Many threads form a beautiful Fabric

The seventeenth century was a time of profound changes in the American Continent. The European empires tried to clip the wings of the emerging political territories but could not crush the longing of the Americas inhabitants to regain their liberty and autonomy. New independent countries were rising, and the risk of European foreign invasions was extremely high.

Mexico had just declared Independence from Spain in 1810, abolishing slavery and granting citizenship to all its habitants. During the next decades Mexico fought to preserve its independence and to build a new democratic nation, ratifying the abolishment of slavery, women’s rights to own property, and secularization of the missions. A few decades later, Texas separated from Mexico to preserve slavery in its territory, and the United States -under the ‘manifest destiny’ myth appropriates the southwest through the Mexican American war.

To understand the present we need to look at the past, the words of Dolores Huerta summarizes it: “we did not cross the border, the border crossed us,” thus, this is how the stories of the Mexican Americans in the United States changed overnight for those that had been living in California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming.

So, what does all this have to do with the battle of Puebla on Cinco the Mayo of 1862?

Well, Mexico had been negotiating a two-year moratorium with England, Spain, and France. They landed in Mexico on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President Benito Juarez, the first Indigenous President. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas, they refused it and with that excuse invaded Mexico. French influence was already in Louisiana; thus, Napoleon III saw the opportunity to ally with the Confederation and to invade Mexico to expand his empire in the American continent.

On May 5th, 1862, the French invaded Mexico. General Ignacio Zaragoza of Mexico knew the French were coming full force. The Mexican army used many peasants, not trained to fight as soldiers but trained to work the land. Their pride gave them the courage and strength to fight for their country. The French cavalry unit was considered the best in the world at the time, but the Mexicans defeated them.

Mexico had won a great victory that in turn helped keep Napoleon III from supplying arms to the confederate rebels in the United States’ Civil War. Those twelve months were crucial for the Union to build up their Army and eventually defeat the Confederate soldiers at Gettysburg fourteen months after the battle of Puebla. The Confederate defeat was a relief for the large population of civic minded Latinos in the US who knew what was at stake: stopping slavery, and amplifying principles of freedom and democracy. 

The Latino population in Tuolumne County, like the many other ethnicities i.e., Me-Wuks, Italians, Irish and Black people, are threads of the fabric that comprise this county. The multicultural heritage reflects like on a mirror, sometimes not noticeably clear but always there, for us to acknowledge that this land contains and sustain all of us, and that today like in the past it is our duty to show and pay homage to every thread of the societal fabric.