Rivera’s fame – and La Catrina’s newfound gravitas – inspired Mexican and Mexican American artists to incorporate her into their works, too.
How ‘La Catrina’ became the iconic symbol for the Day of the Dead
On April 13, 1944, thousands of people clashed with police on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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.
In the original print, she’s Calavera Garbancera, a title used to refer to indigenous peasant women who sold garbanzo beans at the street markets.
Posada illustrated her in ostentatious attire to satirize the way the garbanceras attempted to pass as upper-class by powdering their faces and wearing fashionable French attire. So even from the beginning, La Catrina was transcultural – a rural indigenous woman adopting European customs to survive in Mexico’s urban, mixed-race society.
Like Posada’s other illustrations, the 1912 broadside was sold for a penny to primarily poor and working-class men throughout Mexico City and nearby areas. But there was nothing particularly significant about Calavera Garbancera. Like her creator, she remained obscure for many years.
Posada died broke and unknown, but his illustrations had an afterlife. His publisher reused them for other broadsides well into the 1920s. Calavera Garbancera got recycled as various other characters, none particularly noteworthy. Meanwhile, nobody really knew who made the calavera broadsides they saw around the capital every Day of the Dead.
That changed in the mid-1920s when Posada’s work drew the attention of French artist Jean Charlot, a leading figure in the Mexican Renaissance, that creative outburst of nationalist murals and artworks that transpired in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
Charlot was enamored of the calavera illustrations he saw around Mexico City, but he didn’t know who created them. He eventually tracked down Posada’s publisher and began researching the engraver. Charlot published articles about Posada and introduced the artist’s calaveras to other Mexican Renaissance artists and intellectuals. Among the most important were painter Diego Rivera and critic Frances Toor.
From La Garbancera to La Catrina
Rivera, of course, is arguably the greatest artist in Mexican history. His epic murals remain internationally famous.
Frances Toor, on the other hand, was a modest Jewish intellectual who made her career writing about Mexican culture. In 1925 she started publishing Mexican Folkways, a popular bilingual magazine distributed in Mexico and the U.S. With Diego Rivera as her art editor, she started using the magazine to promote Posada. In annual October-November issues, Toor and Rivera featured large reprints of Posada’s calaveras.
However, Calavera Garbancera was never among them. She wasn’t important enough to showcase.
In 1930, Toor and Rivera published the first book of Posada’s engravings, which sold throughout Mexico and the U.S. In it, La Garbancera finally made an appearance. But she had a new name – Calavera Catrina. For reasons unknown, Toor and Rivera chose the honorific, which referred to her as a female dandy. The calavera was forevermore La Catrina.
Her fame, however, didn’t truly arrive until Posada’s riotous debut at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1944. The exhibition was a collaboration between the museum and the Mexican government. It was funded and facilitated by a special White House propaganda agency that used cultural diplomacy to fortify solidarity with Latin America during World War II.
This boosterism allowed the Posada exhibition to tour and give La Catrina wider exposure. She was seen and promoted in New York, Philadelphia, Mexico City and elsewhere in Mexico.
Perhaps more important was the exhibition catalog, which featured La Catrina as cover girl. It sold at each tour location. Complimentary copies were also distributed to prominent U.S. and Mexican authors and artists. They started writing about La Catrina and refashioning her in their artworks, popularizing her on both sides of the border.
Paint a Day of the Dead Skull
Rebel Stepz 4.7 (110)
ClassBento donates with every booking to
1.5 hours 10 to 40     label $90
How it works
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Request your preferred time
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We’ll send a ClassBento Box to you (a craft kit with what you’ll need). Shipping is free, and it should arrive within 5-10 days. We ship nationwide.
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Enjoy the online class – after booking, you’ll get a link to join the interactive class.
What you’ll do
Searching for fun indoor activities to try with the family? Why not celebrate the traditions of Dia de Los Muertos with Rebel Stepz Arts for their live-streaming painting class.
The Day of the Dead is a lively Mexican holiday that draws on indigenous and European traditions. Dia de Los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life.
Rebel Stepz is paying homage to this festival with a culturally creative painting workshop where you will make your own traditional Day of the Dead skull using a pre-made skull and working with paints to bring your deisgn to life. You’ll be guided through the step by step process by a friendly expert and use bright colours and patterns to create a stunning creation that pays homage to this wonderful, Mexican event!
