The elegant skull has become a festive symbol of the Dia de los Muertos – but its original inception was a statement of more than just the inevitability of death.

“Death is democratic, since, in the end, blond, dark, rich or poor, all people end up being a skull,” said cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada, who was referring to his most famous character, La Catrina.

According to legend, the origin of the Catrina is the Aztec figure Mictecacihuatl, the goddess of death. In legend the Aztec goddess of death kept the bones of the dead, since at some point they could be used. The goddess kept them so that, if necessary, they could be used.

This character comes back to life as an iconic figure that goes hand in hand with the Day of the Dead, and dresses in a very fine way.

La Catrina as a popular symbol of death, was baptized as such by the muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957), but he was not the first to include it in his works, since José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) was the forerunner of this representation

La Catrina was initially known as “La Calavera Garbancera”, for the title that Posada gave to the engraving in which a woman is represented in very fine clothing, and drawings by which the most privileged classes of Mexico were mocked. .

The chickpea was the one who, despite having indigenous blood, pretended to be European and denied his own culture. They were also called malinchistas.

Posada was a social critic and in his works the artist portrayed the injustice that existed in the Porfiriato, a time when President Porfirio Díaz spent up to three decades in the same position before the Mexican Revolution occurred.

Through time, the figure of La Catrina lasted as a symbol of protest and since then it has been added to the Day of the Dead festivities on altars while many dress as catrinas and catrines.

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