HAPPY 150th CINCO DE MAYO

Posted:  1 May 12

¡Viva Mexico!

For your convenience, here's a gentle reminder of a great source of information for the upcoming big, annual, cultural event, on 5 May.

• 1."CINCO DE MAYO" Celebrations Around Pittsburg (Google search)
• 2. Wikipedia tells "The Cinco de Mayo Story"
• 3. Learning to Speak Spanish (Google search)
• 4.  A Neat Facebook Page -- San Francisco Celebration

A sincere "Feliz Cinco de Mayo!"

to our neighbors of Mexican ancestry

(and to the rest of us "honorary" compatriots)

THE GREAT SIGNIFICANCE 
OF THIS VERY WORTHY DAY 
FOR ALL AMERICANS

A MILESTONE, CRUCIAL TO ALL HUMANKIND

Did you know that the Mexican Army's awesome May 5,1862, vastly-outnumbered victory over the French, in the Battle of Puebla, helped thwart Napolean III from significantly aiding the Confederate rebellion, during the crucial early portion of the U.S. Civil War?  

• This factor materially (and morally) contributed (in combination with other key factors) to the loss of crucial battles and any realistic hope for Confederate success, and helped to insure the utter defeat and repudiation of the secessionist "ideal" and the complete extinction of the ulterior cause of secession --  perpetual American Slavery.
• Part of the early high Confederate confidence in victory rested, heavily, on the presumption that pivotal European support and recognition would be promptly forthcoming.  So, as the Mexican victory stymied French ambitions, it ALSO helped frustrate the highest hopes of our domestic enemy -- at the very same time.
• If Our Nation had lost that war, it would have broken us up into multiple, constantly-warring, powerful fragments -- in the precise same manner as has plagued Europe, throughout her turbulent war-prone history.  
• And, arguably, American Slavery could have become a perpetual human affliction. (see the side note, below)  

¡Viva Mexico!

Historians tend to agree that it was in the very nature of American Slavery that it MUST EITHER expand or die (for many logical reasons) -- which was why President Lincoln had hoped to lawfully contain it, thereby allowing it to whither away, under its own weight and flaws -- rather than resorting to the bloody "surgery" of a most uncivil war -- and why the Confederates brought on the war to expand and, thus, save their "peculiar institution."  And so, the war came.

• So, a victorious Confederate government -- having destroyed our nation -- would eventually have been compelled to become an ever-expanding "slave empire" -- rather than allow the institution of slavery to become economically untenable. 
• Besides, a fundamental and selfish cynicism, alone -- embedded in the Confederate core philosophy -- could well have inevitably predisposed them to covet mastery over other nations -- for that would just be one more unrestrained injustice added to an already lengthy and despicable "to-do list" (IMHO).
• "The Southern Slave Power" had already been known to look, with hungry eyes, at the Western U.S., Cuba, and all of South America, as inevitable targets for their irresistible expansion.  
• And, IF they could have defeated the Union, they would most certainly have been mighty enough, (in theory, if not in principle -- see side note, below), to conquer the ENTIRE South American continent 
• And then -- mightier still -- humanity's enemy could have selfishly proceeded to bring on another dark age, world-wide, for all humankind to suffer (NAZI-style, perhaps) -- ultimately consuming whatever remained of the U.S. and its ideals of human freedom and dignity.
• Therefore, it's pretty certain that President Lincoln helped save the ENTIRE FREE WORLD and humankind's brightest possible future, when he saved one real nation and defeated one "quasi-nation."
• And, he was significantly aided by the glorious Mexican victory against venality, human degredation, and overwhelming odds.  
• It would be fair to add that other nations and peoples pitched-in on our "great consummation," too -- a separate discussion.

This Kind of MORAL NATIONAL CHARACTER, 
Embedded in One of Our Eternally-Close Neighbors, 
IS A PRICELESS ASSET In the Life of this Nation!!!

¡Viva Mexico!

Side Note, to round out the story, subjectively 

Philosophically, it would have been impossible for the "Slave Power" to stay internally unified long enough to conquer other peoples -- without admitting to gross hypocrisy and logical inconsistency -- contradicting itself  -- and, without then proceeding to institute the very coercive powers it claimed to be striving, so bloodily, to overthrow -- to become further despised, even by its own people.

• It's whole concept of "States Rights"  was fundamentally flawed.  
• If the Confederacy HAD won the right to secede from the Union -- then, what was there to stop it's own member States from seceding from the Confederacy?  Or to keep our own beloved nation from also breaking into even smaller pieces? 
• No nation (or would-be one) can permit itself to be broken up, and still refer to itself as a nation.  The unity and, hence, the life of the nation is worth fighting and dying for. Union means life under far superior odds -- and nothing less will do.
• And, at least some (if not all) Confederate States, most certainly, would have tried to break away, without constitutional "coercion" (or, let's say, adhesion) -- to keep the whole thing from flying apart.
• North Carolina did, in fact, attempt to secede from the Confederacy -- at great cost, embarrassment, and inconvenience to the Confederate war effort, materially and morally.

Regardless of this stipulation, a Confederate victory would have been a severe reversal for the entire human species -- even if it couldn't have logically sustained itself, over the long run.  They would have seriously damaged one of humankind's greatest achievements -- the "invention" of a United States of America.

• The reality is that the courageous Mexican national struggle significantly advanced our own existential trial -- under much the same humanitarian impulse.  
• In every meaningful way, we share far more in common, than in opposition.  
• And, this is a most pleasing turn of events -- since, we couldn't separate from each other, even if, in madness, we should ever wish to.  

Brothers and sisters, forever.

¡Viva Mexico!
¡Y Viva Los Estados Unidos!
Eterno, amigos inseparables.

David Nelson

Author's note:  Now that I see what this article has evolved into, perhaps I should have provided more specific references.  However, I'll not do that, since I believe my assertions are a matter of historical record and can be easily evaluated and verified.  I am satisfied that I have not plagiarized the words of others in expressing my interpretation of these momentous events.

Tag:  "Hispanic Cultures"

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