1920s

The Large Calavera of Emiliano Zapata

The publishing house of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo specialized in the production of popular pin-up prints called hojas volantes (literally "flying leaves," or "flyers"), which were printed on brightly colored papers and sold by street vendors for a few pennies each. The subjects of the flyers ranged from popular saints and calaveras (skeletons) to portraits of revolutionary heroes--such as Emiliano Zapata--to monstrous births, dastardly crimes, and other sensational new items snatched from the headlines of the daily press. The flyers often include the typeset verses of corridos (improvised topical ballads) set to the familiar tunes of popular songs.

Until recently this calavera caricature of Zapata was attributed to José Guadalupe Posada, the most famous of the artists who worked for Vanegas Arroyo. The printing block with the central image survived to be reprinted in the 1930s and 1940s, making it one of the best known calaveras of the period. Very few impressions survive from the original printing with the decorative border and corrido verses.