Get in touch with your inner creative at this fun online painting workshop.
We are a Victorian based organisation and therefore do not accept NSW Creative Vouchers.
Knowledge required
This is a beginner-friendly class.
 
What you’ll get in your craft kit
- Paintbrushes
- Paints
- Skull
What you’ll need
A cup of water to wash out brushes, tissues or an old rag, paper and lead pencils.
 
Suitable for
Suitable for adults, and kids (minimum 10 years old).
An adult must be present whilst kid(s) engage with the box.
Your teacher
4.7 (110)
Contact
Myself and my collective, Rebel Stepz, believes in making the Arts accessible to our community.
We create a fun, safe, educational and creative environment where people of all ages can not only connect with each other, but also with their creativity and with the amazing talent we have facilitating our workshops.
Every workshop we hold is an opportunity for everyone to discover a facet of the arts, whether that be through painting, singing, dancing, craftwork, film, acting, dance or music.
Each session is also a chance to support local artists, dancers, musicians, and all the other artistic professionals we are lucky enough to have right here in Melbourne and worldwide.
Rebel Stepz offers fun and educational corporate team building activities in Australia that increase workplace wellbeing, and encourages creativity whilst improving team morale.
Workshops can be organised in person (for those based in Melbourne) or online for other areas of Australia.
Choose from visual art classes, movement classes, craft workshops that can be mixed and matched over a day, morning or afternoon.
Rebel Stepz also offers live entertainment for your event which can include live musicians and dancers and even a custom piece that can be produced and choreographed especially for your event.
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When and Where to Celebrate Día de los Muertos in Mexico
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How is Día de los Muertos celebrated?
Customs vary across the country, but core traditions remain the same wherever you go: People erect and decorate ofrendas (altars) with pictures and mementos of loved ones. A rainbow variety of papel picados (elaborately cut paper banners) are strung from ceilings. Festival participants will often paint their faces to resemble skulls or create costumes that resemble skeletons or dead versions of significant Mexican historical or cultural figures, like icons such as Frida Kahlo and Pancho Villa. The best known is La Calavera Catrina, an artwork created by José Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s, which has since become a folk icon.
Although Día de los Muertos seems somewhat grim with its focus on death, it’s actually a joyous holiday. During those two days in November, it’s believed that the borders between the spirit world and the living are at their weakest, and the dead are able to return to drink, dance, feast, and, well, live it up with their relatives. Ofrendas may be built in private homes or public squares and decorated with marigolds, candles, sugar skulls, atole (a hot, corn-based beverage), red rooster combs flowers, favorite foods of the deceased, and, of course, pan de muerto (an irresistible sweetbread that’s decorated with crossbones). However, since all the food and drink can’t literally be enjoyed by the departed, the living partake in the ceremonial foods while dressed in their elaborate costumes.
Where is Día de los Muertos Celebrated in Mexico?
Día de los Muertos is observed throughout Mexico and along the southern U.S. borderlands. To experience it yourself, here are six destinations where Día de los Muertos festivities are particularly lively:
1. Janitzio
One of Mexico’s most famous Día de los Muertos celebrations takes place on the small island of Janitzio in Lake Pátzcuaro, located in the Mexican state of Michoacán (directly west of Mexico City and below the state of Jalisco). Every year on November 1, thousands of visitors gather in the local panteón (cemetery) to watch as the Indigenous Purepecha people perform lively Día de los Muertos rituals late into the night. There are processions with music and folk dance performances, but the most impressive sight might be when local fishermen in rowboats illuminate the lake with torches. Fun fact: Pixar’s Coco (2017) was partially inspired by the festivities that take place at Janitzio each year.
How to get there
The nearest airport is in the state capital, Morelia, which is about 90 minutes away from Pátzcuaro by taxi. You can also take a direct bus from Mexico City’s western bus terminal to Pátzcuaro. Once in Pátzcuaro, local boats depart frequently from the muelle (dock) for Janitzio.
