Quinography – Eje21

Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón’s life became a drawing. He was always next to his uncle, who was a cartoonist and had the same name, so in the family to distinguish him they always called him Quino.

Quino was planted in his ears and when he wanted to do the same as his blood relative did, to save space and be able to give greater scope to the drawings, instead of his extensive name he signed them with the family name, with which he became known throughout the world.

Anyone who can at least read and write knows who Quino is. Everyone will answer that it is Mafalda’s father and she will say that it is not true because she has a father and mother, a little brother named Guille, a little friend who falls in love easily and dies of shame, which is why his upper teeth are more pronounced when they come out of his mouth, a little friend who is the son of the store merchant Don Manolo where everything is more expensive and of poorer quality and a little friend who only dreams of getting married and having many little children.

When the 20th century was ending its second half, the Mafalda comic strip became common in Spanish-language newspapers, which was read to laugh, think and meditate. He said and continues to say so many truths so adult that laughter has never been able to go beyond being a slight smile, in which it becomes clear that the things said by that girl with curly and abundant hair constitute those truths that many know, keep and remain silent in complicity with so many mental scams that occur in the world.

While it is true that the recognition of his career as a cartoonist, illustrator, and comic book author daily came to him during his lifetime, as well as the persecutions for making his characters speak so many truths, it is no less true that he deserved a tribute that could be appreciated on the big screen, in honor of a lucid mind and an illustrator who managed to turn a fictional figure into a real element of what society is.

Mafalda is not a cartoon from now. It’s always a comic. What that intelligent, sagacious girl says and sharp, one continues to think. For those who do not know his drawings, his words, his sentences, just give him one of the many editions that have been made of his comic strip and he will have in his hands some reflections that correspond to the generation that was born in the second half of the 20th century, but that seem to have been written for right now, for the same circumstances of atarvanía, exploitation and abuse that exist today.

Mariano Donoso and Federico Cardone, with writing by Adriana Guzante, music by Mauro Manuel and Alejandro Fiora, photography by Mariano Donoso and Isabel Ruiz, direct this documentary film about the life of one of the most influential characters in the world of communications, all through the use of sharp drawing in which characters like Mafalda, Manolito, Susanita, Guille, Felipe and many more go through life saying from below, from the height of children, those certainties of what is living in a society that sometimes leaves the feeling of being too crazy.

Taking as its central axis an extensive interview that was done with the cartoonist on Spanish Television, when he still had black hair and could be combed, as if he ended up being an illustrious bald man, with some gray wool on the back of his head, the film tells the life of this great communicator, who was the object of persecution for what he said in his drawings, when his native country, Argentina, was taken over once again by the military, who in 1976 forced him into Exile. in Milan, Italy, along with his wife Alicia, the person who was always by his side, as administrator of what Quino did, because as a good creator of fiction, he was a terrible economic administrator.

Born in Mendoza on July 17, 1932. When he understood that his talent was to tell stories through the use of drawing, of which he had learned a lot from his uncle, he decided that it was not necessary for him to continue studying and that is why he began to look for opportunities to publish what he did until he found acceptance in many written media, in which his intelligent and sharp drawings were used by readers to learn so many lessons of dignity.

Totalitarian governments, even if they are popularly elected, have never liked criticism. Many thought that his drawings, in which the protagonists were child characters, were not loaded with that devastating power of criticizing and questioning other people’s acts in a few words and with basic drawing schemes in which the characters are defined and become unmistakable, those of us who end up liking questioning and begin to harass and persecute. Intelligence does not go with the mere exercise of power.

The film has the format of a documentary and in it you can find the testimonies of those who have been his admirers, friends and contemporaries such as Joan Manuel Serrat, Jorge Valdano, a cultured soccer player with more head than feet, despite which he was a star of mass sports, playing like the best, but thinking beyond simple kicks and Daniel Samper Pizano, one of the great comedians of Colombian journalism, who has known how to tease the world, telling truths that many they bother

With his drawings and comics, Quino was not only a great communicator, he should be understood as a philosopher of everyday life, to which he gave the difficult tone of humor. Making humor is only for intelligent and cultured people.

This led him to be taken into account as one of the great intellectuals of the modern world, to the point of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award in the humanities in 2014, universally applauded, since it was not of rewarding a simple caricaturist, but of highlighting the determining content in modern thought, always with the critical capacity to be able to question everything that happens in the world today.

At 88 years old He left life. His work remained. He is immortal. His comics continue to be sold in bookstores around the world and have been translated into all languages, simply for the dialogues of his characters, not his drawings, which are universal.

Quino spoke many truths. He continues to say them, five years after his death on September 20, 2020, in the midst of the sadness that will remain when his wife left life before him. He could not conceive of existence without her, but she beat him to the punch and left him in the company of those impertinent and sincere children who are capable of saying everything in front of everyone, because they lack the prevention of the adults, who are filled with prejudices that never abandon them.

Mafalda is a comic strip to think about. The film that has now been made in tribute to Quino is also something to think about. An excellent production, for moderately educated people, who will better understand the life of this creator, who with just nine years of production (1964-1973) in written media, was able to turn that mischievous, sincere and biting girl into a universal character, in association with her little friends, each of whom becomes a portrait of what the modern world is. Univocal thoughts of each character, a powerful combination of exchange of ideas and ideals.

Quinografía is a film that is watched with the delight of having to think about what those fictional beings created by Quino say, to tell humanity that not everything is well done. Questioning from Mafalda’s voice is necessary today, it was necessary yesterday and it should be tomorrow.