This episode examines the contributions of popular Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada.
José Guadalupe Posada was a Mexican illustrator who worked in lithography and engraving, he was a very prolific image maker who completed an estimated 20,000 illustrations in his lifetime, with themes ranging from Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead illustrations, political cartoons, popular illustrations, and daily life, as well as illustrations for “shocking” crime stories. He was also known to have created illustrations for a number of children’s books in the form of cheaply printed chapbooks with the printer Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, making them accessible to wide audiences. Yet despite his enduring legacy, his contributions are not often discussed in histories of graphic design, yet his story reveals a deep history of image making and mass production of images in Mexico, which includes the foundation of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a collective founded by Leopoldo Méndez, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O’Higgins. Posada’s popular Day of the Dead icons, such as the Calavera Catrina, have captured the hearts and imaginations of many. Born in 1852 in Aguascalientes, Mexico, he made his way to Mexico City after a devastating flood upended his life. It is perhaps this move that allowed his work to be “discovered” by artists and historians after his untimely death in 1913. Though his work has been recognized by art historians, and he has been honored with a number of posthumous exhibitions of his work around the world, there is still work to be done to include his story in histories of graphic design. His images were geared to popular audiences, and a wide range of people had access to them and enjoyed them in his lifetime.
1852 - Born, February 2, Aguascalientes, Mexico
1860s - receives drawing instruction Municipal Academy of Drawing in Aguascalientes
1867 - Census records Posada as a Painter
1868 - Begins working with Trinidad Pedroza
1871 - First political Cartoon published in El Jicote
1872 - Pedroza and Posada move to León
1876 - Takes charge of Pedroza print shop
1888 - Moves to Mexico City
1888-90 - collaborates with the newspaper La Patria Ilustrada and the Revisita de Mexico
1910 - The Mexican Revolution begins
1913 - Died, January 20, Mexico City, Mexico
1920 - The Mexican Revolution ends
1937 - Taller de Gráfica Popular, collective founded by Leopoldo Méndez, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O’Higgins
Acosta, T. (2023, September 19). Dia de los Muertos: Its rich history, traditions and why not all Mexicans celebrate it. Arizona Republic. https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/holidays/2023/09/19/origin-of-day-of-the-dead/70489251007/
Aguilar Montes de Oca, R. I. (2016). The Day of the Dead: One Ritual, NewFolk Costumes, and Old Identities. Folklore (Tartu, Estonia), 66, 95.
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023, October 19). León. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Leon-Mexico
Bunker, S. B. (2012). Creating Mexican consumer culture in the age of Porfirio Díaz. University of New Mexico Press.
Casillas, M. L. (2013). Posada & Manilla: Illustrations for Mexican Fairy Tales. RM.
Doyle, S., Grove, J., & Whitney, S. (Eds.). (2019). History of Illustration. Fairchild Books.
Frank, P. (1998). Posada’s Broadsides: Mexican popular imagery, 1890-1910. University of New Mexico Press.
Greenspan, J. (2018, August 31). 6 things you may not know about the Mexican Revolution. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-mexican-revolution
Kennedy, P. (2022, December 7). José Guadalupe Posada: Skulls, Skeletons and Macabre Mischief. Illustration Chronicles. https://illustrationchronicles.com/Jose-Guadalupe-Posada-Skulls-Skeletons-and-Macabre-Mischief
Lagasse, P., & Columbia University. (2018). Díaz, Porfirio. In The Columbia Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press.
Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada. (n.d.). Posada. https://www.posada-art-foundation.com/about-posada
Mexico. (n.d.). RSF. https://rsf.org/en/country/mexico
Recalls Disaster of 1888.; HUGE WATER WALL HITS LEON, MEXICO. (1926, June 25). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1926/06/25/archives/recalls-disaster-of-1888-huge-water-wall-hits-leon-mexico.html
Short biography — The Jean Charlot Foundation. (n.d.). The Jean Charlot Foundation. https://www.jeancharlot.org/short-biography
Taller de Gráfica Popular (Mexico City, Mexico) | The Art Institute of Chicago. (2001, July 4). The Art Institute of Chicago. https://www.artic.edu/artists/72887/taller-de-grafica-popular-mexico-city-mexico
Tyler, R. (1979). Posada’s Mexico. Library of Congress.
José Guadalupe Posada, Revolutionary Illustrator
Intro:
This is Incomplete Design History, a podcast that explores overlooked and ignored topics in graphic design history. Our goal is to deepen and expand the knowledge, understanding, and interpretation of design history.
