¡olé!

cinco de mayo is celebrated more in the usa than in mexico. it's an obvious excuse to let loose with the margaritas & tortilla cheeps, and what sane person would pass that up? i would venture to say that cinco de mayo is being celebrated right now in arizona with at least as much intensity as it is in every other state in our union.

okay, i really don't want to get into the arizona thing except to say that if part of the title of the group to which you belong is "illegal", then maybe that's a clue to your comparitive status. i am not saying that folks everywhere don't deserve a chance at that brass ring we call the american dream. i am not saying that folks who migrate to the usa do not work hard or contribute to their communities in ways both monetary and cultural. i am not saying that we citizens have any more basic human rights simply because we are citizens of the usa than do the folks who are here illegally. all i am saying is that "illegal" does not imply that you are unproductive or undeserving. "illegal" means that you are breaking the law. your choices where the law is concerned are straightforward - obey it or pay the consequences. (and, the slightly less straightforward - change the law.) if you break the law you pay the consequences, even if you don't agree with the law. in fact - even if a lot of people don't agree with the law, you still pay the consequences if you break it (and get caught). so, if you're an illegal immigrant to the usa, you face the possibility each day that you will be brought up against the consequences. now -- if the consequences of breaking the law to be in the usa are less than the consequences of living legally in mexico (or, finland, china, bora bora... anywhere), that is to say that if you are safer, healthier, more productive, able to offer your children more hope, stability, and freedom living in the usa with the status of "illegal" than living legally someplace else - well, then you are probably going to go for it, right? and, who's to blame you for that? seems an easy choice. the thing about it, though, is that making that choice doesn't let you out of suffering the consequences of breaking the laws of the usa - and one of those consequences is that you will bear the label "illegal".



okay, well, good thing i didn't want to get into THAT because gd only knows where we'd end up.

cinco de mayo is not a big holiday in mexico. it's a celebration in one part of mexico - a commemoration of the defeat of the french at puebla on 5 mayo 1862. a typical jaywalking contestant on the tonight show would likely tell you it's mexican independence day, and they'd be wrong. mexican independence day is on 16 september. no worries, though - the proprietor of your local taquería will gladly set you up with tequila and cheeps on cinco de mayo, or any other day. that is, as long as you can prove you are legally old enough to drink.