Tres de Mayo

Feeling rather punchy in the elevator this morning, I suggested to my car-mates that we should begin celebrating Cinco de Mayo starting with Uno de Mayo and working our way up to the Fifth. I got one chuckle and another blank look. I thought it was funny and repeated my idea throughout the week as often as I could: Dos de Mayo, Tres de Mayo, etc. My wife, Amanda, found my silliness humorous, and since I take pleasure in my wife delighting in something, I resolved to continue my work. On the third of May I sent an email to the lab with the greeting, "Happy Tres de Mayo". Since I was not sure of the spelling of the words and wanted to get it right I Binged it ... Lo and behold, the spelling netted me an actual Wiki hit. And then I read the content of the article:
In 1808 soldiers loyal to the king of Spain put down an insurrection. Six years later Fransisco Goya painted his rendition of what had happened. There is lots of interesting backstory, but my focus came to rest on several other paintings that borrow from the theme and work of Goya. Reuben's Massacre of the Innocents 1611 likely influenced Goya. And Goya influenced Manet's Execution of the Emperor Maximilian 1867 and Picasso's Massacre in Korea 1951. Manet has the witnesses behind a wall, one soldier checking his priming so he doesn't have to be a shooter (who is he?), the slave dying with the emperor and the trusted advisor (who is he?) holding the Emperor's hand. The Emperor looks like he comes from the far east. I hate to mistakenly categorize him as bearing Chinese looks because I don't want to sound foolish and not-well-traveled. The scene is so clean and pastoral, lighted with the sun, not lamps at night, suggests the righteousness of the deed. And then I thought more closely about Reuben's work. The men are doing the killing, and the babies are all fat and chubby, and the women all look like men, except one. Muscular, bulging arms and bosoms. Protecting their babies. He's got the color of death in the one baby. Today it is so different: Women do the killing, of their own babies, to protect their place in the workforce and their slim figure. And then I thought, hmm, I should write that down. And so I did.