The melee was unrelated to U.S. participation in World War II, labor unrest or President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s controversial move to seize control of local Chicago industries.
Rather, a massive, impatient art crowd overwhelmed the museum’s capacity, causing mayhem. That’s how desperately people wanted to see the U.S. premiere of an exhibition titled “Posada: Printmaker to the Mexican People.”
The exhibition featured the prints of José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican engraver who had died in 1913. On display were his calaveras, the satirical skull and skeleton illustrations he made for Day of the Dead, which he printed on cheap, single-sheet newspapers known as broadsides.
One specific calavera, or skull, attracted more attention than the others.
Known as La Catrina, she was a garish skeleton with a wide, toothy grin and an oversized feathered hat. A large print of her hung on the museum’s wall. Audiences saw her featured in the museum’s promotional materials. She was even the cover girl of the exhibition catalog. Back in Mexico she’d been virtually unknown, but the U.S. exhibition made La Catrina an international sensation.
Today, La Catrina is Posada’s most recognizable creation. She’s the icon of Day of the Dead, Mexico’s annual fiesta in honor of the deceased that takes place annually on Nov. 1 and 2. Her visage is endlessly reproduced during the holiday. Her idolization has made her Mexico’s unofficial national totem, perhaps second only to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
While some people might presume it’s always been this way, La Catrina is actually a transcultural icon whose prestige and popularity are equal parts invention and accident.
A life of obscurity
When Posada first engraved her in 1912, she wasn’t even called La Catrina.
The melee was unrelated to U.S. participation in World War II, labor unrest or President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s controversial move to seize control of local Chicago industries.
Rather, a massive, impatient art crowd overwhelmed the museum’s capacity, causing mayhem. That’s how desperately people wanted to see the U.S. premiere of an exhibition titled “Posada: Printmaker to the Mexican People.”
The exhibition featured the prints of José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican engraver who had died in 1913. On display were his calaveras, the satirical skull and skeleton illustrations he made for Day of the Dead, which he printed on cheap, single-sheet newspapers known as broadsides.