The Mega Catrina of Cempasúchil flowers at Taxco final design (video)

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Beautiful! In his second attempt, this is how the mega catrina made with marigold flowers was left on the esplanade of Santa Prisca in Taxco de Alarcón.

After criticism of the first design of the mega cempasúchil catrina in Taxco, the government installed a new rug made of 18,000 flowers of different shades. The work lies in front of the historic church of Santa Prisca and was redesigned and traced by María Inés Goméz Padilla and Willy Hairo Rodríguez Gómez, students of the Taxco School of Design.

With the help of residents and Civil Protection, the mega catrina was ready in two days. The main challenge was to choose the flowers according to their shades and then be placed and form the image.

The monumental mat managed to be inaugurated on Monday, October 25, by the municipal president of Taxco, Mario Figueroa Mundo, who took the criticisms of the first design assertively and decided to dismantle it for a new placement.

The mayor stated that the efforts are aimed at preserving the traditions of the Day of the Dead. Under the same premise, the placement of the mat is expected to be repeated year after year so that tourists and locals can admire it.

The more than 18 thousand flowers that make up the mega catrina originate from the flower fields in Morelos. Some of these flowers were also used to be placed on a bridge with flowerpots.

The mega catrina of Taxco, what is its meaning?

Skeletons are, without a doubt, an elemental part of the Mexican imaginary. In the same way as the Virgin of Guadalupe or the national coat of arms, the bony figures symbolically agglutinate the fundamental reality of Mexicans: miscegenation .

Calacas can be found both in our pre-Hispanic past and in the European personification of death. However, its splendor as a Mexican symbol was really expressed in the work of  José Guadalupe Posada. The pre-Hispanic and colonial skeletons expressed an archetype whose image required to be updated to the new reality of the modern state.

Mega catrina
Photo: Visit Taxco

José Guadalupe Posada was born in  Aguascalientes in 1852, a time when Mexican society sought to forge a national identity and was still facing strong political instability. He began his career in the newspaper  El Jicote at the age of 19.

In addition to the great armed conflicts, the Mexican imagination inhabited numerous superstitions regarding the end of the century and the world, miracles, magic and natural phenomena. All of this was captured by Posada’s creative spirit, who also added a political dimension that criticized the modernism and morality of the Porfirian government.

Although in life he never called any of his skulls “Catrina”, today “La Garbancera” is an icon on the Day of the Dead and, for some, the precursor of the cult of Santa Muerte. However, the “Catrina” is far from being a superfluous idol; his image accidentally gathers innumerable symbols and meanings from a collective memory.

Source: elsoldeacapulco.com.mx, mexicodesconocido.com.mx

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