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Some years ago, there was a fad of making and smashing piñatas in the shape of Donald Trump. More recently, something similar happened with those made like coronaviruses.
This was primarily a phenomenon in the United States. Piñatas haven’t really had a history of being used for political and social statements in Mexico.
But one of the piñata’s papier-mache cousins, the Judas, was used for that purpose — and it almost led to its demise.
Today is Holy Saturday, the day between the commemoration of the death of Christ and the celebration of his resurrection. It is also the day, according to tradition, when the apostle Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus to Roman authorities for money, committed suicide.
For the unspeakable sin of betraying the son of God, Judas has long been an icon of evil second only to the Devil himself in the eyes of Catholics.
In southern Europe, a tradition arose of making effigies to represent Judas, then burning them on Holy Saturday as a way to repudiate evil and purify the community for the upcoming celebrations. The Spanish took this tradition with them to the New World.
Of course, Mexico made changes. One of these was to forego the crude human figure made of whatever was on hand to something that required more artistic talent — often in a hard papier-mache craft style called cartonería.
Eventually, a figure of the Devil...