Cinco De Mayo and the Table of Diversity
- Demetria
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Every year on May 5th, something interesting happens in the United States. Restaurants fill up. Decorations go up. And most of the people celebrating have no idea what they're actually celebrating.
That is a criticism AND an invitation to dig deeper, this time bringing the kids along with us!
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It is a regional holiday that is significant in Puebla, observed modestly in parts of Mexico, and an event that became something else entirely once it reached the United States. In the US, it evolved into a broad celebration of Mexican and Latino culture, which means it carries both the beauty of cultural appreciation and the risk of cultural reduction happening simultaneously.
Which makes it a perfect moment to pull out the Relate card from the Table of Diversity™ Youth Edition Deck.
The Relate card is the second in the Reflect, Relate, and Rise Up framework, designed for the child who does not share the identity on the card. In this case, a child who does not identify as Hispanic or Latino. It asks them to build understanding and connection across difference and explore similarities.
And the Relate prompt is this:
What is something you've learned about this racial or ethnic group that is similar to or different from your own?
This is not a quiz. There are no wrong answers. The point is to open a conversation about what your child already knows, where they learned it, and what they might be curious about now.
Here's how to use it today:
Share something you know about Cinco de Mayo or something you just learned. Then ask the question. See what they say. Follow their lead.
That's it. The prompt does the work. You just have to show up. And, if you don't know the answer go on a journey of learning together!
When you're ready to take the next step toward action, check out the Rise Up deck for thoughtful prompts that encourage action on the individual, interpersonal, and systemic level- meeting you and your youth where you are!
Resources for learning more about Cinco de Mayo:
Cinco de Mayo (History.com) https://www.history.com/articles/cinco-de-mayo
What Cinco de Mayo Really Celebrates. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/what-cinco-de-mayo-really-celebrates
Cinco de Mayo. Sesame Street. https://youtu.be/vc6j5az1b3M?si=SH49qGm4feLZ1MRC
Age appropriate approaches to Cinco de Mayo. The Relate: Learning prompt works across a wide age range but what it looks like in practice depends on who you're talking with. Here's how to meet young people where they are.
K-5: Engage the Senses!
Young children learn best through the concrete and the familiar. For this age group, Cinco de Mayo is a natural entry point because it shows up in ways they can see, taste, and hear. Start there.
Talk about food, not just tacos, but the regional dishes, the ingredients, the traditions around how food is prepared and shared in Mexican and Latino families. Talk about music, the instruments, the rhythms, the celebrations it accompanies. Talk about clothing, the colors, the craftsmanship, the stories that textiles and dress carry across generations.
The question you're really asking at this age is: what does this culture feel like from the inside? You're not asking them to analyze anything. You're inviting them to be curious about a world that looks, sounds, and tastes different from their own and to find the places where it doesn't feel so different after all.
6-8: It's Storytime!
For Cinco de Mayo, the conversation can move from what this culture is to how it gets represented in movies, in commercials, in the way the holiday gets celebrated in the United States versus in Mexico. Who is telling the story? Who is left out of it? What does it mean when a culture gets reduced to a costume or a party theme?
You don't have to have answers. In fact, it's better if you don't. What you're modeling at this age is the practice of asking better questions and being willing to sit with complicated ones.
Explore the history of Cinco de Mayo and the shift in celebration from Pueblo to the US.
9-12: Analyze and Dissect!
At this age, the conversation can move all the way into history, power, and what it actually means to respect a culture rather than just consume it.
Cinco de Mayo is a perfect case study. A regional Mexican holiday that became one of the most commercially celebrated days in the United States marketed heavily by beer companies in the 1980s, often celebrated by people with little knowledge of what it commemorates. That story raises real questions about who benefits when a culture gets packaged for mainstream consumption, and what gets lost in that translation.
This isn't about making anyone feel guilty for celebrating. It's about inviting young people to think critically about the difference between appreciation and appropriation, between curiosity and consumption and to decide for themselves what respect actually looks like in practice.
Explore the commercialization of Cinco de Mayo and how you can honor its roots.
Comments