How 'La Catrina' became the iconic symbol of Day of the Dead
The melee was unrelated to U.S. participation in World War II, labor unrest or President Franklin D. Roosevelt's controversial move to seize control of local Chicago industries. The exhibition featured the prints of José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican engraver who had died in 1913. On display were his calaveras, the satirical skull and skeleton illustrations he made for Day of the Dead, which he printed on cheap, single-sheet newspapers known as broadsides.