Blowing & Drifting

Though I knew that Cinco de Mayo commemorates a victory by the Mexican army over a French one in the 1860s, I didn’t know much about the actual battle, at Puebla, in 1862. In sketching out the context of the Battle of Puebla and its significance, Wikipedia offers up a few choice bits of history, including the fact that the battle didn’t prevent the French from occupying Mexico between 1863 and 1867 and installing the Emperor Maximilian as their client. Still more interestingly, the French invaded Mexico in 1862 after the Mexican government defaulted on its foreign debt. It seems some aspects of the international finance system never change.

And but so, happy Cinco de Mayo! Let the noted Mexican-American singer Liz Phair serenade you: