This thesis examines the role of the imagery of José Guadalupe Posada in the context of the first years of the Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1913) with particular reference to the production of corridos as a major manifestation of Mexican culture.

INTRODUCTION

 The Mexican corrido, printed in the form of a broadside ballad, is a manifestation of Mexican culture which incorporates image, music, and text to form a language understood by Mexicans of all classes. The printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) illustrated numerous corridos representing Mexican life, as well as thousands of other broadsides and journals. Distributed as hojas volantes, or "flying leaves," Posada's prints, which satirized and glorified people of all classes, accompanied the rhymed verse of the corrido.

Circulating throughout most of Mexico, Posada's corrido prints were distributed by corridistas, musicians who traveled from one market to another. While singing the corridos, the corridistas sold cheaply printed broadsides with lyrics to their songs illustrated by Posada's engravings. The corrido served as an audiovisual method of communication: as people heard the music, they looked at the art and lyrics of the broadside. Not only did text, image, and music rely upon each other in the corrido, but the artist, writer, printer, and musician were also intrinsically related.

Although Posada's work is housed in museums today, during his lifetime those who acquired his broadsides were common people who were the semiliterate levels of urban and rural society. The original audience for Posada's work on broadsides were those who listened to the corridistas at the markets: the poor people of the pueblos who,for the most part, could not read and bought the corridos for a few centavos to look at the illustrations. In a concentrated and highly expressive form, Posada gave back to the pueblos what he gathered from the people and their environment.1

During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1919), the corrido expanded to represent "the heartbeat of the Mexican community."2 Posada's illustrations accompanied corridos which addressed subjects such as the entry of a presidential candidate into Mexico City, labor strikes, fuel shortages, soldiers and heroes such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, and soldaderas, women who took part in the Revolution as soldiers and camp followers.

The corrido, which reached its high point during the Revolution, is still available and sung today. I remember seeing a man selling corridos outside of the supermarket in south Texas where I grew up. I also learned the lyrics to corridos such as "La Cucaracha," "La Valentina," "La Adelita," and "Rosita Alvirez," songs which are familiar to many in Latino culture on both sides of the border today. Corridos are also still sung at funerals to commemorate a person's life.

This thesis examined Posada's graphic works within the context of the revolutionary corrido and thus reposition the artist's work into its original place in Mexican society. Events leading up to the Mexican Revolution can be followed by looking at images by Posada which accompanied newspaper articles, broadsides, and corridos. Posada's position as chronicler of Mexican culture and politics emphasizes a need for social and political interpretations of his work. In addition, three Revolutionary corridos illustrated by Posada, "La Cucaracha," "La Adelita," and "La Valentina" are analyzed, looking at the connection between the image, music, and text, and subsequent manner of distribution.

Posada's Background

Born in Aguascalientes, Mexico on February 2, 1852 to parents of Indian descent, José Guadalupe Ruiz Aguilar Posada learned to read and write at an elementary school run by his older brother José Cirilo (1839-1894).3 Basic design skills were developed at his uncle's pottery workshop and Posada learned to draw at the Municipal Academy of Drawing. At the age of fifteen, Posada was registered as a painter in a general census of the area of Aguascalientes. He was trained as an illustrator at the workshop of José Trinidad Pedroza in 1868 and there learned the technique of lithography.

Posada's first job as an artist had political overtones. Trinidad Pedroza campaigned for local government and was active in opposition to the influential Colonel Jesus Gómez Portugal. He helped write and print a periodical called El Jicote (The Wasp) which opposed the local cacique, or landowner. Lithographic caricatures in the paper were rendered by Posada. When the political campaign came to an end in 1872 and his party lost, Pedroza moved to León, Guanajuato. Joined by Posada, he set up a printing and lithograph workshop.4

