Thank You, You’re Beautiful

Cinco de Mayo, also known as Excuse to Drink Cinco Margaritas on a Monday.  Sigh.

So yeah, it’s actually the commemoration of the Mexican army beating the French in an initial battle, though the French occupied Mexico a year later (before being eventually kicked out in 1867). This according to the wikipedia entry I just read, because I didn’t know s**t about the holiday either. In fact, most people don’t really know about May Day (aka International Worker’s Day) or Cinco de Mayo, both holidays “born out of struggles here in the US - the militant labor movement of the 1880s and the Chicano Movimiento of the 1960s” [Educational Justice]. Cinco de Mayo was one bloody victory for the Mexican army among years of occupation, massacre and warfare (I’m not even gonna bring up the Aztecs), all of which are totally glossed over. So in the spirit of alternative historical perspectives, here is a holiday drink recipe celebrating the course of Western imperialism, free market capitalism and gringos drunkenly enjoying ourselves at the expense of others!

Cinco de Mayo Margarita

1 oz NAFTA-protected Tequila made from blue agave, owned by enormous American conglomerate such as Allied Domecq Spirits

1/2 oz triple sec, perhaps Cointreau, made in Angers, France from oranges grown in Haiti on fields where Columbus slaughtered the native Arawak people

1 oz lime juice, squeezed from limes harvested and sorted by overworked and exploited migrant workers, soon to be replaced by robots! [Wired Magazine]

Have five or six of these babies tonight and you’ll feel like Che Guevara by morning. Sí se puede!