"For the most part, the holiday of Cinco de Mayo is more of a regional holiday in Mexico, celebrated most vigorously in the state of Puebla. There is some limited recognition of the holiday throughout the country with different levels of enthusiasm, but it's nothing like that found in Puebla.
Celebrating Cinco de Mayo has become increasingly popular along the U.S.-Mexico border and in parts of the U.S. that have a high population of people with a Mexican heritage. In these areas the holiday is a celebration of Mexican culture, of food, music, beverage and customs unique to Mexico.
Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, is often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, but it actually commemorates the day in 1862 in Puebla, Mexico, when 4,000 Mexican soldiers defeated the French army of 8,000.
This victory kept Napoleon III from supplying the Confederate rebels for another year, thus helping Union forces secure victory over the Confederates at Gettysburg 14 months after the Battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War.
The United States later on proved that they were also a good neighbor when the French had taken over Mexico City and installed their own emperor, Maximilian. The U.S. provided both political and military assistance to Mexico to expel the French.
Providentially God has made us a part each other's destinies.
In addition to this shared history, our two nations made a covenant of friendship with one another when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by the presidents of both nations in 1848. Here is the preamble to that treaty:
'IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY GOD…The United States of America and the United Mexican States… establish upon a solid basis relations of peace and friendship, which shall confer reciprocal benefits upon the citizens of both, and assure the concord, harmony, and mutual confidence wherein the two people should live as good neighbors… under the protection of Almighty God, the author of peace…'
Cinco de Mayo-commemorates a battle wherein we as nations(U.S.A. and Mexico) became entwined in each other's victories, and a great friendship forged."
http://www.mexonline.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm
http://hispanicprayernetwork.com/index.php?id=5
