Skelton Cyclists

Skeletons are pedaling bicycles. The bicycle race of skeletons has started. A skeleton with a silk hat is leading the race. In second place are skeletons with a feather hat and a hood respectively. The skeleton with an iron helmet has tumbled and fallen down. Following behind is a skeleton with a white beard, and at the end, a skeleton with a crown of fireworks is trying to catch up.
At the end of the 19th century, the invention of the bicycle led to a popularization of bicycle races, and Mexico's folk printer Posada also drew satirical prints, such as this "Skeleton Cyclists". Although they are omitted here since this work is a later print, the names of newspapers issued in those days in Mexico were written on each skeleton in the initial version. This was a time of upheaval, when revolution was about to break out, and the question in everyone's mind was "Who can give us a vision of the new Mexico?". While Díaz's dictatorial government was collapsing, newspapers supported by the different classes of society set forth argument against each other, and this was surely a matter of serious concern to the people of Mexico, Posada, as a spokesman of the masses, describes the situation of the newspaper "race" in the form of a bizarre and yet comical figures of skeletons.
(Source: Selected Works from the Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum, 1998, P. 47.)