Little is known of the life and work of Manuel Manilla. He was born circa 1830, and died of typhus in the late 1890's. In 1882, Manilla began work as the first illustrator/engraver at Antonio Vanegas Arroyos studio in Mexico City. He is credited with making approximately 500 engravings while there, relating to subjects including street life, story characters, corridos, bullfighting, circus and magic scenes, and the Virgin. He was an artist of the people. Manilla was a teacher and predecessor of José Guadalupe Posada. Manilla began popularizing the calaveras, or skeleton caricatures, in the Mexican press. The calaveras were produced to be sold on the Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, celebrated on November 2nd. Shortly after José Guadalupe Posada began to work for Vanegas Arroyo in 1892, Manilla retired.
José Guadalupe Posada was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 1852. For a short while, both men worked together at Antonio Vanegas Arroyos studio. Posada was an illustrator, engraver, and etcher. He was not well known or widely acclaimed during his lifetime. His popularity began in the years following the Mexican Revolution, and he is now considered one of Mexicos greatest printmakers. Vanegas Arroyo estimates that Posada produced more than 15,000 engravings, devoted to expressing the sorrows, joys, and hopes of the Mexican people. Diego Rivera wrote that "[a] study of his work would give a complete picture of the social life of the Mexican people... In Posadas work everything and everybody is caricatured as skeleton, from the cat to the cook, from Porfirio Díaz to Zapata, including the farmer, the artisan, the dandy, not to mention the worker, the peasant and indeed the Spanish coloniser. Posada died in 1913, soon after the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. He was buried in a paupers grave.
From the guide to the Manilla and Posada Collection, [189-?]-1913, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)
