Chicago’s annual Cinco De Mayo parade was abruptly halted and canceled Sunday amid reports of gang-related violence near the route, according to Chicago police.
Police made the announcement Sunday afternoon shortly after the parade had been scheduled to get underway. Citing an “abundance of caution,” officials said that the parade was canceled following reports of large-scale fights in the area.
Here’s a Mexican on Reddit who is confused about it enough to ask- https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/190in1j/why_do_you_guys_celebrate_cinco_de_mayo_more_than/
Here is an article about Mexican-Americans finding it offensive: https://abc11.com/cinco-de-mayo-what-means-battle-of-puebla-mexican-holiday/10585513/
Here’s an article by a Mexican-American woman who says that, while the original intentions to make it a holiday were noble, it’s become a way for white people to do some typical cultural appropriation- https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/05/02/cinco-de-mayo-from-a-mexican
On top of that, when asked what Cinco de Mayo is, 41 percent of Americans think it’s Mexican independence day, while 19 percent are unsure, so they aren’t really celebrating a culture if they don’t even understand the significance of the day, are they? https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/cinco-de-mayo-celebrates-what-marketing-leads-to-confusion/473255
I did not ever mean to imply that all Mexicans understand why Americans celebrate, nor that all Mexican-Americans view it as a celebration as their culture.
My point was only ever that we should not paint with broad brush strokes. People are not a monolith.