05/05/2026
Today we celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Many people may be getting ready to crunch into some delicious Mexican cuisine or relax tonight with a Margarita without really knowing the origins of the holiday, but we here at Fayette Lodge always strive to act as stewards of the heritage we inherit, *particularly* when it comes to heritage with a remarkable Masonic connection!
To fully understand what the holiday Cinco de Mayo means, it's worth taking a brief seat into the way-back machine. Although the battle itself happened in 1862, as with most conflicts the origins date back significantly earlier. In the year 1848, in Europe, democratic and constitutional idealism hit an intense point in Europe with the "Springtime of the Peoples", a continent wide struggle against aristocratic authority. Championed by freedom loving social reformers from Hungary (Freemason Lajos Kossuth was instrumental in Hungarian activity), Romania and Eastern Europe (Nicolae Bălcescu, C. A. Rosetti, and Ion Ghica were all very active in their Lodges), Italy (Guissepe Garibaldi would eventually become Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Italy) and France, where many many others worked tirelessly and yet against whose dedication resulted in a complete repudiation against those democratic ideals, resulting in the restructure of restrictive monarchies in Prussia, Austria, Russia and elsewhere.
In France a "republic" was formed, with the election of Napoleon Boneparte's nephew Louis Napoleon as the first president, soon to be self styled as Prince-President Boneparte. Louis Napoleon may have been elected president but his motivations and techniques were entirely non-republican in nature, and little by little he converted the French republican into a restrictive, coercive arm of reactionary absolutism, finally converting the French nation into the Second Empire in 1852, and himself into Emperor Napoleon III. As Emperor, Louis Napoleon sought to reclaim the glory that his famous uncle had achieved, and so proceeded to project French authority and power. Nine years after his imperial coronation, the United States of America entered into its own Civil War, which changed a few power dynamics internationally.
Very early in its own history, during the presidency of James Monroe (himself an active Freemason) the United States told the nations of Europe that the two American continents were officially beyond their colonizing authority. Any current colonial holdings would not be impeded or isolated, but no new colonization would be permitted. This rather bold statement by such an upstart was perhaps amusing, but within a few years the United States was able to project its own authority well enough that the Monroe Doctrine was observed and upheld, for successive years and decades.
However, propelling itself into Civil War, the international projection of authority had diminished and now nations took heed of the Monroe Doctrine less and less. Louis Napoleon took the opportunity to strike, and in 1862 he essentially conquered Mexico.
The invasion of Mexico and the installation of a puppet empire under Maximilian I and his wife Charlotte (remembered in Mexico as Carlotta) is itself nuanced and remarkable, but essentially it can be simplified to say that the Second Empire of France was well positioned to stab into the ribs of the underdefended American Midwest and could have tipped the balance of power in the American Civil War, having expressed a preference for the Confederate States.
But then the Mexican people fought back.
The road to independence from the French-backed imperial dynasty forced upon them was not easy, but little by little the Mexican people gained ground and struck back, and at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 they achieved a resounding victory against French forces. Almost the entire Mexican chain of command were Freemasons, men who wanted to make the world a better place and in so doing sought to improve themselves first. Ignacio Zaragoza, the commander of Mexican forces, was very active in his mother Lodge, Minerva No. 44. Felipe Berriozabal, a general under Zaragoza's command and who would become future Secretary of War under the presidential term of Benito Juarez, was a Freemason, as was Benito Juarez himself, active at the fighting. Though Porfirio Diaz would come to be feared in Mexico in coming decades, his dashing youth also saw him achieve valor and success at the Battle of Puebla, and it was ag this time he too was an active Freemason, not yet corrupted by the power dynamics of his nations politics.
Today little is remembered about the Battle of Puebla itself, but it was fought today, on Cinco de Mayo--May 5th--1862, and by it, world politics itself took a decisive turn against imperial despotism that was making a reach back out into the world.
Feliz Cinco de Mayo, hermano e hermana!
