Celebrating Cinco De Mayo in 2025 if You're in the United States/"This is America," Indeed

Today is Cinco De Mayo. Officially, this day celebrates the Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. However, it has morphed over the years into a general celebration of Mexican culture that Mexico's northern neighbor (the United States) has fashioned into something more corporate and made relatively generic. I'm sorry if that sounds cynical, but in 2025 it almost seems ironic for the U.S. to celebrate Cinco De Mayo the way we are treating Mexican, Latino, or any immigrants, frankly.

Seriously, on this very day, the Trump administration said it will pay undocumented migrants $1,000 and purchase their plane ticket if they voluntarily leave. First of all, nobody should accept that offer as I'm pretty sure the chances you're going to ever get that one grand are quite slim. This administration has been horrific in terms of human rights abuses towards anyone who isn't a citizen (and even people who are and desperately work to prove it before being, "Deported," even though they're citizens). This administration is pushing for it to be allowed where ICE can go into your house without a warrant to, "Look," for migrants. Oddly, people who cling closely to the Second Amendment and loudly yell about their rights to fight against Governmental invasions into their privacy are weirdly silent at the idea of the Government bursting into their home without any due process (almost as if their talk of fighting tyranny was always empty hot air). 

Cinco De Mayo is a Mexican holiday that has been co-opted by the United States, and it is funny that for a holiday situated in Mexico, I keep thinking of the Donald Glover/Childish Gambino song, "This is America." Anytime things seem to get worse in our nation, that song pops into my head, and it has been playing on repeat for the last 100-ish days since Donald Trump took office. Happy Cinco De Mayo to everyone celebrating in Mexico. If you're celebrating in the United States of America, there is a whole lot of irony to process as well.