The Intriguing Grande Dame of Dia de Muerto
Tara A. Spears
One of the most common symbols of Day of the Dead is the dressed up female skeleton called La Catrina. First of all, even if smiling, the Elegant Skull is a serious part of modern Mexican culture and should not be confused with the light hearted celebrating of Halloween in other countries. This ubiquitous image has a long and somber history. La Catrina was created by Mexican artists to make a metaphorical representation that criticized the high social class of Mexico that prevailed in the early 1900s before the Mexican Revolution.
At first, the etching of La Catrina was created to criticize the social class injustice that existed in Mexico; the image of La Catrina didn’t become the official symbol of the Death until decades later after several other artists added their interpretation.
The original version is a metal engraving by the caricaturist, Jose Guadalupe Posada, who first gave it the name of “La Calavera Garbancera”, translated as Elegant Skull. “Garbancera” was the term that was negatively applied to the bottom tier people who worked selling garbanzo, a type of bean. These were generally indigenous Mexicans who put on European pretentions and denied their own Mexican race, heritage and culture.
Compare the rich upper class lady with the working people; last is an early La Catrina image.
It took muralist Diego Rivera in 1947 to portray a full-length figure, put her in an elegant dress and name her La Catrina. According to art museum curator, David de La Torres,
“It’s not just Posada and his work in 1910. There are layers of history. The image and the woman in death go back to the ancient Aztec period. Posada took his inspiration from Mictecacihuatl, goddess of death and Lady of Mictlan, the underworld.”
Sometimes Catrina is cheerful, dressed in an elaborate way, eager to have fun and even flirtatious and seductive with mortals. In other art representations we find “the purititos bones,” ready to take us when we least expect it. Most commonly La Catrina is the joyful representation of death; she is an elegant Mexican skull that mocks death yet respectfully plays with death. The dual identity of La Catrina reminds us that life is here, now -and forever.
According to Mexican tradition, it is believed that by honoring the death and memory of one’s deceased family gives you a sense of identity and national pride.
Not only is La Catrina symbolic with death but she is associated with the pleasure of living before the occurrence of death. La Catrina, with her naughty, witty and flirtatious personality, invites us to live each moment with fullness, and through the major and minor acts of living can one realize the meaning of life.
La Catrina, with her taunting smile, invites us to grasp the moment, and through music and dance express the meaning of life.
The image of the Catrina has become the dominant Mexican image about death by the end of the 20th century. It is increasingly common to see La Catrina not only for day of death celebrations throughout the country, by crossing over into other mediums of artistic expression. Regional handicrafts, known as catrinas, whether of clay or other materials, may vary a little in presenting her clothing and even her famous hat. In 2010 the Catrina celebrated her 100 year anniversary being created by José Guadalupe Posada, for which a short film was made called La Catrina en trajinera.
Collecting La Catrina is also fashionable among women in Mexico. Make-up and beauty salons apply the complex face painting for Halloween as Mexicans increasingly blend the American holiday with Day of the Dead, which usually does not involve disguise.
The enduring history of La Catrina is that she speaks for the Mexican people; she symbolizes not only laughing at death but overcoming adversity. Perhaps her deepest message is that death is a neutralizing force- everyone is equal in the end.