This extended essay by Daniel Fremantle was shortlisted for the Ithaka Prize.
José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) remains Mexico’s most influential printmaker and one of the most renowned artists in Mexico’s history. His work related to the Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival is still celebrated by millions of people every year, and can be described as the most illustrious art on that theme. Posada was born in Aguascalientes, but he moved to Léon in the Mexican state of Guanajuato in order to work in a print shop. There he mainly created advertisements, such as labels, illustrations for books and posters. He later moved to Mexico City where he produced work for newspapers and periodicals, the most well known being La
Gaceta Callejera, where he worked under Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. This is where he created his most iconic pieces, which were in the form of broadsides: illustrations printed on cheap newsprint, accompanied by text. These broadsides gained immense popularity for their heavily satirical nature, energetic compositions and their undeniable humour, and subsequently were distributed throughout Mexico and even into parts of the United States.
The most famous of Posada’s broadsides are his calaveras. The Spanish word calavera means ‘skull’ and a calavera is generally regarded as anything depicting a skull, and often refers to models made from either sugar or clay. There is also a more recent tradition of writing a piece of poetry known as a Literary Calavera to give to the living. These serve the purpose of reminding the recipient of their mortality - similar to Memento Mori. Posada’s calaveras were etchings in which he portrayed caricatures of skeletons carrying out a variety of activities. These calaveras were socially and politically satirical and their subtextual comments accurately represented the feelings of many at the time. The etchings were displayed alongside poetry to help convey their intended meaning.
The most famous calavera is without a doubt Posada’s La Calavera Catrina, which means ‘The Dandy Skeleton’. The piece depicts a female skeleton smiling while wearing makeup and an extravagant, French-style hat. This was an obvious criticism of the upper class elites of the time who aspired to look as European as possible and were keen to neglect their indigenous Mexican heritage: going as far as to whiten their skin with makeup. The intentions behind this work were made even more clear by its previous title, La Calavera Garbancera, with garbancera being a nickname for indigenous Mexicans who were ashamed of their nationality and wished to appear Spanish. In addition to this aspect, the piece also comments on Mexican high society as a whole, and its obsession with materialism. This is represented by the ridiculous hat worn by the skeleton, which highlights the absurdity of spending your life concerned with appearances and reminds us all that in death our skeletons will not care about how we are dressed or how European we look. This theme of the inescapability of death is common to all of the calaveras Posada made and through them he wished to remind the living that underneath our skin, regardless of our class or race, all of us will one day end up as nothing more skulls. This is not to say that Posada was trying to convey nihilistism with his art, but instead that people should focus on fixing societal injustice in order to help those in need, rather than focusing on unnecessary materialism.
In addition to all of the societal comments made in Posada’s La Catrina, he also censures the dictator Porfirio Díaz, who held power in Mexico for 35 years and was notorious for his obsession with
European culture and for his corrupt nature. Although Díaz’s regime brought Mexico a great deal of economic improvement through industrialisation, this came at the expense of the working class and often the indigenous people. The introduction of foreign, mostly European, investors meant that a large proportion of Mexico’s wealth and power was held by a small elite group. Díaz’s prioritisation of development and capitalism over the well-being of his people, as well as the oppression a large portion of the population, is what prompted the formation of the Partido Liberal de México (Mexican Liberal Party), where Posada and other intellectuals set up Anti-Díaz publications such as El Hijo de Ahuizote and Regeneración. Posada’s prints in these newspapers proved to be incredibly influential and were undoubtedly at least partially responsible for the onset of the Mexican Revolution against Díaz.
For the main part of this project I decided to create my own calavera in the style of Posada’s broadsides. My goal with this project was to create a calavera which utilised the same media as Posada (printmaking and poetry), to make a social commentary on a problem affecting Mexico and other Latin American countries in the modern day. I hoped to continue Posada’s legacy with the same socialist theme which was present in so much of Posada’s work, and therefore chose the topic of corruption in Mexico.
