You thought Columbus Day has a bad rep among non-Anglos — the Associated Press reports that non-Mexican Latinos increasingly bristle at Cinco de Mayo celebrations that honor Mexico's 1862 battlefield victory over French forces.

“Our kids go to this school system, and the school system is more preoccupied with Mexico's history, and not the rest of Latin America's, much less El Salvador's,” the story quotes Dagoberto Reyes, director of L.A.'s Casa de la Cultura, a Salvadorian community center. “They came back celebrating Cinco De Mayo. That holiday means nothing to us.”

While Cinco de Mayo has long been a staple of California celebrations,

especially in Los Angeles, it passes largely unnoticed in Mexico

itself. The AP writer, Manuel Valdes, uses Cinco de Mayo as a symbo of

how non-Mexican Latino chafe over Mexican dominance in Latino cultural

and political affairs. He points to Hispanics from Central America and

the Caribbean mimicking Mexican accents to get ahead in jobs as a sign

of Mexican hegemony among Latino immigrant groups.

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