Cinco de Mayo

Fort SmithOutside The Wire

by The City Wire staff ([email protected]) May 5, 2009 7:35 am 78 views 

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the legendary Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, in which a Mexican force of 4,500 men faced 6,000 well-trained French soldiers, according to a “Facts for Features” releases from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The battle lasted four hours and ended in a victory for the Mexican army under Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza. Along with Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 16, Cinco de Mayo has become a time to recognize Mexican heritage and culture.

Mexican info from the Census Bureau:
• 29.2 million: Number of U.S. residents of Mexican origin in 2007. These residents constituted 10% of the nation’s total population and 64% of the Hispanic population

• 18.25 million: Number of people of Mexican origin who lived either in California (10.97 million) or Texas (7.28 million). People of Mexican origin made up more than one-quarter of the residents of these two states.

• 25.8: Median age of people in the United States of Mexican descent. This compares with 36.7 years for the population as a whole.

• 609,000: Number of Mexican-Americans who are U.S. military veterans.

• 1.3 million: Number of people of Mexican descent 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher. This includes about 362,000 who have a graduate degree.

• 4.1: Average size for families with a householder of Mexican origin. This compares to 3.2 people in all families.

• $39,742: Median household income in 2007 for households with a householder of Mexican origin.

• 22%: Poverty rate in 2007 for people of Mexican heritage.

• 51%: Percentage of householders of Mexican origin who owned the home in which they lived.


• $367.5 billion: The value of goods traded between the United States and Mexico in 2008. Mexico was our nation’s third-leading trading partner, after Canada and China.



• 347: Number of U.S. tortilla manufacturing establishments in 2006. The establishments that produce this unleavened flat bread employed about 14,500 people. Tortillas, the principal food of the Aztecs, are known as the “bread of Mexico.” About one in three of these establishments was in Texas.