Every year in May, the same question is asked across America: What exactly is Cinco de Mayo? 

For some, it is just an excuse for restaurant specials, margaritas, and themed parties. For others, it represents cultural pride, family traditions, music, dance, food, and the celebration of Mexican heritage and resilience.  

Increasingly, social media turns the holiday into a battleground over cultural appropriation, commercialization, immigration politics, and identity itself. Colorado Springs is not immune to those online debates. 

Yet locally, Cinco de Mayo has never looked like the caricatures people often argue about. For more than four decades in Colorado Springs, El Cinco de Mayo, Inc. has worked to shape the celebration into something rooted in community life and authentic culture.   

While debates rage nationally over authenticity versus commercialization, our local organization has quietly built a model centered on scholarships, volunteerism, cultural preservation, and intergenerational connection. That history matters. 

The holiday itself commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla, where Mexican forces achieved an unlikely victory over the French army. In Mexico, the observance is relatively regional.  

However, in the United States, the holiday evolved into something broader – part cultural celebration, part expression of identity, and in many places, a heavily commercialized marketing opportunity. That commercialization is where tensions often begin. 

Critics argue that many businesses reduce Hispanic culture to stereotypes, alcohol promotion, or superficial branding. Others counter that all cultures naturally evolve and that public celebrations can create economic opportunities for Hispanic-owned businesses, musicians, artists, restaurants, and vendors. 

There is a need for education to keep this balanced.  

“The more we educate, the more knowledge we share, the better a community and people we become,” said Sehila Mota Casper while discussing the importance of culturally grounded celebrations.  

Sehila Mota Casper is a nationally recognized Latin heritage preservation leader and the  Executive Director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation, a nonprofit focused on preserving Latinx cultural sites, stories, and living traditions across the United States. 

In Colorado Springs, these conversations become especially layered because our city sits at the intersection of several realities: a growing Hispanic population and larger national conversations surrounding immigration and identity politics. Social media amplifies those tensions every spring. 

But while online discourse may be polarized, our local reality is more relational.  

Scholarship fundraising remains one of the organization’s defining missions. Over the years, El Cinco de Mayo, Inc. has awarded approximately $381,500 in scholarships to more than 500 students – an extraordinary accomplishment for an all-volunteer organization. 

That fact alone changes the tone of the conversation. This is not merely an entertainment event. It is a community institution. 

The annual celebration brings together dancers, car clubs, local vendors, artists, and food businesses. They are joined by students, educators, churches, civic leaders, nonprofits, and families from across the Pikes Peak region.  

Lowrider culture and community car shows exist alongside Ballet Folklórico performances. Scholarship donors share space with small businesses. Families attend together across generations. 

“When culture is paired with education, volunteerism, and opportunity, celebration becomes something bigger than entertainment,” said El Cinco De Mayo chairperson, Kelley Rodriguez. 

That balance matters because authentic cultural celebrations are rarely frozen in time. Cultural and lived experience evolves while still honoring its roots. 

Colorado Springs’ version of Cinco de Mayo succeeds largely because it has resisted becoming only a corporate event or only a political statement. Instead, it has remained deeply local and relationship-driven.  

The people organizing it are not outsiders parachuting in for a seasonal marketing campaign. They are volunteers, community leaders, parents, artists, educators, and small-business owners who live here year-round. 

“What makes our local celebration different is that it has remained deeply community-oriented,” said media personality and local leader Phil Martinez. “The event still feels built by neighbors rather than corporations.” 

In an era where so many cultural events feel transactional or politically performative, our local El Cinco organization continues to keep the celebration about the students it brings scholarships.  

I encourage readers to attend the local Cinco de Mayo, Inc. celebration on the early evening of May 30 at Weidner Field. More than a cultural event, it supports student scholarships and reflects the community’s commitment to inclusion, education, and shared celebration. 

Rachel Stovall is a Colorado Springs event manager, entertainer and community advocate.