass nearly equal to that of the U.S. Since the 1920s, Mexicans officially regard themselves as mestizos, a mixture of Spanish and indigenous cultures. (Mexico still has a population of 30 million non-Spanish-speaking people who speak roughly 30 indigenous languages!) Mexico retains deep ties to its indigenous origins, and as lovers of food, we should celebrate that.
Until just this year, Mexico had banned genetically modified corn, as its food culture developed thousands of heirloom varieties: including blue, black, red, green, and huge-kerneled elote. Even huitlacoche, a corn soup, is made with the fungus that parasitizes ears of corn. In Mexico, it’s a delicacy. In the US, all that has been bred out of GMO varieties. Mexicans eat more corn per person than any other nation on earth. Mexicans invented corn, and popcorn too, all hybridized over millennia from an inconspicuous native grass, teosinte, which is more tassle than kernel. Corn cultivation spread throughout the Americas from Mexico, even as far as Maine, where it was a staple food upon contact with Europeans in the 1500s. And don’t forget that Mexico has four enormous coasts and a highly-developed seafood culture. There is a wonderful logic in starting our New England culinary tours with fish tacos: that’s likely what local Pekwakek people (of the Wabenakek Confederacy) ate here for several thousand years or so prior to European contact. Much of New England’s culinary traditions in fact, are drawn from indigenous materials and techniques. Think clam- and lobster bakes, maple sugaring, wild blueberries, cranberries, and pumpkin spice, still our signature regional flavors.
Corn kernels hybridized from teosinte (top) through modern corn (bottom)
Without the indigenous foodways of Mexico, the world would be a far sadder and poorer place. On its own, corn feeds not only billions of people, but billions of cows, it’s one of the staple foods of much of the world now. If 50% of the world’s population is theoretically built on corn cultivation worldwide, that means you owe 50% of your very existence to the native Mexicans who developed it, and U.S. people are almost as dependent upon corn as are Mexicans. …And it’s not only corn to which you owe your existence. Mexicans and other indigenous peoples of the Americas also developed all squashes, including pumpkin, all the varieties of peppers, all tomatoes, all varieties of pole beans, wild rice, avocados, and vanilla, which is not a bean, but the anther of a hibiscus flower native to the slopes of the mountains of Veracruz state. Potatoes were developed by the great Andean civilizations of South America as well. And there is another exquisite and crucial food staple we are forever indebted to the indigenous people of central Mexico: chocolate, which is a Nahuatl (the indigenous Aztecan language) word: “xocolatl.” In itself, that is worthy of a day of celebration. So yes tequila, but also bourbon, which is corn whiskey. Some of the most crucial aspects of being American in this hemisphere were substantial gifts from the native civilizations of Mexico. Don’t forget it.
Cacao. The genus name literally means “food of the gods…”
The cuisine of Mexico City often exhibits French influences: “bolillos” are baguettes, and there are plenty of patisseries and bakeries in Mexico City, which looks very much like Paris in its French layout of radial boulevards; mariachi bands are Mexicanized mariage bands and are a tradition native to the third largest city in the world, at last count. In Portland, I often take guests to Lenora on Union Street, just off Fore St. Most Mexican food in the U.S. is from Mexico’s northern border region, fewer showcase interior Mexican cuisine. To have an informal spot in Portland that does casual interior and coastal Mexican is pretty wonderful. Terlingua and Ocotillo (same owners) are lovely spots doing refined Tex-Mex /norteño cuisine, El Rayo has been holding down the taco stand fort admirably for many years, and El Corazon and Cantina Calafia do Cal-Mex, the latter is pretty exquisite. Taco Trio and Guerrero Maya in SoPo are owned and staffed by Mexicans. Some others do other latin traditions, also built upon indigenous foundations: Papi (Puertoriqeño), Flores (Salvadoreño), Mi Casa (Salvadoreño), and Quiero Café (Colombiano). Given our distinguished local potato, Japanese, and seafood traditions, I have long advocated that someone do a Peruvian spot. It’s an amazing combo of indigenous, West African, Spanish, and Japanese. Did anyone say ceviche? I’d be a regular!
How many chocolate flavors at Dean’s Sweets are Mexican? They all are!
So, Cinco de Mayo: celebrate the persistence and vitality of shared indigenous and Mexican practices in American and world culture. Mexican food is American food, and all Americans are cultural mestizos via our foodways, as well as other areas of culture, such as the entirety of cowboy culture. Honor our indigenous American and Mexican obligations on May 5th for real.
Ray Sapirstein,
Walking tour guide, Maine Day Ventures
I am a former professor and historian, great-grandson of Jewish restaurant owners in Mexico City, a güero chilango on my Dad’s side, immigrant nationals of European origin. (Read 1491 and 1493, by Charles Mann, if this history of New World foodways has whetted your curiosity!
The family business in Mexico City.