2How to Become a Notforprofit Prophet.
Cinq de Mayo, Nam de Mayo: France’s and Vietnam’s Contributions to Cinco de Mayo
By Tony Diaz
Even here in Houston, some people are stunned to find out that Cinco De Mayo is not a national Holiday in Mexico.
3 years ago, Hurricane Katrina forced us to postpone our annual fall book fair. We rescheduled as close to the end of our fiscal year as possible, which turned out to be May 5–such is the power of this cultural vortex. Among the visiting authors, Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel joined us for a reading, a school visit, and a live interview on our weekly radio program, this triple play being our version of a literary Neapolitan.
The first caller, of course, asked about Cinco de Mayo. Ms. Esquivel replied, “What is this Cinco de Mayo? We don’t celebrate it Mexico.” I could hear a gasp across America, or at least Houston’s East End barrio.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love Margaritas. To prove it, I am sipping one right now. However, Cinco de Mayo is more than an excuse for bars to have Margarita Specials.
Since it is the dawning of a new intellectual and cultural era, we are celebrating Cinco De Mayo very differently.
The full cultural implications of Cinco De Mayo dawned on me one day as I enjoyed a Binh Mai in one of the many Vietnamese Restaurants in downtown Houston: the French baguette of course we took for granted, but then the cilantro and the jalepeños caught my attention. A tasty version of exponential culturalism was under my nose.
The Vietnamese hyped the French bread. The French brokered Asian cilantro to Mexico. The French brokered Jalepeños to Vietnam, and Houston will never be the same.
This had to be one of the most delicious history lessons of my life.
Whereas multiculturalism has come to mean one ethnic group celebrating its background for a month, maybe a week, sometimes an hour, exponential culturalism thrives on a deep mashing of influences that respect no borders and overlap many countries.
Cinq de Mayo, Nam de Mayo, Cinco de Mayo is an example of exponential culturalism.
On May 5, 1862, as the French test marketed Mexico for long term occupation, they were also entering Vietnam. North of the border, poet Walt Whitman was writing the poems that would constitute his collection DRUM-TAPS as the United States is locked deep in civil war.
Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Sewall is distressed about having an Imperial European Army a thin border away from the rebel confederate army. If those two forces join, the entire history of the U.S. would be different. Sewall has to juggle war in his backyard without inciting old world rivalries, while still flexing enough political muscle to intimidate The South and France.
At the same time, because Mexico defeats, okay thwarts, okay stalls the French invasion, the U.S. can invoke the Monroe Doctrine after the Civil War, and France leaves Mexico for Vietnam, where it remains for 100 years, until the Vietnam War.
Of course, it is too easy to paint a picture of villains and heroes, as history usually does. Instead, we want to do as Whitman did and look at the people and art of Cinco de Mayo.
Because of these cross roads, you are able to recognize the only appearance of a Western alphabet in an Asian language when you order from the menu of your favorite Vietnamese restaurant; Mexicans have Chapultepec Castle and the amazing pastry genre of pan de dulce, especially conchas.
And there’s more so much more.
So this Nam de Mayo we are celebrating by sipping champagne, enjoying the music that Empress Carlotta would have enjoyed in her Mexican French Royal Court, perhaps arias from Faust, as we enjoy a Binh Mai made on a bolillo, the Mexican version of the baguette, read some Walt Whitman—yes, even “O Captain! My Captain,” and yes, okay, sip a Margarita.
Happy Cinq de Mayo.
How to Become a Librotraficante>
Email tony.diaz@nuestrapalabra.org
Only Art Can Save Us
Installment II:
Ten Reasons Your Latino Outreach Program Did Not Reach Latinos
1: Did you mean Hispanics or Latinos or Latin Americans or what? We are trying to reach the White market. That sounds ridiculous, right? That is as imprecise as saying you are pursuing the Latino Demographic.
2. Overnight Success: How long have you been in business? If it has taken you X years to cultivate your base audience, why do you think it would take so much less time or energy to cultivate an entirely new audience that you know nothing about?
3. Translating Gone With the Wind into Spanish does not make it Latino literature. Simply translating into Spanish the brochures, ads, flyers that you have created over time for your base audience does not mean it will work the same on an entirly new audience.
4. Shakespeare with a New York accent: Which Spanish were you translating your documents into anyway? You do know there are many, many versions of Spanish.
5. English Spoken Here: By the way, the largest growing demographic, and the most upwardly mobile, is English dominant Latinos, some of whom do not even speak Spanish, some of whom prefer to read materials in English.
6. Take me to Your Leader: This line from classic, ancient, Sci-Fi movies is what folks sound like when they corner the only Latino in a tie who they know and ask him for insights into the Latino Demographic.
7. Take me to Your Leader: Now give me $50. No really, give me $50. I’ll take you to our Latino leader, a few of them.
8. Take me to Your Leader II: Now, I need $100. And now I’ll take you to an even bigger leader. And I will sell you Mexican Manhattan.
9. Take me to Your Leader III: Oh, you meant the leader of THAT Group. Now you are being specific. Now you seem to really know what you want. Now, it seems as if we are really getting some place. So give me $5,000. This is the way advertising works anyway for any race, color, or creed.
10: Please don’t feel bad for trying. Here are a few embarrassing tries that really made sense at the time: (These are true to life businesses. I have seen them.) Latino Furniture (Is a table Mexican or Puerto Rican?), Mambo: the Latino Cologne (I am Latino, but even I was scared to smell it.), and Latino Insurance (I’m not sure if that is for us, or insurance that promises to keep us away.)
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Installment I
Ingredients for this recipe for librotraficante success. You will need:
1. Ten years of experience.
2. Extensive knowledge of the full spectrum of the media from the top TV talk shows, TV news, radio talk, radio news, to English and Spanish Print.
3. Skills in the new media as well from .org to FB.
4. Knowledge of the community, from the neigborhood to house to house, to city council.
5. Love of books.
6. Education. In this case, A Master’s degree in Creative Writing, in this case, a broad back and a broader imagination.
7. Audacity, inspired by knowing you are fighting the good fight and the armed with the perfect tools to do it. (Oh, yeah, and an army of volunteers.)
There are more layers to this. I have just barely touched the surface of how this is Latino experience, but I may save that for my next instalment.
Tony Diaz
Founder/Director of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say