Urban Unrest

08 May 2007 | Recommendations | Ernesto Aguilar

Listeners heard the KPFT special around the country, including during WBAI’s Wakeup Call yesterday. And now we’re getting requests for copies, so I wanted to share the program. For those of you seeking it, here is a copy of the Cinco de Mayo special as today’s podcast of the day.

Although the date is not covered extensively in history books, Cinco de Mayo celebrates one of Mexico’s most legendary skirmishes, the Battle of Puebla. On May 5, 1862 in Puebla, Mexico, a small Mexican force defeated the imperial French Army. Napoleon III led French forces to victories around the globe, and most expected the French to crush Mexican troops, led by 33 year old General Ignacio Zaragoza. What happened on what’s now known as Cinco de Mayo has become some parts history and other parts myth. What isn’t in dispute is the outcome. Zaragoza’s soldiers handed the French one of military history’s most stunning defeats. France would later regroup, but the Battle of Puebla shaped Mexican nationalism; the debate between liberals and conservatives in Mexico; and perspectives on colonialism in Latin America. This program explores Mexico’s class conflicts and revolutionary history and the meaning of Cinco de Mayo today.

Featured this hour is my interview with University of Houston Professor John Hart, the United States’ foremost scholar on Mexican history. His books include Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico Since the Civil War; the groundbreaking 1976 tome Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class, 1860-1931, as well as Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution. The special was executive produced by Ann Raber of KPFT.

Pacifica Cinco de Mayo Special

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