Feliz Cinco de Mayo

In this famous piece of protest art, we see imperialism (and a would-be Emperor, Maximilian I) suffering a setback at the hands of Mexican troops. The artist, Edouard Manet, was not a supporter of Napoleon III, who initiated France’s 1862 invasion of Mexico and installed Maximilian as a puppet ruler. The Battle of Puebla, the first battle in which Mexican forces defeated the French invaders, took place on May 5th, 1862; Maximilian arrived in 1864 and was finally executed by Mexican Republican forces in 1867. XicanoPwr gives much more of the history, including a little-known twentieth-century episode ….

Here’s another article about the painting and the history, this time from a less mainstream source.