Cinco de Mayo has become, in America, an excuse for white people to get drunk on tequila and dress up in racist stereotype costumes like sombreros and big mustaches. Of course, Cinco de Mayo is an actual holiday in Mexico, it is their independence day. Unlike American independence day, which celebrates one wealthy, elite class winning over another, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of anti-colonialist struggle against Spanish colonialists that inspired later national liberation struggles.
That is why it's incredibly ironic that John McCain said it was his favorite movie as he fought against and was captured by a national liberation army, much like Zapata's revolutionary army, in Vietnam. According to McCain:
"Viva Zapata." It's a movie made by Elia Kazan. It was one of the trilogy of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and "On the Waterfront" and "Viva Zapata." Marlon Brando stars in it. He plays Zapata. It's a heroic tale of a person who sacrificed everything for what he believed in and there's some of the most moving scenes in that movie that I've ever seen. And one of them is he gets married. The night of his wedding night he gets up, and he and Jean Peters are in their hotel room, this little room, and she says "what's the matter?" And he says, "I gotta go to Mexico City tomorrow. I've gotta be with Poncho Villa and Modero and these people." He says "I can't read." And she reaches over and takes the bible from the table and opens it up and starts, "In the beginning." It's a great scene. It's great and there's many others that are wonderful too, especially when he dies - when he gives everything for his country and what he believes in.
Source CBS News
Zapata is also the namesake of the militant-indigenous-anarchist group the Zapatistas.
Here's the full film:
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