I found this largely an ephemeral conversation during my short few months on the SU&SD forums and instead of a printed PDF I am just posting a screenshot of the top of the thread to restart this and hope that is enough nostalgia and remembrance… if someone else feels like they want to be the creators of the continuation of this: do it and I’ll remove this instance. I just want the topic back.
“The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza. […] The victory of the smaller Mexican force against a larger French force was a boost to morale for the Mexicans. Zaragoza died months after the battle due to illness. A year after the battle, a larger French force defeated the Mexican army at the Second Battle of Puebla, and Mexico City soon fell to the invaders.”
Meanwhile the USA was distracted by some internal conflict. Though it would be fair to argue that had France [eta] not been defeated here it would probably have gone to the aid of the Confederacy.
It often feels as though everything is now political - not just in the sense that everything needing human decisions can be affected by politics, but that every unanswered question has two standard responses, one of which tags you as Tribe A, the other as Tribe B, and if you want to say “er, hang on, it’s a bit more complicated than that” it seems there’s no constituency at all.
(If you happen personally to be closer to one bloc than to the other this doesn’t make it easier.)
Bah. Primates. Have 'em all out and hand it over to the woodlice.
Cinco de Mayo celebrations here in the US are typically “Mexican” restaurants’ ploys to get people of not-hispanic heritage to drink tequila and eat tacos. Much like how the US celebrates St Patrick’s Day (only Guinness, corned beef hash, and green beer instead of tequila and tacos)
“Mexican” restaurants: (n)
an establishment that serves TexMex cuisine. There are approximately 1000 “Mexican” restaurants for every authentic Mexican restaurant, at least in my part of the US.
I had to actually look this up in the dictionary… as far as that can tell me the German for woodlice is “Asseln” which can be verbed into “rumasseln” which translates back to “lazing around” preferably on a couch doing nothing (not even TV). Just thought you’d like to know.