Unlike Posada, who used the process of acid etching in zinc for his prints, I used linoleum for my calavera. As a result of the use of a different medium my print has a slightly different style to those of Posada, mainly due to the fact that Posada’s works often utilised crosshatching for his shaded regions, however due to the nature of Lino this would give a different effect. Furthermore my print is roughly double the size of the majority of Posada’s and my complete poster is A1. The linocut print is shown below in Figure 1. In addition to hand-printing the linocut, I also wanted to hand-print my poem onto high-quality printing paper. To do this I used transfer paper to place the text around the image. Both the Spanish version and my translation can be found below (Figure 2).
The print depicts two men stood facing each other shaking hands, one of them is dressed in a suit and the other is wearing an unbuttoned shirt. Both of the figures were inspired by the idea of corrupt politicians, however in slightly different ways. The suited figure on the right represents the stereotypical politician who lives a very luxurious lifestyle, filled with expensive suits and large mansions, who in spite of these facts still claims to be a common man of the people. The figure on the left was inspired by Pablo Escobar, who blurred the lines between criminal gang leader and politician in 1980s Colombia. Escobar also adopted this facade of being a man of the people, dressing in an unbuttoned shirt most of the time, however in reality he was one of the richest people in the world. Escobar was adored by many due to acts such as the construction of neighbourhoods in Colombia, however these acts of benevolence came at the price of Escobar turning Colombia into the murder capital of the world. In this respect Escobar resembles Díaz as they both placed the value of money and development above that of their own population’s wellbeing. This deeply corrupt attitude can still be found today throughout Latin America, however Mexico in particular suffers from a severe ‘Plata O Plomo’ attitude, in which many politicians are effectively given the choice of either accepting money from gangs or being killed. The two skeletons are shown to be shaking hands, this represents the hidden exchange of money between these types of people and the corruption that always comes along with it, as well as linking the two to show that they are in fact more similar than their appearances might suggest.
Writing the poem in Spanish challenged my capabilities as both a linguist and an artist. I aimed to ensure that the poem sounded appropriate in Spanish while also capturing the intended meaning and atmosphere. My choice of words was designed to capture a specific feeling and this encouraged me to search for more interesting vocabulary. An example of this are words such as ‘descarnada’, which has no simple English translation and roughly translates to ‘with the flesh removed’. Much of the poem draws comparisons between the gaunt appearance of the skeletons in the print and their immoral and corrupt actions, as well as talking about the contrast between the humble pretence of these men and the reality of their extraordinary wealth.
I thought it was appropriate to conclude the poem with the line “La Muerte es democrática” (Death is democratic) as it is a quote from Posada himself, and it emphasises the unimportance of the pursuit of money, materialism and corruption. Furthermore Posada himself received posthumous recognition for his works and although he lived a fairly poor life, he will live on forever as one of the most important figures in Mexico’s history, due to his incredible work and impeccable morality.
My poem and lino print are both integral to the calavera and working on them together inspired my creativity and gave me insight into Posada’s artistic practice. This essay aims to put the artistic work into its contextual setting, and provide background for those who are not aware of Posada and his work.
HOMBRES DEL PUEBLO Y SUS MANERAS MODESTAS
Los Hombres que hoy
Parecen bondadosos,
Con caras limpias y honestas,
Esta noche serán revelados,
Sus rostros demacrados y
Su piel descarnada.
Tienen ojos vacíos
Como cuencas cavernosas
Y más tenebrosos que
Sepulturas deshabitadas,
Ojos carentes de compasión y
Siempre vueltos fuera de
Las vergüenzas que cometen.
Los Hombres del Pueblo
Llenan sus mentes
Con solamente materialismo,
Sus cabezas exentas
De las preocupaciones
De los menesterosos.
Sus cráneos, como
Cárcavas cerradas,
Supurando con el moho
De corrupción.
Sus pensamientos, gusanos
Que devoran cualquiera
Benignidad restante.
Los hombres del pueblo
Verdaderos,
Alegando ser honrados
Con sus raices humildes,
De hecho son sierpes,
Escondidos con la hierba
De sus fincas.
