An exploratory research study about the influence of commercialization on the silencing and false transmission of history during Cinco de Mayo in the United States.

Abstract

Cinco de Mayo has often been recognized as a problematic American tradition that annually reduces American exposure to Mexican culture down to cliché and stereotype. The real history, however, is that Cinco de Mayo started as an acknowledgment of binational solidarity during a period when the Union Army fought for democratic ideals in the American Civil War and Mexico held off the French Intervention at the same time. While literature on the subject explores how the original narrative of cultural unity was reinterpreted and eventually suppressed throughout American history, there is a significant gap in understanding about how inaccurate narratives are perpetuated in modern popular culture, nor which sources of narrative transmission have the most influence in perpetuating those inaccurate histories today. Through a series of qualitative interviews among Anglos and Mexican Americans in the Los Angeles Area, this study adds evidence to suggest that commercial influences, like big brands and local businesses, are responsible for commodifying Cinco de Mayo and taking full ownership of its cultural narrative. Commodification has become so impactful in the modern celebration that it now informs sources of formal education themselves. Among participants, education was most often experienced as a direct reflection of the commercialization they witness in local businesses and big brand promotions. The study demonstrates a change in the dynamic of cultural narrative transmission; what was once regarded as a moment of cultural appropriation around a historical event is now being taught through that very lens of appropriation.