Mexican Skull

The Mexican calavera is certainly one of the most singular and at the same time most widespread and peculiar figures of Mexican popular culture. Its origins are to be found in an ideal encounter between the pre-Hispanic Death and the "macabre dances" of medieval Europe, a meeting that through the genius of José Guadalupe Posada, unaware artist of the XIX century, gives life to a representation of death totally new, a death with a human face, not at all frightening or allusive to the sad and inevitable end but absolutely vital and witty. Long live Posada!

The calavera identitaria is the one that includes the innumerable representations of death that we meet almost everywhere in Mexico. His date of birth is uncertain and his parents are varied. We can give it more or less 150 years of life and look for its roots in the socio-political conditions of a people/ nation not homogeneous, indeed extremely varied, and yet looking for an identity that unites and at the same time makes it unique.

There is no place for tragedy in the face of the absurdity of death; only the ability to transform its inescapability into something normally everyday can change the cards on the table. All this could not leave indifferent a people that has always thought to have a particular relationship with death: consider its more distant parents, the Aztecs, who considered death as a positive step towards a better condition, practiced rituals with human sacrifices, even volunteers, worshipped Coatlicue, goddess of the earth and life, who wore a mask of death, adorned their temples with sculptures in the form of skulls that symbolized wisdom; and more recent ones, those Spaniards who had imposed themselves with their deadly weapons and who, in the name of their god, had tortured and killed thousands of indigenous people and then introduced, with various religious images, the skeletons of medieval "macabre dances". To these more or less ancient roots, at the beginning of the twentieth century is added the cataclysm of the Mexican Revolution, with new thousands of deaths in both sides but above all with a will for change, to reclaim a nation/identity that was never felt as one’s own. We are in the first decade of the 20th century, which coincides with the last years of Posada’s life and the production of his famous calaveras. It is on these cultural foundations, made of symbols, memories, rituals, that a new national identity is being formed, on the spur of a revolution which, although not decisive as regards the most important expectations, such as the redistribution of land, However, the country changes forever.

As regards "el Día de Muertos" and the customs linked to this day, it is necessary first of all to distinguish the context in which this anniversary is celebrated. The customs vary from region to region, but even within a single region there is an enormous difference between rural and urban areas. Away from the cities, a traditional approach has been preserved, where the pain and memory of the deceased, recollection and prayer, the same offering of food and drink, are manifested in a "spiritually correct" way. On the contrary, in the cities we have seen a change that also begins in the last decade of the nineteenth century. It is a particular period in the history of Mexico, very tumultuous, there is a desire for renewal, to create a new Mexican identity, and this day appears to most as an archaic cultural heritage, a cumbersome legacy of that Catholic-Spanish to be scaled down in favour of a more indigenous footprint. The revolution certainly plays an important role in this process and, starting from those years, this day, in the cities, will increasingly lose its ritual/ spiritual character to become a real secular festival, full of colors, sounds and joy. Regarding the objects used to adorn the "altars de muertos", the famous "alfenique", skulls and sugar tombs, or the "pan de muerto" (sweets in the form of bones, also present in Sicily, who knows how.), or even the sheets of "papal picado" with engravings of themed images, There are also differences depending on the location. First of all it is interesting to note that the use of "alfenique" is very old, before the flowering of calaveras, certainly already present in the middle of '700, always in urban context. Even today it is not easy to find them outside the cities, while pan de muerto and papel picado seem to be more widespread in the territory. As for "el Día de Muertos" and the customs linked to this day, there is a curiosity: the main recipients of alfenics are children, who eat them happily without problem and the skulls carry the name of those who receive them!

And we come to La Santa Muerte.  It is a cult widespread in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Its origins are uncertain, they talk about a cult widespread among the miners of Zacatecas in colonial times, of a shaman of Veracruz who appeared at the end of the nineteenth century promising protection to the Mexican people that would never forget it. Some scholars think it has African origins and relate it with some orisha deities of the Cuban Santeria, others even identify it with Santa Marta, perhaps for the assonance with Santa Muerte,or with the Virgin of the Carmine. In Argentina there is a male counterpart, San La Muerte, with a similar image. Certainly there are precedents, dating back to the pre-Hispanic civilizations: Mictecacìhuatl and Mictlantecuhtli were the goddesses of death, ruled the Mictlàn, where all the souls of the dead went, and the goddess of the earth mother, Coatlicue, who wore a mask in the form of a human skull.

The Santa Muerte, iconographically, is dressed in a white tunic, to symbolize its purity, which covers it totally leaving exposed the face, part of the neck, hands and feet. He holds a scythe with which he cuts off lives, in fairness and harmony. He can hold the world in one hand or sit upon it to represent his power over all the earth. Sometimes it has a scale, symbol of justice and equity, others is depicted with a lamp and an hourglass with obvious meaning. The color of the tunic can be different depending on the request you make. He who chooses to worship the Santa Muerte must set up in his house an altar with his image in a white tunic. This image should be prepared or "cured" by a "priest", placed in a suitable place and equipped with various "offerings": a candle or other type of light, a glass of water, incense, possibly copal, white flowers, and then to taste liqueur, bread, a cigarette, fruit, perfume and, if it is a job, money. You are asked for favors for yourself or other people through various rituals and specific prayers, but using a different image from the altar. Around Mexico there are various places consecrated to you and guarded by guardians. In recent years the cult of Santa Muerte has had a strong impulse and a couple of years ago its devotees marched to Mexico City to ask for official recognition of religion, as well as all other Saints. Curiosity: it seems to be very widespread among police and drug traffickers, perhaps a proof of its fairness.