Some considerations regarding the Posada imbrloglio when the images do not illustrate the texts

Abstract

The impressive graphic work by Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) – whose famous cheerful and dancing calaveras (skulls) stand out – has drawn scholars’ attention for decades. One of the most controversial issues in these studies concerns the artist’s relationship with politics, since there is a type of imbroglio involving, on the one hand, the vision of a revolutionary Posada, who would have been a precursor of the Mexican Revolution and, on the other hand, the image of a reactionary and Porfirian Posada. The aims of the current study are to question these dichotomous versions of Posada and to propose a new look over the relationship between his work and the political scenario of his time, based on the analysis of some of his engravings published by the popular Mexican press, from the fierce opposition to Porfirio Díaz’s dictatorship to the latest works of the artist, who died in 1913. The analysis is based on Guillermo Sunkel’s (2016 [1985]) ideas about “cultural matrices” and on Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1993 [1965]) concept of the subversive role played by “popular laughter”.