La Catrina... symbol of the Day of the Death

Hector
30 oct 2019
3 Min. de lectura

Para la versión en español click here.

No one can deny that at this time of the year (late October, early November), in Mexico, everything is filled with altars, Cempasúchil flowers, skulls, offerings but in specific Catrinas, and it has a reason, since it is the symbol of excellence of the Day of the Dead in Mexico, one of the most colorful and traditional festivities in the country. It reflects our indigenous and Catholic/Spanish blend. A union between flowers and skulls, a mixture of life and death.

Whether reflected in great films like Coco or James Bond or simply in any market of any Mexican town, you can see the color and folklore that accompany us these days, in which, we Mexicans open the doors for our deceased, so the death can come visit us.

But I deviate from the subject ... What is La Catrina?

It was originally called “La Calavera Garbancera” (the chickpea selling skull) by its creator José Guadalupe Posada (he was a Mexican engraver, illustrator and cartoonist). It was baptized as La Catrina by Diego Rivera (famous Mexican muralist and painter).

Its history begins during the governments of Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz, during these periods certain kind of texts, written by the middle class, became very popular. They criticized the situation of the country and the status of the upper class.

These were written mockingly, and illustrated with drawings of skulls and skeletons, that began to be reproduced in some newspapers. In specific skulls dressed in gala clothes, in high society parties, riding horses or drinking; all to show the poverty, politicians and their failures, and the misery and hypocrisy of high society.

The word Catrina comes from the feminine of Catrín, which defines an elegant and well dressed gentleman, who was accompanied by a lady of the same conditions. This was a very common image in the aristocracy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

That is why, by giving him such a dress, Diego Rivera turned “La Calavera Garbancera” into “La Catrina”.

The original version is a metal engraving named Calavera Garbancera. "Garbancera” or chickpea seller is the word used to refer to people selling chickpeas, which although they had indigenous blood claimed to be of European descent and denied their own race, heritage and culture.

As they criticized this type of Mexicans, who appeared to be something they were not, José Guadalupe Posada captures the skull without clothes, only with a hat: "... in the bones, but with a French hat with its ostrich feathers."

The characteristic attire, with a stole of feathers, was given by Diego Rivera on his very famous mural "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central"

Painted in 1947 at the Hotel del Prado on the Historic Center of Mexico City, this mural portrays La Catrina with its creator José Guadalupe Posada and with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, the last two painted as children.

ree — Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central - Diego Rivera

Currently you can see this mural in the Diego Rivera Mural Museum, created especially for it.

Today, La Catrina has been changing, adapting, with new versions, in costumes, on paintings, on films, on walls, on altars, on candy, in an endless number of applications ... but it will always be ours, it will always be a symbol from Mexico, it will always be OUR CATRINA...