According to National Geographic, La Catrina is the Aztec figure Mictecacihuatl, the death goddess of Chicunamictlan. Her role was to watch over the bones of the dead.
La Catrina was originally created by a Mexican lithographer and printer, José Guadalupe Posada. He was known for creating etchings of skeletons that satirized political issues and reminded people that they would all end up dead in the end. His drawings and etchings were frequently published in the Mexican press.
The ubiquitous Catrinas remain a satirical symbol of those who value status and foreign customs over their own Mexican roots. For many, she stands for pride in Mexican and indigenous culture. Much as Day of the Dead has evolved over the centuries, La Catrina is an expanding symbol who speaks to new generations.
La Catrina is the stylish female figure that is the most popular symbol of Día de los Muertos. This Day of the Dead woman comes back to life every year.
As the Monarch, la Catrina dances, worships, and celebrates the return of the spirits. Celebrating the journey of the souls assures the continuity of life. These are the native Pre-Columbian cultures of Mexico such as the American Indian cultures of the United States.
Her name is La Catrina and the essence of her story goes deep into Mexican traditions and roots but has been restyled only in the last century. It is believed that the Aztecs worshipped a goddess of death that they alleged protected their departed loved ones, helping them into the next stages.
Known to her enemies as “Lady Death,” Lyudmila Pavlichenko is recognized as the most successful female sniper in history with a total of 309 confirmed kills.
Courtesy of Denise Romero. Hollowed-out eyes, stitched mouths, and intricate flower wreaths are some of the distinctive markings of La Calavera Catrina—known more simply as La Catrina, “the elegant skull”—a cultural makeup worn during Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, which begins November 1.
Day of the Dead is a Mexican festivity that celebrates passed loved ones and death without fear or sadness. These tattoos usually include images of La Catrina, a beautiful woman in the makeup of sugar skulls, representing death.
She began as a zinc etching circa 1910 by Mexican printmaker & illustrator José Guadalupe Posada, as a satirical portrait of Mexican aristocracy. 2) Her appearance coincided with the start of the Mexican Revolution, a time when classes were highly segmented.
Many relate it to the illustrations of José Guadalupe Posada, who modernized her in 1910, but her existence goes much further back. According to National Geographic, La Catrina is the Aztec figure Mictecacihuatl, the death goddess of Chicunamictlan. Her role was to watch over the bones of the dead.
In many ways she ties together the times and their interpretation of death: her elegant dress suggests celebration, her smile – however inescapable – reminding us that there is perhaps comfort in an acceptance of mortality, and that the dead should be commemorated, not feared.
The word “catrín” describes an elegant, well-dressed man, accompanied by a lady with the same characteristics. This style was a classic image of the aristocracy in the late 19th and 20th centuries. By dressing her in this way, Diego Rivera turned “La Calavera Garbancera” into “La Catrina.”
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- La Catrina is perhaps the most recognizable symbol of Day of the Dead. She's an elegantly dressed skeleton that has inspired many men and women to put on skull makeup and imitate her during the Mexican holiday.
La Calavera Catrina draws inspiration from Mictecacihuatl, the goddess of death and guardian of human remains in the underworld. Centuries ago, this goddess presided over annual Aztec festivals honoring the dead.
The skull is almost always a woman, a tradition that stems from the original rituals that centered on a Mexican goddess and Spanish saints. That imagery morphed into Catrina, a 20th-century satirical sketch of an unpopular politician's wife, as the Dia de los Muertos skull figure.
Flowers, butterflies and skulls are typically used as symbols. The cempasúchil, a type of marigold flower native to Mexico, is often placed on ofrendas and around graves.
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2, draws on pre-Hispanic Mexican and Spanish Roman Catholic traditions intended to facilitate the return of departed souls to the Earth.
This is a catrina. It's a figure of a woman skeleton usually dressed in a nice dress with a large plumed hat. A male skeleton is called a "catrin." And why are they so prevalent during the Days of the Dead?
La catrina, which translates to “the lady in the hat,” is a female skeleton and is probably the most recognized symbol of the holiday. She wears an elegant bright-colored dress, which many women wear as a way to mock death.
As the story progressed, Lady Death detached herself as the girlfriend of Evil Ernie, and began her own story. With the change, her personality changed dramatically, from the sexual villain to a full-blown hero.
Lady Death is a fictional goddess appearing in American comic books published by Coffin Comics. Created by Brian Pulido, Lady Death first appeared in Evil Ernie #1 in December 1991.
She is a cosmic-entity and the personification of “death”: although she is seldom seen and rarely speaks she has been known to manipulate and interfere with the lives of mortals on a few occasions: amongst her would-be-lovers are Thanos, Walker, and even Deadpool- to Thanos she "mothered" the anomaly known as Rot and ...
Since his death a century ago, José Guadalupe Posada's work has steadily gained popularity with art lovers and Dia de los Muertos celebrators alike. He is especially known for his calaveras images of whimsical skeletons.