Tracing Mexico's Shifting Cultural Identity through Print Media: El Cancionero Popular, num. 3 (1871)

This print is 29.7x21.9 cm pamphlet on newspaper type material. It was created along with others like it between 1871 and 1913 out of Mexico City, Mexico by José Guadalupe Posada. This print and others were produced out Antonio Vanegas Arroyo's printing housing and were sold as entertainment to common folk in Mexico City. The songbooks contained full length songs and simple verses, with subjects that included but were not limited to prayers and religious themes, short stories and plays, and were sold and produced cheaply. It was created using one of two techniques popular to Posada at the time: black line and white line lithography. Research into these specific songbooks is limited, so a deep dive was done into the creators.

José Guadalupe Posada was an artist that was not recognized by many during his lifetime, but post mortem became known for his popular prints that were spread throughout Mexico City. Posada began his life as an artist in his hometown of Augacalientes, working under Manuel Manilla creating political cartoons. He was then forced to leave due to political opposition, where he became a teacher of Lithography at the Leon secondary school for 4 years. Only then did he move to Mexico City in order to work in Antonio Venegas Arroyo's printing shop, where he stayed for the rest of his life and produced his most famous works. Posada created work that ranged from chapbook covers, to newspaper and magazine mastheads, to broadsheets, to songbooks, even as far as cigar box lids. His work became very influential in Mexico because he was working under the Diaz Regime, which was known for censoring and corrupting journalists and their work. He drew much of his inspiration from the spirit of rebellion created by Diaz's reelection, producing satirical figures of landowners, corrupt religious figures and even Diaz himself at times. Little is known of the inner workings of his mind, as he left no writings, but it is known that he had a wife and a child who ended up passing away at a young age. 

Antonio Vanegas Arroyo ran a successful printing house out of Mexico City, Mexico with Posada being his main artist. He produced many different styles of prints in order to meet the needs of the common population of Mexico City. He was known for using cheap materials to create cheap prints that were meant to go into the hands of the literate population. His goal was spread news in a way that made it entertaining and easily accessible, and allowed the lower class population of Mexico City have access to the same kind of news and more as the elite class. He was popular among the merchant class of Mexico City, so he hid his involvement in prestigious and influential activity of newspaper publishing in order to keep up an image for the public, who did not wish to participate in the commodity consumption of the elites. There was a deep class division that was present due to the reign of Diaz and his political policies that focused less on assisting the poor peasants present in Mexico and focused more on growing the Mexican national economy. Many of the works created by Vanegas and Posada reflected the rapid industrialization that was occurring throughout Mexico City, which is seen in the first song present in this songbook. It discusses the women traveling by train through the different cities, a feat that would not have been possible before Diaz's expansion of the railroads.

Photo Courtesy of City of Albuquerque