Because history is messy. It’s incomplete.
Thank you for joining us today; I am your host, Sam Washburn.
Even if you are not familiar with the subject of today’s episode, you will likely be familiar with one of his most famous creations, an image commonly associated with the Day of the Dead, known as Calavera Catrina.
Calavera Catrina is the skull or skeleton of a fashionable lady.
She is dressed in an extravagant hat, sometimes described as an easter bonnet, elaborately decorated with feathers and flowers.
Calavera Catrina is an icon of the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos. She is the creation of Mexican lithographer, calligrapher, commercial printmaker, graphic designer, artist, and illustrator José Guadalupe Posada.
Posada’s work has been compared to Daumier and Goya, perhaps because of his prolific output and the diverse nature of his illustrations, ranging from popular and political illustrations as well as caricatures. His use of printing techniques was equally diverse, ranging from lithography to black-and-white line printmaking.
Everyday people, both literate and illiterate, saw and interacted with his images, which isn’t surprising simply because of how many he did.
Posada's output is impressive. Early estimates indicated he might have created some 15,000 prints in his lifetime, though more recent estimates put that number up closer to 20,000 images for broadsheets, pamphlets, and chapbooks.
The vast majority of his work was produced for publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo in Mexico City, though his story does not begin there.
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[Lead into episode’s content]
Early Life
José Guadalupe Posada was born on February 2nd, 1852, in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
His early education was provided by his brother, José Cirilio, a teacher at the Aguascalientes elementary school.
Posada might have had as many as seven siblings, though records of family births were not well kept at this point in history.
The breadth of Posada’s formal artistic instruction is not well known.
However, he was known to have completed some drawing courses at the Municipal Academy of Drawing in Aguascalientes, and an 1867 census record lists the 16-year-old’s profession as a painter.
Perhaps his most extensive instruction came from his apprenticeship in the Lithography firm of Trinidad Pedroza, which perhaps began as early as 1868 when Posada was 17 years old. Other sources indicate the apprenticeship began in 1871, however, that was the same year he published his first political illustrations in El Jicote (The Wasp), a publication produced by Pedroza.
Over his career, Posada did a wide range of work. Just during his time with Pedroza, Posada did “magazine and book illustrations, cigar box designs, diplomas, and party invitations and many other types of commercial work” (Frank 1998, pg 5). That “other types of commercial work” included political illustrations
Posada’s work also included many political illustrations; The political history of Mexico is a deep well, and there would have been much for Posada to comment on in his lifetime.
The history of Mexico includes everything from colonialism and imperialism to revolution and socialism.
Though the majority of Posada’s lifetime, the political landscape was relatively unchanged, characterized mostly by the period known as the Porfiriato. The period from 1876 to 1911 was essentially the dictatorship of president and former general Porfirio Díaz, and it was likely that much of Posada’s work was regulated during this period.
Porfirio Díaz was known to have censored and jailed many journalists during his presidency for publishing stories and depicting images of him that he disapproved of.
Historically, Mexico has not enjoyed the same freedoms of speech and, by extension, journalistic freedoms as United States citizens have come to appreciate, though Freedom of the Press was established as part of the Mexican Constitution in 1917, four years after Posada’s death.
Except, censorship still seems to be an issue; Reporters Without Borders recognizes Mexico as “one of the world’s most dangerous and deadly countries for journalists” today.
According to Posada’s biographer, Jean Charlot, “Mexico has a strong tradition of political cartoons, backed by the disinterestedness of men who have gone to jail, had their presses smashed, their skulls bashed and their papers suppressed…” yet he goes on to stress how critical the role of political cartoonists was in Mexico.
In 1871, when Pedroza and Posada began publishing their political illustrations, they did not benefit from the protections from the 1917 Amendment to the Constitution.
Pedroza and Posada may have even feared retribution for their political images, which prompted them to escape in 1872, moving their lithography practice to León, a city 260 miles north of Mexico City along the Rio Gomez.
Then, either in 1873 or possibly as late as 1876, Trinidad Pedroza decided to return to Aguascalientes, leaving Posada in charge of the lithography business they had run together in León.
Posada spent 16 years in León, building not only his business there, but also a family.
In 1875, he married María de Jesús Vela, and in 1883, she gave birth to their one and only child, a son they named Juan Sabino Posada Vela.
Posada ran a successful business in León and even taught a few lithography courses.
