This weekend I attended the Cinco de Mayo Festival in Flushing Meadow Park, Queens. I spoke to people there but unfortunately didn’t get the interviews as I had planned. However, this is the first of many events that will be going on around this time period and it was a good starting point to observe the workings of how the holiday is celebrated.The first thing I noticed is the advertising. This was a hotspot for brands to get their name out there, and attract people by giving away freebies such as:
This is telling of the way this holiday has been commercialized. Chase bank set up a stand with some very dedicated and pushy women forcing a new bank account upon innocent festival-strollers. Maybe they targeted this group because they know “New Yorkers” don’t care enough to try to be polite to these women and end up falling victim. One thing I found peculiar about the advertising was that most of this festival was sponsored by Inca Kola… a Peruvian soda.
Which brings me to the point that what I saw at this festival was more representative of Latino/Hispanic pride rather than remembrance of the Battle of Puebla. One woman I spoke to who wanted to remain anonymous said:
“Well i’m not Mexican, i’m Colombian. But I come here for the food, the music, it’s fun! There are people from everywhere here, it’s definitely not just Mexicans. Every time they have any festival, like the Colombian one it’s always a mix, everyone can come here.”
Though the festival was obviously Mexican to anyone who passes by and sees Mexican flags, signs in spanish, tacos, and the colors red white and green everywhere, it was really more of a blending of cultures. My mother’s criticism of the festival is that there’s “too much Columbian food.” There was food there that is Mexican and typical of Pubela: such as cemitas and tlacoyo, as well as regional Mexican food that is nowhere to be found in the city of Puebla: such as tacos al pastor. This goes to show that the festival creates a blend of the different cultures within Mexico, as well as between international cultures.
