Sharp Trader
Floating in a lonely yellow square, this tiny, scratchy profile of a bearded man delivers a surprisingly ruthless message from Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada. While famous for his Day of the Dead skeletons, Posada was also a master of social satire, and here he mocks the opportunistic 'sharp trader' who abandons honesty to get ahead. The accompanying Spanish poem essentially advises readers to forget integrity because 'when others go, you're already coming back!' It ends with a cheeky reminder that since you have a beard, you're old enough to live life on your own ruthless terms. This little caricature captures the cynical, hustling spirit of the era perfectly.