Around this time of year, Leonardo Linares likes to get hold of a contentious politician or venal public official, stuff him full of explosives and set him alight.
This year, the honour will be granted to Donald Trump.
Linares, like four generations of his family before him, is an artisan in Mexico City who specialises in making papier-mache “Judas” figures to be burned in an Easter weekend tradition enacting Jesus Christ’s victory over evil.
Generally his effigies portray prominent Mexicans, but this year, Linares decided to look north: Donald Trump’s anti-Mexican comments made him “an ideal candidate” for Judas, he said.
“With all of the stupid things he has said about Mexicans, I thought people would like to see him burning as Judas,” said Linares.
“I think he’s just saying these things to become famous. Who knows if he actually believes it.”
Mexicans have mocked Trump with cartoons, memes and piñatas to be beaten at parties. But over the Easter weekend, his effigy will hang in a public square as a representation of Judas Iscariot – who the Bible says betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and subsequently hanged himself.
Although its roots are religious, the burning of Judas also offers a rare chance to convey discontent with politicians and public officials in a country where frank expression of political opinions is not always safe.
The tradition arrived in the New World from Spain and became part of the Easter vigil mass. “Blowing away a figure of evil was a way to represent the aim of defeating evil,” said Rodolfo Soriano Núñez, a Mexico City sociologist, who studies the Catholic church.
The tradition is fading in Mexico (though still practised widely in other parts of Latin America) as explosives permits are harder to obtain and the Catholic church focuses on more mainstream Easter celebrations.
But the choice of Judas is widely seen as a good barometer of social discontent in Mexico and an indicator of the issues that most infuriate the country’s population. In the wake of his comments about migrants and promises to build a border wall, Trump tops the list in 2016.
“I think his [Judas] figure would outsell that of any Mexican politician at the moment,” Linares says.
Linares is not not the only one planning to lampoon Trump. The western city of León has also announced it will burn Trump in effigy.
The selection of a foreign figure is rare, though Linares says that figures resembling the former US president George W Bush and ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sold well in 2003. Observers say the interest isn’t unexpected since Mexico, traditionally an inward-looking country, hasn’t come under such a sustained attack as Trump’s in more than a century.
“People have come to attack Mexico, [but] it’s the first time someone outside the country has launched an anti-Mexico campaign, culturally speaking,” says Ilán Semo, a political historian at the Iberoamerican University.
This year, Linares said he also planned to ignite a second polemic figure: a masked Isis fighter with devil horns – something he said was inspired by the attacks in Brussels.
When asked how the group compared to Trump, he responded: “They’re the same.”
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