Our Culture is Not For Sale! A Campaign to Reclaim Cinco de Mayo From the Alcohol Industry (From Case Histories in Alcohol Policy, P 99-124, 2000, Joel Streicker, ed. -- See NCJ-193674)

• NCJ Number: 193678
• Author(s): Bill Gallegos
• Date Published: October 2000
• Length: 26 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Sale Source: Trauma Foundation
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Case Study
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter presents the story of the Los Angeles Cinco de Mayo Con Orgullo coalition in mobilizing mostly Latino youth, parents, activists, and scholars in challenging the alcohol industry and building healthy communities eliminating the alcohol industry’s negative marketing practices and the reclaiming of Cinco de Mayo from the alcohol industry.

Abstract

This story presented the Los Angeles Cinco de Mayo Con Orgullo, a grassroots organization from a low-income Latino community under the Community Wellness Partnership (CWP), empowering dispossessed communities and their fight to reclaim the Cinco de Mayo holiday from the alcohol industry. Cinco de Mayo is an important ethnic holiday celebrated primarily in the southwestern United States. In the late 1970's the Cinco de Mayo celebrations lost much of their political character focusing on cultural preservation and ethnic pride. There became a search for corporate sponsorship and the alcohol industry began to bankroll the large celebration. Major alcohol brewers developed sophisticated marketing strategies targeted at Latinos. By the mid-1990's, millions were being encouraged to increase their alcohol intake at restaurants and bars with special Cinco drink promotions. The Latino community became outraged due to their concern about their cultural and historical tradition and the knowledge of the major alcohol-related problems in their community. There became a statewide campaign, the Los Angeles Cinco de Mayo Con Orgullo applied by the CWP which focused on: (1) bringing together an initial core of alcohol and tobacco policy and prevention organizations from throughout the country; (2) developing goals and objectives; (3) planning for mobilization of the base constituency and allies; and (4) identifying the target of their struggle and potential difficulties in achieving their goals. In the beginning, the coalition established a broad network, created a greater public awareness, and laid the groundwork for policy change. Each year the coalition has grown stronger in their membership and goal attainment, aware that they were challenging very powerful corporate interests and the campaign to reclaim Cinco de Mayo would be a lengthy one.