Cinco de Mayo
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
140 free Cinco De Mayo trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Cinco De Mayo trivia questions with answers. It's one of the most celebrated holidays in the United States — but most people don't know what it's really about. From the Battle of Puebla to the rich traditions of Mexican culture, how much do you actually know?
30 of 140 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Spanish word 'sombrero' comes from 'sombra', which means what?
Shade
Shade is what 'sombra' means, so a sombrero is a shade-maker; in Spanish the word covers a hat of any kind, and the wide-brimmed Mexican one worn at Cinco de Mayo parties is a sombrero de charro.
Q 02Which two European powers joined France's 1861 Mexico expedition but pulled out before the fighting?
Britain and Spain
Britain and Spain signed the 1861 Convention of London with France, then negotiated with Mexico and withdrew in the spring of 1862, once it was clear France meant to stay and overthrow the Mexican government.
Q 03In his victory dispatch from Puebla, Zaragoza wrote that the French troops had fought how?
With valour
With valour, he reported, though he added that their commander had acted clumsily; the dispatch opens with the line that the national arms had covered themselves in glory, later printed beside his portrait on Mexico's 500-peso note.
Q 04When is Mexican Independence Day celebrated?
September 16
September 16 marks the 1810 call to arms in Dolores; the celebration starts the night before, when Mexico's president repeats the cry from the balcony of the National Palace to the crowds packing the Zócalo.
Q 05Which French ruler ordered the invasion of Mexico that led to the Battle of Puebla?
Napoleon III
Napoleon III saw a chance to plant a French-backed empire in Mexico while the United States was tied down by its Civil War; once that war ended, American pressure helped push the French out.
Q 06The Mexican general who won the Battle of Puebla was born in what is now which US state?
Texas
Texas was still part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas when Ignacio Zaragoza was born there in 1829; his family moved south to Matamoros while he was a boy, and a state historic site now marks his birthplace.
Q 07The word 'burrito' literally means what in Spanish?
Little donkey
Burrito is the diminutive of burro, Spanish for donkey, so it means little donkey; one popular theory says the name refers to the way a stuffed tortilla carries a load like a pack animal.
Q 08What is a piñata traditionally made of?
Papier-mâché or clay pot
Papier-mâché or clay pot: the classic piñata is a clay olla dressed in coloured paper, and its name probably comes from an Italian word for a pot, though most are now made of cardboard and papier-mâché.
Q 09Benito Juárez, Mexico's president during the Battle of Puebla, belonged to which Indigenous people?
Zapotec
Zapotec peasants were his parents in the mountains of southern Mexico; Juárez trained as a lawyer and, as president, led the republic that outlasted the French invasion.
Q 10Which hilltop residence did Emperor Maximilian remodel as his home, linking it to Mexico City by a grand boulevard?
Chapultepec Castle
Chapultepec Castle, a former military academy on the city's edge, became Maximilian's residence in 1864; the straight boulevard he ordered to connect it with the centre survives as the Paseo de la Reforma.
Q 11Which party snack is named after Ignacio Anaya, the Piedras Negras restaurateur said to have improvised it in the 1940s?
Nachos
Nachos carry the nickname of Ignacio 'Nacho' Anaya, who is said to have topped fried tortilla pieces with melted cheese and pickled chile slices for American customers at a restaurant in the Mexican border city.
Q 12Which Mexican revolutionary raised a southern peasant army to win back village lands?
Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata's southern army seized estates that villagers said had been stolen from them; he was killed in an ambush in 1919, but the land-reform article of the 1917 Constitution answered his demands.
Q 13What is the main ingredient in the dough of traditional Mexican tamales?
Corn
Q 21Pozole, the Mexican stew ladled out at celebrations, is built around which ingredient?
Hominy
Hominy, maize kernels soaked in an alkaline bath until they swell and shed their hulls, is simmered with meat in a chile broth; diners finish each bowl themselves with radish, shredded cabbage, oregano and lime.
Q 22What ancient civilization built the pyramid of Chichén Itzá in Mexico?
Maya
The Maya built Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán; around the spring and autumn equinoxes the late-afternoon sun throws triangles of shadow down the staircase of its main pyramid, like a serpent sliding to the ground.
Q 23What is the name of Mexican professional wrestling?
