José Guadalupe Posada: Cancioneros (Songbooks)

José Guadalupe Posada illustrated many small booklets, typically under 20 pages in length and measuring roughly 9x12cm in dimension. These little publications are known in English as chapbooks; in Spanish, they are referred to as Cuadernos or Cuentos. Chapbooks contained a variety of favorite subjects including but not limited to prayers, religious themes, recipes, short stories, songs, plays, and verses. As with the broadsides, the images that appeared in chapbooks were printed on a variety of newsprint quality paper stock. Sometimes the paper was colored, sometimes images were hand colored, and many images were used over again for different stories. Front covers usually were illustrated with an image related to the content of the chapbook. Sometimes there were illustrations on the inside, and often there was an advertisement on the back. Below are selected images of the covers of these cancioneros (songbooks).