‘On Cinco de Mayo, everybody is Latino!’ (photos)

“On Cinco de Mayo, everybody is Latino!” read the banner atop the stage at the National Cinco de Mayo Festival held on the National Mall on Sunday, May 5. The festival is an annual celebration featuring music and dance, arts and crafts, food, games, and fun for the whole family. Visitors also were able to win cash prizes in dance competitions. The name of the festival commemorates the date of the Battle of Puebla when Mexican forces decisively defeated the army of France in 1862. Although the holiday is originally Mexican in origin, the “Cinco de Mayo Festival” on the Mall has come to represent a larger “Latin-American Family Reunion.” This year, and for each of the past 21 years, the festival in D.C. has been the production of the Maru Montero Dance Company.

View our photos of this year’s Cinco de Mayo Festival by clicking on the photo icons below.