- I think in the US it's just
a huge marketing campaign for beer and alcohol companies.
- Yeah.
- I'm not sure about the numbers, but I've read it's on par
with the Superbowl
For beer sales, alcohol sales, tequila,
guacamole.
[♪♪]
- Well, welcome to this
Cinco de Mayo edition of Chino y Chicano.
I'm Enrique Cerna, and, of course, I'm
recording here on Cinco de Mayo, which is the 5th of May.
A lot of Americans are going to be celebrating this day.
No, it's not a holiday. National holiday.
It isn't even one in Mexico, to be honest with you.
But, this is a day when a lot of people get together
and they're going to be eating tacos and enchiladas and Mexican food,
and those that can drink are probably going to be drinking and maybe
way too much because it's Cinco de Mayo and people get together and they do that.
They consume alcohol.
I don't actually, because I don't drink, but, I thought
this might be a good time to do, well, a little history lesson.
It's a learning situation.
And I wanted you to know what really Cinco de Mayo is all about
and how how it's celebrated here in the States versus Mexico.
And, Oh, by the way, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day.
That is September 16th.
And that's a whole different thing.
Anyway, I just thought it would be good
to educate folks about what Cinco de Mayo is all about,
how it's celebrated here in the States, how it's celebrated in Mexico.
So I turn to one of my cousins, one of my primos in Mexico.
His name is Manuel Serna.
And, he spelled his last name with an S.
I do it with a c.
A lot of us here in the States do that of cousins.
And he he knows this well because he actually,
spent his college years at Texas A&M.
And then, you know, he has his Mexican roots
so he can talk about all of this.
So here now is my conversation with my primo Manuel Serna.
[♪♪]
All right.
Now joining me now from Torreón, Coahuila
in Mexico is my primo and my cousin Manuel Serna.
Actually, we know him as Manolo in the family.
So, Manolo, how are you doing?
We haven't talked for quite a while.
I see you on Facebook, and you're always going to all these competitions.
Athletic competitions around the world.
But.
Yeah.
Good to see you.
It's been a while.
Good to see you, too, primo.
- Yeah
Yeah. Of course.
- Okay. I want folks to know a little bit about you.
You live in in Torreón, where we have family.
Your family is also had this,
bus transportation operation for quite a while.
You work there, right?
It was actually started by your grandfather.
- It was indeed started by my grandfather.
And it was boosted by
by the second generation, which is like
my dad and his brothers and sisters.
Okay.
And so, yeah, I worked there for public transportation business.
We also operate a few fueling stations in the region.
Your Manuel.
Your grandfather was known Manuel... Manuel as well as well?
Yeah, I remember him quite well. He was,
my dad's older brother, and they were pretty close.
So that was that was.
So we have lots of cousins in Torreón and in all of that, in Mexico yet,
which is kind of great because when we go back there,
we can call you guys and say, hey, how are you doing?
You actually went to college here in the States, right?
- I did my undergrad in Texas A&M.
- Okay?
- I was there for four and a half years.
So. So you, you know, the Cinco de Mayo thing here in the States?
- I know both parties.
I know the Mexican version.
I know the American version,
- Which I think the Mexican version is probably going to be a lot more fun.
Let's face it though.
- I really doubt it.
- You don't really,
Okay.
All right, so let's talk about this because here in the States,
Cinco de Mayo is kind of like a party day for a lot of people.
But give me a little bit of a history, everybody.
I think a lot of people here maybe some do know, some don't know.
They think it's a Mexican Independence Day, which isn't true.
That's actually in September.
But how is it celebrated in in Mexico?
- Mexican independence happened in 1810.
Cinco de Mayo, the Battle of Puebla.
But Puebla in Spanish as we know it happened in 1862.
So there's a big gap,
in the timeline.
So it has nothing to do with Mexican independence, right?
-Right.
Now, the battle happened in Puebla.
We have to differentiate
between Puebla, the state, and Puebla, the city.
- Right.
- So this happened, as the French try to seize the City of Puebla.
It was it was more of a morale boost, to be honest,
because the Mexican managed
to hold the French army once.
All right. And
we have
we have to be honest, because it was we won the battle,
but we were not victorious.
The city was put the French,
they had a better army,
better weapons,
more educated as well.
But part of our winning
strategy was we had higher ground.
