Over 250,000 people are expected to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at Civic Center Park this weekend, and it all had to start somewhere.
The Chicano movement sparked small celebrations of Cinco de Mayo, like this one on Santa Fe Drive in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1973, before NEWSED held its first celebration in 1988.For Mexico , Cinco de Mayo is a date. For Chicanos, it's a metaphor. And for Denver , it's a tradition that goes far beyond drinking margaritas and Coronas.
NEWSED will put on the 35th Cinco de Mayo celebration at Civic Center Park on Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5 — an event that has remained popular since its humble beginnings. Visit Denver estimates that the average local visitor to Denver's Cinco de Mayo celebration spends $137 on themselves in Denver in one day of the festival while overnight visitors spend $350, though it doesn't say how much the celebration generates in total revenue.Cinco de Mayo celebrates the 1862 victory at the Battle of Puebla, in which outnumbered Mexican forces — made of 2,700 farmers and 2,000 soldiers — defeated 7,000 French soldiers with guns, canons and bayonets.
Today, only certain parts of the country celebrate it, including Puebla, where the famous battle occurred. The date was never as important to Mexico as September 16, when the country won its independence from Spain, but the Mexican government still recognizes Cinco de Mayo as one the most important celebrations of the country's history.
Cinco de Mayo"became a major Mexican-American holiday because of Chicano activists in the 1960's," according to the Texas Department of Education. Chicano activists began to see the victory of Mexican farmers against the larger, better-armed French army as the perfect analogy for their struggle at the time.
The federal government created the Community Development Corporation, or CDC, designation in 1968 as a way of streamlining the distribution of housing and public works grants. NEWSED took on the role of a CDC for La Alma, then Lincoln Park, at a time when about 98 percent of the residents were Latino, Veronica says.The current festival at Civic Center Park takes place over two days with music stages, contests and hundreds of vendors.
Also trying to ignite interest in Santa Fe Drive as a potential arts district, Veronica organized the revival of a neighborhood Cinco de Mayo celebration that would draw large crowds from outside the neighborhood.
Newsed Denver Civic Center Park Santa Fe Drive Veronica Barela Andrea Barela Visit Denver Mexico
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