Editor’s Note: Both groups will be performing live throughout the morning through 8 a.m. in the video player above.
Monday marks Cinco de Mayo, a day that commemorates Mexico’s victory over the French during the 1862 Battle of Puebla. In the U.S., the holiday — often filled with margaritas and tacos — celebrates Mexican heritage and embraces cultural identity.
At School District 214 in the northwest suburbs, high school students are taking Mexican heritage even further, with a student Mariachi band and Mexican folkloric dancers.
Wheeling High School’s Mariachi band, Los Gatos Salvajes was formed two years ago. The all-student band performs across the Chicago area, and helps students at the high school reconnect with their Mexican roots, and music they may have heard in their homes growing up.
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“It doesn’t feel like just a class, it feels like a family,” Johnny Salgado, a violin player and a senior at Wheeling High School told NBC 5’s Sandra Torres Monday morning.
Salgado, who also sings in the band, started out playing classical violin. Learning to play the Mariachi musical style on the instrument, with more staccato, is very different, Salgado said, but more fun.
The band, made up of 23 students, is under the direction of Wheeling High School orchestra director Marlyn Barrera-Carrera. According to school officials, the district has a large Latino population.
“She challenges us to go out and be who we are on stage,” Salgado said.
In Elk Grove Village, high school students this year started a Mexican folkloric dance group According to organizer Effie Kalkounos, a world languages teacher at Elk Grove High School, between 10 and 15 students are in the program, with class practicing regularly three times a week.
Students said the program is meaningful, because it provides them and their culture representation.
“The students have really wanted to embrace their culture,” Kalkounos said.
But what exactly does Cinco de Mayo celebrate? Brush up on its rich history and modern traditions below.
What is Cinco de Mayo and how is it celebrated?
Many people tend to confuse Cinco de Mayo with “Día de la Independencia,” or Mexico’s independence day. That holiday, also known as “El Grito de la Independencia,” is actually observed on Sept. 16, when Mexico celebrates its independence from Spain.
In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is not a celebration but a day of remembrance, commemorating Mexico’s victory over the French during the 1862 Battle of Puebla. An outnumbered Mexican army — led by Ignacio Zaragoza, a 33-year-old Texan from Goliad — defeated the invading French forces at the small town of Puebla de Los Angeles during the Franco-Mexico War.
The retreat of the French troops represented a great victory for the people of Mexico, symbolizing the country’s ability to defend its sovereignty against a powerful foreign nation.
Why is Cinco de Mayo celebrated in the U.S.?
The first American Cinco de Mayo celebrations date back to the 1860s, when Mexicans living in California commemorated the victory over France in Puebla. At that time, the United States was embroiled in a Civil War. News of the underdog Mexican army beating back Napoleon III’s forces gave new strength to California’s Latinos, who sought to stop the advances of the Confederate army.
“For Mexicans in the U.S., the Civil War and the French invasion of Mexico were like one war with two fronts. They were concerned about France, which sided with the Confederacy, being on America’s doorstep,” David Hayes-Bautista, professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the University of California Los Angeles, told NBC News.
The tradition of celebrating Cinco de Mayo has continued in Los Angeles without interruption since 1862, according to Hayes-Bautista, although the original reason and the history have gotten lost.
About a century later, Chicano activists rediscovered the holiday and embraced it as a symbol of ethnic pride. But the party-filled Cinco de Mayo that Americans celebrate today didn’t become popular until U.S. beer companies began targeting the Spanish-speaking population in the 1970s and 1980s, Jose Alamillo, a California professor of Chicano studies, told Time.com.
Today, Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. is primarily a celebration of Mexican-American culture, with the largest event in Los Angeles.
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