AMS will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo on Monday, May 6th with a potluck fiesta in every location. For this we can thank the Activities Committee!! Let’s go ahead and call out their names and locations:
HQ Teresa G. // Client Services Ray A. and Gabriela G. // LIV Saul M. // WIT Tangie D. // WIL Cristy G., Elizabeth S. and Roxanne W. // HR West Jamie B., and Rocio A. // New Castle Jada T. // Churchman’s/Newark Gabrielle F. // New Holland Sharon S., Emma A., Wendy M., Alyssa F. and Bill C. // Thank you Volunteers and a big thank you to the program lead, Samantha Hicks.
The extra good news is that AMS will be providing SHAVED ICE at all locations! Please come and have some Cinco de Mayo fun with potluck and shaved ice.
What is Cinco de Mayo celebrating?
As most of us know, Cinco de Mayo literally means “the fifth of May” in Spanish. This year the 5th of May lands on Sunday. It really celebrates two things – a victory of the Mexican army over France and a civil rights movement in the United States. Civil rights in the US? Yes, during the revolutionary time in the ‘60s the Chicano Movement sparked national conversations and the holiday drew attention to that movement. This is why Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more in the US than in Mexico.
With regard to the battle on the 5th of May, it is known as the Battle of Puebla Day. It celebrates the Mexican Army’s victory over France at Puebla on May 5, 1862, during the French-Mexican War. This was a pivotal battle, but it was not fought for Mexico’s independence. The Independence Day battle was against the Spanish, and it is observed on September 16.
The Chicano Movement
The Chicano Movement was a farm workers movement fighting discrimination against Mexican Americans and Latinos during the 1960s and 70s. The Chicano movement fought for equal rights, equal education, equal jobs, and equal housing opportunities.
Two people who were instrumental in this movement are Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. These familiar names were leaders in the fight against the unfair treatment of farm workers in the United States.
According to the History website [LINK] “César Chávez and Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became United Farm Workers (UFW) in California to fight for improved social and economic conditions. Chavez, who was born into a Mexican-American migrant farmworker family, had experienced the grueling conditions of the farmworker first-hand.
“In September 1965, Chávez lent his voice to a strike for grape workers, organized by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a predominantly Filipino labor organization. With the help of Chávez’s advocacy and Huerta’s tough negotiating skills, the union won several victories for workers when growers signed contracts with the union.”
The Chicano Movement did not seek to overturn a government or start a revolution. Instead, the Chicano Movement sought to empower Mexican Americans, and give them a voice. How they did this was varied and depended on what group one dealt with. The Chicano Movement had many goals, some of which varied by location. Overall, the movement aimed to end discrimination and negative stereotypes against Mexican Americans, and it sought to expand workers’ rights, voting rights, educational equality, and land usage.
Letter from Delano
“‘We are men and women who have suffered and endured much and not only because of our abject poverty but because we have been kept poor,” Chávez wrote in his 1969 ‘Letter from Delano’. “The color of our skins, the languages of our cultural and native origins, the lack of formal education, the exclusion from the democratic process, the numbers of our slain in recent wars—all these burdens generation after generation have sought to demoralize us. We are not agricultural implements or rented slaves, we are men.’”
The Chicano Movement was inspiring and successful, and Cinco de Mayo became associated with this movement aimed at combating institutional racism and guaranteeing equal labor and political rights. The idea of triumph in the face of overwhelming odds and adversity resonated with Chicanos who fought for equal rights. In short, Cinco de Mayo is a lot more than a party… it celebrates Victory in the battles against discrimination, exclusion and oppression!
Happy Cinco de Mayo to AMS employees – be sure to enjoy your treats!! Happy Cinco de Mayo to clients, friends and all readers!!
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