Cinco Ways to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo Without Appropriating:

I love to have meaningful conversations about culture, race and class, and the effects of oppression and how it shows up in every way starting at a young age. As we grow and learn from the adults and children around us, they continuously expect us to adjust to the dominant culture that reinforces a specific hierarchy. If you are LGBTQ+, you are in many ways expected to hide it and behave in ways unnatural to you but aligning with the dominant culture. If you are an inherently independent and strong-willed person of the “wrong” gender or with the wrong skin color, those around you train you to tame down or hide your behaviors to comfort the dominant culture.

If we deviate from that culture, we can end up in precarious situations and even place ourselves in danger of bullying or ostracization by other children and even the adults in our lives. So we all conform, but what if we stopped doing that? What if instead of asking our children and the children in our lives to be someone they are not, we embrace their differences and celebrate their individuality?

Because of my outspoken personality in those topics, people from all walks of life reach out to me to see how I think about certain things. Yesterday, I had a friend reach out with the following message:

“Hey Juan, coming to you as one of the most authentic Mexican activists I know, and I’m not sure who else to ask about this, but daycare just posted that they are dressing up all week, May 4th: Star Wars and then May 5th: “Cinco de Mayo Gear,” May 6th is something else, and so on.

I’ve been very intentional about trying not to allow Cultural Appropriation in my house. It wasn’t until after the fact that my child brought home Native American portrayals in his crafts after thanksgiving that I learned they were doing those crafts. Knowing ahead of time that they are planning to “celebrate” Cinco de Mayo, I am not sure how to approach it.

Do I ask them not to include my child in any Sombrero/Poncho/Mustache crafts or activities? Do I ask them to rethink this altogether? Or is there a way to make a statement with how I dress my child while allowing him to participate still?

Does that make sense? I apologize if any of that is super off-putting. I’m just trying to navigate this all.”

I love my friends, a lot of them are working hard not to reinforce dominant culture flaws that prevent people from living full happy lives as themselves. I’ve been grappling with Cinco de Mayo myself and have learned a lot of history that is super relevant to everyone living in the US.

Cinco de Mayo initially took hold as a holiday because slavery abolitionists in California saw the win of the Mexican government as a win for the abolition of slavery. Several historians note that had the French won that war; they had intentions to do business with the Confederacy when the Union asked for sanctions to the confederate south here in the US. An under-resourced Mexican army defeated the French, and it was an excellent story of the underdog and an essential win for freedom for lots of people. As long as the holiday’s significance is emphasized and taught, then it’s ok to celebrate.

To that end, here are a few ways in which I have been thinking of Cinco de Mayo in a way that we don’t reinforce the dominant culture of appropriation and economic exploitation:

1. Suppose your children’s school, or your church, or daycare is calling for children to dress up to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Instead of just slapping on a sombrero and a poncho, I suggest choosing a significant Mexican hero of that time and having your child dress up as that individual while teaching them who that was, so they know who that was and why they matter to all of us today. I remember dressing up as Benito Juarez, the first president of Mexico who was of indigenous origin.
2. Indulge and spend your money in Mexican culture wisely: Many large corporations have devised different ways to commercialize Cinco de Mayo while keeping their workers in low-paying unfulfilling jobs. It creates a culture where the rich can want our Mexican culture and labor, but not our humanity. We don’t have to be part of that problem by investing your money wisely in small mom-and-pop Mexican/Chicano-owned businesses; you can change the narrative and support a small business in your community. Buy your cervezas and your meat at your local Mexican grocery store.
3. Pledge to take back Cinco de Mayo from corporate interests: Non-profit organizations have devised multiple ways to raise awareness for different essential causes. GreenLatinos, an organization working for environmental equity in the Latino community, has a petition asking to re-frame the holiday to advance environmental causes and defend our Tierra from ecological degradation. Learn more here: GreenLatinos.org/taking-back-cinco-de-mayo
4. Learn about the ties between the economies of the US and Mexico: US nationals, because of xenophobic culture, are not expected to know or care about Mexico, even when there are 6 million US jobs that explicitly depend on trade with Mexico. I often get asked why my family chose to settle in Nebraska of all places, not knowing that South Dakota, New Hampshire, and Nebraska send more than 20% of their exports to Mexico. Millions of people have made the difficult decision to leave Mexico and settle in the US. Still, there is never an expectation that US nationals would even care to learn why people left and the benefits to the US economy. Still, on the other side of the border, anything that affects the US profoundly affects everyone. A majority of Mexican nationals root for the US economy to do well because they know the economies are deeply intertwined.
5. Support immigrant rights: Although the number of Mexican nationals leaving the US has outpaced the number of new arrivals in recent years, Mexican immigrants are still the largest immigrant population in the US. Mexican nationals comprise 24 percent of the nearly 45 million foreign-born US residents and would benefit significantly from a comprehensive immigration reform that would allow Mexican citizens to file for documentation.