The skeletal female figure iconic to Day of the Dead is La Catrina.
The character originated in a satirical zinc etching by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, created during the Porfiriato era. Posada depicted a skeleton wearing an elaborate hat to mock upper-class Mexican women who adopted European fashions while rejecting their own cultural roots. The image was originally associated with the name La Calavera Catrina, meaning roughly “the dapper female skull.”
Mexican muralist Diego Rivera later expanded the figure into a full-body character in his 1946–47 mural A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central. Rivera’s version helped transform Catrina from political satire into a national symbol and a familiar figure of Día de Muertos. Modern Catrina costumes and face painting often use elegant clothing, floral details, and calavera makeup.
La Catrina is sometimes confused with La Llorona, a legendary weeping ghost, or Santa Muerte, a separate folk saint-like figure. Catrina is specifically the fashionable skeleton associated with Mexican identity and Day of the Dead imagery.