There are several historical lessons that oppressed peoples subjugated by colonialism and imperialism should learn from Cinco de Mayo. May 5, 1862 marked a historical joint military and citizenry uprising at Puebla to repel the invading army of French Napoleon and the superior forces of foreign invaders. The defenders of Mexican sovereignty defeated the more advanced military forces determined to invade and conquer the entirety of the Mexican nation with crude weapons and a love for their homeland in the cause of freedom, justice, and independence. France and the United States were involved in conspiratorial plans for the invasion of Mexico after France sold Louisiana territories to the United States, imposing a system of plantation slavery and fortifying New Orleans ports for slave auction sales to local plantation slave owners in furtherance of the African slave trade. 

The 1862 Battle of Puebla has been a source of cultural pride and honor for Mexicans. The military and citizen forces that defeated Napoleon's army were led by General Igancio Zaragoza, who was born in Tejas, or Texas—territory that belonged to Mexico before the so-called "Texas War of Independence" began in 1835, in which Yankee colonialists sparked a "colonial revolt" to take over Texas and convert it into a "for whites only" state. The Republic of Texas's own 1830-36 constitutions openly enacted an apartheid system to exclude and dispossess all Mexicans and other Indigenous tribes of their properties, ranches, homes, and livestock, declaring them personas non grata—unwelcome persons—through kangaroo court proceedings initiated by the infamous judge known as "The Only Law West of the Pecos" in Langtry, Texas. 

Mexicans and Indigenous persons were subsequently deported or executed by hanging. War was declared on all non-white people and Indigenous tribes in the making of colonial Texas,  using "the bold and brutal Texas Rangers police army" to hunt down people of color through war crimes made to seem like "heroic, patriotic acts" and glorifying the extermination of non-white people. The Texas colonizers have enjoyed total immunity, even as they enact rampant violence, fraud, trickery, and tyranny. 

Many modern-day, anti-colonial human rights activists and revolutionists know about this true history and have always kept the fires of resistance burning in our minds and our hearts, envisioning the return of our homeland that was invaded and stolen by racist settler colonizers, slave masters, white supremacists, and proponents of slavery. This gives Cinco de Mayo its true revolutionary significance as a chapter in our history of resistance. We dream of freedom for our people and the return of our stolen homeland, as stolen lands must be returned to their legitimate owners. Texas and the entire U.S. Southwest were acquired by foreign invaders through racist political violence, fraud, coercion, threats, and genocide.  

Our colonizers and oppressors know what they do and have designed their corporations and market consumerism to reap super profits from Cinco de Mayo festivities in furtherance of the erasure of our true historical memory—through lies, myths, stereotypes, and revisionist history. All this injustice serves the colonizers' own interests as a ruling class, and criminalizes our fundamental rights and freedoms to discover our own true history and our humanity. 

We must study true history, critical race theory, Indigenous wisdom, and theories in building people power. We must work to expose the cover of naked lies and this ugly history indoctrinating us in racist, inferior educational systems, from kindergarten to college. 

Texas is known for its white political power base held by extremists, including its disproportionate rates of imprisoning minority populations, with its "criminal justice system" and its racist prisons. Freedom fighters in Texas will play a major role in galvanizing a strong anti-fascist movement to take power away from the ruling class, who continue to enact new oppressive electoral laws, fearing loss of their electoral voting power of the multi-racial majority threatening white political power relations in Texas.

As we join hands and hearts and celebrate the true meaning of Cinco de Mayo and the glorious victory over the French foreign invaders at Puebla, never ever forget this revolutionary, historic chapter in our Mexican, Mexican-American, and Chicano history. During these tumultuous times, with the rise of fascism and our class position as colonized, oppressed, second-class citizens and domestic slaves of the current neocolonial, racial capitalist, and fascist regime, we must struggle for a better world for all.

VIVA LA RAZA!!!
GIVE CINCO DE MAYO ITS TRUE REVOLUTIONARY MEANING!!!
FOR THE REUNIFICATION OF THE  MEXICAN HOMELAND, THE DEMISE OF YANKEE COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM!!!
EL PUEBLO UNIDO, JAMÁS  SERÁ VENCIDO!!!               
– XINACHTLI
SUPERMAX CONTROL PRISON
ESTELLE UNIT,
HUNTSVILLE, TX

Xinachtli (pronounced she-nawsht-lee), aka Alvaro Hernandez, was born in Alpine, Texas. Born into a racially-segregated society, he was forced to attend segregated public schools and experienced the violent policing of Chicano barrios. At 23 years old, Xinachtli was put in jail for the first time and convicted for a crime he didn’t commit. He soon began his study in law and prisoners’ rights, which led him to study histories of global revolutions and movements, such as the anarchist-communist Mexican Liberal Party and the Black Panther Party, leading him to the works of thinkers like Ricardo Flores Magón and George Jackson. Through his study he re-birthed and dedicated his life to eliminating the racist and oppressive colonial occupations across Turtle Island and the world. A respected Chicano freedom fighter, Xinachtli has been recognized nationally and internationally as the coordinator of the Ricardo Aldape Guerra Defense Committee and spearheaded the National Movement of La Raza, Stop the Violence Youth Committee, and Prisoners Solidarity Committee in Houston, Texas, where he is known as a symbol of resistance. As of 2025, he has served 27 years of his 50-year-long sentence, 23 of those in solitary confinement. Today, he is known as a writer, poet, artist, leader, and respected elder. He has written countless essays addressing a spectrum of topics including anti-imperialist movement building and historical analysis, some of which can be found on his freedom campaign website, freealvaro.net.