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Its another Fourth of July celebration. Most will be munching on hot dogs, sucking on some suds, going to parades watching pretty girls twirl in red white and blue costumes and at night gawk skyward with oohs! and ahs! as the night sky lights up with a kaleidoscope of colors.

The nation celebrates with a real bang what was envisioned as truth, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In Texas we have a running dispute instigated by some whom we normally call “good ol’ boys,” for lack of a better term.

It seems there are some who believe that you should celebrate el cuatro but, how dare you celebrate el Cinco? de mayo that is.

I read in local newspapers irate writers who complain about the folkloric dances at school or other public places. We are told that the pursuit happiness lies only within their approved boundaries. Have you ever looked closely at the ingredients of a frank?

Around 1777, the Colonial rebels began their independence celebration not with fire works but with real cannon fire and by burning a statue of King George in effigy. A rather pyromaniac bunch.

For some two hundred years we hear the names Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and a bunch of Williams and Thomases hailed loudly as heroes and “forefathers.”

The silence that rings more deafening than a liberty bell in your ear is the one that omits names like: Gálvez, Calvo de Irazabel, Gomez, García, et al. These are just a few of the names of Hispanics who were committed to the War of Independence.

Ken Blanchard, author of the “One Minute Manager,” defines committed by asking a neophyte what he had for breakfast? The neophyte replies: “Hamm and eggs.”

Blanchard goes on to say: “In your breakfast, the chicken was involved, the pig was committed.”

When the Anglo colonists decided that they did not want the English controlling their affairs, they started a revolution. They had enough tea and scones.

In an effort to quash the rebellion the English decide to cut off the colonists from English support. One of the first acts of restrain was to forbid the colonist the use of the British currency.

Financing a war without a coin was going to be a difficult task. The Colonist could not trade with others for much-needed supplies and munitions. The Indians were out of the question: The posture that “the only good Indian was a good Indian,” did not go over well with the native Americans. Although some tribes were suckered in.

Enter el rey Carlos IV of Spain. He declared himself “defensor de las americas.”

He commissioned Then-governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez to provide all types of support to the revolting ( use this word loosely) colonists. Support came in the form of  provisions, munitions, financial and military support.

Spaniards such as Francisco de Saavedra under the command of General Gálvez provided vital military support to the colonists.

Saavedra is credited with planning decisive battles such as the one at Yorktown (the Grasse-Saavera convention). He was a military strategist and a financial adviser to the rebels.

As for a trade coin, Carlos IV, in addition to providing funds to the rebels authorized the use of the Spanish dollar. Hence the “$” symbol to identify money. The “S” represents plurality and the "II" was found on the back of the Spanish coin represented the Pillars of Hercules which before the time when Cristoval Colón discovered the New World, it was the boundary of the known world - “Nothing beyond here.”

Many other Spanish names have been conveniently omitted from the annals of the U.S. History of independence.

So, whether you celebrate el cuatro with a Dos tachas (Xs) and tacos al carbón, or a starchy-greasy tube in a bun, keep in mind that without the Spanish intervention we may be having scones, sipping tea and saying “cheerio my good man.”

As for the cinco de mayo celebration; if the Mexicans, led by Tejano General Iganacio Zaragoza, had not stopped the French in 1862, at a time when the Aglo Americans were nearly self-whitewashed by the Civil War - We would be having Escargots de Bourgone and freedom fries; with Champagne of course.

From its inception to today in the United States, Hispanics have remained committed to the defense of this nation and to the principles for which it stands: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Feliz cuatro and stay thirsty my friends.