Take Back Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo (May 5) is the anniversary of Mexico’s victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, succeeding in their fight for their land, water, and culture. But since the 1980s, Cinco de Mayo has been hijacked by commercial interests to sell Mexican heritage and party on “Cinco de Drinko,” leading to cultural appropriation and misinformation about Cinco de Mayo.
The GreenLatinos comunidad is taking back Cinco de Mayo by elevating this holiday as a day of action to reaffirm our commitment to protect our public lands, ocean, and culturas from those who seek to drill, mine, pollute, and otherwise destroy our cultural heritage and communities.
Will you join our battle for liberación ambiental?
Sign the Taking Back Cinco de Mayo Declaration
Organizations and individuals are invited to reclaim ownership of Cinco de Mayo by signing our declaration to honor and enhance this holiday as a day of action for protecting nature, our communities and ending cultural appropriation. Original endorsers of the declaration are Latino Outdoors, Americas for Conservation & the Arts, Protégete, Defiende Nuestra Tierra, Sachamama, HECHO, LatinasRepresent, Hispanic Federation, MANA, National Hispanic Medical Association, William C. Velasquez Institute, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, Florida Student Power Network, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, Intermountain Fair Housing Council, Inc., LUCITA, LULAC, Conservación ConCiencia, and Chispa.
View our Cinco de Mayo History Teach-In
On April 24 from 3:00-4:30 pm PT, in partnership with Latinos in Heritage Conservation, GreenLatinos hosted a webinar on the nuanced history of Cinco de Mayo. We explored the significance of Cinco de Mayo for the Western Hemisphere and provided examples of how to leverage this information in campaigns and classrooms.