The iconic image associated with Day of the Dead is the La Calavera Catrina by Jose Guadalupe Posada. She wears a large European style hat satirizing the high society Mexicans and social climbers of his day who dressed and assumed foreign manners. The skeletal resemblance came from the propensity to wear very pale makeup, in an effort to whiten the skin.
With Mictecacihuatl, the goddess of death of the underworld as his muse, Posada came up with what we know today as the current image of La Catrina. Mictecacihuatl is the keeper of bones in the underworld; the ancient overseer of Aztec fiestas. In modern times, these celebrations have become intertwined with All Saints’ Day and other adopted ceremonies of the Catholic Church.*
*Source: https://www.theyucatantimes.com
Mestizaje
Officially Oaxaca is considered to be a mestizo city, which means that despite its numerous indigenous residents, the city is taken to belong “first” to a national ethnic culture. Today the word “mestizo” is proudly embraced as the very “type” of national Mexican ethnic identity; in part, this pride reflects some of the gains of Mexican independence, when Mexican-born residents of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry ceased to be second-class citizens in the eyes of the law. Behind the national celebratory account of “race mixing,” or mestizaje, lies a historical ideology that equated national “progress” with whitening or Europeanizing. At the root of the positive, nationalizing account of mestizaje was a vision of an evolutionary process of “race” improvement: the goal was the very disappearance of indigenous peoples and their culture.
Days of Death, Days of Life by Kristin Norget, Columbia University Press 2006