The Catrina
LA CATRINA SYMBOL AND ICON OF THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN MEXICO
La Catrina is a skeleton woman who wears a large French-style hat over her skull, Its meaning is that death equals us all rich and poor alike.
The image of La Catrina is becoming the quintessential Mexican image of death, it is increasingly common to see it captured as part of day of the dead celebrations throughout the country, it has even crossed the two-dimensional image and has become a motif for the creation of handicrafts, whether made of clay or other materials, which, depending on the region, may vary a little in their dress and even their famous hat, but what have they still been called “catrinas”.
The story of La Catrina begins during the governments of Benito Juárez, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada and Porfirio Díaz.
During these periods, texts written by the middle class began to be popularized that criticized both the general situation of the country and that of the privileged classes. The writings, written mockingly and accompanied by drawings of skulls and skeletons, began to be reproduced in the newspapers called combat. These were skulls dressed in gala clothes, drinking pulque, riding on horseback, at high society parties or in a neighborhood. All of them to portray the misery, the political errors, the hypocrisy of a society, as is the case with “La Catrina”.
