A wave of skeletal grins and rhyming farewells sweeps across the page, each stanza a playful sendoff from the calaveras—those irrepressible skeletons that have become icons of Mexican popular art. The green-tinted sheet, brimming with verse and bordered by mischievous skulls, draws the viewer into a carnival of the dead, where humor and mortality dance together. The title, Lúgubre Despedimento que hacen las calaveras de los estados a la república, sets the tone: this is no ordinary obituary, but a satirical parade, each city and state receiving its own morbidly comic adieu.

The small woodcut illustrations, with their skeletal figures raising goblets or gesturing dramatically, punctuate the text like visual exclamations, inviting us to laugh at death’s universality. Emerging from the vibrant world of early 20th-century Mexico, this print by José Guadalupe Posada belongs to a tradition of popular broadsides—cheaply printed sheets that mixed news, satire, and social commentary for a wide audience. In 1905, such works were sold on street corners, their biting humor and bold imagery instantly recognizable. Posada’s calaveras, often used to lampoon politicians and poke fun at the living, have become enduring symbols of the Día de los Muertos spirit: irreverent, communal, and unafraid to face the inevitable with a smile.

Though little is recorded about the journey of this specific sheet, its presence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection ensures that the laughter of the calaveras continues to echo, daring us to look closer and find ourselves among their ranks.