When Pedroza returned to Aguascalientes in 1873, Posada was left in charge of the workshop. Several Posada illustrations signed "Posada y Hno." ("Posada and Bro.") from this time indicates that one of his brothers was working with him.5 Posada married the 16-year-old María de Jesús Vela in 1875 and became sole owner of the workshop in 1876. He created images for local printing houses and numerous religious images as well as cigar and cigarette labels which were "delightful vignettes abounding in arabesques and vegetables."6 He was also appointed as "practical" lithography teacher at the Leon secondary school. Rafael Carrillo found in the school archives that "Posada was appointed from April 4, 1883 until May 15, 1884 and was paid 8 pesos 9 centavos for the first fortnight, with a monthly salary of 15 pesos and no entitlement to holiday pay."7 Enrique Aranda, one of Posada's students, described him as "a modest man who dressed as was considered to be correct at that time." Aranda watched Posada working in his shop, "busily occupied with some item in a wide variety of commissions: vignettes, diplomas, advertisements, and religious images."8

In 1888, Posada moved to Mexico City. Speculation is that his move was due to the death of family members and the loss of his workshop in the 1887 flood of Leon. Jean Charlot related that the widow of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo had recalled Posada's story: "in the floods of León in 1887, many members of his family drowned, . . . carried past him by the churning waters [they cried] 'Save us, Don José,' until they sank."9

Before moving to Mexico City Posada had become acquainted with the writer and publisher Ireneo Paz (1836-1924), grandfather of the poet Octavio Paz.10 Some of the periodicals published by Ireneo Paz in Mexico City which were illustrated by Posada included La Patria Ilustrada (illustrated during the years 1886-1890), La Revista de Mexico (1889-91), the fashion magazine La Estación, and the weekly El Ahuizote in addition to numerous books, calendars, and seasonal publications.11 The dates when Posada illustrated La Patria Ilustrada (1886-1890) indicate that he may have illustrated Paz's publications before actually moving to Mexico City.

Posada was soon able to open his own workshop, first on Cerrada de Santa Teresa Street, then at No. 5 Santa Inés Street (now called Moneda).12 Posada produced images for at least twenty-three different periodicals. He illustrated publications such as the dailies Gil Blas, El Popular (1897-1907), El Amigo del Pueblo (1897), and El Argos (1903-04); the weeklies Gil Blas Cómico (1893-96), La Patria Ilustrada (1886-90), El Fandango (1890-92; 1895), La Risa del Popular (1897-98), Revista de México (1889-91), El Chisme (1899-1910), El Diablito Rojo (1900-1910), El Paladin (1901-10), La Guacamaya (1902-11), El Padre Padilla (1908), San Lunes (1909), and publications which appeared irregularly such as La Gaceta Callejera (Street Gazette) (1892-94).13

Posada soon joined the team of writers and engravers at the publishing house of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, located around the corner from Posada's workshop. Arroyo's publications were circulated around most of Mexico and other parts of North America. In addition to the Gaceta Callejera, Vanegas Arroyo produced thousands of commercial advertisements, children's stories, songbooks, history lessons written by Heriberto Frías, images of saints and heroes, card games, recipes, love letters and business letters, oraciones (prayer sheets), and religious pamphlets. Small pamphlets containing popular tales, songs, and verses were called chapbooks. Images were printed on broadsides illustrating current events, verses, songs, or corridos. Satirical skeleton images called calaveras were produced for the Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico on November 2. The calaveras were accompanied by verses making fun of famous people, addressing them as though they were dead.14

A self-portrait of Posada in Arroyo's pressroom accompanied an advertisement for the publisher. Wearing a visor and a printer's apron and standing in front of the printing press amid bundles of broadsheets and pamphlets, Posada hands a proof sheet to his employer. Charlot points out that wearing the green visor and the large apron of the printer identifies Posada as a craftsman, rather than an artist, who would have worn a smock.15 Listing a variety of subjects available from the print shop of A. Vanegas Arroyo, the advertisement indicates Posada's versatility as an illustrator:

(Founded in the year 1880 of the nineteenth century) This long-established firm stocks a varied and select Assortment of Songs for the current year, Collections of Greetings, Tricks, Puzzles, Games, Cookbooks, Recipes for Making Candies and Pastries, Models of Speeches, Scripts for Clowns, Patriotic Speeches, Plays for Children or Puppets, and Charming Stories. The New Oracle, or the Book of the Future, Rules for Telling the Cards, The New Mexican Fortune Teller, Black and White Magic, or the Book of Sorcerers.16

