Day of the Dead Week

[JamesBon92007]

A little word-of-mouth history:

According to one shop owner in Puerto Vallarta La Catrina premiered in a newspaper, along with her husband, who was a politician (the governor, I believe). What I was told was that the newspaper was not allowed to show the faces of the people in question so the artist decided to make them skeletons. It was a satirical jab at the couple plus, no doubt, there were political ramifications involved too. I cannot say for certain but I'm pretty sure he showed us the newspaper page (my girlfriend both recall seeing a couple). Wikipedia has a slightly different take on the situation--I had not heard that it was poking fun at Mexican natives who were imitating Europeans. From what I was told the newspaper article probably came before Posada's "La Calavera Catrina." Either way it's fairly certain that Posada was the artist for the newspaper article. One thing is certain: it caught on!

La Calavera Catrina - Wikipedia

Now I have to go back to PV and see if I can find the guy again and write it all down this time.

 

[DandyDon]

I painted my face as a common tradition called "La Catrina."

Did you wear that diving the next day.

 

[El Graduado]

Catrina appeared for the first time not in a newspaper, but in a broadside or hoja volante, as they call it in Spanish. It is a large sheet of cheap, flimsy newsprint (appx. 40cm x 30cm) printed on one side. In the case of this illustrated broadside, it was a printing of a corrido, or popular refrain. I could not find an image of Posada’s 1910 version, but below is a posthumous reprint (Posada died in 1913):

Another 1913 version sporting La Catrina was a broadside entitled “La Cucaracha” (a version of the Spanish folksong we all learned in primary school). A copy of the broadside sold to the public for the equivalent of a couple of pennies. José Guadalupe Posada drew the image for the broadside and made the acid-engraved zinc printing plate.

Antonio Vanegas Arroyo printed the broadsides in his Mexico City letterpress print shop that he paid Posada to illustrate. The finished broadsides were sold on the streets by a network of newsboys. The “Catrina” image was to be reused by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo many times, in many other broadsides. Later, many other printers copied the etching, such as this 1924 version below: