Gloria Arjona

Posada's Unknown Calaveras Gloria Arjona

José Guadalupe Posada is well-known for his Day of the Dead animated Calaveras, mimicking and mocking human beings. But Posada also created other Calaveras, less known but equally important during these Mexican festivities: The Calavera Rhymes or Literary Calaveras, humorous rhymes written as epitaphs to praise or ridicule a person or an idea. This book is a collection of 100 bilingual Calavera Rhymes written and illustrated by José Guadalupe Posada, to satirize people in power, to laugh of our own weaknesses and physical imperfections, but above all, to remind each one of us that rich or poor, good-looking or dreadful, virtuous or corrupt, Death, La Muerte takes us all! "We can safely say that Posada's engravings are works of art of the highest order. Posada can never be imitated: he can never be defined." Diego Rivera"By birthright Posada belongs to a manner that has left its stamp on the twentieth century: Expressionism. Unlike the majority of Expressionist artists, however, Posada never took himself too seriously." Octavio Paz "[Posada]...was my awakening to the existence of the art of painting." José Clemente Orozco Gloria Arjona holds a PhD in Spanish from the University of Southern California, and teaches Spanish language and literature at California Institute of Technology. She has interests in Mexican history, popular culture, and music. She is locally known for presenting thematic multimedia lectures in public libraries and other educative institutions. Among the themes she has researched extensively are the origins and practices of La Lotería, the popular songs Frida Kahlo quoted in her visual work, and women in the Mexican Revolution. As Dr. Arjona asserts, José Guadalupe Posada is present in all these themes.