Doonesbury meets Peanuts in Argentina - #4!
leno...@yahoo.com
available. I have a copy from a friend.
For those unfamiliar with it, it's already been translated into roughly
as many languages as "Calvin & Hobbes"! I gave the news some time ago
to the oldest New England comic store "Million Year Picnic" and they
were excited - quite a few people have been asking about the
translations, apparently. I also told them about Quino's wordless
cartoons, of which there are several books! (There is simply no excuse
for those books not being better known in the U.S. - anyone can order
them and enjoy them.)
Ediciones de la Flor tried to get a deal with Scholastic Book Services,
but they said "Mafalda" was too sophisticated for children. Let's prove
them wrong! They then published the translations themselves.
Ran: 1964-1973.
Mafalda is 6 years old and is always worried about the global situation
and plans to be an interpreter at the U.N. when she's older so she can
translate politicians' insults into compliments and bring about world
peace. Strong patriot, wise, progressive, loves the Beatles and hates
soup.***** Has a turtle named Bureaucracy.
The other child characters include:
Felipe, an amiable, procrastinating, daydreaming boy. Loves the Lone
Ranger.
Susanita, a bourgeois racist little girl who dreams only of babies,
rich husbands, Cinderella, household goods and bridge parties. Always
wears a very maternal bubble-cut hairstyle and pearl stud earrings.
Fights with Manolito. Talks non-stop.
Miguelito, (vol. #2) a narcissistic pseudo-intellectual with feathery
hair to match. His Italian family keeps an antiseptic house and
worships Mussolini.
Libertad, (vol. #8?) a tiny, fierce but naive left-wing revolutionary.
She resembles Charles Schulz's Sally in her hair, energy, and academic
cluelessness.
Manolito, the greedy capitalist stooge. Low-browed, has a crewcut. He
helps his father in their low-quality grocery store, plans to own a
chain of supermarkets, is (usually) culturally illiterate, and when an
angry customer wants to return a rotten salami, says "lady, nobody gets
to return their newspapers when they don't like the news!" Worships
Rockefeller. Hates the Beatles. Fights with Susanita.
Guille, (vol. #6?) Mafalda's lisping pacifier-hooked macho baby brother
who is also hooked on Brigitte Bardot. Loves soup. Causes frequent
embarrassment in typical toddler fashion.
*****From what I understand, decades ago (maybe during the
Depression?), soup used to be the only thing many Argentines could
afford to eat, so naturally it was mandatory for kids to eat it and the
saying sprang up "si no comes la sopa no vas a crecer," which means "if
you don't eat your soup you won't grow." From this, Quino turned soup
into a symbol of governmental oppression. In real life, Quino loves
soup.
The ISBN numbers are:
vol. 1: 950-515-759-2
vol. 2: 950-515-760-6
vol. 3: 950-515-768-1
vol. 4: 950-515-772-X (I trust that's not a typo)
That should be enough info for your local independent bookstore -
though they WILL have to order them from Argentina. It's well worth it!
Some chains goofed on their websites and claimed that "Mafalda &
Friends" is only in Spanish. I have the four English volumes to prove
otherwise, which I read over and over. Simply ask for "Mafalda &
Friends" by Quino, not merely "Mafalda." That will guarantee you get
the English versions. There are 10 original volumes in Spanish, which
have mostly English reviews at you-know-where. You can also read the
first ten strips from each of the first three volumes of "Mafalda &
Friends" there, but for some reason, you have to play around with the
keywords before you can see all three volumes. That is, you can see 1 &
2 or 2 & 3, but not all three at once.
Also, just so you can understand the second strip in volume 1 better, I
should mention that livestock was and/or is the main industry in
Argentina. (IMHO, vol. 2 is better than vol. 1, but the good strips
come later in the book, so you don't see them online when you "open"
the book.)
More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafalda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quino
(see bottom for Charles Schulz's comment)
http://www.turning-pages.com/mafalda/ (Unofficial site for the strip
itself with an English version. You have to click on "Gallery" to read
the strips.)
http://www.zompist.com/bob2.html (This includes strips with Libertad.)
http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_07/uk/dires.htm (An interview with
Quino in English)
http://tinyurl.com/qt56x
(previous 20-message thread in this newsgroup about the strip)
http://www.sequentialtart.com/reports.php?ID=3713&issue=2005-02-01
("Mafalda the Movie")
http://csmonitor.com/2004/1115/p07s01-woam.html
(Christian Science Monitor article about Quino)
If any links don't work, check for inserted hyphens and remove them.
