Kevin R. Young will present a program on “Lincoln and Cinco de Mayo” on Wednesday, April 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the first floor Meeting Room of the Danville Public Library. The program is free.
On the 5th of May 1862, Mexican soldiers under General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated Napoleon III’s French forces at the battle of Puebla. This Mexican victory was the start of a long conflict by Mexican president Benito Juarez to stop the French occupation of Mexico and to defeat the puppet government of Maximilian I.
Kevin Young, current President of the Rossville Historical Society and owner of Forest View Historical Associates, will share the story of the events that led up to the French invasion of Mexico and how Abraham Lincoln’s administration reacted to the occupation while fighting America’s own Civil War. “While many Americans are very familiar with our country’s struggles from 1861-1865,” Young notes, “we tend to forget that our neighbor to the south was fighting to regain control of its sovereignty from 1862-1867.”
Young is a research historian and Vermilion County native who has spent over 25 years in the Texas/Mexican History field. He is the author of To the Tyrants Never Yield—A Texas Civil War Sampler and a contributing author to MacMillan’s The United States and Mexico at War. He also served as the chief of historical interpretation at the Presidio La Bahia in Goliad, Texas, the birthplace of Ignacio Zaragoza. Young was one of the re-enactment coordinators for the television series “North and South,” “North and South Book II,” and “Houston, the Legend of Texas.” He was also a re-enactment coordinator for the academy Award winning film “Glory” and the historical technical advisor for the IMAX film “Alamo...The Price of Freedom.”
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