Contemporaries of Posada were Manuel Alfonso Manilla (1830-1895?) and his son Manuel, who initially held seniority as engravers in Arroyo's shop.17 When he began working for Arroyo, Posada's printmaking style changed from fine lithography to a coarser relief cut used by the Manillas. Although Posada first copied Manilla's style, he soon exceeded Manilla.18

Due to a similarity in style and lack of signatures, it is possible that some of the images attributed to Posada were created by the Manillas. According to Ron Tyler, "it is now clear that Posada's etchings and engravings probably numbered fewer than estimated and that many of the best known images are the works of Manilla and other artists."19 For example, the same image of the military leader Macario Romero reproduced on two different broadsides in Posada's Mexico is first attributed to Manuel Manilla and then to Posada.20 Tyler, however, states that Manilla's "figures seem to represent coarser people; they are neither as delicately nor as facilely drawn as Posada's and the whole composition seems to have a stiffness about it that characterizes Manilla's work."21 There is also often confusion as to whether authors are referring to the senior Manilla or his son.

Scholars do not agree on the number of images created by Posada; estimates range from a conservative 1600 to 20,000. Thomas Gretton calculated only 1600 images "plausibly attributable to Posada," although "doubtless many more of these would be brought to light through a systematic survey of the periodical literature published in Mexico City between 1898 and 1913."22 Hannes Jahn estimated 10,000; Diego Rivera claimed 15,000; Roberto Berdecio and Stanley Appelbaum 20,000.23

José Guadalupe Posada died at the age of 61 on January 20, 1913 at his home at No. 6 Calle de la Paz. Only one of the three neighbors who certified his death knew how to sign his name; the state paid for a sixth class burial.24 Although little was left behind which might suggest clues about Posada's personal life, he was remembered by Don Blas Vanegas Arroyo, the middle son of Posada's publisher. He spoke about Posada as "an amiable man, already bald, with a fringe of white hair around his smooth dark skull." Interviewed by Anita Brenner in 1929, Don Blas said that Posada:

was very industrious. He began to work at eight o'clock in the morning and worked until seven at night. My father would enter the shop (we set up a shop for him after he had worked a while with us) with whatever he wanted to print, and say, 'Señor Posada, let's illustrate this,' and Posada would read it and while he was reading would pick up his pen and say, 'What do you think about this little paragraph,' and he would dip his pen into the special ink he used and then give the plate an acid bath and it was finished. He got three pesos a day whatever he did, and in that time it was a lot because whoever had as much as seventy-five pesos a month was at least a general. Posada was very good-humored and peace-loving. He hated quarrels, and treated everybody well. He was no snob.25

Another Posada anecdote is from 1929 in which Rubén M. Campos describes meeting Posada in his workshop:

He was a burly, thick-set man with the appearance of a pure-blood Indian, of such manual dexterity in his trade that, while conversing with the sketcher Nicolás Urquieta who had taken me to meet the engraver, the latter occasionally cast a rapid glance in my direction while he worked on a block of wood with a sharp knife. He suddenly stood up, went over to a small hand press, inked a roller and ran off a caricature of my emaciated, beardless person which was so true to life that the three of us roared with laughter.26

Anecdotes such as these have been discounted by contemporary scholars.27 Attempting to discover what Posada was like as a person is often frustrating because all that remains are the prints he left behind and vague memories of people who knew him, or of the children of people who knew him. Whether the anecdotes are factual would be impossible to determine at this point, but they bear repeating with the caution that Posada's now close to mythical status in Mexico may have had some effect on the accuracy of these stories. True or false, these stories helped build Posada's position in Mexican history and illustrate the way his art is perceived in Mexican culture. The previous anecdotes illustrated Posada's genius and work ethic. The following, a statement which has been often quoted, is one which shows a vice and makes him seem more human.