Also, Google for "Mafalda" and "Lenona" and you'll find quite a few
strips I quoted!
Lenona.
Evan Kirshenbaum
> Susanita, a bourgeois racist little girl
Really? I've only got a couple of the early volumes (in Spanish), but
I don't recall anything that would mark her as "racist".
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Its like grasping the difference
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |between what one usually considers
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |a 'difficult' problem, and what
|*is* a difficult problem. The day
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com |one understands *why* counting all
(650)857-7572 |the molecules in the Universe isn't
|difficult...there's the leap.
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ | Tina Marie Holmboe
yardlet5
stereotyped black charater dressed in outlandish clothes. When Susanita
asked what it was,Malfalda told her it was a gollywog. Susanita sniffed
and poked her finger at it.
Malfalda:What are you,a racist?
Susanita:Of course not.
Malfalda:Where are you going?
Susanita:To wash my finger.
As far as I remember the dialogue anyway,have to look for the book.
leno...@yahoo.com
Susanita: Ah, a gollywog?
Malfalda: (glaring) Yes, why? Don't tell me you're a racist?
Susanita: Me? Of course not. (scratching it) If we are all equal, how
can I be a racist?
Malfalda: Where are you going?
Susanita: To wash my finger.
Call it a hunch, but I suspect that in 1964 Argentina, had Quino made
all his characters nonracist, he would have been accused by Argentines
of sugarcoating, something he never does. (BTW, the word in the
original strip was not any translation of "gollywog," but simply
"negrito." I guess that's because the drawing of the doll is clearly
embarrassing by modern standards and the English translation is very
recent, so they felt they had to use that word.) Thankfully, Susanita's
racism seldom gets mentioned.
Unlike Brazil, which is only about half white, Argentina is well over
90% white. How this happened is something of a mystery. See here for
more, if you like.
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/argentina.html
Lenona.
Antonio E. Gonzalez
She's been even worse. From one I can remember (I swear I've read
every Mafalda!):
*after being accussed of being racist*
Susanita: What?! How dare you call me a racist?!
Susanita: I have no problem of any kind with those filthy black
people!
--
- ReFlex76
- "Let's beat the terrorists with our most powerful weapon . . . hot
girl-on-girl action!"
- "The difference between young and old is the difference between
looking forward to your next birthday, and dreading it!"
Antonio E. Gonzalez
>That is, the English edition of "Mafalda & Friends" #4 by Quino is now
>available. I have a copy from a friend.
>
>For those unfamiliar with it, it's already been translated into roughly
>as many languages as "Calvin & Hobbes"! I gave the news some time ago
>to the oldest New England comic store "Million Year Picnic" and they
>were excited - quite a few people have been asking about the
>translations, apparently. I also told them about Quino's wordless
>cartoons, of which there are several books! (There is simply no excuse
>for those books not being better known in the U.S. - anyone can order
>them and enjoy them.)
>
>
>Ediciones de la Flor tried to get a deal with Scholastic Book Services,
>but they said "Mafalda" was too sophisticated for children. Let's prove
>them wrong! They then published the translations themselves.
>
>Ran: 1964-1973.
>
>
>Mafalda is 6 years old and is always worried about the global situation
>and plans to be an interpreter at the U.N. when she's older so she can
>translate politicians' insults into compliments and bring about world
>peace. Strong patriot, wise, progressive, loves the Beatles and hates
>soup.***** Has a turtle named Bureaucracy.
>
>
>The other child characters include:
>
>Felipe, an amiable, procrastinating, daydreaming boy. Loves the Lone
>Ranger.
>
A bit of a nerd, he's as close to an "everyman" as anyone in the
group comes.
>Susanita, a bourgeois racist little girl who dreams only of babies,
>rich husbands, Cinderella, household goods and bridge parties. Always
>wears a very maternal bubble-cut hairstyle and pearl stud earrings.
>Fights with Manolito. Talks non-stop.
>
Seems to cover her perfectly! Consider her Lucy on steroids.
Nowadays, she'd be right at home with the "moral majority/religious
right" crowd . . .
>Miguelito, (vol. #2) a narcissistic pseudo-intellectual with feathery
>hair to match. His Italian family keeps an antiseptic house and
>worships Mussolini.
>
He's the youngest of the "old kids," and struck me as more innocent
and naive than anything.
>Libertad, (vol. #8?) a tiny, fierce but naive left-wing revolutionary.
