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Drawing Fame · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grim & Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable. And if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Jose looked out across his home in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico,
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  Speaker 1: or what was left of it. A nearby river had flooded,
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  Speaker 1: and the city was now underwater. He had lost friends
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  Speaker 1: and family, and he would have to start all over.
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  Speaker 1: Jose was a cartoonist who knew how to use new
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  Speaker 1: modern printing technologies like lithography and engraving to mass-produce his cartoons.
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  Speaker 1: Since he couldn't stay in Leon, the next most logical
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  Speaker 1: place to move was Mexico City. where a newspaper could
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  Speaker 1: surely make use of his abilities. Arriving in the city
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  Speaker 1: in 1889, he soon found work with publisher Antonio Venejas Arroyo,
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  Speaker 1: one of the most successful newspapermen in Mexico. Antonio had
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  Speaker 1: a big problem, too. Only 32% of Mexicans at the
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  Speaker 1: time could read. And since he wasn't about to tackle
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  Speaker 1: the country's education problem himself, his next best solution was
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  Speaker 1: to hire Jose to draw eye-catching cartoons in his newspaper.
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  Speaker 1: And Jose, was happy to have the work, and he
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  Speaker 1: set out into the city for inspiration. In early November,
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  Speaker 1: he saw people celebrating All Saints Day, which in Mexico
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  Speaker 1: was a hybrid Catholic and indigenous holiday honoring the dead.
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  Speaker 1: The thought of the old Aztec folklore warmed him on
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  Speaker 1: his cold night. He thought of the priests making offerings
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  Speaker 1: to their ancestors with skeletons and flowers on the altars.
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  Speaker 1: And these ancient Aztec traditions had carried over into José' s time.
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  Speaker 1: with people using crucifixes and saint icons added into the mix.
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  Speaker 1: The old Catholic missionaries had incorporated the holiday rather than
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  Speaker 1: outright abolish it. And this mixture of skulls and saints,
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  Speaker 1: bones and flowers, well, it was almost cute. So he
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  Speaker 1: started incorporating these skulls, or calaveras, into his artwork for
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  Speaker 1: the newspaper. He drew the local peasants as skeletons with
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  Speaker 1: sombreros and skirts, dancing, drinking, and playing instruments. and the
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  Speaker 1: Calaveras were an immediate success. The illiterate audience was pulled in,
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  Speaker 1: recognizing themselves in the artwork. Instead of being off-put by
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  Speaker 1: being depicted as skeletons, people were honored. This artwork connected
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  Speaker 1: them to their ancient indigenous ancestors, as if they were
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  Speaker 1: all one people stretching back through time. And they needed
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  Speaker 1: this encouragement, too, because this was a time of extreme
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  Speaker 1: oppression in Mexico. Just a few years earlier, in 1876,
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  Speaker 1: the dictator Porfirio Diaz had overthrown the Mexican government and
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  Speaker 1: essentially sold the country out to the United States. He
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  Speaker 1: forced the poor from their homes to make railroads and
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  Speaker 1: mines that could export goods to the U.S. He even
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  Speaker 1: forced some workers into laboring on these projects against their will.
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  Speaker 1: This all came to a head in 1911, when Diaz
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  Speaker 1: refused to recognize the results of an election and the
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  Speaker 1: people of the lower and upper classes rioted, ousting him
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  Speaker 1: from the country. This was the beginning of the Mexican Revolution,
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  Speaker 1: which was, in truth, also a civil war between various
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  Speaker 1: political factions in Mexico. And José, our artist, saw the
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  Speaker 1: violence developing all around him and produced even more cartoons,
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  Speaker 1: depicting both the wealthy elites and the poor guerrilla fighters
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  Speaker 1: as caballeros. He tried to show how they were all
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  Speaker 1: human underneath their clothes and skin. But Jose had lived
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  Speaker 1: a hard life in a hard time. He descended into
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  Speaker 1: alcoholism during the next few years, and he died in
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  Speaker 1: 1913 from complications related to that disease. He was buried
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  Speaker 1: in an unmarked grave without a penny to his name,
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  Speaker 1: despite his impact on the culture of Mexico. And that
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  Speaker 1: impact would only increase in the years after his death.
