Xylography
175 × 116,5 cm

– from the series Apropiaciones indebidas

The woodcuts of Peña Peraltas make reference to José Guadalupe Posada’s print cycle Calaveras, which depicts dead persons in everyday situations of human life, for example while playing the song Besame Mucho. The work on display, created in 2011, alludes to the popular song Babalú that tells of the wandering figure of Death, Babalú Ayé, who only spares those persons who offer him cigars and hard liquor as payment for free passage. In his quirkiness, Death appears to be quite human. We all end up like him when the hour has come and we must relinquish our vanities.