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This didn’t stop the French from taking Mexico City and gaining control over the country in 1863. But the victory gave the Mexican people a sense of pride and served as a symbol of defiance against French imperialism. After the United States helped push the French out of Mexico, restoring Juárez back to power, the celebration of Puebla, or Cinco de Mayo, spread into the states. People of Mexican heritage who were living in the United States saw the victory as a source of pride and strength. During the Civil War, they used it as inspiration to fight. Today, the holiday is celebrated largely in the United States and Puebla, but not throughout the rest of Mexico. People living in Mexico believe that celebrating Mexican Independence Day in September is a better way to express their patriotism. TRANSITION INTO THE STATES
CELEBRATIONS
Cinco de Mayo is widely interpreted and celebrated throughout the United States as an appreciation of Mexican culture and heritage. After the battle, word of the victory spread throughout the states. Today, huge celebrations take place in some of the larger cities in the U.S., including Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Houston, and New York City. These might include parades, dancing, and large amounts of food and alcohol. ABC News states that in 2013, 30.6 million cases of beer and 87.3 million pounds of avocados were sold during the week of Cinco de Mayo. This created a revenue of $658 million for the alcohol alone and 349 million servings of guacamole. Learning about the past and why certain holidays are celebrated encourages and inspires people to celebrate. This year, celebrate Cinco de Mayo with newfound knowledge and understanding.
Moms make the world go round. After running the gauntlet of childbirth, they raise and guide us throughout our lives, shouldering the tremendous burden and responsibility of motherhood. Mothers are in turn formidable, kind, powerful, gentle, wise, fierce, patient, supportive, empathetic, driven, and full of love. In honor of Mother’s Day, here are three historic moms who never stopped fighting for what they believed in. Before she escaped from New York slaveholder John Dumont, Sojourner Truth had at least three of her children sold away from her. When Dumont went back on his promise to emancipate Truth and her infant daughter in 1826, she took the girl and fled to an abolitionist Quaker family, but she was forced to leave her other daughter and her 5-year-old son, Peter, behind. Soon after, she learned that Peter had been illegally sold by Dumont to a slaveholder in Alabama, so she went to court and secured his safe return. It was the first successful case brought by a black woman against a white man in American history. Truth went on to become a prominent abolitionist and a speaker for women’s rights, delivering her famous impromptu speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” in May of 1851. Mothers Shape theWorld 3 of History’s Bravest Moms SOJOURNER TRUTH (1797–1883)
IRENA SENDLER (1910–2008)
When the Nazis invaded Warsaw in September of 1939, Irena Sendler, a 29-year-old social worker and mother of two, hatched a scheme to rescue Jewish children from the brutal ghettos. Along with many friends and colleagues, she smuggled out nearly 2,500 Jewish orphans, hiding infants on trams and garbage wagons and guiding kids through a labyrinth of secret passageways beneath the city. Despite being a wife and the mother of five children — two of whom died tragically young — Emmeline Pankhurst became one of the fiercest advocates for women’s suffrage in the late 19th century. After founding the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, she and her cohorts adopted an aggressive strategy to raise awareness for the issue; they began by buttonholing politicians and staging rallies, then progressed to vandalism, window smashing, and arson. She was instrumental in the movement. Pankhurst lived to see women gain the right to vote in 1928. EMMELINE PANKHURST (1858–1928)
2 • www.thesotolawgroup.com
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