Reader: If Cinco de Mayo Parties Are Offensive, What About St. Patrick's Day?

It's Cinco de Mayo weekend, and there are parties around Denver. But do people know what they're celebrating?

May 7, 2017

The taco-eating contest at Denver's Cinco de Mayo festival. Brandon Marshall

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Happy Cinco de Mayo weekend! The festival continues today at Civic Center Park, the site of a major taco-eating contest yesterday, and restaurants around town are celebrating, too, as noted in our Twelve Best House Margaritas list. But many of the revelers are missing the point, according to one reader. Says Maya:

Thank you for that riveting and historically accurate account of the Mexican Army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza. Glad to know what a city full of borrachos will be celebrating.

The reporters at Fox looked particularly clueless when they donned sombreros for a "Three Amigos" Facebook Live, says Ana Campbell. But she took plenty of criticism for raining on their parade. Says
Daniel:

The author of this article is expressing a phenomenon called "recreational outrage," which is a simple form of "virtue signaling."

Comments Mark:

Seriously, rules for a reason for people to get drunk and have a party? Cinco de Mayo is celebrated differently in the USA, and people just need to embrace the diversity of how people in the USA want to celebrate it.

Adds Rebecca:

On St. Patrick's Day we dress up like a bunch of drunk Irish leprechauns. Is that offensive, too?

But then there's this reply from Cory:

Yep.

What do you think of Denver's varied Cinco de Mayo celebrations?

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