>She resembles Charles Schulz's Sally in her hair, energy, and academic
>cluelessness.
>
Oh, she was more than a mere left-wing revolutionary, she and her
family were outright socialists! Kind of ironic that while she's the
oldest of the group, she's also the smallest, even smaller than Guille
when she's introduced!
Two stirps that describe her well . . .:
Libertad: You're getting ice cream?
Susanita: Yup!
*shaking her finger*
Libertad: Now is the time to think of social revolution, not eat ice
cream!
Libertad: Now is the time to think of our realities, not fiddle
faddle!
*as Susanita walks by enjoying her ice cream*
Libertad: Now is . . . the . . . time . . . to . . .
*Libertad just looks in Susanita's direction*
*Libertad at the ice cream shop, giving money to the server*
"One vanilla/pistachio escapism, please."
*at Libertad's apartment*
Libertad: Mom, Mafalda came to play with me!!!
Mom: O . . . k . . . (very low sound)
Mafalda: Your apartment's really that big, Libertad?
*camera pans back to reveal the apartment's actually rather small*
Libertad: Nah, we just talk that way to make it look like that.
>Manolito, the greedy capitalist stooge. Low-browed, has a crewcut. He
>helps his father in their low-quality grocery store, plans to own a
>chain of supermarkets, is (usually) culturally illiterate, and when an
>angry customer wants to return a rotten salami, says "lady, nobody gets
>to return their newspapers when they don't like the news!" Worships
>Rockefeller. Hates the Beatles. Fights with Susanita.
>
Some of my favorites involved Manolito's "advertisements" for his
family store on walls! Most of them only work in Spanish, though . .
.
Wow, this is pretty good!
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quino
>(see bottom for Charles Schulz's comment)
>
>http://www.turning-pages.com/mafalda/ (Unofficial site for the strip
>itself with an English version. You have to click on "Gallery" to read
>the strips.)
>
>http://www.zompist.com/bob2.html (This includes strips with Libertad.)
>
>http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_07/uk/dires.htm (An interview with
>Quino in English)
>
>http://tinyurl.com/qt56x
> (previous 20-message thread in this newsgroup about the strip)
>
>http://www.sequentialtart.com/reports.php?ID=3713&issue=2005-02-01
>("Mafalda the Movie")
>
>http://csmonitor.com/2004/1115/p07s01-woam.html
>(Christian Science Monitor article about Quino)
>
>If any links don't work, check for inserted hyphens and remove them.
>
>Also, Google for "Mafalda" and "Lenona" and you'll find quite a few
>strips I quoted!
>
>Lenona.
--
leno...@yahoo.com
> >She resembles Charles Schulz's Sally in her hair, energy, and academic
> >cluelessness.
> >
>
> Oh, she was more than a mere left-wing revolutionary, she and her
> family were outright socialists! Kind of ironic that while she's the
> oldest of the group, she's also the smallest, even smaller than Guille
> when she's introduced!
Tell me, where is it indicated that she's older than the other
children? Of course, it's easy enough to see, from her speeches, that
she's older than Guille.
BTW, how would you explain, to a child reader, the "stupid conclusion"
Libertad says everyone makes upon meeting her? Thanks.
Lenona.
Antonio E. Gonzalez
>> >Libertad, (vol. #8?) a tiny, fierce but naive left-wing revolutionary.
>> >She resembles Charles Schulz's Sally in her hair, energy, and academic
>> >cluelessness.
>> >
>>
>> Oh, she was more than a mere left-wing revolutionary, she and her
>> family were outright socialists! Kind of ironic that while she's the
>> oldest of the group, she's also the smallest, even smaller than Guille
>> when she's introduced!
>
>
>
>Tell me, where is it indicated that she's older than the other
>children? Of course, it's easy enough to see, from her speeches, that
>she's older than Guille.
>
I don't remember where (might've been a Quino interview), but it was
that she's a grade ahead of Mafalda, who's the same grade as Felipe,
Manolito, and Susanita. Nothing about skipping a grade, she's just a
year older . . .
>BTW, how would you explain, to a child reader, the "stupid conclusion"
>Libertad says everyone makes upon meeting her? Thanks.
>
"Libertad" tranlates to "liberty." A less-than-subtle commentary
on the decline of civil liberties in Argentina in the 1960s, and sadly
appropriate to any nation in Latin America at the time as well . . .
not to meniton the decades afterward . . . and, hell, just about
anywhere now . . .