The holiday commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

However, this Mexican victory at Puebla only delayed the French invasion of Mexico City; a year later, the French occupied Mexico. The French occupying forces placed Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico on the throne of Mexico. The French were eventually defeated and expelled in 1867. Maximilian was executed by President Benito Juarez, five years after the Battle of Puebla. His bullet riddled shirt is kept at the museum at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City.

Photo from: http://www.mexonline.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm

Make your own shakable maracas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Use your imagination to create colorful and festive maracas to enjoy with your friends.

What you'll need:

2 Styrofoam or paper cups
Tan, red and white acrylic paint
Decorative accents such as pom-poms and buttons
Hot glue gun
Dried beans

How to make it:

Paint cups with tan paint and let dry.
Decorate cups by painting on swirling or curvy lines. We used red paint for ours. You can also paint zig-zags. We used white for ours. Paint the bottom of each cup red.

Place a handful of dried beans into one of the cups.
Put a layer of hot glue onto the rim of the cup with the beans in it before quickly placing the other cup on top of it, lining up the rims of both cups. Allow to dry completely.

Finish any decorating you would like, such as adding pom-poms around the center (to hide the glue line). We also used mini pom-poms to dot the peaks of the zig-zags.

Once your glue is completely dry, shake your maraca!

Tips:

Smaller children may enjoy using stickers instead of trying to manipulate pom-poms and buttons. Older kids may like to get even more intricate by painting on more detailed and thinner lines.
If you don't have any dried beans, use a few pennies instead.

Our color suggestions are just that, suggestions. Use whatever colors you like to make this project your own!
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Maracas also make great party favors. Check out these gourd maracas for your next fiesta!

The colors of the flag of Mexico are green, white and red. Put them together to make your very own three dimensional flag! To add even more authenticity you can cut out a picture of the eagle the sits in the middle and glue it to your white section.

What you'll need:

Sheet of white construction paper, cut in half lengthways
12" dowel or a pencil
Tissue paper or crepe paper in green, white and red
White craft glue
Pencil and ruler
Red and green crayons (optional)

How to make it:

Fold construction paper in half as if you were making a card, short side to short side. The open end should be facing to the right and the folded side should be facing the left. Use the pencil and ruler to divide the front part of the card into thirds. Then use the pencil and ruler to divide the back part of the card into thirds.

This step is optional, but can be quite helpful for the younger child. Place the paper lengthwise in front of your child, and color the first section on each side green and the third section red. This will help younger children to glue the tissue paper in the correct sections.

Tear or cut tissue paper into 1 ½ - 2" squares.
Apply glue to the first section of the flag. Crumple up pieces of green tissue paper and stick to the glue on the first section. Continue until entire first section is filled with green paper.
Repeat Step 4 for the center section with white paper and the last section with red paper. If you want your flag to have color on both the front and the back, flip it over and repeat.

Lay your flag on the table. Open the card and apply glue to the inside of the card, along the spine. Place dowel or pencil inside the left edge (under the green section) and press to seal. Allow to dry completely.

Tips:

The authentic flag of Mexico bears the coat of arms (an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak) which is centered in the white band. You can add this to your craft by printing out the coat of arms and gluing it to the white tissue paper.

Instead of crumpling the tissue paper, you can twist it around the eraser of a pencil.
If you have leftover streamers from a birthday party, it works perfectly as a substitute for tissue paper.

Cinco De Mayo Crafts (Fun Holiday Crafts Kids Can Do!)
by Carol Gnojewski

Baile folklorico is a traditional Latin American dance where women wear colorful, billowy dresses. Celebrate your Mexican heritage by making your own Mexican dancing clothespin doll!

Materials:

2 basket coffee filters
Yellow acrylic paint
Red, green, and blue paint pens
Wooden clothespin
Brown chenille stem
Small black pom pom
White craft glue
Light brown and black acrylic paint
Black and red fine tip markers
Scissors

Directions:

Paint both coffee filters with yellow acrylic paint and allow to dry completely.

Paint the head of the doll pin with light brown paint. Paint hair on with black paint. Let dry.
When coffee filters are dry, use the paint pens to draw stripes around the outer edge of one of the filters.

Cut the chenille stem in half. Twist one half around the doll pin at "arm height" and glue in place. Set aside to dry.

Take the coffee filter that you decorated and fold it in half. Fold it in half again and cut a small piece of the center tip off. This will create a head hole in the center of the filter once you unfold it.

Cut out the center of the decorated filter. You will need a circle about 2.5" in diameter. The center circle that you cut out will be used as the top (blouse) half of the doll's dress. The remaining section of the filter should be a decorated circle resembling a donut. Set the blouse section aside.

Using the decorated piece you will now create the skirt. Hold the doll pin in your hand and with the other hand, scrunch the coffee filter around the doll pin, pleating it if possible. Wrap the extra piece of chenille around the top of the skirt to help hold it in place. Tack in place with glue.

Take the blouse circle and using the hole in the center, slide carefully over the doll head. Glue the blouse down and around the chenille stem arms and over the top of the skirt.

Trim the chenille stem hands so that they barely stick out of the sleeves.

From the second yellow coffee filter, cut a circle for the dress collar. Decorate with paint pens the same way you did the skirt.

Cut a small slit or hole in the center and slide over the head. Glue in place.

Also from the second yellow filter, decorate a square about 2" x 2" with paint pens. Fringe the ends with scissors. This will be the hair decoration.

