Mexico · Papier-Mâché Sculpture / Ceremonial Craft
Carton piedra ("rock cardboard"); la Quema de Judas
A hard papier-mâché sculpture technique, distinct from ordinary papier-mâché for its rigid, near-stone finish, used to build monumental effigies — historically of Judas Iscariot, reimagined in Mexico as a devil figure — that are packed with fireworks and destroyed in a public street ritual on Holy Saturday, a tradition politically suppressed under Mexico's mid-20th-century one-party government in a way that its close cousin, the firework-laden torito (bull) figure, never was.
Risk level: Endangered · Not currently inscribed on a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list; Mexico is a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention (ratified 14 December 2005) and could nominate this technique in the future.
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