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  Speaker 1: José' s artwork continued to be adopted by the people, being
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  Speaker 1: incorporated more and more frequently into Day of the Dead celebrations. Paintings, sculptures, altars,
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  Speaker 1: and toys all mimicked his calaveras. And as a result,
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  Speaker 1: those cute clothed and decorated skeletons became the most famous
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  Speaker 1: artistic image in Mexico, despite people not knowing José' s name.
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  Speaker 1: But he was admired in certain circles— By the 1950s,
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  Speaker 1: José Posada was depicted on the artwork of left-wing newspapers
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  Speaker 1: in Mexico that still wanted more rights for the working class.
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  Speaker 1: They imagined him, in the early 1900s, seeing the violent
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  Speaker 1: industrialization of the Díaz regime and assumed that he would
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  Speaker 1: support their cause. In truth, he was dismayed by the
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  Speaker 1: violence that he saw on both sides of the political spectrum.
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  Speaker 1: But he certainly did criticize the ruling elites, often drawing
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  Speaker 1: calaveras in the wide hats and flowering dresses— of the
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  Speaker 1: wealthy women of this time. As with any country, Mexico
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  Speaker 1: has continued to have its political shifts, but Jose Posada's
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  Speaker 1: impact has only grown. Day of the Dead has become
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  Speaker 1: more and more popular across North America, and the Calaveras
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  Speaker 1: are always present in these celebrations and in depictions of
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  Speaker 1: the holiday. Calaveras have appeared in films like Pixar's Coco
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  Speaker 1: and the James Bond film Spectre. I guess it goes
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  Speaker 1: to show you that you never know just how big
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  Speaker 1: of an impact your work might have on the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the world. For Jose Posada, the results were curious.
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  Speaker 1: The curtains were drawn, the candles had been extinguished, and
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  Speaker 1: Parker's sheets had been neatly pulled back. He snuggled up inside,
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  Speaker 1: his old bones creaking, because he was weary. As the
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  Speaker 1: moonlight shone on his drowsy face, he began to drift
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  Speaker 1: to sleep. But the moonlight suddenly got brighter, a glow
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  Speaker 1: filling his room. He blinked his eyes open, only to
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  Speaker 1: find the ghost of Sir George Villers of Leicestershire standing
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  Speaker 1: in his bedroom. It was early 1628 in England. The
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  Speaker 1: exact date and Parker's full name are unknown to us,
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  Speaker 1: and yet versions of this story have circulated since the
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  Speaker 1: 17th century. Whether Parker really saw a ghost is up
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  Speaker 1: to you, but the murder that it supposedly predicted was
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  Speaker 1: absolutely real. Parker had been friends with Sir George in
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  Speaker 1: real life, so he was astonished to see him standing there.
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  Speaker 1: The ghost stepped forward with a dire request for Parker.
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  Speaker 1: He begged him to go to Sir George's son, George Villers,
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  Speaker 1: the Duke of Buckingham, and the Duke was beloved by
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  Speaker 1: the King, James I., and was close friends with his son,
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  Speaker 1: the recently crowned Charles I. He was one of the
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  Speaker 1: most powerful men in England, but his father had a
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  Speaker 1: premonition from the beyond, and if he didn't retreat from court,
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  Speaker 1: from the company of dangerous politicians and generals, he would
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  Speaker 1: soon meet a violent end. So, to some, we have
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  Speaker 1: the ghost of a George who is worried about his
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  Speaker 1: living son George and is bringing a warning to Parker.
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  Speaker 1: And then, The ghost disappeared, and Parker could hardly believe
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  Speaker 1: what had just taken place. In fact, he chose not
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  Speaker 1: to believe it. He brushed it off as a delusion
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  Speaker 1: brought on by fatigue. But the next night, the candles
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  Speaker 1: were once again extinguished, and the bed was once again
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  Speaker 1: turned down. Parker climbed onto the bed and tried to relax,
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  Speaker 1: and just as he drifted off, a loud shout came
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  Speaker 1: from the corner of the room. He jumped up, only
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  Speaker 1: to find the ghost of Sir George Sr. once again
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  Speaker 1: in his room, this time with his teeth bared and
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  Speaker 1: his eyes blazing like fire. He was furious that Parker
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  Speaker 1: had not gone to warn his son, the Duke of Buckingham.
