by Daniel Nardini

In 1862, the Mexican army was able to stop temporarily a French invasion at the First Battle of Puebla on May 5th. In celebration of this French defeat, then Mexican President Benito Juarez issued a proclamation that stated on every Fifth of May (Cinco de Mayo), will be a celebration of the defeat of an enemy invader and the reaffirmation of Mexico’s independence. Although the French eventually did succeed in conquering Mexico, and eventually the free Mexican armed forces under Benito Juarez were finally able to free their country from French rule, the celebration Cinco de Mayo has been and is now more than ever symbolic of Mexico fighting the good fight and remaining free. More than that, the day is symbolic of Mexico and the Mexican people fighting for their dignity.

This has become true in the fight against creating U.S. President Donald Trump’s border wall to physically separate the United States and Mexico. It is the ultimate spit in the face against a country and people who have done no harm to the United States or American people and which is being built on the premise of fear, hate and and an unrealistic notion that somehow border security can be “assured” if the border wall is built. Earlier attempts at border security have been dismal failures. The U.S. government tried enhance border security, and it has largely failed. The U.S. government tried a border fence, and it has failed. How a border wall will do any different is simply the paranoid delusions of the American political right wing.

Despite President Trump’s attempt at starting the border wall, he has suffered some serious setbacks. First, the Democrats in the U.S. Congress have been able to force Trump to delay for now putting any funding into building the border wall in the U.S. fiscal spending budget. Second, California and a number of Native American tribes, like the Tohono O’odham on the border between Arizona and Sonora, will go to court to protect their lands and territory from the border wall ever being built. Finally, Mexico itself will not tolerate a physical border wall being built. President Trump has successfully brought together all sectors of Mexican politics against this one issue. Regardless of whether one is a Mexican conservative, a Mexican liberal, or a Mexican left wing politician, all are against the creation of the border wall between the United States and Mexico. Like a growing number of Americans, they do not see how this will stop people from Mexico or Central America from trying to cross the border, and they do not see how it will stop the Mexican drug cartels from getting into the United States.

The real issue should be how Mexico and the United States should work together to deal with the problems across the shared border. This will do more to help ensure peace, stability, economic and political cooperation, and border security than any physical wall will ever do. Like the temporary defeat of the French at the First Battle of Puebla, this first defeat against creating a border wall will hopefully be a first step in the ultimate defeat of creating such a barrier between the United States and Mexico.