Lucha libre
Lucha libre, literally 'free fight', is known for its masked luchadores; a wrestler who stakes his mask on a match and loses must take it off in the ring, seen as the ultimate insult.
Corn, treated with lime and ground into the dough called masa, is spread on a husk or leaf, filled and steamed; the firm parcels travel so well that Mesoamerican armies and hunters carried them.
Q 14What Mexican folk art tradition involves brightly painted carved wooden animal figures?
Alebrijes
Alebrijes began in 1936 as papier-mâché monsters that Mexico City craftsman Pedro Linares said he had seen in a fever dream; carvers in Oaxaca later remade them in copal wood, the version now best known.
Q 15Which UNESCO-listed Mexican music uses trumpets, violins, vihuela and a big bass guitar?
Mariachi
Mariachi joined UNESCO's heritage list in 2011; the listing notes that the music is still learned mainly by ear, the skill usually passed from fathers to sons at festive, religious and civil events.
Q 16Which elegantly dressed skeleton, etched by José Guadalupe Posada, became a Day of the Dead icon?
La Catrina
La Catrina began as Posada's jab at Mexicans who adopted European fashions over their own traditions, a skull in a fancy hat; a later mural gave her a full body and gown, and revellers now paint their faces as her.
Q 17Which Mexican artist painted Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird?
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo began to paint while confined to bed for months after a bus crash at 18 left her in lifelong pain, and she turned again and again to the subject closest to hand, herself.
Q 18What deep-bodied six-string bass anchors a traditional Mexican trumpet-and-violin ensemble?
Guitarrón
The guitarrón, a very large, deep-bodied six-string bass, supplies the bass line in the ensemble; Ernie Ball bought one in Tijuana and used it as the model for his Earthwood acoustic bass guitar of 1972.
Q 19Which Mexican muralist's Rockefeller Center fresco was destroyed in 1934 over a portrait of Lenin?
Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera added Lenin after a New York paper attacked the mural as 'anti-capitalist propaganda', then refused to paint him out; an assistant's photographs later let him recreate the work in Mexico City.
Q 20What is the milky fermented drink made from the sap of the maguey agave?
Pulque
Pulque is made by fermenting aguamiel, the sap tapped from the heart of the maguey; the Aztecs held the drink sacred, gave it a goddess of its own, Mayahuel, and poured it freely at religious festivals.
Q 24Which two Mexican states both claim to be the birthplace of mole?
Puebla and Oaxaca
Puebla and Oaxaca both claim mole: Puebla for mole poblano, the dark chile-and-chocolate sauce, and Oaxaca for its nickname 'land of the seven moles', from negro to amarillo.
Q 25Which flower's petals are strewn in paths leading to family altars on Mexico's Day of the Dead?
Marigold
Marigolds, called cempasúchil or flor de muertos in Mexico, are chosen for their vivid colour and strong scent, which are said to lead the souls of the dead back to the offerings laid out for them.
Q 26In Catholic tradition, the seven points of a classic star-shaped piñata stand for what?
The seven deadly sins
The seven deadly sins is the meaning friars gave the points when they turned the game into a lesson in resisting temptation; the blindfold is said to stand for faith.
Q 27Which salamander, found in the wild only in the canals of Mexico City, appears on Mexico's 50-peso note?
Axolotl
The axolotl never grows out of its gilled, water-dwelling youth and can regrow lost limbs; invasive fish and a shrinking habitat have left it critically endangered in Xochimilco, its last wild home.
Q 28Before attacking Puebla, the French general wrote home that his 6,000 soldiers made him what?
Master of Mexico
'Master of Mexico' was his boast to the war minister in Paris, resting on what he called French superiority in race and organization; soon afterwards his army was thrown back from Puebla's forts.
Q 29Which insects migrate thousands of miles each autumn to winter in central Mexico's highland forests?
Monarch butterflies
Monarch butterflies from the United States and Canada can fly more than 2,000 miles to a few mountain forests in Mexico; the butterflies that set out each autumn are several generations removed from those that left the spring before.
Q 30The town that gave tequila its name lies in which Mexican state?
Jalisco
Jalisco's town of Tequila gave the spirit a protected name, much as Champagne did: only spirit made there and in parts of four other Mexican states may legally be sold as tequila.