The Daily Demarche: Don't speak French? Thank Mexico.

I've never had Cinco de Mayo properly explained to me, I guess. I grew up in a town that was big on celebrating it, but only in a dances and music and food sort of way.

According to Dr. Demarche, the Battle of Puebla helped save the Union during the United States' Civil War:

When a few thousand farmers and semi-professional soldiers defeated one of the premier military powers in the world at Puebla the course of history was altered. Is it hyperbole to say that the Mexicans who defeated the French in 1862 did as much as President Lincoln to preserve the Union? Maybe. But keep in mind, they didn't do it for us- they did it for themselves. That is what nations, and patriots, do. We may have problems with Mexico today over immigration and water rights, but during the darkest days in American history a small group of Mexicans, out numbered and out gunned, did the impossible- and just may have provided the buffer that America needed to survive, and become what she is today.

Just some food for thought as you join in the festivities.

Use the title link to read the post in its entirety. For you military buffs, there is some description of what the French tried to do, and how the Mexicans bested them.

And for the record, I have nothing against speaking French. I even have one of those immersion courses on CD-ROM that I pop into the computer now and then to help me learn a little of it. Or at least it makes me feel like I'm learning a little of it. Don't ask me to speak it though. My pronunciation makes even me cringe. And so far the grammar eludes me.

I read a lot of old books, and many olden-day authors and publishers assumed that most readers knew French and therefore weren't the least shy about peppering the text with French words and phrases and such. I got tired of not having a clue what the phrases without footnotes meant. I still can't read most of them, but I am making progress, I think. And this isn't just a problem with really old books. Agatha Christie could be a menace with French. I keep hoping some publisher will issue her works with endnotes, but so far I don't know that it's happened. In the meantime, being a lover of old books, I keep several French-English dictionaries on my desk, and muddle through as well as I can.