Dear Kid,
In honor of it being the 5th Day of the 5th Month, I bring you 5 Things You Don’t Know About Cinco de Mayo (and I’m not going to talk about avocados).
5. Most people in Mexico don’t really care about Cinco de Mayo. It’s just another day. Because
4. It isn’t Mexico’s Independence Day. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the vastly outnumbered, out resourced, out of options Mexican army over the French in the Battle of Puebla (1862).
3. Cinco de Mayo became popular in the US after President Franklin Roosevelt enacted the Good Neighbor Policy in 1933. His intent was to improve relations with Latin America. Perhaps not everyone has read their history…
2. May 5th is not just Cinco de Mayo. It’s also the day Carnegie Hall opened (1891), the day John Thomas Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution (1925), and the day NASA launched the first manned space flight (1961). This year it’s also International Tuba Day (the first Friday in May).
1. And finally, May the Fifth is also known as the Revenge of the Fifth Day. (This refers to following Star Wars Day, not to whatever you drink at a Cinco de Mayo party.)
Whatever you’re celebrating, I hope you have a good day.
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