• March 28, 2024

Philadelphia Cancels Cinco de Mayo Parade Over Deportation Fears

All six organizers of the Cinco de Mayo parade in Philadelphia voted to cancel the parade this year over deportation concerns.  Hopefully, many other cities will follow their lead.  That will leave just the anti-Trump protests with Mexican flags waving in the wind as American flags are burned.

When I mention this to my liberal friends, they bring up the St Patrick Day parades in Boston and New York.  I then take them to my computer and show them images of Cinco de Mayo parades and St Patrick Day parades, both today and in the past.  To my amazement, they could not notice something that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Cinco de Mayo parades are almost always just Mexican flags only but the St Patrick’s Day parades are swamped with American flags.  One great Irish American was born in the middle of a Fourth of July parade with a large Irish contingent.  His father, who had run off to join the Union troops at 14 wanted to name the boy George Washington but his wife objected.  She let him keep George but changed his middle name to Michael.

That baby grew up to one of America’s most ardent supporters.  George M Cohen who practically owned Broadway for many years.  He also wrote Yankee Doodle Dandy, Over There and that Grand Old Flag, for which he received a presidential medal for his outstanding allegiance to the United States.  Before there was Bob Hope, George Cohan made it his task to bring entertainment to the US troops.

The French had been courted by the Confederacy as reinforcements against Union forces. 

It is believed Napoleon planned to use Mexico as a tactical base. 

However, losing Puebla proved a setback – supposedly giving the Union enough time to regroup and ultimately triumph. 

Ignacio Zaragoza, who led the battle of Puebla, declared that the day should be commemorated annually, and ever since Hispanic communities in southern US states have done so. 

But in Mexico it is not a holiday on the same scale. It is commemorated, not celebrated, and comes just days after Labor Day, which is a public holiday, on May 1.

 

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