Squeeze together in the middle and fan out the fringes. Glue the black pom pom to the middle.
Glue pom pom and fringed filter to the back of the head. Use markers to add eyes and lips.

Baile folklórico, literally "folk dance" in Spanish, is a collective term for traditional Latin American dances that emphasize local folk culture. Each region in Mexico, the Southwestern United States and Central American countries is known for a handful of locally characteristic dances.

Prior to the explosion in popularity among student and community groups, bailes folklóricos were (and currently are) performed as a part of large parties or community events. The mariachi musicians generally stand in a line at the back of the performance space and perform without written musical notation, while the dancers perform in couples in front of the mariachis.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baile_Folklorico

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Ingredients

1 cup (250 mL) canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup (250 mL) corn kernels - frozen, canned or fresh cooked
1/2 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1/2 cup (125 mL) finely diced ripe tomato
1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped cilantro
4 green onions, chopped
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp (30 mL) lime juice
1 tsp (5 mL) salt

Cooking Instructions

In a mixing bowl, toss together all the ingredients. Taste, and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes or refrigerated for at least one hour before serving.
Servings: Makes about 4 cups
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This Large Fiesta Bowl is great for black bean salsa, nacho popcorn, or any other party snack you conjure up!


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Mexican Nacho Popcorn

Spice up your popcorn bowl with a fiesta of flavors. Chili powder, grated Parmesan, garlic powder and cayenne transform plain old popcorn into a treat for your taste buds.

Ingredients

1/4 cup (50 mL) grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. (15 mL) Mexican chili powder
1 tsp. (5 mL) salt
1/2 tsp. (2 mL) garlic powder
1/4 tsp. (1 mL) cayenne pepper (optional)
8 cups (8 litres) plain popped popcorn

Cooking Instructions

In a small bowl, stir together the Parmesan cheese, chilli powder, salt, garlic powder and cayenne (if using). Set aside.

Prepare the popcorn either in a pot on the stove top or in a hot air popper. As soon as the popcorn is done, dump it into a large bowl and sprinkle on the seasoning mixture, tossing to coat everything evenly.

Serve immediately.

Servings: Makes 8 cups
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Mexican Pizza

These tortilla pizzas are layered with all your favorite taco toppings, including ground beef, refried beans, cheese, chilies, avocado, olives and sour cream. Cut into wedges, they also make amazing appetizers.

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
1 pound ground beef
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 (6 inch) corn tortillas
8 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
8 tablespoons sour cream
2 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
2 green onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies, drained
1/2 avocado, diced
1 tablespoon black olives, sliced

Cooking Instructions

Heat the refried beans.

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Stir in the seasoning packet.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place a small amount of vegetable oil in a large skillet. Let the oil heat, then place one corn tortilla in the skillet. After 15 seconds, flip the tortilla over and let it fry another 15 seconds. Repeat this process with the remaining tortillas, letting them drain on paper towels once they have been heated. When the tortillas have drained, arrange them on a cookie sheet.

Spread a thin layer of beans on the tortillas, followed by a layer of beef, and cheese.

Bake the tortillas in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes. Slice the tortillas into wedges and arrange them on plates or a serving platter and garnish them with the sour cream, tomatoes, green onions, chiles, avocado, and olives.

Recipes courtesy of http://recipes.kaboose.com

Crème caramel, flan, or caramel custard is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top.

The typical flavoring is simply vanilla, however, there are numerous variations, including coconut, almond, pistachio, chocolate, lemon, orange, Cream Cheese and many other types of fruit. Another variation, very popular in Puerto Rico, involves adding a layer of cake to the flan. It is called Flancocho (flan-cake).

Ingredients

For the flan:

4 cups whole milk
2 strips lemon zest
1 cinnamon stick
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
For the caramelized sugar coating:

1/2 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300ºF.

To prepare the caramelized sugar coating, spread the sugar evenly in the bottom of a heavy saucepan and place over medium-low heat. It may take several minutes before the sugar begins to melt. Without stirring, watch the sugar closely as it begins to liquefy at the edges. All of it will slowly turn first into a yellowish and then golden syrup and finally into a brown caramel sauce.

When the liquefied sugar is turning from golden to brown, immediately remove the saucepan from the heat. (If you miss this point, the sugar will quickly turn too dark and taste bitter and you will need to discard it and begin again.)

Working swiftly, pour the liquid caramel into 12 custard cups each 3 1/2 inches in diameter and tilt to cover the bottom and sides evenly. It is important to do this transfer quickly, as the change in temperature causes the caramel to solidify rapidly. Set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, lemon zest, and cinnamon stick over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately decrease the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes to infuse the milk with the flavor of the seasonings. Remove from the heat and let cool.

In a bowl, combine the whole eggs, egg yolks, and granulated sugar and whisk until foamy. Pour the cooled milk through a fine-mesh sieve held over the egg mixture and whisk until well blended. Pour the mixture into the coated custard cups.

Arrange the custard cups, not touching, in a large, deep baking pan or roasting pan. Pull out the oven rack, put the baking pan on it, and pour boiling water to a depth of about 1 inch into the pan to create a water bath. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until set when tested with a thin-bladed knife in the center. Carefully remove the water bath from the oven, and then carefully remove the custards from the water bath and set aside to cool completely.

You can cover and refrigerate the cooled custards and serve them cold, or you can serve them at room temperature. One at a time, run the knife around the inside of each cup to loosen the edges of the custard and then invert the flan onto a dessert plate.

From http://www.spain-recipes.com/flan-recipe.html