Mafalda! Human Values

Now, we are on the second thematic unit: "Human Values", and our teacher, Alicia Terán, talk us about Mafalda, her favourite comic trip...

Mafalda

Mafalda is a comic strip written and drawn by Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name Quino. The strip features a 5-year-old girl named Mafalda, who is deeply concerned about humanity and world peace and rebels against the current state of the world. The strip ran from 1964 to 1973 and was very popular in Latin America, Europe, Quebec, and in Asia, leading to two animated cartoon series and a movie.

History
The character Mafalda — whose name was inspired by David Viñas's novel Dar la cara — and a few others, were created by Quino in 1962 for a promotional cartoon that was intended to be published in the daily Clarín. Ultimately, however, Clarín broke the contract, and the campaign was cancelled altogether.

Mafalda became a full-fledged cartoon strip on the advice of Quino's friend Julián Delgado, at the time senior editor of the weekly Primera Plana. Its run in that newspaper began on 29 September 1964. At first it only featured Mafalda and her parents. Felipe came on the scene in January 1965. A legal dispute arose in March 1965, which led to the end of Mafalda's Primera Plana run on 9 March 1965.

One week later, on 15 March 1965 Mafalda (the character at the age of five) started appearing daily in Buenos Aires' Mundo, allowing the author to follow current events more closely. The characters of Felipe, Manolito, Susanita and Miguelito were created in the following weeks, and Mafalda's mother was pregnant when the newspaper shut down on 22 December 1967.

Publication resumed six months later, on 2 June 1968, in the weekly Siete Días Ilustrados. Since the cartoons had to be delivered two weeks before publication, Quino was not able to comment on the news to the same extent. After creating the characters of Mafalda's little brother Guille and her new friend Libertad, he definitively ceased publication of the strip on 25 June 1973.

After 1973, Quino still drew Mafalda a few times, mostly to promote human rights. In 1976 he produced a poster for the UNICEF illustrating the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Characters
The comic strip is composed of the main character Mafalda, her parents and a group of other children. However, the group was not created on purpose, but was instead a result of the development of the comic strip. The other children were created one at a time, and worked by countering specific aspects of Mafalda. The exception was Guille, Mafalda's brother, which was created during a period when the author did not have other ideas.

Mafalda: The main character, an approximately six-year-old Argentine girl with a strong political view of the world and a proverbial hate for soup.

Mamá ("Mom") (Raquel, 6 October 1964) and Papá ("Dad") (No name, 29 September 1964): Mafalda's parents are a very normal couple, without any particular distinguishing features. Mafalda is often very critical of her mom's housewife status; her dad often tries to avoid Mafalda's snarky remarks and questions, although he very much sympathises with the kid's scary view of school life. He is a fond horticulturist.

Felipe (19 January 1965): A dreamer who is deeply scared of school, even though he's the brightest and oldest member of the gang. He often wages intense internal battles with his conscience, innate sense of responsibility, and top school grades that he hates (*shows Mafalda a note where his teacher compliments on his grades* "That is the worst good news I've ever been given!"). A consummate procastinator, he loves to play cowboys and read comics, especially the Lone Ranger.

Manolito (Manuel Goreiro, Jr., 29 March 1965): The son of a Spanish (Galician) shopkeeper, more concerned with business and money than anything else. He's shown to be simple minded, but sometimes this is not the case. He is, in fact, very creative when it comes to business plans.

Susanita (Susana Beatriz Clotilde Chirusi, 6 June 1965): A frivolous and gossip-loving girl with curly blond hair, and Mafalda's best female friend despite their bickering ("Well... you know... I'd rather freak out at you than at a complete stranger"). Her dream when she grows up is to be a mother and dedicated housewife. She and Manolito are the fiercest enemies, although is shown that Susanita is more often the perpetrator of their bickering; as the attacks are often one-sided, Manolito is caught off guard most of the times, but he has shown on occasion that he has the upper hand. At times, she seems to have a crush on Felipe.

Miguelito (Miguel Pitti, 1966): About two years younger than Felipe and one year younger than Mafalda and the others, characterized by his lettuce-shaped hair. Somewhat of a rebel, most of the time he is a little too eager to get into philosophical debates. A descendant of Italian immigrants, his grandfather is very fond of Benito Mussolini.

Guille (Guillermo, 1968): Mafalda's little brother. He loves soup (much to his sister's chagrin), has a pathological dependence on his pacifier, and he and Mafalda have a pet tortoise called Burocracia ('Bureaucracy'). Somewhat cynical and prone to histrionics.

Libertad (5 February 1970): "Libertad" is a given name in Spanish, which means "Freedom". The character is of small stature, leading to jokes about the size of freedom. It's the most politically radical character of the comic strip, more than Mafalda herself.
The characters aged at about half the real time-scale while the script ran, also going through minor changes mostly due to the evolution of Quino's drawing style.