The Mexican Dia de Muertos
The Mexican Dia de Muertos, a very fundamental and traditional festivity in the Mexican and Latin American history. This commemoration unfolds over two specific days, 31st October and 2nd November. A celebration that dwells on the theme of death, that is viewed from a different perspective. This tradition essentially depicts the love and respect these families have towards their deceased ones.
This tradition originated some 3,000 years ago in Mexico due to the Aztec Toltec civilization, whom disliked the mourning of the dead and in fact found this to be discourteous. On these particular days, it is believed that the spirits are recalled back to life on earth, therefore several preparations have to be made by the …show more content…
A character which was created by Jose Guadalupe Posada, a famous political cartoonist. A skeleton, known as Calavera Garbancera which later took the name of Catarina. Back in the 18th and 19th century ‘calaveras’ although being skulls, also referred to poems that allude to the living people as if they are dead. Calavera Garbancera symbolizes the social satire onto the Mexican society, who hid their culture, pretending to be Europeans. Catarina succors as a personification which was meant to show equality amongst all human beings, ‘’ Todos Somos Calaveras’’. Later on Diego Rivera, the man who gave a name to this skull, Catarina in 1947, depicted Catarina as the ‘elegant skull’ in one of his paintings, ‘ Dream of a Sunday afternoon in Alameda Park’. Guadalupe, even to this day is considered to be the father of Mexican printmaking, due to Catarina, a character that is seen central in the Mexican revolution. David de la Torre commented on Catarina being personified, ‘’ Catarina has come to symbolize not only El Dia de Los Muertos and the Mexican willingness to laugh at death itself [...] Death brings this neutralizing force; everyone is equal in the end. Sometimes people have to be
The Mexican Dia de Muertos, a very fundamental and traditional festivity in the Mexican and Latin American history. This commemoration unfolds over two specific days, 31st October and 2nd November. A celebration that dwells on the theme of death, that is viewed from a different perspective. This tradition essentially depicts the love and respect these families have towards their deceased ones.
This tradition originated some 3,000 years ago in Mexico due to the Aztec Toltec civilization, whom disliked the mourning of the dead and in fact found this to be discourteous. On these particular days, it is believed that the spirits are recalled back to life on earth, therefore several preparations have to be made by the …show more content…
A character which was created by Jose Guadalupe Posada, a famous political cartoonist. A skeleton, known as Calavera Garbancera which later took the name of Catarina. Back in the 18th and 19th century ‘calaveras’ although being skulls, also referred to poems that allude to the living people as if they are dead. Calavera Garbancera symbolizes the social satire onto the Mexican society, who hid their culture, pretending to be Europeans. Catarina succors as a personification which was meant to show equality amongst all human beings, ‘’ Todos Somos Calaveras’’. Later on Diego Rivera, the man who gave a name to this skull, Catarina in 1947, depicted Catarina as the ‘elegant skull’ in one of his paintings, ‘ Dream of a Sunday afternoon in Alameda Park’. Guadalupe, even to this day is considered to be the father of Mexican printmaking, due to Catarina, a character that is seen central in the Mexican revolution. David de la Torre commented on Catarina being personified, ‘’ Catarina has come to symbolize not only El Dia de Los Muertos and the Mexican willingness to laugh at death itself [...] Death brings this neutralizing force; everyone is equal in the end. Sometimes people have to be