The very Sensational Plot of Jesús Negrete, a.k.a., The Tiger of Santa Julia

The engraver, José Guadalupe Posada, is considered to be the artist who best represents the popular Mexican imaginary at the dawning of the XXth century. In a style that was mocking, satirical, critical and even sinister, Posada recorded everyday events and the most curious features of Mexican life. Today, his drawing, originally published in newspapers or in the form of broadsheets, form part of Mexican cultural history, as well as constituting a graphic record of happenings during the dictatorship of General Porfirio Díaz, who governed the country from 1876 to 1911. Figures such as that of Caralampia Mondongo and the Skeleton Catrina are the ones usually associated with the artist, who devoted himself to a wide range of topics, including political affairs, natural disasters, social scandals, religious matters, femmes fatales and their charms, city scenes and popular pastimes, as well as producing humorous depictions of characters such as Emiliano Zapata and the Mexican president, or of figures from the lower classes who rose to notoriety, such as Jesús Negrete, a.k.a. the Tiger of Santa Julia, who became a legend due to his lawbreaking sprees and his killing of policemen who were hunting him down. ^í The text that accompanies this drawing recounts how the above-mentioned robber and murderer was arrested and taken to the Belén Penitentiary, where he was executed in December of 1910. The drawing itself recreates a legendary incident in which the Tiger eluded justice by murdering his captors with the help of a lady friend. This work entered the MUNAL in 1982 as part of its founding endowment.