Six-Day Cinco de Mayo Fest Capped Today

Today is the sixth and last day of the Cinco de Mayo celebration sponsored by the Mexican-American student group RAZA, commemorating one victory the Mexicans won against the French during Maximilian's war to annex Mexico, RAZA members said.

Cinco de Mayo symbolizes the emergence of the Mexicans as a people, said Candelario Saenz, a visting scholar in social anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. The Quincy House affiliate said that "the notion that Mexico belongs to the Mexicans... was forged" on Mexican independence day, Diez y Seis de Septiembre, and Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla.

The Battle of Puebla ended in a victory of the supposedly inferior Mexican troops over the French, said Fidel A. Ovalle '92, chairperson of the social and cultural committee of RAZA, which means "race" in Spanish. The Mexicans went on to lose the war, but the battle still represents a "triumph of spirit," Ovalle said.

Luis B. Castro '92, a member of RAZA's steering committee, said the celebrations and festivals differ between communities. The events usually include dancing, mariachi bands, pinatas and traditional Mexican music, said Castro.

"In Mexico, it's a really big deal--carnivals and shows, firecrackers--like the Fourth of July," said Hilda M. Alexander '90, president of RAZA. But "a lot of Mexican-Americans don't even know Cinco de Mayo is not independence day," said Alexander, who emigrated to the U.S. when she was 10 years old.

This year, the celebrations at Harvard have included films, speeches and presentations by a U.S. representative, Hispanic leaders, a professor from the Graduate School of Education, an assistant professor, a Mexican-American muralist and a poet.

Today's festivities include a reception, a speaker from the Spanish Literature Department, the dance troupe Ballete Folklorico Atzlan, a traditional Mexican dinner, a Mariachi band, the keynote speaker on the future of Mexican-Americans in the U.S, and a dance. All activities are open to the public except for the dinner, Alexander said.

Ovalle said the celebration of Cinco de Mayo will be very similar to traditional celebrations in Mexico. "We still maintain the cultural thread," Ovalle said.

Castro said that he has been asked often why the celebration did not include May 5. "Ideally, we had planned to hold it next week and have the celebration on May 5, but it was reading period."

This year's Cinco de Mayo celebration is thebiggest ever at Harvard, Ovalle said, and hasincluded members of the community and a pinata forthe children. Also, the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, Cornell and Wilson Universities aresending people to participate in the programs, hesaid.

Spencer S. Hsu contributed to the reportingof this story.