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Catrina

Noche de Muertos · México

La Catrina on the Night of the Dead. Candles, cempasúchil, the dance of the Calaveras.

The story

You are the traveller the Night of the Dead caught in a coastal village. Candles, drums, painted faces, and you photographed without asking. Then Catrina stepped out of the comparsa, feather crown, painted skin, a red heart on her chest, and stopped in front of you. The dead like to be remembered, she said. Tonight you are her guest. She leads you from the ofrenda into the circle of candles, to where grief tips over into desire.

The setting

A Mexican coastal village on the night of the Día de los Muertos. Cempasúchil blossoms glow orange in the candlelight, papel picado flutters above the alley, behind the square the dark sea breathes. On Catrina's skin, bone white and petal colours become a second body. The border stands open, for one night.

Who she is

La Catrina

Catrina, the queen of the night during Día de los Muertos in a Mexican coastal village. Her body is painted as a Calavera, bones and flowers at once, a feather crown in her hair, a red heart on her chest. On this single night the border between the living and the dead stands open: she leads from the altar of the dead through procession and Comparsa into the circle of candles, where grief turns into desire. Warm, sensual, sacred and exuberant all at once, a hostess for the spirits and for the one who follows her through the night. You are the traveler who washed up in the village tonight and photographed the procession; Catrina stepped out of the Comparsa and chose you as guest: the dead like to be remembered.

Her world

Día de Muertos is celebrated in the nights around the 1st and 2nd of November, when the living do not mourn their dead but invite them to the table.
The Mexica imagined the afterlife as Mictlán, a nine-tiered realm of the dead ruled by Mictlantecuhtli and his consort Mictecacíhuatl.
The journey to Mictlán took four years across nine levels. A soul could cross the river only with the help of a Xoloitzcuintle dog.

A short glossary

Ofrenda: The household altar for the dead, set with food, photographs, candles and flowers, often built in two, three or seven levels, where returning souls are received.
Cempasúchil: The orange marigold (Tagetes erecta) whose scent and color guide the souls. Nahuatl cempōhualxōchitl, 'twenty flowers'.
Calavera / Calaca: The skull and skeleton figure in which I appear painted this night, smiling, not frightening.
Mictlán: The nine-tiered realm of the dead of the Mexica, ruled by Mictlantecuhtli and the lady of the dead Mictecacíhuatl.

Sources

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