Cinco de Mayo is the much-anticipated - and often misunderstood - celebration of a Mexican holiday in the United States of America that kicked off on May 5. Cinco de Mayo recognizes the Mexican army's 1862 victory over France, although it is not considered a Mexican federal holiday. In fact, most Americans mistakenly believe it to be Mexico's Independence Day. Needless to say, May 5 for most Americans has less to do with history and more to do with $1 margaritas. This day surpasses Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve and St Patrick's Day in terms of restaurant revenue with all the special deals and discounts.
For instance, the Omni Bershire Hotel in New York's theatre district has a room package that includes unlimited chips, salsa, and creamy guacamole throughout the night. In addition, you get a butler to roll a cart to your room for a cart-side preparation of a margarita. In Venice, California, the Historical Venice Cinco de Mayo Parade and Festival returned, featuring mariachi bands, classic cars, traditional Folklorico dancers, music from local high school bands and a float, among many other activities.
The research firm, Nielsen, reported that in 2013, Americans bought more than $600 million worth of beer for Cinco de Mayo - more than they did for the Super Bowl or St Patrick's Day. The celebration draws thousands of people to city parades, tipping their hat to tacos and tequila (while a wall is being built). It is arguably the biggest day for cultural appropriation in America. Walking around, you are bound to run into people doused in tequila with sombreros and fake moustaches.
God and his angels
The annual Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was attended by A-list celebrities and the cream of New York society. The theme of the Met's Costume Institute exhibit is, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. People were dressed in arguably outlandish attire representing crusaders, saints, madonnas - Madonna herself dressed like a Sicilian widow in a black Jean Paul Gaultier outfit - and icons. The red carpet's tackling of Catholicism no doubt led to some controversy. The Heavenly Bodies exhibition has, however, received the official stamp of approval from the Vatican. In fact, along with over 150 designer pieces, the exhibit will also include 50 garments and accessories borrowed from the Vatican.
Ariana Grande went in a Vera Wang outfit that was an interpretation of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Jared Leto went as a Gucci version of Jesus Christ, Superstar. Zendaya and Kim Kardashian West were Versace holy warriors, glowing in liquid chain mail, without the flaming swords. Lily Collins in Givenchy looked like a Gothic version of Our Lady of the Sorrows, with a red tear drop dripping down her cheek. Chadwick Boseman arrived in a cross-strewn white Versace cape and suit. The Met Gala in general has always welcomed fashion that is more absurd and bold than that in most award shows such as the Oscars or the MTV music awards. This is a moment where fashion designers just let themselves loose.
Bitter pills are hard to digest
The annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner is an evening where journalists, celebrities and the administration come together. The goal is, seemingly, to put aside differences in opinion and political views. This year it was held at the Hilton hotel in Washington, with the headlining performance sparking off debate on the moral line drawn in comedy. Typically, the host entertainer roasts the US president and the administration, and the president maintains the banter. Donald Trump attended the dinner in 2011, where the then president, Barack Obama, and the comedian, Seth Meyers, famously mocked him.
Trump did not attend this year's event, for the second time in a row. The comedian, Michelle Wolf, headlined the event, unleashing a scathing monologue that mocked lawmakers and members of the media, but focused especially on Trump and others from the White House. She drew harsh criticism from many. Wolf's punchlines about Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway set off a string of debates about whether last week's edition of the nearly 100-year-old event could be the last of its kind.
Face the misdeeds of the past
The American South has been made to face its past. A new museum and memorial in Alabama has opened, dedicated to highlighting the US's history of slavery in more than 800 counties where lynchings took place. Each of them is represented at the museum by a monument - a stylized steel slab engraved with the names of the African Americans who were lynched in that locality. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration challenges each of those counties to claim a duplicate of its monument and bring it home for display. The museum will present new memorials to African Americans' experiences, as well as a powerful display of America's prolonged history of racial injustice, when they officially open to the public.
The idea for the museum originated in 2010, when the Equal Justice Initiative started investigating racial lynchings. Between 1877 and 1950, roughly 4,400 African American men, women and children were lynched by white mobs, a prime catalyst for the Great Migration, a search for freedom from racial terror in northern cities.
Footnote
Now you can get paid to travel with puppies. The summer internship at the travel website, The Points Guy, allows you to hang out in office with three French bulldogs - Miles, Hootie and Swisher, also known as the Points Pups - and develop the brand's 'social-media following' and grow "TPG's traveling pet content". There is also actual work to do - you "research first-hand what it's like to travel with pets in today's day and age". Apart from travelling with dogs, you also have to generate content for Instagram.