Éstos son Los Hombres
Que consiguen alabanza,
Felicitados por los barrios,
Barrios que construyen
De los huesos
De sus propios moradores,
Moradores muertos
Por la mano de sus salvadores.
Cuanto más atiborran
Sus bolsillos,
Más inunda sus venas
La corrupción.
Cuanto más aceptan dinero,
Más los billetes forran
Sus armazones.
Y cuanto más crian matanza
Más se aproxima La Parca.
Los Hombres del Pueblo
En breve se ahuesarán.
Sus órganos se descompondrán
Y sus posesiones también,
Sus mansiones se reemplazarán
Por tumbas,
Y su dinero por la tierra
Que rodeará a ellos.
La Muerte es Democrática.
MEN OF THE PEOPLE AND THEIR MODEST WAYS
The men who today
Seem kind hearted,
With clean and honest faces,
Tonight will be revealed,
Their faces gaunt and
Their skin removed.
They have vacant eyes
Like cavernous sockets
And more gloomy than
Uninhabited graves,
Eyes deprived of compassion and
Always turned away from
The disgraceful acts which they commit.
The men of the people
Fill their minds
Solely with materialism,
Their heads free from
From the worries
Of the helpless.
Their skulls, like
Sealed graves,
Festering with the mound
Of corruption.
Their thoughts, maggots
Who devour any
Remaining benevolence.
The true men of the people,
Claiming to be honourable,
With their humble beginnings,
In fact are serpents,
Hidden within the grass
Of their estates
These are the men
Who are granted praise,
So congratulated for the neighbourhoods,
Neighbourhoods which they build
On the bones
Of their own inhabitants
The inhabitants dead
By the hand of their saviours.
The more money fills
Their pockets,
The more corruption floods
Their veins.
The more money they accept,
The more it lines
Their skeletons.
And the more slaughter they breed,
The closer Death comes.
The men of the people
Soon will become skin and bones.
Their organs will decay
And along with it their possessions,
Their mansions will be replaced
By graves
And their money by the soil
Surrounding them.
Death is Democratic.
José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) remains Mexico’s most influential printmaker and one of the most renowned artists in Mexico’s history. His work related to the Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival is still celebrated by millions of people every year, and can be described as the most illustrious art on that theme. Posada was born in Aguascalientes, but he moved to Léon in the Mexican state of Guanajuato in order to work in a print shop. There he mainly created advertisements, such as labels, illustrations for books and posters. He later moved to Mexico City where he produced work for newspapers and periodicals, the most well known being La
Gaceta Callejera, where he worked under Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. This is where he created his most iconic pieces, which were in the form of broadsides: illustrations printed on cheap newsprint, accompanied by text. These broadsides gained immense popularity for their heavily satirical nature, energetic compositions and their undeniable humour, and subsequently were distributed throughout Mexico and even into parts of the United States.
The most famous of Posada’s broadsides are his calaveras. The Spanish word calavera means ‘skull’ and a calavera is generally regarded as anything depicting a skull, and often refers to models made from either sugar or clay. There is also a more recent tradition of writing a piece of poetry known as a Literary Calavera to give to the living. These serve the purpose of reminding the recipient of their mortality - similar to Memento Mori. Posada’s calaveras were etchings in which he portrayed caricatures of skeletons carrying out a variety of activities. These calaveras were socially and politically satirical and their subtextual comments accurately represented the feelings of many at the time. The etchings were displayed alongside poetry to help convey their intended meaning.
