LVSG Spooked by Posada Skeletons

By Michael Bromka

Carlsbad LVSG members reveled in dancing skeletons and leering skulls (“calaveras”) engraved by Jose Guadalupe Posada, currently on exhibition at the Carlsbad Municipal Museum. Although two of the four LVSG day-trippers are legally blind, they raptly enjoyed vivid narration by Museum attendants Dalton Emig and Dean Richardson.

Low Vision Support Group’s president Deborah Pinching, her stalwart raconteur husband, Richard, Ann Halford, plus this reporter toured a comprehensive display of Posada’s engaging artwork. The famous Mexican engraver, Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), thrived artistically alongside Mexican president/dictator Porfirio Díaz and the unrest leading to revolution.

Posada depicted crime, scandal, floods, and epidemics—all with raw tabloid skill to encourage sales of newspaper broadsheets, equivalent to 21st-century cable TV. Among the hardscrabble working poor, one imagines literate customers reading aloud to less educated folks drawn in by Posada’s art.

Serving local folks with diminishing eyesight, LVSG meets at 10 a.m. on the last Thursday of each month. Every other month, the group meets at the Church Street Church of the Nazarene. In intervening months, the group takes a field trip.

The aim is to counter isolation, frustration, and depression that may plague anyone with diminishing vision. The group asks all Carlsbad Local readers to get the word out that they are available to help.

Those who know someone with diminishing eyesight should pass along the name and number of LVSG President Debbie Pinching, 575 706-8863, Low Vision Support Group. It’s voicemail because she screens out spam. Real folks? She calls back!

Regarding Carlsbad Museum’s Posada exhibition, October will feature an opening, art classes, and other events themed around both Halloween and the ensuing Día de los Muertos. Mexico’s Day of the Dead honors everyone’s ancestors with veneration, food, and heartfelt humor.

Museum Attendants Dalton Emig and Dean Richardson flank Carlsbad LVSG members, left to right: Richard and Debbie Pinching, Michael Bromka, and Ann Halford.

Ann Halford of Carlsbad LVSG uses her magnifying glass to scrutinize a photo of Jess Negrete “El Tigre de Santa Julio,” a notorious bandit who was eventually captured and shot.