Cinco de Mayo? Or another profit for you?
Before you get offended, allow me to educate you. Let me define a couple of things.
Cultural appreciation refers to the process of valuing and learning from different cultures without trying to claim and profit from them. It involves acknowledging the unique traditions, customs, and practices of a particular culture and respecting them without any personal gain.
This also means refraining from dressing up or copying aspects of one’s culture without acknowledging its origins.
On the other hand, cultural appropriation refers to the adoption of certain aspects of a culture. This occurs most often by individuals from another culture without giving proper credit or respect to the originators of the culture. It often leads to the commodification of culture by turning it into a profitable commodity without recognizing and respecting its cultural significance of it, like Cinco de Mayo.
It also ignores the inequalities, discrimination, and oppression associated with cultures other than one’s own.
This leads me to ….Cinco de Mayo.
Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that honors the Mexican army’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The Mexican forces, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, were outnumbered by the French army. However, they managed to win the battle and defend their independence.
