La Calavera Catrina
An elegant skeleton that began as a satire of the wealthy elite and became a national symbol of Mexico.
La Calavera Catrina is an image and associated character originating as a zinc etching created by the Mexican printmaker and lithographer José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913). The image is usually dated c. 1910–12, with its first certain publication date being 1913, when it appeared in a satiric broadside as a photo-relief etching. Posada's print intended to satirize upper class women of the Porfiriato. In 1946–47, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957) elaborated Posada's creation into a full-scale figure in his fresco "A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park." Rivera, through various iconographic attributes that referenced indigenous cultures, rehabilitated her into a Mexican national symbol. La Catrina is a ubiquitous character associated with Day of the Dead in Mexico and around the world, and has become an icon of Mexican identity.
Quick Facts
- Origin
- Mexican culture and art
- Cultural role
- Central icon of Día de los Muertos
Lore & Background
The first certain publication of Posada's Catrina image was in 1913, on a broadside titled "Remate de Calaveras Alegres y Sandungueras, Las que hoy son empolvadas Garbanceras pararán en deformes calaveras" ("The Ending of the Cheerful and Sandunga-dancing skulls", "those that today are powdered ordinary and vulgar will end as deformed skulls"). Though Posada made his print as a criticism of the wealthy elite, the text of this broadside was a vicious attack on working class women who sold garbanzo beans.
The image appeared in a book for the first time in 1930, when the title Calavera Catrina was attached to it. In 1944, the Catrina image appeared on the cover of an exhibition catalogue for the Art Institute of Chicago, and individual prints were widely distributed in Mexico and the U.S., providing Catrina with high visibility. Diego Rivera's mural "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Central Alameda" stretches 15.6 metres (51 ft) and depicts 400 years of Mexican history.
Rivera placed Posada (dressed in a black suit) and Catrina in the center, depicting himself as a boy holding Catrina's hand, with Frida Kahlo behind them. Rivera kept the big bourgeois hat but put her in a simple Tehuana skirt, and added a feather rattlesnake boa linking her to Quetzalcoatl, fangs and a bloody mouth connecting to Coatlicue, and a gold belt buckle with an ollin glyph symbolizing movement. Cordova argues Rivera made Catrina into a nationalist emblem referencing indigenous cultures and the philosophy of dualism.
Reader's Guide
La Catrina is a ubiquitous character associated with Day of the Dead in Mexico and around the world, and has become an icon of Mexican identity, sometimes used in opposition to the Halloween Jack-o'-lantern. Her image appears on all manner of commercial and festive products relating to Day of the Dead, and inspires numerous artists to recreate her every year out of nearly every imaginable material. Catrina impersonators abound, and there are Catrina fashion shows and lavish Catrina-themed balls and benefits for non-profit organizations.
The male counterpart to the Catrina is known as a Catrín, wearing the same skull makeup and black clothes, often a formal suit with a top hat or a mariachi costume. Catrinas can be dressed in black, white, or bright colors. Catrina became central to Mexican identity in part because Posada was made into the "primary artistic ancestor figure" for the generation of the Mexican Muralists. For many years, influential Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico City were held at museums centered on Rivera and Kahlo, where the Linares family made three-dimensional versions of Posada's prints out of papier mâché.
Even without the Mesoamerican attributes Rivera provided, Catrina still functions as a national emblem associated specifically with Mexico.
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