The most famous calavera is without a doubt Posada’s La Calavera Catrina, which means ‘The Dandy Skeleton’. The piece depicts a female skeleton smiling while wearing makeup and an extravagant, French-style hat. This was an obvious criticism of the upper class elites of the time who aspired to look as European as possible and were keen to neglect their indigenous Mexican heritage: going as far as to whiten their skin with makeup. The intentions behind this work were made even more clear by its previous title, La Calavera Garbancera, with garbancera being a nickname for indigenous Mexicans who were ashamed of their nationality and wished to appear Spanish. In addition to this aspect, the piece also comments on Mexican high society as a whole, and its obsession with materialism. This is represented by the ridiculous hat worn by the skeleton, which highlights the absurdity of spending your life concerned with appearances and reminds us all that in death our skeletons will not care about how we are dressed or how European we look. This theme of the inescapability of death is common to all of the calaveras Posada made and through them he wished to remind the living that underneath our skin, regardless of our class or race, all of us will one day end up as nothing more skulls. This is not to say that Posada was trying to convey nihilistism with his art, but instead that people should focus on fixing societal injustice in order to help those in need, rather than focusing on unnecessary materialism.
In addition to all of the societal comments made in Posada’s La Catrina, he also censures the dictator Porfirio Díaz, who held power in Mexico for 35 years and was notorious for his obsession with
European culture and for his corrupt nature. Although Díaz’s regime brought Mexico a great deal of economic improvement through industrialisation, this came at the expense of the working class and often the indigenous people. The introduction of foreign, mostly European, investors meant that a large proportion of Mexico’s wealth and power was held by a small elite group. Díaz’s prioritisation of development and capitalism over the well-being of his people, as well as the oppression a large portion of the population, is what prompted the formation of the Partido Liberal de México (Mexican Liberal Party), where Posada and other intellectuals set up Anti-Díaz publications such as El Hijo de Ahuizote and Regeneración. Posada’s prints in these newspapers proved to be incredibly influential and were undoubtedly at least partially responsible for the onset of the Mexican Revolution against Díaz.
For the main part of this project I decided to create my own calavera in the style of Posada’s broadsides. My goal with this project was to create a calavera which utilised the same media as Posada (printmaking and poetry), to make a social commentary on a problem affecting Mexico and other Latin American countries in the modern day. I hoped to continue Posada’s legacy with the same socialist theme which was present in so much of Posada’s work, and therefore chose the topic of corruption in Mexico.
Unlike Posada, who used the process of acid etching in zinc for his prints, I used linoleum for my calavera. As a result of the use of a different medium my print has a slightly different style to those of Posada, mainly due to the fact that Posada’s works often utilised crosshatching for his shaded regions, however due to the nature of Lino this would give a different effect. Furthermore my print is roughly double the size of the majority of Posada’s and my complete poster is A1. The linocut print is shown below in Figure 1. In addition to hand-printing the linocut, I also wanted to hand-print my poem onto high-quality printing paper. To do this I used transfer paper to place the text around the image. Both the Spanish version and my translation can be found below (Figure 2).
The print depicts two men stood facing each other shaking hands, one of them is dressed in a suit and the other is wearing an unbuttoned shirt. Both of the figures were inspired by the idea of corrupt politicians, however in slightly different ways. The suited figure on the right represents the stereotypical politician who lives a very luxurious lifestyle, filled with expensive suits and large mansions, who in spite of these facts still claims to be a common man of the people. The figure on the left was inspired by Pablo Escobar, who blurred the lines between criminal gang leader and politician in 1980s Colombia. Escobar also adopted this facade of being a man of the people, dressing in an unbuttoned shirt most of the time, however in reality he was one of the richest people in the world. Escobar was adored by many due to acts such as the construction of neighbourhoods in Colombia, however these acts of benevolence came at the price of Escobar turning Colombia into the murder capital of the world. In this respect Escobar resembles Díaz as they both placed the value of money and development above that of their own population’s wellbeing. This deeply corrupt attitude can still be found today throughout Latin America, however Mexico in particular suffers from a severe ‘Plata O Plomo’ attitude, in which many politicians are effectively given the choice of either accepting money from gangs or being killed. The two skeletons are shown to be shaking hands, this represents the hidden exchange of money between these types of people and the corruption that always comes along with it, as well as linking the two to show that they are in fact more similar than their appearances might suggest.
