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21 March 2002
San Diegans Take Back Cinco De Mayo
Announce First Ever Alcohol and Tobacco-Free Parade and Festival; Launch Campaign to Restore True Meaning of Holiday

SAN DIEGO, CA – For years, Latinos in San Diego, and across the country, have seen the alcohol and tobacco industries exploit the Hispanic culture and seize the Cinco de Mayo holiday as a marketing tool to sell their products. They’ve had enough. “Your use and abuse of our heritage and culture stops here,” said Jovita Hurtado, chair of the San Diego Cinco de Mayo con Orgullo Coalition, created to take back the holiday and restore its true meaning. “We’re tired of the alcohol industry turning our holidays into all-you-can-drink events. Our culture is not for sale. Our people are not for sale.”

Hurtado, together with dozens of business representatives, community residents and youth, gathered at Chicano Park in Barrio Logan to officially announce the first annual Cinco de Mayo Parade and Festival. What makes this celebration different from other Cinco de Mayo events is that it will be alcohol and tobacco free. The Coalition also launched a campaign to keep the alcohol and tobacco industries from using ethnic and cultural holidays to promote their harmful products.

“We’re fighting back,” added Hurtado, as she swung at a piñata shaped like a beer can. “We’re breaking the hold.”

Cinco de Mayo, the historical day in 1862 when about 2,000 ill-equipped Mexican soldiers and townspeople were able to hold off a better armed and highly trained force of more than 6000 French troops in the city of Puebla, was brought to the United States by Mexican immigrants during the 1920s. The holiday, a symbol of unity and patriotism, grew in importance during the 1960s when the Chicano Movement adopted it to generate ethnic pride.

However, its political purpose gradually diminished, becoming more of a cultural holiday, with parades, festivals and many other family activities. In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is primarily celebrated in Puebla.

In the 1980s, the beer industry began using Cinco de Mayo to promote is products and increase consumption. Since then, the nation’s domestic brewers have been spending over $30 million yearly on Spanish language advertising, a significant portion of that to promoting Cinco de Mayo as a drinking holiday. The tobacco industry also aggressively pursues the Latino community, and other ethnic communities, trying to lure their significantly youthful populations. Billboards, advertising alcohol and tobacco are more common in predominantly Latino and African-American communities, than in white and Asian neighborhoods.

The research is clear. Alcohol and tobacco produce disproportionately more negative effects on Latinos than people of other cultures:

	About 23 percent of Mexican-Americans are considered heavy, problem-drinkers, compared with 12 percent of white men and 15 percent of black men.
	Nationwide, Mexican-American men are nearly twice as likely to get arrested for drunk driving as whites and African-Americans.
	Last year in San Diego, 30 Mexican-Americans got arrested for DUI during Cinco de Mayo celebrations, compared to 23 white, 9 black and 3 Asians.
	The tobacco and alcohol industries specifically target the Latino population and promote Cinco de Mayo as a drinking holiday.
	Every year, 10,000 San Diego youth begin smoking; one third of who will die from tobacco-related illness.

“We’re tired of the massive attempt by the alcohol industry to target the Latino community,” said Bernardo Rosas, from the California Latino Leadership United for Healthy Communities, which launched the Cinco de Mayo con Orgullo campaign a few years ago. “The use of our culture to sell their products is not acceptable. Cinco de Mayo is a holiday to celebrate our history and culture, not a drink-a-thon,” added Rosas, while taking a whack at the hanging piñata. Other event participants also took turns hitting the piñata, a tradition in the Latino community during birthday celebrations.

“Big Tobacco’s financial support of organizations, elected officials, and community events for Latinos is made possible by addicting, disabling, and killing tens of thousands of Hispanics every year,” said Debra Kelley, American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “The tobacco industry pretends to be a friend of the Latino community while exploiting their workers, destroying their land, and killing their families.”

With the launching of this campaign, participants hope to take back Cinco de Mayo and promote it as what it should be: A cultural and traditional family holiday.

To do that, the Coalition is proposing the following measures:

	Promote the true meaning of Cinco de Mayo
	Create a greater awareness of the negative impacts of alcohol upon the Latino community and other culturally diverse communities.
	Stop sponsorship/advertisements that demean the Latino culture, and encourage binge and underage drinking.
	Support alcohol-tobacco, and violence-free Cinco de Mayo celebrations

“The alcohol and tobacco industries have no shame and have a real need to exploit us and our national holidays, like the Cinco de Mayo and Black Heritage Month,” said Dr. Cleo Malone, executive director of the Palavra Tree. “They know their products are harmful, but they only care about their economic interests.”

For parents and youth, an alcohol and tobacco-free celebrations are something they’ve been waiting for a long time.

“Cinco de Mayo celebrations should focus on our families, culture and heritage, not encouraging teens to smoke and drink,” said Aliana López, a sophomore at Hilltop High School.

“I am grateful to finally see a Cinco de Mayo celebration not drowning in alcohol,” said Patricia Ulloa, a San Diego resident and mother of three. “For years, I’ve wanted to celebrate the holiday with my children but have stayed away because of the unsafe environment. It’s wonderful to know we will have an alcohol and tobacco-free Cinco de Mayo. I look forward to this year’s celebrations and hope that they will become part of our community”.

The Cinco de Mayo con Orgullo campaign began in California in November or 1997 by a group of youths from the Community Wellness Partnership.