Celebrate Mexico with La Calavera Catrina at Naples Botanical Garden

For this year’s theme, Mexico, a Celebration of Plants and Culture, the Naples Botanical Garden will highlight one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and celebrates cultural connections to the natural world. La Calavera Catrina will kick off this year’s cultural theme. 

La Calavera Catrina features eight larger than life skeleton sculptures and is considered one of the most recognizable figures of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrated November 1st and 2nd each year.

The calavera or skull is portrayed wearing a very fashionable oversized hat adorned with flowers, feathers, fruits or flowers. La Catrina is Mexico’s Grand Dame of Death and offers a glimpse into Mexican history. The female iconic skeleton is flashing a broad toothy grin, wearing a “couture designed European outfit” intended to poke fun at early 20th century Mexican elites who were ashamed of their indigenous roots and were aspiring to adopt the European aristocratic style. 

In 1913, Mexican artist and illustrator, Jose Guadalupe Posada, created the very first version of La Catrina, which was originally called La Calavera Garbancera (translates to “dapper skeleton” or “elegant skull”). She wore an elegant French dress with white makeup, fancy hat and feather boa and was both a political caricature and critique of Mexican society. This first La Catrina had nothing to do with Dia de los Muertos but began as a satirical portrait of Mexican aristocracy.

In modern Mexico, in the weeks leading up to the Dia de los Muertos, the celebration and portrayal has gotten more commercialized with large and small skeletal images displayed in shop windows with t-shirts, handbags, postcards or ceramic figures. And they do not convey any particular meaning. 

At the Garden, an icon from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, Maria Felix, considered one of Mexico’s classic beauties, is looking distinctive as an eight-foot La Catrina. 

Also monarch butterflies are known symbols during Dia de Los Muertos symbolizing the return of the souls for the holiday. The Catrina Vestida de Mariposas stands tall and elegant with her dress adorned in monarch butterflies. The changes of the seasons prompts the migration of many monarch butterflies in North America to travel south to Mexico for the winter. Monarch migration occurs in the fall around the celebration of Dia de los Muertos. (There is an oversized monarch sculpture and display in the Garden’s Fogg Café as well).

Artist Frida Kahlo is another artistic icon and inspiration for Mexican women and is popularly depicted in a La Catrina sculpture. Frida is very distinctive with her signature look – where she proudly celebrates her Mexican heritage by wearing traditional costumes and colors.

You will find the eight iconic figures towering over the Florida Garden, and there is one unnamed dapper lady inside the gift shop. 

The Naples Botanical website has this information about artist Ricardo Soltero, who designed the sculptures. Soltero was born in Nayarit, Mexico, and is the set designer for the largest Día de los Muertos celebration in the United States, which takes place annually at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Ricardo is a sculptor and a costume designer and uses diverse media including papier-mâché, recycled materials, wood, fiberglass, and fabric.

Post Ian update: According to the staff report, during Hurricane Irma, nearly 340 trees were lost. Ian was less destructive to the Garden but left different sets of challenges. Parts of the Garden were flooded for the first time in its history and Ian’s winds snapped more branches than toppled trees.

Naples Botanical Garden is looking good thanks to an amazing effort from their staff. During this visit, we saw the garden crew busily adding mulch around vegetation. If you look upwards, the taller trees are thinner and some of the leaves are still yellowish to brown. But you will also notice the rebirth of light green leaves and buds.

The La Calavera Catrina Exhibit will run through March 5, 2023.