Mexican Calendar Chromo “Leyenda de Mayab” 1940s

Publisher: Galas De Mexico. A Mayan legend is portrayed, and we would love to know the story.

In the Mexican calendar trade, chromos, short for chromolithographs, were the pictorial element of the calendar, the other two elements being the lower backing, the faldilla, to which was stapled the santoral, the date pad. A few were commissioned for important products and by major establishments but most were designed to be personalized for the businesses the calendar companies sold to. At the beginning of the last century these chromos were printed in Germany but by the thirties the Mexicans were producing and designing their own calendar art during what became a golden age of Mexican pictorial genius and a unique expression of the Mexican character and soul.  These became treasured decorations in Mexican homes.