José Guadalupe Posada was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 1852. He was a skilled, creative and hard-working printmaker whose work is calculated in more than 20,000 lithographs. The images he created were satirical cartoons which criticized the society and events of his time, and were published in newspapers, posters and booklets.
He lived in Mexico through chaotic times of change, often marked by violence, poverty, death, a large national debt
and a resistance movement of those fighting for the poor and their rights against a culture of abuse by the upper class. Because his images reflected the reality of the country, they often featured images of death, including his famous image of “La Catrina,” meaning “the elegant female.” Publishers gave names to those characters.
The country of Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1810. In colonial times, the king was supposed to own the land, so he placed men of nobility to administer it by the creation of haciendas. Haciendas were still in use during the time of Porfirio Diaz’ dictatorship of over 30 years, from 1884 to 1911 broadly, although the monarchy was no longer the ruler. At that time, Posada was actively creating his characters.
Haciendas consisted of a great house, vast extensions of land, small houses for salaried field workers and a store selling what the hacienda produced, plus other goods brought from abroad. Those stores were called “tiendas de raya,” literally meaning “tally stores.” Workers bought their food in the tally store — corn, beans, fruit, vegetables, etc. — which they had grown themselves. Goods carried a value larger than workers’ salaries, leading them to buy using credit. Every time a worker bought his food, he or she was marked on a list by a tally mark, each representing a week of work owed. Tally marks often amounted to all their lives and even beyond; hence, one of the mottos of the Revolution in 1910, “The land belongs to the one who works it.”
Diaz came into power after the creation of a constitution in 1857, and laws leading toward democracy, where heroes like President Benito Juarez participated. Diaz himself fought against the French and other battles against countries trying to gain ground in Mexico given the weakness created by unrest and inequality. However, he later protected the French ways of the wealthy class in order to stay in power.
Posada died in 1913, right after the revolution which took away Diaz’ power. Although his work had become known during his lifetime, Posada died in poverty and his remains were buried in a mass grave, together with many victims of the war.
It wasn’t until Diego Rivera finished his famous mural at Hotel del Prado in 1947, about 34 years after Posada’s death, when he depicted Posada and his “Catrina,” that Posada’s work was recognized. Since then, his images have been reproduced in books, and exhibited in museums, especially around the United States, thanks to Rivera. Posada’s work is greatly used for the “Day of the Dead” which honors our late loved ones in the Mexican traditions, and in other cultures adopting the custom.
“La Catrina” is said to represent the rich women in times of the dictatorship who were wealthy and had expensive clothes, with her rich French hat and its ostrich feathers, but literally dead of starvation, since the production of provisions had stopped in many places during Diaz’ dictatorship and the war. Some also call her “La Garbancera” as those who sold chickpeas — garbanzos — instead of beans or corn to distance themselves from the poor Indigenous people, disowning their own roots in that common fight for dignity considered ludicrous at times. Posada painted other characters of his time like revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, also as a skeleton on an equally skeletal horse.
The Day of the Dead has thus come to be a day to also honor José Guadalupe Posada, who deserves our recognition.
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