Jaki Jean on Creating a Catrina

Every year since my friend & fellow writer Cate Poe has resided in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, she posts pictures of Catrinas.  Not just at this time of year, near the time of the Day of the Dead, but whenever she & her consort Tejano encounter them across the Mexican landscape they both so love to explore.

And I have become obsessed with wanting to make one.

Catrinas are a tradition in Mexico, especially during the fall & leading up to the Day of the Dead.  There is a bit of debate – did Catrinas develop in Mexico from a European influence or did they develop as a natural process, merging indigenous beliefs with the influence of the Catholic Church.

Catrinas are magnificent creatures.  Female, with the body of skeletons, garishly dressed & adorned.  They celebrate death, indicating that life continues long after the body dies.

One last thought before signing off to watch Charlie Rose & to continue reading Javier Marías for the first time (Marías may be the only author with longer sentences than Charles Dickens & like with Dickens, I keep reading).  I made a fine chicken broth from cooking down a roast chicken today. The kitchen is in a shambles, which will drive me crazy tomorrow morning.  

But it takes a lot of time & thought to plan out a Catrina, albeit a small Catrina.

Day 1 of Assembly:  Because this is my first Catrina & my Paper Mache skills ceased after the first & last piñata I made, I have a strict budget.  Recycle what is tucked into boxes & bins, purchase as many items, including the skeleton form, at dollar stores.  Splurge on fabulous fabric roses for the neckline of her blouse & her hair.

At the local Dollar Tree, I found a skeleton to serve as a form (do all skeletons have broad shoulders & obscenely large feet ?), & colored raffia ribbon.  

Then I removed a dress from a Gabriel doll (think Xena the Warrior Princess) to turn into a skirt.  The Gabriel doll, along with Xena, was a in a box of red headed Barbies, from another life & another time & another mindset.

Because I did not want to use the flour I purchase for my kitchen to make glue, I bought flour at the Dollar Tree.  I also found some black ribbon to give the semblance of hair across my Catrina’s skull.

The raffia ribbon is quite cumbersome – I have to unravel it to its full width.  As I start to form sleeves of her blouse on her arms, my Catrina takes on a personality of her own.  Her form resists the raffia ribbon until I retrieve a small paintbrush & lightly coat each layer of ribbon with the  dollar store flour glue.

One thing I have learned this afternoon:  Paper Mache is not as easy as it is in my memory of art classes or that piñata.

As I wrap expanded strips of colored raffia across her skeleton, I cannot decide if I am creating a Catrina, or mummifying her.

And then I remember that she is a plastic skeleton & mummifying her won’t help.