AY CARUMBA! DIRTY LITTLE SECRET OF CINCO DE MAYO

AY CARUMBA! DIRTY LITTLE SECRET OF CINCO DE MAYO

SAN DIEGO (Wireless Flash) -- Cinco de Mayo isn't just a holiday for drinking beer -- it's also a propaganda tool to manipulate the masses. That's according to Dr. Isidro Ortiz, a Chicano Studies professor at San Diego State University. Ortiz says the beer-guzzling holiday only became popular in the United States after marketing companies began using it to make "mucho dinero" off the growing Mexican-American population. Before the early 1980s, Ortiz says Cinco de Mayo was a non- drinking holiday that was more political in nature and a celebration of the 1862 Battle of Puebla, where Mexican troops defeated the invading French Army.