Cinco de Mayo: Zaragoza's Maguey Ambush of the French at Puebla 1862

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Mexico's Independence Day is September 16, marking the 1810 Cry of Dolores. Cinco de Mayo marks the Battle of Puebla in 1862. In 1861 President Benito Juárez froze payments on foreign debt for two years, and by January 1862 Spanish, British and French forces had occupied Veracruz. Talks at Orizaba produced a preliminary deal, but Britain and Spain withdrew once it was clear Napoleon III wanted a French puppet empire in Mexico. Conservatives defeated in the Reform War sided with the invaders, led by General Juan Almonte. In late April General Charles de Lorencez marched inland with 6,000 troops, including Zouaves and modern rifles, against defenders armed largely with old muskets.

Ignoring Almonte's advice to avoid the hill forts of Loreto and Guadalupe, Lorencez attacked them head on at noon on May 5 after a two hour bombardment. General Ignacio Zaragoza had reinforced the forts under General Miguel Negrete and hidden cavalry and infantry in fields of tall maguey, the agave used for tequila. Caught in crossfire, the French were thrown back three times, with Porfirio Díaz's brigade checking the second assault, and by May 8 they withdrew to Orizaba. The French lost 476 men and the Mexicans 351.

• French troops spent the morning on bugle calls and bayonet drills in plain view, expecting the defenders to break.
• Puebla was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza, and Zaragoza died of typhoid four months later.
• Napoleon III replaced Lorencez with Élie Frédéric Forey, whose larger army took Puebla in 1863 and installed Archduke Maximilian as emperor.
• Juárez declared the anniversary a national holiday on May 9, 1862, but today it is mainly celebrated in the state of Puebla.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy promoted the date in the United States, and Chicano activists in the 1960s adopted it as a symbol of resistance.