May 5, observed by Mexican communities in Latin America and Mexican-American communities in the United States in commemoration of the 1862 defeat of French troops at the Battle of Puebla.

"They say that every time an Indian dies in Mexico an entire library dies with him. This anthology by Miguel León Portilla and Earl Shorris does not merely re-create a lost library, it brings back the eloquence of the indigenous people of Mexico past and present. We are assured by it that our men and women-those who best remember, imagine and dream-will be heard in the future. Without their voices, we cannot compose the great chorale that is Mexico."
-Carlos Fuentes

The following reads are both educational and enlightening especially at a time when the United States is facing serious immigration issues. History tells us that Mexicans contributed highly to the growth and strengthening of the United States. Perhaps without their efforts and support, the US would have been defeated in those early years. Perhaps, without the Mexican soldiers, America would have taken a different turn with governing of another sort.

Cinco History
http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm

Battle of Puebla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Puebla

The Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo
http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/10.html

Mexican Arts and Entertainment introduces Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz and included here is her poem Suspend, Singer Swan with its English translation.

Suspend, Singer Swan

Suspend, singer swan, the sweet strain:
see how the lord that Delphi sees
exchanges for you the gentle lyre for pipe
and to Admetus makes a pastoral sound.

As gentle song, though strong, moved
stones and tamed the wrath of hell,
so it retreats, abashed, when you are heard:
your instrument blames the church itself.

For though the works of ancient builders
cannot match its columns,
nothing's greater than your song

when your clear voice strikes its stones,
and your sweet tones surpass it,
dwarf it, while making it grow the more.

-Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz
Born the illegitimate child of Pedro Manuel de Asbaje y Varga Machusa. Her Mother, Isabel Ramirez, was born in the new world to Spanish parents and was illiterate, earning her living farming.

Not only as a devotion to God but also to further her education, Sor Juana became a nun. Her writings are in Spanish and reflect her political stand for her Native Mexicans, for women who are religious or not and for women artists to be seen as that, artists. Her work will often times divulge her love for Greek and Roman mythology.

'Oh, how much harm would be avoided in our country if older women were as learned as Laeta and knew how to teach in the way Saint Paul and my Father Saint Jerome direct! Instead of which, if fathers wish to educate their daughters beyond what is customary, for want of trained older women and on account of the extreme negligence which has become women's sad lot, since well-educated older women are unavailable, they are obliged to bring in men teachers to give instruction...As a result of this, many fathers prefer leaving their daughters in a barbaric, uncultivated state to exposing them to an evident danger such a familiarity with men breeds.'
-Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz (1648 - 1695)
http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/march99/cruz2.html

Sor Juana Timeline
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/cruz.html

Sor Juana Poetry Translated
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/gallery/smith/11sorjuana.html

Try Amazon.Com for more on Cinco de Mayo, with select books providing excerpts.