I recently read again the story of the May 5, 1862, Battle of Puebla, better known as the Battle of Cinco de Mayo. In it, a mix of poorly equipped militia and army troops under Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza faced elements of the Grand European Army of France led by General Charles Latrille, Count of Lorencez, who sought a quick end of the enemy by a frontal assault.

It did not work. The Count’s arrogance would not allow respect for the Mexican opponent and so he ordered a second assault and was defeated again.

The French returned to the Veracruz to secure reinforcements and returned to take Mexico City. What followed was a retreat of President Benito Juarez and his government all the way to Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas and a 5-year (1862-1867) struggle to free the country of the invaders and get rid of Emperor Maximilian installed by the French.

But it was the Battle of Cinco de Mayo that captured the imagination of enough people that, in many places in Mexico and the United States, buildings and ceremonies to honor Ignacio Zaragoza became part of the binational landscape. The Chicano Movement took note of the anti-European theme of the story and in 1972 made Cinco de Mayo an activist celebration as well as another symbol of Chicano resistance to injustice.

The concept of the strong bullying the weak and the underdog has been one that has played out again and again in world history. An example of that is the Russian special operation that was supposed to dominate Ukraine in hours if not days. 

Another example is what the United States now is doing to Iran. America’s most powerful military has again come back into Middle Eastern politics and laid wasted to that country.

There is also another side to many of those stories. In the case of Mexico, the underdog eventually won after 5 years due to the sheer will of its leadership and the support of the people.

With the help of the international community, Ukraine appears to be holding its own. In this case, Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, and expected to be done quickly. Now it is over 4 years later and there seems to be no end in sight.

With regards to Iran, the stated American timeline of the war seems a lot like that of Russia’s intentions in Ukraine. It was supposed to be a devastating attack by our military and a quick Iranian surrender to American demands. Then there would be a declaration victory and a return home.

However, I keep thinking of the 444 days the Carter had to endure at the hands of Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. At that time, Iran clearly understood American politics and did its part to make President Carter the election loser.

So, I do not think that the affair with Iran will be brought to closure early as President Trump planned. I sense that Iran will find a way to take revenge because this is what they do in that part of the world.

The Cinco de Mayo celebration no longer possesses the seriousness that Chicanos envisioned. But it is a celebration with a prominent Spanish name.

The event will be held at Civic Center Park in downtown Denver on May 2^nd and 3^rd. It promises to be fun for all of the family. Please remember that there will be a large crowd. So be careful as you enjoy the great historical day.

The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.

The Trump era major symbolic production is the slogan Make America Great Again and its acronym MAGA. Counteracting the term are opposition groups that argue that America is already great and that what is offered by MAGA has ulterior and unacceptable motives.

Yet, the MAGA movement has been strong enough to promote a candidate for President that has won twice. One of the major groups that has helped to make this a reality are the Independents, the largest group of voters.

Also, a fact borne out by one election after another is that both the Republican and Democratic Parties have very low popular ratings. It is as though their traditional messages no longer resonate enough with the American people.

We tend to see instead a living reality has been taken over by a cavalcade of salesmen that parade their economic and political wares for a quick sale. This is helped along by our media, most importantly the social media, that can invent need, solutions and create social and political postures with enough power to change outlooks. 

This is not only true in the United States but in the Western World as well. Results show that the nations associated with this dilemma are also going bankrupt.  The 39 trillion dollars owed by America is only an obvious and glaring example of a First World in trouble. That condition is trending toward even worse outcomes.

Since its beginning, our leadership understood that important challenges and problems to solve would be part of our history. The ideals expressed in our founding documents were so high that we soon discovered that we had to commit to an incremental approach to solutions in order to accommodate them.

I recently attended a lecture by a professor of Mexican American Studies that gave a talk on Latinas joining the Women Army Corps (WAC) during World War II and the issues they faced as a result. To me, that is a great example of incremental progress caused by the extraordinary needs of the War.

Our history shows at least twice incremental change has been forsaken in favor of a radical approach to perceived solutions. The first were the disagreements on progress that led to the American Civil War.  The differences between the free states of the industrial North and the slave states of the agricultural South, exacerbated by Manifest Destiny and the rush to settle the West, led to a bloodletting that almost destroyed our nation. 

The second is what is happening in our time. The march of American history has brought a slow but fundamental demographic change that has created a strong ethnic and racial diversity that important segments in the country do not want. 

There is an earnest effort to turn the clock back to a time when a European-based absolute majority ruled our democracy. This attempt at radical change threatens to create a political storm that can destroy the nation much like the divisiveness that caused the Civil War and brought such destruction to the country.

The preamble to the Constitution states six goals that form the rationale for our system of government. The first mentioned is “to form a more perfect union,” that has been a work in progress since the beginning.

The work of creating and maintaining a just democracy, an effort that involves many differing opinions, also creates opportunities for disunity. That is why the work of citizens and political leaders that project the voices of discourse must understand that progress is a step-by-step process.

The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.

After almost 58 years, NASA astronauts, in a manner of speaking, returned to the Moon. Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen traveled around the Moon before returning to earth.

This had not happened since NASA’s Apollo 8 “which launched on December 21, 1968, and entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. The crew – Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders – circled the moon 10 times before returning safely to earth.”

Apollo 8 was a key preparation flight for Apollo 11 1969 landing on the Moon. Artemis II is also a flight to help prepare the program for a landing on the Moon again.

This time however, there is a major interest in making the Moon a base to further the exploration of our solar system. This concept represents an extension of President Kennedy’s own 1961 challenge and prediction of landing on the Moon within a decade which was accomplished by Apollo 11. 

I still recall the excitement President Kennedy created in me as a 17-year-old when he stated that, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” This quote along with another, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other,” impelled me to journey into the uncharted waters of university life.

To be sure, the interest in space began in earnest with the Soviet Union’s successful launching of a 92-centimeter sphere called Sputnik on October 4, 1957. The Cold War was heating up and competition for preeminence between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, made this a critical moment for the country.

In quick response, America launched a Vanguard rocket that blew up on December 6, 1957. It was not until the successful launch of the satellite Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958, that the United States joined the Soviets in space.

1958 was also the year that legislation to create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was passed and began operation. NASA is the agency that is overseeing the development of the Artemis initiative.

The manned space programs include Project Mercury (1961-1963), Project Gemini (1961-1966) that had astronauts work outside space vehicles, Project Apollo (1968-1972) that put men on the Moon, Skylab space station (1973-1974), Project Apollo-Soyuz international crews (1975), Space Shuttle Program (1981-2011) that helped construct the International Space Station, Shuttle-Mir (1994-1998) that prepared for life on a space station, 2004 first private human spaceflight, 2020 Space X space travel for commercial purposes and Project Artemis that aims to return humans to the Moon.

Ironically, America’s greatest accomplishment in space that put human beings on the Moon occurred during the height of the Vietnam War. Just a year before in 1968, the Tet Offensive took violence to another level.

Our thousands of draftees who had little choice on the matter and who did not survive the one-year deployment, came back in body bags to a divided country and a mostly ungrateful public. The American Soviet competition that initially got us into space also got us into this tragic Geo-political circumstance.

Artemis II 10-day departure and return came back to a divided world at home and a war abroad that threatens to establish the same conditions as Vietnam. There is even serious talk about bringing back the draft.

The journey to the Moon and return to earth is generating a new excitement everywhere. Hopefully, it will also bring a measure of peace.

The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.