This little item is just a little esoteric, but let me explain the elements. This is a figure popular in the folk art of New Mexico, and this probably has to do with the region of Spain from whence most of the colonists came in the early 17th century. It shows a skeleton driving an oxcart, and the ox is also a skeleton. It is understood that he is making trip to the cemetery to take the dead there. He is sort of like a Grim Reaper, as far as his role in life (in death, actually).
The Day of the Dead has its roots in both Catholic Spain and Mesoamerican culture. The Spanish All Souls Day coincided with
an Indian festival wherein the Indians believed that the souls of their deceased relatives came back to visit them. So the Indian
feast was incorporated into Catholic ritual, and it has been a big part of Mexican culture ever since. The Day of the Dead art as
we know it today is embodied more than anything in the work of Guadalupe Posada. His “calaveras” as they are called (literally
“skeletons”) , are part of a rich tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, specifically to the work of
Hans Holbein the Younger, and to the work of the Danse Macabre artists. These artists used the figure of the skeleton to
burlesque and lampoon the powers that be - and so did Posada, whose works were actually political cartoons that reflected a
social viewpoint that was traditionally expressed in this type of art. Other artists before Posada in Mexico were also doing the
same thing, and he had contemporaries who did also, and some of these persons have had their work confused with that of
Posada.
Posada might have been forgotten if it were not for the attention given to him by Diego Rivera, who undertook a revival of his art
and called world attention to his work and to his person. Rivera was seeking to both elevate Posada to a position of historical
and attach his own shining star to Posada’s, which was a move typical of Rivera’s self promotion.
This is made entirely out of recycled wood, except for the skeleton's face, which is made from hard dental plaster. These items are unique because we make them ourselves, at our chop in Ojinaga.
From Fausto's Art Gallery in Ojinaga, Chihuahua. (Shipped from Presidio, Texas)
The Day of the Dead has its roots in both Catholic Spain and Mesoamerican culture. The Spanish All Souls Day coincided with
an Indian festival wherein the Indians believed that the souls of their deceased relatives came back to visit them. So the Indian
feast was incorporated into Catholic ritual, and it has been a big part of Mexican culture ever since. The Day of the Dead art as
we know it today is embodied more than anything in the work of Guadalupe Posada. His “calaveras” as they are called (literally
“skeletons”) , are part of a rich tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, specifically to the work of
Hans Holbein the Younger, and to the work of the Danse Macabre artists. These artists used the figure of the skeleton to
burlesque and lampoon the powers that be - and so did Posada, whose works were actually political cartoons that reflected a
social viewpoint that was traditionally expressed in this type of art. Other artists before Posada in Mexico were also doing the
same thing, and he had contemporaries who did also, and some of these persons have had their work confused with that of
Posada. 