But all was not well in León, despite descriptions that it was a pleasant place to live with a “mild and agreeable climate.” The area was subject to flooding, and according to the New York Times, on June 18, 1888, “[León] was almost destroyed by a flood which swept over the town, carrying away 2,230 houses, killing 200 people and making about 2,000 homeless.”
The New York Times goes on to say that “On the night of June 18, 1888 a cloud burst over the valley, caused the Rio Gomez to rise with great suddenness and overflow its banks. A huge wall of water swept down the city, sweeping away, literally everything in its path. There had been no protection against such an eventuality.”
After this disaster, a dam, a mile long and 10 feet thick, was built to prevent further flooding.
While this structure seems to have solved the flooding issues in León, it was perhaps too late for Posada and his family.
They weren’t physically harmed, though the flood likely damaged Posada’s workshop and his business prospects, making it difficult to support his family.
The family decided to try their luck in Mexico City.
Mexico City
Though hard to imagine given his tremendous output in his relatively short life and career, it is entirely possible that if he had not moved to Mexico City, Posada might have remained largely unknown to history.
It is also possible that if Jean Charlot, a French-born artist and historian, had not traveled to Mexico in 1921, Posada’s work might not have been recognized, or at least not until a later date.
Although born in France, Charlot had a Mexican heritage and moved to Mexico in the 1920s to get involved with the mural movement there.
In joining the Mexican mural movement, Charlot worked with Diego Rivera, an iconic figure in the history of Mexican art.
Charlot, who had been trained in European schools, had some training as a printmaker and an interest in popular imagery.
At some point during his mural work, he became acquainted with the proprietors of the Antonio Vanegas Arroyo print shop, where he was introduced to Posada by way of the printing plates of various illustrations he (Posada) created for the publisher.
Though Posada himself had been dead for many years at this point the printing plates had been kept and reused by Vanegas Arroyo and his descendants after Posada’s death, having apparently never hired a replacement illustrator.
They relied on these plates, though often they cut them up to fit new stories.
It was Posada’s working relationship with Publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo that resulted in most of his lasting and, as a result, most well-documented work.
Vanegas Arroyo was a very prolific publisher and had an interest in producing a lot of work very quickly, much of the broadsides that were produced by Vanegas Arroyo were time-sensitive, reflecting current events and interest stories that needed to be printed quickly in order to sell and make money off them.
In order to keep up with demand, Posada needed to be able to produce his images in a few short hours.
So, this need for speed is what encouraged Posada to transition from the slower process of Lithography to a much faster process of black-line and white-line printmaking techniques.
He adapted, first by training himself to be a woodcut printer/illustrator, or black line, but when he found that the hardwoods he needed for this type of printing were expensive and difficult to acquire. He adapted once again to lead engraving and then once again to zinc engraving or white-line.
Though Posada kept and maintained his own shop in downtown Mexico City, close to the National Palace, it was just around the corner from Vanegas Arroyo, which might have led to their long(ish) running working relationship.
When Posada first started working with Vanegas Arroyo, another illustrator, Manual Manilla, and possibly Manilla’s son, was the main illustrator, or illustrators, who worked with Vanegas Arroyo up to that point.
Though not too long after their working relationship began, Posada became Vanegas Arroyo’s sole illustrator. It is not clear what became of Manilla. Did Vanegas Arroyo fire him? Preferring the work or rates of Posada instead? Unfortunately, we don’t know.
Though his responsibilities were diverse, the vast majority of work Posada did for Vanegas Arroyo was sensational images on broadsides in what author and historian Patrick Frank calls “shocking crime” stories, “Prisons and executions,” “Folkloric Subjects and Rural Heroes,” and “broadsheet bandits.”
This interest was not unlike the sensational stories of popular publications such as the Illustrated Police News and the National Police Gazette, which some listeners might be familiar with.
These were the stories people wanted, and Posada and Vanegas Arroyos catered to their popular audiences before all else.
This fascination with true crime drama, albeit embellished and dramatized to sell more broadsides, is also not unlike current trends of fascination with “murder shows,” podcasts, and true crime documentaries.
Posada was paid 3 pesos a day for his work for Vanegas Arroyo, which was three times the pay for laborers. This meant that he could and did have the luxury of taking an annual vacation, which was more like the modern idea of a “staycation”; he didn’t necessarily go anywhere, but he did take time off from work, which was indeed a luxury in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Where Posada’s earlier work with Pedroza had them running from potential political persecution, it seems that his work with Vanegas Arroyo was much more conservative.
