It isn't often we find people of every cultural and political background in our nation so widely celebrating a triumph in our neighbors' history. One can't help but admire the undauntable will of a small indigenous Mexican community that courageously represented the embodiment of resistance and defeated a foreign power in heroic fashion.
I want to ask people who are celebrating Cinco de Mayo today to not only acknowledge the authentic history of this day, but to also recognize the myriad current painful struggles that Mexican people are enduring across the United States.
People who genuinely value the lives of Mexican people are invited to support:
- An end to the deportations of undocumented Mexican nationals;
- The closing of immigration detention centers profiting from the misery of people trying to seek a better life for their families; and
- Advocate for passage of comprehensive immigration reform that creates a path to citizenship.
The dehumanizing forceful separation of families is an un-American, shameful policy that must be ended. We can't lecture to other nations about not mistreating people while immigrants in our country are under siege, we are openly offending our neighbors, and tearing their families apart.
Mexican people and immigrants are an integral part of the rich mosaic of backgrounds that comprise our great nation. Let's make sure they are accorded the respect they are due and transform the toxic political terrain that is demonizing them.
We also cannot forget the untold number of Mexican citizens and people of Mexican descent languishing in our nation's prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers whose voices remain muted. Many of them will experience this Cinco de Mayo alone, separated from their families and communities, and experiencing hunger.
Let's celebrate our diverse culture, history and values that have sustained us for so long, and support our Mexican friends, neighbors, and family members. We will all be better because of it. There can be no celebration of Cinco de Mayo absent civility, respect, and embracing the people who contribute so much to this country every day.
While it is a great moment in history to celebrate about the will to triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds, it is an opportunity for us to also collectively work to ensure that its memory is not lost in the commercialization of a battle in a little town 155 years ago that transformed the contours of American history.
That can be a contribution we all make today so that the next generation of young people celebrating this day preserve its integrity and appreciate the sacrifices made by Mexican people to ensure that a world super power an ocean away did not reach our nation's southern border.