2. Oaxaca
The southern Mexican state of Oaxaca is known for its mezcal distilleries, traditional artisans, and generally well-preserved culture. During Día de los Muertos, colorful celebrations occur in Oaxaca City as well as in smaller villages across the region. From October 31 through November 2, the largest graveyard in Oaxaca City, Panteón de San Miguel, is decorated with pan de muerto, marigold flowers, candles, and other offerings.
Just a 20-minute taxi ride from the city in the Oaxacan village of Xoxocotlán, both the Panteón Viejo and Panteón Nuevo cemeteries attract crowds to candlelit gravesites backed by live mariachi bands.
How to get there
You can fly into the Oaxaca City Airport (OAX) from Mexico City (the flight is about one hour). OAX also receives daily international flights from Houston and Los Angeles. Once in Oaxaca, taxis and buses between the city and smaller villages are plentiful.
3. Mérida
In Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Day of the Dead celebrations are known as Hanal Pixan, or “feast for the souls.” During the holiday, many families in the Mayan region prepare elaborate traditional dishes for the return of their ancestors (in addition to participating in evening processions and setting up ofrendas in their homes). Intricate altars go on display in the zócalo (main square) of the Yucatán capital, Mérida, and the decorated gravesites in local cemeteries are also well worth seeing.
How to get there
The Mérida International Airport (MID) receives daily international flights from Houston, Miami, and Toronto. You can also connect to Mérida from Mexico City on flights from Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX), which take approximately two hours.
4. Mexico City
In Mexico City, Día de los Muertos can be a week-long affair. The highlight of the capital’s festivities is arguably its parade, the Desfile de Día de Muertos, which was first held in 2016 and inspired by the opening scene of the James Bond film Spectre, which features a crowded procession in the city’s streets.
Usually, though, thousands of people gather in Mexico City’s Plaza del Zócalo to watch performers parade around dressed as colorful alebrijes (mythical creatures) or the elegant La Calavera Catrina. On the outskirts of the capital in the southern Xochimilco neighborhood, decorated canals and chinampas (floating gardens) set the scene for special night Día de los Muertos rides by trajinera (gondola boat) on November 1.
How to get there
Mexico City International Airport aka Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX) connects 52 domestic and 50 international destinations spanning Latin America, North America, Europe, and Asia. Flights to the international airport are available via United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Aéromexico, Volaris, Interjet, and more.
5. The Teotihuacan Pyramids
A trip to the Teotihuacan Pyramids should already be on any visitor’s to Mexico’s bucket list, but visiting this UNESCO site is particularly special during Día de los Muertos. Thirty miles northeast from Mexico City, Teotihuacan was constructed between the first and seventh centuries A.D. by the Aztec Empire in reverence to the sun and moon. Every year, the Festival Chaman Teotihuacan is held at the ancient site, where hot air balloons take to the the air and papel picado, painting, as well as pottery classes fill the day. Candlelight celebrations, bonfires, and ofrenda decorating occupies the night. Admission is free for all.
How to get there
Benito Juárez International Airport is the most convenient airport to fly into for this event. From there, the Teotihuacan Pyramids is just an hour’s drive out of the city—it’s best to rent a car for convenience’s sake.
6. Ciudad Valles
The Mexican state of San Luis Potosi is famous for its seemingly unreal, cerulean blue waterfalls. Visitors can also find multiple Día de los Muertos celebrations throughout the region, but one of the largest and most famous takes places in Ciudad Valles. Here, Mexican tradition blends effortlessly with Indigenous Huastec culture. Día de los Muertos celebrations take place during a festival called Xantolo, where all the mainstream hallmarks of the celebration (the building of ofrendas, the making and eating of sugar skulls, and feasting) can be found. However, these activities take on a much more spiritual context for the Huastec, some of whom see the holiday as being more important than Christmas; it’s a way to connect with the festival’s Indigenous roots and acknowledge the strength and accomplishments of one’s ancestors. Barnyard animals are often raised and sacrificed to celebrate Xantolo.
How to get there
The nearest airport to Ciudad Valles is the San Luis Potosi Airport, which is an hour and twenty minute flight from Mexico City International Airport or an eight drive from the capital city. From San Luis Potosi Airport, it’s a three and a half hour drive to Ciudad Valles, so it would be best to rent a car when traveling to this remote location.