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  Speaker 1: Parker promised that this time he would heed his old
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  Speaker 1: friend's warning and go to see the son. Sometime later,
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  Speaker 1: Parker found himself in Lambeth in southern London by the
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  Speaker 1: River Thames. Parker looked down into the murky water below
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  Speaker 1: and imagined Sir George reaching out to pull him in
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  Speaker 1: if he didn't go through with his demands. Luckily, the
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  Speaker 1: meeting had already been arranged, the Duke arrived with his entourage,
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  Speaker 1: Parker had requested privacy, and so the Duke walked and
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  Speaker 1: talked with him while his men waited behind. And Parker
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  Speaker 1: could see why the king might favor the Duke. He
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  Speaker 1: was quite handsome, with plump red lips, a Roman nose,
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  Speaker 1: bright eyes, and a delicately feathered goatee. The Duke seemed
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  Speaker 1: impatient as Parker shared what had taken place. He acted
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  Speaker 1: like he would rather not be there. like he would
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  Speaker 1: rather still be on a hunting trip that he had
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  Speaker 1: just come from. But when Parker told him that the
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  Speaker 1: ghost had been his own father and said that the
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  Speaker 1: Duke would soon meet a violent end, the Duke just laughed.
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  Speaker 1: He shook his head and walked back to his coach.
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  Speaker 1: That night, Parker couldn't sleep. Sure enough, the ghost of
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  Speaker 1: Sir George Sr. appeared once more, but he wasn't angry
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  Speaker 1: this time. He thanked his old friend Parker for trying
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  Speaker 1: to convince his son to leave court, but he knew
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  Speaker 1: that it hadn't worked. The Duke suddenly pulled a gleaming
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  Speaker 1: dagger from his clothes, which Parker noted were distinctly old-fashioned
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  Speaker 1: from the time when Sir George had died many years earlier.
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  Speaker 1: His ghost proclaimed that the dagger was the weapon that
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  Speaker 1: would soon take his son's life. In August of 1628,
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  Speaker 1: the Duke of Buckingham entered the Greyhound Inn in Portsmouth.
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  Speaker 1: He was there only for a short while before a
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  Speaker 1: shadowy figure emerged, quickly moving toward him before just as
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  Speaker 1: quickly fleeing. When some of the patrons of the inn
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  Speaker 1: turned to ask the Duke if anything was wrong, he
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  Speaker 1: slowly turned around, coughing up blood. He shouted, villain, and
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  Speaker 1: revealed that the shadowy figure had plunged a knife into
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  Speaker 1: his chest. He plucked out the knife and stared at
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  Speaker 1: it for a moment before collapsing onto a table in
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  Speaker 1: front of him. The Duke had been assassinated by John Felton,
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  Speaker 1: a disgruntled lieutenant of one of the Duke's disastrous military campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: He had been denied two promotions and was owed a
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  Speaker 1: large amount of back pay. Although, curiously enough, the Duke's
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  Speaker 1: death wasn't the only one that the ghost had predicted.
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  Speaker 1: You see, when Sir George Sr. last visited Parker in
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  Speaker 1: his sleep, he warned him that he too would soon
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  Speaker 1: meet his death, but it would be due to natural causes.
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  Speaker 1: And sure enough, Parker died of old age not long
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  Speaker 1: after that. It was a chilling end to a chilling story.
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  Speaker 1: But then again, maybe it's not that impressive to predict
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  Speaker 1: the natural death of an aging Englishman and the assassination
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  Speaker 1: of an unpopular politician. If the ghost of Sir George
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  Speaker 1: was real, he made some really easy bets. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: This show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim &
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  Speaker 1: Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show and the people who make it over at
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  Speaker 1: grimandmild.com slash curiosities. You'll also find a link to the
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  Speaker 1: official Cabinet of Curiosities hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
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  Speaker 1: as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: for an ad-free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all
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  Speaker 1: the same stories, but without the interruption for a small
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  Speaker 1: monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at patreon.com
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  Speaker 1: slash grimandmild. And until next time... Stay curious.