Ms. Diaz classes learned about Day of the Dead (Nov. 1st & 2nd). This year, they focused on the iconic Catrina. She was first drawn by José Guadalupe Posada to critique the Mexican woman who was obsessed with the European's way. Under Porfirio Díaz, people were starving but, yet you had these women being flamboyant. It was a satirical critique of the bourgeois society during the late 19th-century dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, when the extravagant silk attire of well-to-do Mexicans starkly contrasted with the harsh reality faced by most of the country. It really went unnoticed for a while until Diego Rivera decided to include La calavera garbancera as it was named originally in his mural. Diego Rivera named her La Catrina in his Mural A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Almeda Park.
Overtime the look became synonymous with Dia de los Muertos. Many who celebrate the holiday now paint their faces depicting La Catrina. They decided to make a paper maché Catrina. They used water bottles, newspaper, sticks, cardboard, paper, flowers (some made others bought) etc.