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Handmade Catrinas from Oaxaca

July 27, 2017

Celebrate Day of the Dead throughout the year with our new festive Handmade Catrinas by Oaxacan artist Alejandra Perez.

Day of the Dead history in Mexico is traced back to pre-Hispanic days although the celebration as we know it today has little to do with the festivals held by native cultures. At the end of the 19th Century Jose Guadalupe Posada's art work expressed in images the Mexicans intimate and comfortable relationship with death and their dead. Tireless printmaker and engraver Posada participated in the creation of the calaveras, satirical epitaphs describing the hypothetic dead circumstances of politicians and rich people accompanied with illustrations of skeletons that portrayed the satirical event.

It was in this gender that Posada created La Calaca Garbancera which after the Revolution war became La Catrina, the iconic skeleton lady that represents Death.

A whimsical yet impressive example of Mexican folk art, every figurine by Alejandra is completely hand-sculpted from local clays, kiln-fired, then colorfully painted in fine detail. Perez' artwork is inspired by Mexico's annual Day of the Dead celebrations, which take place in homes and villages throughout Oaxaca and southern Mexico. Her figurines make welcome gifts for enthusiasts of Latin Folk Art or El Dia de Los Muertos. Due to the handmade nature of indigenous folk art, colors and design may vary slightly.

La Fuente Imports is proud to offer the largest variety of these figurines available anywhere on the web, some relatively simple but others painstakingly produced by hand, as well as many other unique Day of the Dead collections including: tiles, figures, night lights, shirts, sugar skull molds, gifts for kids and more.

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