By Leslie Brenner
[Editor’s note: A different version of this story was originally published last year at Cooks Without Border’s Substack newsletter. The newsletter won the People’s Voice Webby Award last month; this article, which was a post for paid subscribers, was included in its entry submission. Find a link to subscribe at the end of this story.]
If you know a little about Cinco de Mayo, but not a lot, you might feel conflicted about commemorating it. The holiday reeks of cultural appropriation, and for good reason: the Margarita-powered drunken revelry many Americans associate with the date isn’t exactly a celebration of anything truly Mexican.
But dive into the fascinating history, and celebrating the holiday with California-Mexican chicken tostadas and margaritas on the rocks suddenly makes a world of sense.
The history of El Cinco de Mayo
Perhaps you know that the holiday does not pay tribute to Mexican Independence Day. That’s Sept. 16. You might know that Cinco de Mayo is not widely observed in Mexico (where it’s not a national holiday). And that it’s more an American thing than a Mexican one. Maybe you even know what it does commemorate: Mexico’s surprising victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The French ultimately prevailed, which might be why El Día de la Batalla de Puebla is not generally celebrated in Mexico outside of Puebla.
But if it’s minor there, how did the holiday get so big in the United States?
Well, it may surprise you (it did me!) to learn that the celebration of el Cinco de Mayo actually began in California — by Mexican Americans who supported democracy and opposed white supremacy — in the year following the Battle of Puebla. Truly!
The context was the Second Franco-Mexican War, in which the French, backed by Mexican monarchists, had been attempting to overthrow the Mexican government led by democratically elected Benito Juárez. Their against-all-odds victory in Puebla was a powerful source of pride for Mexicans. Alas, as mentioned, the French eventually did succeed in their democracy-quashing exploits, installing Maximilian I as emperor — a reign that lasted five years. (Ever wondered how things like crepas — crepes — got to Mexico? That’s how.) The Mexican republic was ultimately restored, in 1867.
But during that year following the Battle of Puebla — 1862 — the victory captured the imagination of Latinos in California, who commemorated it with the first Cinco de Mayo celebration on May 5, 1863.
A fascinating story by Yvonne Condes published on KCET’s website explains how and why. At the time of the Battle of Puebla, Civil War was raging north of the border, and southern politicians wanted to extend the Mason-Dixon line all the way into California, making it into a state where enslaving people would be legal. Most Latinos in the state were against the Confederacy and for the Union, and saw the French-Mexican War and the Civil War as analogous.
According to Cynthia L. Chamberlin, a historian at UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture (CESLAC) who was quoted in the article, "Latinos in California said these two wars are really the same war, in a sense.” Both, explained Chamberlin, were “about a democracy fighting against elite rule and white supremacy.”
And so Cinco de Mayo, said David Hayes-Bautista, CESLAC’s director, was “basically a civil rights commemoration, Latinos telling the world where they stood on the issues of the Civil War and the French intervention.”
That’s why, looking back to my Southern California upbringing — and feeling lucky to have grown up steeped in Mexican American culture — I’m suddenly feeling great about celebrating el Cinco de Mayo. In its purest form, it’s a celebration of Mexican culture, not a drunken revelry with sombreros and other offensive stereotypes.
What to cook?
You could key your celebration back to the historic Mexican victory in Puebla, and prepare one of Puebla’s greatest culinary contributions, such as mole poblano, made with chocolate and a wide array of dried chiles. It’s an amazing dish, though extremely labor-intensive, a bit challenging to put together for a laid-back Sunday celebration this evening. Ditto crepas a la huitlacoche, whose star ingredient (huitlacoche, or corn fungus, a prized delicacy) is not easy to come by.
Instead, why not celebrate those politically engaged California Latinos of yesteryear with tostadas and classic margaritas? One of the tostada components, traditional pico de gallo, includes the colors of the Mexican flag — red, green and white.