One thing about him only, I suppose could be considered a little out of the ordinary and this was that he liked to drink, but in a very special way. He saved all year, fifty cents a day, putting it in a little box. On the twentieth of December he broke the bank and sent the money to Leon, to his family, and they bought for him with it big barrels of tequila, high as your waist. Then on New Year's Eve he began to drink, alone, and drank and drank until he finished all the barrels, which took from a month to a month and a half. For a fortnight after he couldn't work, because his hands shook. He was slender as a young man but from drinking like that he grew very large in the stomach . . . And eight or a hundred litres of tequila a year finally killed him.28

Quotes like these were published in articles after Posada was "discovered" in the 1920s by the Frenchman Jean Charlot, who worked with the Mexican muralists. Identifying Posada as "printmaker to the Mexican people" Charlot believed he had found an artistic link between Mexican history and the modern Mexican art movement.29 Charlot's recognition of Posada placed him posthumously into the world of "high art" as the Mexican muralists adopted him as their forefather.

The Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) paid homage to Posada in his mural at the Hotel del Prado in Mexico City, painted in 1947-48. Called Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (A Sunday Afternoon's Dream in Alameda Park), the mural depicts the Calavera Catrina, an image originated by Posada, holding the hand of the child Diego Rivera as she faces the viewer with a skeletal grin from the center of the piece. Rivera's parents are in the forms of the finely clad lady figure of death and Posada, whose left hand protectively covers the hand of the skeleton who takes his arm. Anita Brenner referred to the Calavera Catrina when she wrote that Posada "had sketched in two inches monumental figures, national epics, that later grew to ten and fifteen feet high on frescoed walls."30 The Calavera Catrina, a skull adorned with flowers, feathers, and bows, is a criticism of vanity as well as a reminder that all eventually turns to dust.

José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949), another of Mexico's great muralists, credited Posada with artistic inspiration as he described Posada at work:

Posada used to work in full view, behind the shop windows, and on my way to school and back, four times a day, I would stop and spend a few enchanted minutes in watching him, and sometimes I even ventured to enter the shop and snatch up a bit of the metal shavings that fell from the minium-coated metal plate as the master's graver passed over it. This was the push that first set my imagination in motion and impelled me to cover paper with my earliest little figures; this was my awakening to the existence of the art of painting.31

Posada's prints have been compared to those of Francisco Goya and Honore Daumier; his calaveras have been compared to Hans Holbein's "Dance of Death."32 Posada's influence on Rivera and Orozco could be compared to the influence of the French "primitive" painter Henri Rousseau on Pablo Picasso. Jean Charlot compared Posada to a Mexican Rousseau: "Whereas the aging French master played . . . his own composition on a three-quarter violin, we can picture the aging Mexican slapping his thigh and belching a Rabelaisian laugh as Death, his favourite model, tip-toes in."33

The French surrealist poet André Breton published a page of images by Posada in a 1939 edition of the magazine Minotaure.34 He also included works by Posada in his 1939 exhibition in Paris. Called Mexique, the exhibition also featured Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Diego Rivera, and the photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo (b. 1902).35

Collections of Posada's work can be found in many locations. Most collections contain broadsides, many of which are corridos, with illustrations by Posada. The Library of Congress owns a large collection of type-metal and zinc plates and stereotype plates as well as many original broadsides. The Jean Charlot Collection is now housed at the University of Hawaii and contains many chapbooks, broadsides and restrikes by Posada and Manilla.

The Amon Carter Museum owns one of the largest collections of Posada's work in the United States, including some original type-metal engraving and zinc etching plates. The Amon Carter collection includes 170 broadsides, 32 original blocks, 110 chapbooks, and 9 restrikes. The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin own a large collection of periodicals and broadsides containing illustrations by Posada. The MEXIC-ARTE Museum in Austin also owns some Posada works, and they held an exhibition of Posada's work in September-November 1995. The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado also owns several hundred broadsides by Posada.

Unidad Cultural J. Guadalupe Posada, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Aguascalientes is a museum devoted to Posada and his work. Arsacio Vanegas Arroyo of Mexico City, grandson of the publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo owns a large collection of several hundred broadsides by Posada, including the book in which Antonio Vanegas Arroyo pasted each broadside as it was printed.36