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CommentsThe art of the calavera
Messages of mortality
(page 1 of 4)
Like all people, Mexicans do not welcome Death. But unlike other cultures, Mexicans stare down Death. They make fun of it, play with it and make it familiar enough to forget about.
It’s this familiarity with Death that other cultures find so uncanny.
In the Día de los Muertos rituals of
The calavera, or skull, is the symbol of the day, its grinning image depicted in windows, sweet bread, candy and masks.
But in Mexican culture the calavera has different meanings. One expression is an ironic epitaph of a relative, a friend, or a personality of the day. They are printed on paper and decorated with skulls or skeletons.
The printer and political satirist Jose Guadalupe Posada popularized calaveras during the early 1900s. His calaveras in graphic form or words targeted the poor, the rich, and the politician.
In Posada’s tradition, we asked our writer and artist amigos y amigas for a contribution of calaveras. These poems poke fun at situations and politicians, and some are musings on Death itself.
Because as we all know, to Death, everyone is fair game.
Ode to legal terrorists
Russell Pierce oh what a guy!
So patriotic and certainly not shy!
Just like him I grew up in Mesa
But the man I identify with is Salvador Reza
Russell is the big bully looking for a fight
Picking on the little guy to prove his might
He and Joe Payaso can be so darn mean
They got Andrew Thomas on their terrorist team
Scapegoat and criminalize the poorest of the poor
The more media they get, the more they want more
The enemy they fear comes not from afar
Most of them walk over or come twelve in a car
They’ve come here to escape extreme desperation
In hopes of finding a hospitable nation
They leave their homes and all they hold dear
Instead of the freedom they seek they find only fear
This poem is for you the not so neighborly Russell Pierce
I’ve never known anyone so merciless, so hateful or fierce.
Look into your heart and see what you find
A big black hole of a blind man leading the blind!
By Zarco Guerrero, artist, writer, actor.
