Mexico City: a 33-metre Catrina towers over the Zócalo ahead of Day of the Dead
· BehindLines newsroom
Mexico City has erected a giant Catrina on its central square, presented as the largest of its kind. According to the site UkrMedia, the statue is 33.41 metres tall and towers over the Zócalo on the eve of Day of the Dead. The details below rest mostly on that single site; Wide Open Country confirms the existence of the record and the monument, but only in its headline and in general terms.
A record confirmed by Guinness
According to UkrMedia, the sculpture was unveiled on 29 October, three days before this article was published. A Guinness World Records representative, Alfredo Arista, confirmed its height of 33.411 metres, and the organisation registered it as the tallest statue of its type in the world. It surpasses the previous record, a 28.15-metre sculpture erected in 2023 in Puerto Vallarta, also in Mexico. Wide Open Country's headline refers to a 108-foot skeleton (about 32.9 metres, a slightly different figure) breaking a Guinness record; its text describes a skeleton dressed in purple surrounded by thousands of marigolds in the Zócalo, the capital's great historic square.
Cardboard, fibreglass and 70,000 flowers
Again according to UkrMedia, the work was made by artisans from the Xibalbá workshop, with around 140 artists and technical specialists. The materials are cardboard, fibreglass, fabric and a steel frame. The purple dress is more than 27 metres long. Around the figure, some 70,000 orange cempasúchil flowers, the traditional marigold, have been arranged, along with 66 decorative axolotl figures. The statue can be visited until 2 November.
A figure born of satire
UkrMedia recalls that the image of the Catrina appeared in the early twentieth century from the pen of graphic artist José Guadalupe Posada, who used it to mock social inequality and the desire to imitate European fashion. The character later became part of the Día de Muertos celebrations.
Wide Open Country adds that the holiday, recognised on 1 and 2 November, blends a very old Aztec tradition, with roots going back at least 3,000 years, and the All Souls' Day brought by the Spanish in the early sixteenth century. The US outlet calls the Catrina the holiday's unofficial mascot.