Last year at about this time, the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture published a paper that concluded, according to its lead author David E. Hayes-Bautista, "Cinco de Mayo is important to California because it was invented here." He went on to say that "It provides a collective identity for all Latinos, whether they were born here in California or immigrated from Mexico, Central America or South America. It binds them together in an identity — it is as important to Latinos as the Alamo is to Anglo-Texans." (UCLA Press Release)

In the US, Cinco de Mayo is so widely publicized that many people think it's like the Fourth of July -- a celebration of Mexican
independence. (It's not. September 16th is.)

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is mostly celebrated in Puebla, where the main event of the day occurred. It's not even a national holiday. So just what happened on the 5th of May?