And so the Mexican army took advantage of it.
- So it was really a moral victory because the French at that time had a bigger,
army, had a stronger army, but the Mexican forces
happened to stand up to them and, and defeat them on that particular day.
- That's what pretty much happened.
- Yeah.
And but but it also didn't the fact is, is that the French then did
kind of take control of things.
It was, they installed Maximilian as an emperor, I believe.
And so he ruled for a while until eventually,
Mexico was able to be victorious
and to, get its Republic back.
I don't know how long did that take after all of that?
You know.
- Back and forth.
There was a lot of turmoil, back in the day,
I think it started to stabilize
until the Mexican Revolution popped.
And this happened in 1910. Right.
So I guess the, the Battle of Puebla comes right
in between Independence Day and the revolution of the Mexican.
- And that revolution actually was part of how our grandfather, great grandfather.
See, it would be my grandfather.
Be your great, great, great great, they ended up coming to the US
because of that.
Yeah, to the States, because he had been a landowner.
He had to actually flee because he became a target of,
the revolutionaries at that time.
So the Serna family ended up
making its way into the States, but also kept its roots in Mexico.
So all of that. So.
Okay, marking this day in in Mexico
is that much of the celebration do is there anything go on?
- Well, not like in the US.
I think in the US it's just a huge
marketing campaign for beer and alcohol companies.
- It's true. I think you're right.
It is. It is.
And I think that's kind of how they they picked it up and they,
use the PR campaign to sell beer. So yeah.
- I'm not sure about the numbers, but I've read it's on par
with the Super Bowl.
- Oh, wow.
In beer sales or what?
- For beer sales.
Alcohol sales, tequila?
Guacamole.
Yeah.
And all that.
- Okay, so at Texas A&M, did you party there?
I would imagine.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- But like Cinco Mayo and I think this year it's
going to be harder because you know, today's Tuesday.
So Taco Tuesday
and Drinko de Mayo are going to do their thing.
- Yeah okay.
But in Mexico on this day, anything going on?
- Not really. We do work.
- Okay.
- And if you go out to any restaurants bars
like absolutely no one's going to be talking.
- Do they have any ceremonies or anything in any of the towns.
- Yeah of course in schools.
- Okay.
- And mostly in Puebla we do some festivals.
They recreate the battle as well.
And mention like the important people there.
- Yeah.
Like, the general at the time was Ignacio Santa Rosa,
but he he died a few months later from
something else, like an illness.
It was a battle related, but, Yeah, we do remember.
We remember the battle.
We celebrated,
as what it was.
Really?
- Yeah.
- It's not an excuse to drink.
- So what do Mexicans think of
how Americans now celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
- To be honest, I don't
we don't really care because we don't experience.
And we're very close.
We're neighbors, but culturally,
we don't experience your joy for Cinco de Mayo.
I mean, unless we have, like, American TV or something,
it's just another day for us.
- But that....
that isn't the way of the Mexican Independence Day is celebrated, right?
That Mexican independence is not now.
- No no, no. Yeah.
This happens in September.
Septembre, Right?
- September 16th.
Yeah.
September 16th. And that is a big that is a big celebration.
And that that happens.
And actually it's marked even here in the States
by a lot of communities and things like that.
So primo, I gotta ask you, you know,
you probably keep your eye on Mexico and what's happening in the US.
American use of
force here politically.
How do Mexicans view what is happening in this in the U.S
these days?
- Well, it's it's hard to say
or opinion side quite quite divided.
We we appreciate the states
intervening in our politics
because, recently our politics have been
politicians have been very corrupt,
and, and ever since,
drug dealers where declared us terrorists.
The US has more control over
the local situation.
I don't know if you've heard the news, but one of the governors from
for the most state calls in a long time,
he was flagged by the US
and and they want him they want to take him to the States.
Okay. Right?
- Okay.
- We really hope it happens because justice is
pretty much non-existent here in Mexico.
- So you think the feeling is, is that,
with any U.S intervention, particularly dealing
with the issues of corruption or with the cartels too, that most,
most Mexicans actually support that?
- We do support it.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And we see it as our hope.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
So there's that obviously
we don't agree with a lot of other
topics like,
- Immigration?
- Immigration.
That's that's a big one.
Yeah. Right. That's a, that's a big one.