Classic Margaritas
The drink most closely associated with El Cinco de Mayo — the Margarita — had a major appropriation as well. For decades there was a story out there — perhaps conceived and perpetrated by one of the liquor companies — there that the Margarita had been invented in the early 1950s in my home town, Los Angeles, at a long-running “Restaurant Row” (La Cienega Blvd.) establishment, Tail o’ the Cock.
But according to a 1974 article published in Texas Monthly, Pancho Morales, a bartender in Juarez, Mexico, invited the drink in at a Juarez bar called Toommy’s in 1942. It’s a much more credible story — and the one we’ll toast to. Here’s our recipe.
RECIPE: Classic Margarita on the Rocks
California-style chicken tostadas
To me, nothing speaks of California Mexican culinary culture like a crunchy, sloppy, juicy, tangy chicken tostada. In other words, a crisp tostada (a corn tortilla that’s been dried, toasted or baked to crispness) slathered with warm frijoles de olla, piled with salad, generously strewn with shredded chicken and topped with a ridiculous amount of pico de gallo. Probably there are avocados involved, either diced in the salad or in the form of a scoop of guacamole on top. It’s my take on the big, salady chicken tostadas that were served in Mexican restaurants all over L.A. when I was growing up (just a hundred years or so after that first Cinco de Mayo, in the 60s and 70s!). You can also easily make these tostadas vegan, by leaving off the chicken and playing up the avocados or guacamole.
The tostadas come together really easily, once you have the key components prepared: beans, tostada bases, pico de gallo and roast or grilled chicken.
To make things simplest, you can pick up a rotisserie chicken at the supermarket or grilled chicken at a Pollo Loco-type take-out spot. Or make your own (see below.)
The game plan
Once you make your chicken decision, get a big pot of beans going — I favor mayocobas because they’re delicious and they cook pretty quickly. Bayo beans work great, as well.
RECIPE: Frijoles de Olla
Then make tostada shells. I use Masienda heirloom masa harina and crisp them in the oven rather than fry them. Of course you can also take a short-cut and purchase these.
RECIPE: Tostada Shells (Crispy Tortillas)
Making the chicken at home
If you’re roasting your own chicken, you can do that after or before crisping the tostadas. For a super-simple method, scroll to the bottom of this enchilada recipe.
Up to an hour or two before you want to serve the tostadas, make some pico de gallo — just diced tomato and white onion, plus cilantro, salt and finely chopped serrano chiles (I seed them first, but not everyone does).
RECIPE: Pico de Gallo
Now you’re ready to put the tostadas together.
Spoon a generous portion of beans onto each crisped tostada base, including some bean liquid, so part of the tostada will stay crisp, and part will get a little juicy-chewy. Add a heaping handful of salad greens on top of the beans. Next chunks of avocado that you’ve squeezed a lime over and sprinkled with salt, and some shredded chicken. Or skip that, and finish with a spoonful of guacamole.
Crumble a little queso fresco over all, if you’re feeling expansive, or squeeze on a little crema. (If you’re vegan, leave chicken and cheese or crema off, and up the avocado ante). Finally, spoon an outlandish amount of pico de gallo on top. Serve with a wedge of lime.
The pico is what makes the whole thing: Together with the saucy beans and that lime that you’ll squeeze over all, it turns into a dressing for all that lettuce. That’s why you can’t be stingy with the pico. It’ll get more and more delicious as we move into tomato season, but even with sad Roma tomatoes it’ll be pretty good. And of course, it represents the colors of the Mexican flag, so it’s ideal for this holiday.
RECIPE: Chicken Salad Tostadas
Having these components around — delicious beans, tostadas, chicken and pico — can set you up to feed a crowd, or to delight one or two for many days in various iterations and combinations. (The tostada bases keep surprisingly well and long, sealed in a zipper bag, unrefrigerated.)
With warmer weather on the way, it’s dreamy to know a salady tostada is always there for the assembling.
Happy Cinco de Mayo!