Vanegas Arroyo’s descendants report he and Posada were jailed for their political images. However, there are no records to confirm it, and it seems Vanegas Arroyo enjoyed a casual but pleasant relationship with President Díaz.
Day of the Dead imagery
Posada is perhaps the most well-known for his Calaveras. The word calavera means skull, but the name is often extended to depictions of both skulls and skeletons.
Posada’s Calaveras are perhaps best described as the skeleton caricatures he produced for Day of the Dead celebrations, known as the Día de los Muertos in Spanish.
The Day of the Dead is a bit of a misnomer, as it implies a one-day celebration, but in truth, the holiday is celebrated over multiple days, traditionally held on November 1st & 2nd, with some regions also including October 31st and/or November 6th.
It’s a holiday celebrated and recognized widely throughout Mexico and is an amalgamation of both Christian and indigenous beliefs and cultural practices.
The Day of the Dead can be described as part of the Mexican national cultural heritage and represents the transmutations of diverse cultural backgrounds.
The Christian tradition has ties to the three-day religious observance, otherwise known as a triduum, or Allhallowtide, which includes All Hallows' Eve (or Halloween) on October 31, All Saints' Day on November 1, and All Souls Day on November 2.
For many, the connection to Christianity, catholicism specifically, explains the entire historical tradition of Día de los Muertos.
Mathew Sandoval of Arizona State University, in an interview with Tiffany Acosta, explained the connection between Christian and indigenous culture. He said this:
“The history of Día de los Muertos is complex and multifaceted. It originated from ancient pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican rituals practiced by Indigenous peoples in what is now known as Central Mexico.”
“Specifically, the Aztecs had death rituals that involved making offerings to the deceased. In their belief system, the dead were not gone, but rather they had an intimate relationship with the living, and offerings were made to maintain a reciprocal relationship.”
It is further described as“an old tradition that combines Spanish and pre-Hispanic cultural elements” (Aguilar Montes de Oca, 2016) where “the dead return to their former homes on earth for a while to eat, to drink, to sing, to be entertained, and to visit with their loved ones.”
Illustrations of Calaveras, such as the ones Posada created, are popular representations of this holiday and cultural practice.
Beyond the depiction of the Calavera Catrina, Posada illustrated dozens of skeletons.
Sometimes as individuals, but most often in groups and engaged in day-to-day activities, such as; a group of skeleton newsboys hawking news sheets that feature calaveras, a group of Calaveras riding bicycles, there is a dance party featuring Calaveras, Calaveras as street cleaners, and a Calavera of Don Quixote chasing and running over another group of Calaveras.
Most of these depictions seem to be fun and lighthearted, but there are others that seem a bit more serious, including The Oaxaca Calavera, The Big Trolley Calavera, and the Disorderly Calavera.
There are so many Calaveras… in fancy clothes or dressed as revolutionaries from Zapata to Madero, some are sitting, standing, drinking, fighting, or dancing.
Posada’s Calaveras captured the imaginations of many Americans in a way that his other images have not, and while many Americans are likely unfamiliar with Posada’s work, it is likely they have seen at least one of these Calaveras and have been entranced by it.
Why, in particular, do the Calaveras draw this attention? It may be due to the perceived morbidity of the images.
The mainstream (AKA white/European heritage) American public does not observe the holiday and does not have the same cultural associations with the dead more broadly, so it could be a morbid fascination…
But it also could come from a sense of rebellion, where things and ideas outside the mainstream seem subversive, illicit, and intriguing.
Topic 4: Children’s books
In addition to being an illustrator of political cartoons and popular images for newspapers and broadsides, such as the Calaveras he is so well known for, Posada also illustrated many children’s books during his working relationship with Vanegas Arroyo.
Before Posada became the sole illustrator, there was enough work for Manuel Manilla as well.
Manilla is reported to have worked with Antonia Vanegas Arroyo from 1882-1892 and to have had no formal training, though it does seem like engraving was a family business, perhaps learned from his father and, at least, passed down to his son.
Manilla’s work is often described as “stiff” and “inexpressive” with straightforward compositions, in comparison, Posada’s illustrations are described as more “lifelike than Manilla's” with more “modern” and striking compositions.
Both Manilla and Posada illustrated children’s books published by Vanegas Arroyo, which included both the cover and interior pages.
Arroyo is thought to have published some 70 children’s books in his lifetime, most as little inexpensive chapbooks.