I mean, we as Mexicans respect,
the US and their decisions, but
I don't agree of how
a lot of immigrants have been treated
in the states, especially in the states.
- Right.
Right with you, I have to tell you, primo, that and I don't have it right here,
but I, I carry my passport with me when I go out.
Now, I may never, ever become a target,
but I'm a dark brown guy.
And so I am a target.
And, in a way, I do it symbolically because, it's happening.
But I also tell people, okay, do you carry your passport with you?
And, of course, most white Americans don't have to worry about that.
But if you are Latino or if you're a person of color, you do here
and that is, that upsets that is very sad because,
- I just I never thought this would happen in the States.
You know, I lived there for four and a half years doing my undergrad,
and that's.
That was not my concern, you know?
- Right.
- I was never a victim of racism.
Not even once. You know,
but it's it's been ten years since,
I got back to Mexico.
And if I ever go back to the States, I don't know
if it's going to be different.
- Yeah, that's a good question.
I don't know, I mean, I, I suppose to be an individual experience,
but yet you might have some difficulty going through,
security at an airport or crossing the border.
I don't know, I don't know, you know, I hope that if you I do
hope if you come back to the States,
you don't have any of that experience, obviously, because you're my cousin.
- Do I do go there for....
but as a tourist, you know?
Actually, I'm going to be running the half marathon from San Diego.
That's going to be in a couple of weeks.
Three weeks, actually.
- Oh, cool.
- It's going to be on May the 31st.
San Diego, it's a beautiful city.
Yeah. I love San Diego.
- Yeah, it is my daughter running it.
You got you got family there. My daughter lives there.
My daughter Alicia.
So I have to tell them so they can come out. And.
What's going on?
Yeah, yeah.
- Go grab some tacos.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good tacos in San Diego.
Yes, yes.
- Oh, yeah. Yeah. Awesome food there.
- All right.
But yeah, coming back to the topic, I don't know
if it's going to be any different to other times I've been there.
Right. Like crossing the border, as you said.
If I'm going to be running with my visa in my back pocket,
but, I don't know.
- Yeah, well hopefully not.
Hopefully that you won't have to have that kind of experience.
I don't want you to have that kind of experience.
Got to ask you another quick question.
Just, what do you think of the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum?
- Claudia?
That's such a hard question.
I think she's a great, women,
but I don't think she was ready for the president of the country.
- Really?
- We we do need a lot.
We say in Spanish,
“Mano dura.”
- Firm hand, firm hand from hand.
- Yes, yes. Yeah.
I don't think she has it,
because she she came into
into the presidential seat with a lot of
of bad background baggage.
- Baggage?
- Yeah.
Well, that's always the case with Mexican politics, isn't it?
- It is the case with Mexican politics.
And that's why I applaud the States coming in and doing their.
their
world police.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, that's interesting because, on one hand,
were deporting people back to Mexico, but yet we're still intervening in your country.
- So and that's ironic.
- That's very ironic.
That's very ironic in that.
So hey, primo, thank you so much for talking to me
and, giving me that little history background.
So I take it that, you won't be partying today,
or maybe you will do it symbolically, I suppose.
Maybe. But you're an athlete.
You don't do that. You don't even.
Do you even drink?
- Just a bit, you know.
Yeah. I'll have a beer every now and then.
And I would tequila shot every now and then.
Yeah, well, that's pretty much it.
- All right.
- And to answer your question, will I be celebrating?
Not really.
This this this this conversation has been
my my greatest, greatest, celebration.
Like in the past 20 years.
- All right, all right.
I gotta remember that I got to send all this to our cousins.
We got lots of cousins.
Please do.
Yeah.
And by the way, you know, our family reunion is coming up.
Are you going to come? Oh it is, yeah.
- I see the Facebook posts
- Yeah.
It's, you know, we have this big family reunion, three day affair.
So I, I don't know if you'll make it, but I hope you do.
And make sure that you say hi to your mother
and to all of my other primos there in, in the automotive doing okay?
All right.
- Hey, appreciate you considering me for the for the podcast.
- Hey, this is just going to be the first.
We’ll probably do others. Okay? Awesome.
- I’m down.
All right, all right.
- Thanks primo, you say hi to all the families.
And my best regards.
- I will. Okay. Bye. Bye
[♪♪]