A particularly popular DotD figure. I don’t know her story but she is always one of the main characters along with the bride and groom.
Here’s one explanation from a children’s website:
‘…the star is the Elegant Lady, whom you can always recognize by her feathered hat. The word calavera means skull in Spanish, but is also the name of a lot of things relating to the dead, poems, drawings, candy skulls and more.
‘This famous calavera who happily lives among the Mexicans is called Catrina. You will always find her very elegantly dressed to go out with her great feathered hat. Her creator was draftsman, painter and engraver José Guadalupe Posada, who lived at the beginning of this century. Posada was a great illustrator of his people and his times. His work includes more than 930 illustrations that reflect the Mexico of the end of last century and the beginning of this one: political and cultural events, and the customs, traditions and feelings of his country… he was like a reporter of Mexico, but in drawings.
‘Posada drew our Catrina imitating the French-styled ladies of his era, that is to say, they imitated the fashions of France; they were known as Catrinas or dressed-up ladies, and their husbands as Catrinos. That is why he thought of using a skull as a figure we can play with, decorate, and even joke about.’