“These chapbooks contained eight pages each and cost two, three or six centavos” (Casillas pg 16)
The books were cheaply made and produced, making them accessible to a larger audience. The combination of text and images might have appealed to literate and less educated audiences. Of course, their primary audience was children who would have come from a variety of educational backgrounds as well.
The cheap production included inexpensive paper that would not have held up well over time.
The design of these books tends to be distinctive because the covers were often printed in black and red only, while the interior illustrations had as many as eight colors using an engraved stencil printing technique.
The genres of these children's books include fairy tales, many adapted from popular European fairy tales, but also some original work written by Mexican authors, as well as Mexican history and cautionary tales.
Antonio Vanegas Arroyo occasionally reprinted some of the older books, sometimes issuing them with updated illustrations, though he often included new illustrations with old ones.
This meant that some of the books were entirely illustrated by Manilla and some by Posada, but also, there were some books that were initially illustrated by Manila that included a new interior or cover illustration by Posada, mixing their two unique styles.
Thanks to his experience and successes in illustrating for Vanegas Arroyo, Posada was later hired to create more than 400 illustrations for historical Tales and legends by Heriberto Frías for the Mauci Hermanos Publishing House.
Posada’s Legacy - the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphics Workshop, or People’s Graphic Workshop)
José Guadalupe Posada was only 58 when he died in Mexico City, but he left behind a legacy of image-making.
The Taller de Gráfica Popular, or the popular graphics workshop, was a collective of printmakers who used their work to comment on politics, spread revolutionary ideas, and oppose fascism.
The collective was founded by Leopoldo Méndez, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O’Higgins in 1937.
Thanks to the work and output of illustrators such as José Guadalupe Posada and Manuel Manilla, as well as others, there was already a rich tradition of image-making targeted to popular audiences.
The collective sought to continue this tradition and continues to be active today. They have gained recognition outside of Mexico and have drawn members from outside the country, including the first female members, Mariana Yampolsky, a Mexican American artist from Chicago, and Elizabeth Catlett, an African-American graphic artist originally from Washington D.C.
Posada was also considered an inspiration to the mural movement, which was getting started in the 1920s, shortly after his death.
Diego Rivera told stories about his education from Posada, though most historians agree that this is unlikely.
It is most likely that he had seen the images produced by Posada but never met the man himself, let alone received instruction from him.
Still, Diego Rivera honored Posada by including his likeness in a 1946 mural, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon at Alameda Central Park, in which Posada is given preferential placement. As one of the largest figures, he is placed in the center of the mural next to Calavera Catrina, one of his most well-known creations.
Posada is depicted in the mural wearing a dark suit and holding a cane, elevating his status to that of a “gentleman”. Next to him stands Calavera Catrina holding the hand of a young boy, a depiction of Rivera himself, suggesting the influence Posada and his illustrations had on the young Rivera.
José Clemente Orozco, another artist from the mural movement, claims to have passed by Posada’s shop almost daily, sometimes sneaking in to watch the “master” at work and stealing shavings off the ground.
Outro
José Guadalupe Posada is not unknown to history, in fact, he has been called the greatest printmaker in Mexico. His prints have been featured in a great number of exhibitions, but despite this wide acclaim and acknowledgment, his work is often not presented in canonical histories of graphic design.
An investigation of his work and career is enlightening to those who are often left out of the story. Without investigating Posada further, we might not have come to know Manual Manilla or the collective artists and designers of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, all of which deserve recognition and further investigations in design history.
Historian Jacques Lafaye tells us it was Diego Rivera who likened Posada to Goya and “Justino Fernandez had compared him to Daumier.” but he goes on to say that “The kinship between the ultra-Mexican Posada and some of the greatest artists of the Western traditions demonstrates the inadequacy of describing Posada’s work as a running commentary on the fleeting events of the past. The significance of his work not only transcends its time and nationality but the man himself as well. Etching on zinc, a cheap material is not a minor art. There is no such thing as minor art. As for Posada, he was a major artist. He works on a large scale, producing thousands of prints in magazines and newspapers, broadsides and chapbooks.” (Posada’s Mexico, p. 126)
Credits:
This episode was produced with the aid of a grant from the University of Central Oklahoma
Research & Writing credits for this episode are from – Mandy Horton
With additional research assistance provided by – XXXXX
Story editing provided by Spencer Gee
Sound design/engineering – By the University of Central Oklahoma’s Center for eLearning and Connected Environments
Music by Christina Giacona and Patrick Conlon of Onyx Lane
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