Political Piñata
Leopoldo Méndez Mexican
Not on view
A piñata is a large, hollow ornament filled with sweets or fruit. It is broken in a game during parties and celebrations. In this print a worker uses a baton to break a piñata representing President Plutarco Elias Calles and his Constitutional Revolutionary Party that is presented as a disguise for capitalism. At right, a group of supporters cheers him on. The inscription on his baton, Feliz Año 1936, implies that the print was designed as a New Year’s card, with the hopes of the imminent defeat of Calles and capitalism.