The word catrin in its female form catrina has in some Mexican-Spanish dialect the meaning of elegant or fashionable, coming from the verb camer meaning to flatter, to woo.
The image of La Catrina was made farther famous when Diego Rivera incorporated it in his mural Dream of a Sunday in Alamandra Park.
The Catrina is the widely known Lady of the Death who has somehow become a symbolic figure of Mexico as a symbol of unique Mexican art since her first appearance in 1913 in Jose Guadalupe Posadas zinc etching The Calavera Catrina [The Elegant Skull]. The Calavera Catrina was part of a series of Calaveras, humorous images of contemporary figures depicted as skeletons. The Calavera images with Catrina in lead are often incorporated in the celebrations of the Day of the Death on November 1 and 2, corresponding with the Catholic holy days of All Saints and All Souls and recently with La Noche de Brujas [Halloween].