An Iriot original.

I was born with a special gift.

The ability to mentally transform any situation into the worst case scenario.

In my own brain.

My therapist calls my gift catastrophizing.

And that's why I'm uniquely qualified to scrutinize and analyze history's greatest disasters.

And find out who's to blame.

They say history repeats itself.

Not on my watch.

My name is Rebecca Delgado-Smith and I am the alarmist.

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into the alarmist.

A comedy podcast where we talk about history's greatest tragedies and figure out who's to blame.

Today we're discussing Cinco de Mayo, also known as the Battle of Puebla.

Here's what you need to know.

Contrary to popular belief, you aren't knocking back frosty margaritas and rocking party city sombreros every Cinco de Mayo because of Mexico's Independence Day.

While Mexico won its decades-long battle against Spain for Independence in 1821, Cinco de Mayo celebrates a lesser known battlefield victory against the French in 1862.

Known as the Battle of Puebla, it would represent anti-imperialism, self-determination and freedom to the Mexican people for decades to come.

The transformation from a colony to a self-governing country was slow and difficult.

Politically, Mexico was divided into two groups, the conservatives who proposed to use the old Spanish Catholic model to govern and the liberals who sought a system similar to the United States.

By 1858, Mexico was still in political turmoil when Latre forma, an all-out civil war between the liberals and conservatives exhausted the country.

When liberal leader Benito Juarez defeated the conservative army and triumphantly entered the Mexican capital on New Year's Day 1861, he found the country was bankrupt and facing an economic crisis.

Many of Mexico's debts were owed to France, England and Spain, who had financially backed the conservatives in Latre forma.

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