History Main / Calacas

* ''VideoGame/{{Brawlhalla}}'': Some Legends have Day of the Dead inspired skins where they wear mexican clothes decorated with marigolds and roses, their faces painted to resemble calacas and getting new thematically appropiate weapon skins. So far the legends with these kind of skins are Cassidy, Queen Nai (makes sense, being from a {{Mayincatec}} inspired culture), Azoth (fitting, since he's a [[DemBones Lich]]) and VideoGame/{{Rayman}}.

* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': Mexican shaman Peyote Díaz has his former mariachi band as guardian spirits. As explained by the man himself, they were all killed in bar fights they themselves started. The band manifested by possessing a set of calacas dolls and Peyote could control them via strumming his guitar.

Originating in Mayan traditions that survived the Spanish conquest, Calacas are representations of the dead celebrated in Mexican art and holidays, particularly Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

* "Art/MysticalMedleysAVintageCartoonTarot": The "Three of Cups" features a trio of skeletal women dressed in Mexican-feminine attire, each dancing with a gold-colored cup.

* ''VideoGame/RaymanLegends'': The Mexican themed world Fiesta de los Muertos features skeletons as a common {{Mooks}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHigh'': Skelita Calaveras is a calaca.

[[folder:Films - - Live-Action]]

* When Felix enters the ring against his fight with Damian in ''Film/CreedIII'', a man wearing a tuxedo and a skull mask precedes him and he's flanked by two girls made up in this style.

[[folder:Art]]
* The "Three of Cups" card in ''Art/MysticalMedleysAVintageCartoonTarot'' features a trio of skeletal women dressed in Mexican-feminine attire, each dancing with a gold-colored cup.

* Christopher from the ''Literature/WaywardChildren'' series was in this type of world and even got engaged to a Skeleton Girl.

Originating in Mayan traditions that weren't erased by Spanish conquest, Calacas are representations of the dead celebrated in Mexican art and holidays, particularly Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Coco}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cococalacas.png]]]]

They are often depicted in festive colors, playing instruments, and surrounded by leaves and flowers. Calacas iconography in art, facepaint, costumes etc. is also fairly common. These [[TheDeadCanDance dead can not only dance]], they tend to be very good at it, and often play instruments as well.

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Coco}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cococalacas.png]]]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': Mexican shaman Peyote Díaz had his former mariachi band as guardian spirits. As explained by the man himself, they were all killed in bar fights they themselves started. The band manifested by possessing a set of calacas dolls and Peyote could control them via strumming his guitar.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'': All those who have died and have people among the living who remember them live out their afterlives in an endless fiesta in the Land of the Remembered. They are usually white skeletons with colorful designs decorating them, their eyes glowing orange dots in their eye sockets. Should the memory of them fade away completely, they are then sent to the Land of the Forgotten, where they wander aimlessly - their bones blackened with glowing green eyes and markings - before fading away into dust..

* Music/RobZombie, his wife and the rest of the band in the music video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXvTk-N0HKo The Life And Times of a Teenage Rock God]]" wear face-paint that evoke the Calacas look, with Rob and the band dressed like a mariachi band driving in a flower-decorated car with {{Satan}} while Sheri Moon Zombie is dressed as Santa Muerte.
* The cover of the ''Music/OingoBoingo'' album, ''Dead Man's Party'' shows a load of mexican-themed skeletons celebrating.

* ''VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle'': Calavera is a boss Rabbid who has his face painted to resemble one of these. He is fought in the [[BigBoosHaunt spooky]] World 3.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing,'' Calaveras feature as a [[UndergroundMonkey variant]] [[DemBones "Skleton"]] encountered in [[FantasyCounterpartCulture South of the Border]]. They're noted to be ghosts inhabiting a life-sized candy (specifically marzipan) skeleton, a reference to sugar skulls.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* "Ladies and Skeleton", a segment of ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour'' "A Halloween Beyond Belief" episode, features Frank and Sadie Doyle confronting a Calaca. Here, the Calaca is described as a monster that kills via InvoluntaryDance and, in the past, it killed and has since enslaved the spirit of Frank's first love. His victim gets away and, when it appears to take her back, speaks with a stereotypical accent with rattling noises in the background to suggest the bones. The Calaca can only be killed by a silver bullet. Frank utilizes a previous episode's ChekhovsGun, literally the gun wielded by famed playwright and werewolf hunter Anton Chekhov, to dispatch it.
[[/folder]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'' calacas visit the living world during day of the dead and return to their own land when they had their fill of food. The problem comes when one of them, a kid named Calavera Muerto, just wants to play videogames and refuses to leave Ricochet's house.

* ''WesternAnimation/ElTigreTheAdventuresOfMannyRivera'': In "The Grave Escape", Manny and Frida end up in the Land of the Dead after a battle with supervillainess Santana of the Dead. With the help of Manny's superhero and super villain ancestors, they make it back to the land of the living and defeat Sartana's army of forgotten dead.

Originating in Mayan traditions that weren't erased by Spanish conquest, Calacas are representations of the dead celebrated in Mexican art and holidays, particularly Dia de los Muertos.

If you find yourself in a Mexican-inspired SpiritWorld, chances are you'll run into these as living skeletons. For them being dead isn't all that bad at all, and in fact is not much different from being alive. Their "lifeblood" is tied to their living descendants' memories of them in the real world. They experience a final death when they are completely forgotten by the living. Until then, death is seen as a natural and joyous part of anyone's life cycle.