Contrary to what most of us believe, Cinco de Mayo isn?t Mexico?s Fourth of July. Rather, the day celebrates La Battalla de Puebla, when Mexican soldiers defeated Mexican traitors and the French Army in 1862.

More than a century later, a group of California State University students held the first Cinco de Mayo as they struggled to introduce a Chicano Studies program. Cinco de Mayo not only commemorates the soldiers? bravery, but opens the door to appreciate Mexican culture.