I loved looking at José Guadalupe Posada’s artwork on
Friday. After seeing all of his work, I wanted to know more about his Calaveras,
specifically La Calavera de la Catrina. Calaveras are images of skull or
skeletons. I thought that what Professor Keister said about his image of La
Calavera de la Catrina was very interesting. Here is a picture of her:
As you can see, she
is dressed in extravagant fine clothing, and was probably very wealthy. He said
that the message behind the print was that although you may be very rich and
successful and have all of these great material things, when you die, it doesn’t
matter; you are still dead. I decided to do some research on La Catrina. La
Calavera de la Catrina was intended to depict social satire and commented on
the political and social lives of Mexicans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century. La Catrina was a high society Mexican woman. The image shows that
everyone is equal in the end. Despite prosperity and wealth in their lives on
earth, the rich are equal to the poor when they die. They can’t take it with
them. Posada made her during end of the reign
of Porfirio Diaz. In a way, she symbolizes the Mexican revolution because she
symbolizes the end of the power and wealth in the hands of few and the hopes to
spread it to many. As Professor Stark was saying, she also became an icon of
the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead, a day where
Mexicans celebrate the souls of the dead.
I think that the message that La Calavera de la Catrina
portrays is a very important one. Money really isn’t everything and when you
die, it means nothing. What is more important is what you did with your life. It
is more important to die knowing that you made a positive impact in someone
else’s life than to know that you made lots of money. I think this is a lesson
that many people have yet to learn. What do you think? Can money buy happiness?
I completely agree! I find it amusing in an odd way of how Posada depicts her. It's very ironic that she is a skeleton with a big fancy hat. I agree that what you do with your life is more important than money. There's a quote: "People don't remember what you say or what you did, but how you made them feel." It doesn't matter how much money you have, or what clothes you wear, its the impact on people around you that matters. Money doesn't buy happiness. People who think earning a lot of money will make them happy are very off track. Sure it is nice, but you don't have a good grasp on the meaning on life if money is distracting you.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I think of Mexican art, I think of her lol! That's really interesting that she stood for wealth, I actually thought it was just supposed to be a skeleton for Dia de los muertos. political satire is probably one of my favorite things, because I love jokes and irony. It's actually really funny and sad to think that some people are so focused on money and the fact that the skeleton is so dressed up, even though she is dead and it means literally nothing now.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing while we were looking at his prints and artwork. I don't think money can buy happiness people are happy all the time with little to no money at all. Society today tends to frown on people not getting a college education or getting a job out of high school. I think that this is completely the wrong message to send to people because what you should really be doing is finding out what you love to do, whether it is painting, chemistry, working with people, teaching, and the list goes on and on. More people need to be happy with what they choose to do and not just do it because people are telling them that this is what they should be doing because they can make money doing it. But back to your original question, i don't think money can buy happiness, but i believe that it can help you do things that you couldn't do before. For example i can't go skydiving without money because you need a lot of things that aren't free.
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