Another reason to celebrate Cinco de Mayo

Over the weekend and continuing through today, Portland's Waterfront Park has been the site of the annual Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. The event is sponsored by the Portland-Guadalajara Sister Cities Association and is the major fundraiser for a number of worthy causes.

This is the 25th anniversary of the fiesta, which is remarkable given Oregon's small population of Latinos and the overt hostility to brown people -- legal residents or not -- that surfaces all too often.

A lot of people mistakenly believe that May 5th is Mexican Independence Day. It's not. That's September 16.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the underdog Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. (There's speculation within our extended family that our surname, Rede, came about as a result of some French soldier who was part of the invading army.)

But I seriously digress....

In our household, May 5th has an entirely different meaning. It's the day we adopted Jordan, 21 years ago. We drove to McMinnville, 40 miles southwest of Portland, with our caseworker to take custody of our little boy, then just four months old. Afterward, we had a memorable first meal at a local Wendy's while Jordan snoozed in a baby carrier that we placed on a table top. (Hey, maybe that greasy lunch explains his lifelong love of cheeseburgers.)

Today, Jordan is in Fort Benning, halfway through his basic training program, learning to be a soldier, while we're left with visual reminders of his absence. Not just the obvious stuff, like the broken skateboards hanging from his bedroom walls, but the less apparent ones, too. I opened the cupboard this morning and there, at eye level, was a box of Annie's Organic Shells & White Cheddar. One box would make enough for three people, but he'd wolf down the whole thing, typically while laughing out loud at some episode of "Family Guy" or "South Park" or something similar. I couldn't help but smile myself.

While the rest of the city observes Cinco de Mayo, Lori and I will have a quiet celebration of our own.