Who created the iconic La Catrina illustration?

José Guadalupe Posada created the iconic La Catrina illustration.

Posada was a Mexican printmaker and political illustrator whose skull figures, or calaveras, used satire to comment on class, politics, and everyday life. His famous image began as a zinc etching of a skeleton wearing an elaborate hat, originally titled La Calavera Garbancera. It mocked members of the Mexican elite who rejected Indigenous identity while imitating European fashions.

The image was published in a satirical broadside, with its first certain publication dating to 1913, shortly after Posada’s death. Although Posada created the original illustration, Diego Rivera later transformed the skull into a full-length figure in his 1946–47 mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central. Rivera also popularized the name La Catrina.

That distinction causes a common mix-up: Rivera did not invent the original Catrina, but he helped turn Posada’s satirical print into a major national symbol. Today, La Catrina is one of the most recognizable figures associated with Día de Muertos and Mexican identity.