Writing the poem in Spanish challenged my capabilities as both a linguist and an artist. I aimed to ensure that the poem sounded appropriate in Spanish while also capturing the intended meaning and atmosphere. My choice of words was designed to capture a specific feeling and this encouraged me to search for more interesting vocabulary. An example of this are words such as ‘descarnada’, which has no simple English translation and roughly translates to ‘with the flesh removed’. Much of the poem draws comparisons between the gaunt appearance of the skeletons in the print and their immoral and corrupt actions, as well as talking about the contrast between the humble pretence of these men and the reality of their extraordinary wealth.
I thought it was appropriate to conclude the poem with the line “La Muerte es democrática” (Death is democratic) as it is a quote from Posada himself, and it emphasises the unimportance of the pursuit of money, materialism and corruption. Furthermore Posada himself received posthumous recognition for his works and although he lived a fairly poor life, he will live on forever as one of the most important figures in Mexico’s history, due to his incredible work and impeccable morality.
My poem and lino print are both integral to the calavera and working on them together inspired my creativity and gave me insight into Posada’s artistic practice. This essay aims to put the artistic work into its contextual setting, and provide background for those who are not aware of Posada and his work.
HOMBRES DEL PUEBLO Y SUS MANERAS MODESTAS
Los Hombres que hoy
Parecen bondadosos,
Con caras limpias y honestas,
Esta noche serán revelados,
Sus rostros demacrados y
Su piel descarnada.
Tienen ojos vacíos
Como cuencas cavernosas
Y más tenebrosos que
Sepulturas deshabitadas,
Ojos carentes de compasión y
Siempre vueltos fuera de
Las vergüenzas que cometen.
Los Hombres del Pueblo
Llenan sus mentes
Con solamente materialismo,
Sus cabezas exentas
De las preocupaciones
De los menesterosos.
Sus cráneos, como
Cárcavas cerradas,
Supurando con el moho
De corrupción.
Sus pensamientos, gusanos
Que devoran cualquiera
Benignidad restante.
Los hombres del pueblo
Verdaderos,
Alegando ser honrados
Con sus raices humildes,
De hecho son sierpes,
Escondidos con la hierba
De sus fincas.
Éstos son Los Hombres
Que consiguen alabanza,
Felicitados por los barrios,
Barrios que construyen
De los huesos
De sus propios moradores,
Moradores muertos
Por la mano de sus salvadores.
Cuanto más atiborran
Sus bolsillos,
Más inunda sus venas
La corrupción.
Cuanto más aceptan dinero,
Más los billetes forran
Sus armazones.
Y cuanto más crian matanza
Más se aproxima La Parca.
Los Hombres del Pueblo
En breve se ahuesarán.
Sus órganos se descompondrán
Y sus posesiones también,
Sus mansiones se reemplazarán
Por tumbas,
Y su dinero por la tierra
Que rodeará a ellos.
La Muerte es Democrática.
MEN OF THE PEOPLE AND THEIR MODEST WAYS
The men who today
Seem kind hearted,
With clean and honest faces,
Tonight will be revealed,
Their faces gaunt and
Their skin removed.
They have vacant eyes
Like cavernous sockets
And more gloomy than
Uninhabited graves,
Eyes deprived of compassion and
Always turned away from
The disgraceful acts which they commit.
The men of the people
Fill their minds
Solely with materialism,
Their heads free from
From the worries
Of the helpless.
Their skulls, like
Sealed graves,
Festering with the mound
Of corruption.
Their thoughts, maggots
Who devour any
Remaining benevolence.
The true men of the people,
Claiming to be honourable,
With their humble beginnings,
In fact are serpents,
Hidden within the grass
Of their estates
These are the men
Who are granted praise,
So congratulated for the neighbourhoods,
Neighbourhoods which they build
On the bones
Of their own inhabitants
The inhabitants dead
By the hand of their saviours.
The more money fills
Their pockets,
The more corruption floods
Their veins.
The more money they accept,
The more it lines
Their skeletons.
And the more slaughter they breed,
The closer Death comes.
The men of the people
Soon will become skin and bones.
Their organs will decay
And along with it their possessions,
Their mansions will be replaced
By graves
And their money by the soil
Surrounding them.
Death is Democratic.
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