ART 4TH COURSE: ORIGIN OF "LA CATRINA"


     "La Catrina" has become one of the most distinctive symbols of Mexican art and culture.

         But, do you know anything about its origin.

                 Read the following text, watch the videos and then copy the text at the back of the Catrina you´ll make in class.

 

                       HISTORY OF "LA CATRINA" 


In Mexico people celebrate the “day of the dead” (“día de los muertos”) on the first days of November.

People display altars in their home to remember their dead loved ones and to show appreciation for our lives.

They also decorate their homes with skeletions and sugar skulls.

The most distinctive symbol of this festivity is “La Catrina” which symbolizes equality between people.

The artista and caricaturist José Guadalupe Posada created a female skeleton dressed in the tradition of the early 1900´s.

He named it “chickpea skeleton” to critisize the society of that time.

It would be Diego Rivera – Frida Kahlo´s husband – in his 15-metre long mural “Dream of a Sunday afternoon in Alameda Park “ (1940) who named it “La Catrina”

Since then, “La Catrina” has spread all over the world and people everywhere make up to resemble it during the “day of the dead” festivities.

It has become so famous that even Disney made a film about it:”Coco”

But remember: “La Catrina” represents that all human beings are the same. We all are born, live and die.

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