Museo José Guadalupe Posada

The Museo José Guadalupe Posada sits on the edge of the Jardín del Encino in the Barrio del Encino, the old Aguascalientes City neighborhood where the printmaker grew up, and occupies a low colonial-era building attached to the Templo del Señor del Encino. Inside, galleries arranged around a courtyard display original broadsheets, lithographic stones, engraving plates and printed calaveras by Posada, the Aguascalientes-born artist whose skeletal figures — above all La Catrina — became a defining image of Mexican visual culture and a direct influence on Rivera, Orozco and the muralist generation. Alongside the Posada holdings the museum shows work by his teacher Manuel Manilla and rotates temporary exhibitions of contemporary Mexican printmaking, so repeat visitors rarely see the same secondary galleries twice. What makes the collection worth the detour from the historic center is seeing the physical matrices — zinc plates and worn lithographic stones — beside the cheap newsprint broadsides they produced, which shows how Posada's satire reached ordinary readers in late nineteenth-century Mexico. A visit runs about an hour to an hour and a half, longer for those who read the wall texts closely. Late morning suits the schedule best, since the museum opens at 11:00AM Wednesday through Sunday and closes Monday and Tuesday, and an early arrival leaves time to cross into the Jardín del Encino afterward. The courtyard and the adjoining chapel facade give the strongest photo angles, with the garden's ahuehuete trees framing the building from the plaza side. Wednesday brings free admission and correspondingly larger groups, including school visits; Thursday and Friday mornings are the quietest windows. Crowds also thicken around Día de los Muertos in late October and early November, when Posada's calavera imagery draws extra attention across the state of Aguascalientes. Admission is low at $20 MXN for adults, with $10 MXN for students, teachers and INAPAM card holders, and no advance booking or timed entry applies, so visitors can simply arrive during opening hours. There is no audio guide, though staff at the desk answer questions in Spanish and printed panels cover the main biographical points.