EL CINCO DE MAYO

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Las armas nacionales se han cubierto de glia 

"The national arms have been covered with glory"

Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín (March 24,1829 – September 8, 1862) was a general in the Mexican Army, best known for defeating invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 (the Cinco de Mayo).

Zaragoza was born in la Bahía del Espíritu Santo, in what was then the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, now the city of Goliad, Texas,

The first important engagement of the campaign took place, on April 28, on the heights of Acultzingo, from which the Mexicans were dislodged. They retreated to Puebla, and their commander, General Ignacio Zaragoza, fortified the hills of Guadalupe and Loretta to resist the attack of the invaders. The battle took place on May 5, 1862, and the French and their allies, the conservatives, to the number of more than six thousand men, were repulsed and defeated.

The Mexicans had only four thousand men, and their triumph was so complete that El Cinco de Mayo is one of their greatest national feast days. "In appreciation of his brilliant victory and defence of the city, General Zaragoza was appointed Military Governor of Vera Cruz, his name was inscribed in letters of gold upon the walls of the Hall of Congress, and the official name of Puebla was changed to 'Puebla de Zaragoza.'" The French retired to Orizaba, and the Mexicans under Zaragoza were defeated at Cerro del Borrego in an attack upon the invaders. Shortly, afterwards the victor of El Cinco de Mayo died at Puebla of typhus fever.