Mexico Defeats French Forces at Puebla on Mexican Independence Day
Mexican Independence Day is often misnamed in the United States on cinco de mayo, but the date commemorates Mexico’s victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The distinction matters because the holiday is widely treated as a drinking occasion, obscuring the military victory it honors.
For Cecilia Romo, an economist who specialized in arid zones, that kind of misunderstanding ran against the history she studied: communities can create economic value from landscapes that outsiders dismiss. The same logic appears in the story of sotol, a spirit made from dasylirion, a plant that is not agave or cactus and takes 15 to 20 years to mature.
New York, May 5, 2014
The author first experienced cinco de mayo in the United States on May 5, 2014, after moving to New York, and saw the holiday recast through airport promotions, street ads, restaurants, and bars. One headline read “Cinco de Drinko,” while a news anchor appeared in a sombrero as patrons screamed for tequila shots.
That scene captured the friction in the holiday’s U.S. life: a date tied to a Mexican military victory was being sold as a party shorthand. Cinco de Mayo is not one of Mexico’s biggest holidays, but in the United States it is often detached from the Battle of Puebla and attached instead to drinking and commercial promotion.
Dasylirion and Sotol
The article’s turn to sotol gives the holiday a more precise cultural frame. Sotol has existed for more than 800 years, and it received its Denomination of Origin in 2002, placing it inside a longer history of Mexican production than the stereotypes that often surround cinco de mayo.
Dasylirion matures slowly, over 15 to 20 years, which makes the spirit a poor match for fast marketing and a better fit for the article’s broader point: Mexico’s relationship with spirits is older, deeper, and more complex than the versions of the holiday sold in U.S. bars and ads. Readers celebrating today can still mark the date, but the historical reference point is Puebla in 1862, not Mexican Independence Day.
