Shared by Fátima García:
This year I´m teaching English to Photography and Illustration students, which is really convenient for using works of art to elicit new vocabulary , start a debate or just analyse art.
On September 30,
88-year-old award winning Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón passed away. He is better known as Quino, the creator of
the famous comic strip character Mafalda—the
revolutionary, feminist, environmentalist and humanist girl who conquered the
hearts of several generations.
Quino's death occurs one
day after the 56th anniversary of Mafalda's first publication. The news immediately
reached all corners of the world and inspired heartfelt tributes from countless
media outlets, artists and public figures.
The Mafalda strip became
one of the best known Spanish-language cartoons and was translated into
more than 30 languages,
including the native language Guaraní. Its
messages on politics, society, the environment
and feminism are universal, and still relevant in present times.
The characters that accompanied Mafalda grew to
include friends, a younger brother and a
turtle named Bureaucracy, a nod to the slow-moving
government offices that Argentines knew all too well. In one strip, Mafalda tells
her mother she will play government with her friends. “Don’t cause trouble,”
her mother says. “Don’t worry,” Mafalda replies.
“We are going to do absolutely nothing.”
In addition to print media (cartoons, magazines
and books), Mafalda and her friends starred in their own television series. In just nine
years (between 1964 and 1973), she conquered the entire world and became a “universal
symbol of rebellion and faith in a better world”.
Although he stopped drawing “Mafalda,” new generations continued to fall in
love with the irreverent girl who hated soup and loved the Beatles, as
compilation books became mainstays in family libraries.
Following the news of Quino's death, social
media was flooded with his comics.
