Shortly after the publication in 1963 of the book Mundo Quino, the first graphic humor of this Argentine cartoonist, Joaquín Lavado was asked to design a family of characters in order to promote the Mansfield appliances of the firm Siam Di Tella in a strip of diary —all named that begin with M.
The girl is named Mafalda, by one of the characters in David Viñas’ novel Give the Face, but the advertising campaign never saw the light and Quino kept his baby in the drawer.
It is finally a few months later, when Quino is asked to publish a strip in the weekly Primera Plana, that Mafalda becomes a press paper and begins his career to fame.
2. Mafalda lived in San Telmo
Little was known about the home of Mafalda’s family, beyond that she lived with her little brother Guille and her parents in apartment E, in a building where her friend Felipe also lived.
Mafalda’s sculpture in San Telmo was inaugurated in 2009
But not everyone outside of Buenos Aires knows that that building existed —and still exists — in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo, at 371 Chile Street, very close to Quino’s home.
“Here lived Mafalda, ” reads a plaque in homage in the building.
Quino was also inspired by the bakery of a friend’s father to draw the warehouse by Don Manolo.
Today on the corner of Chile and Defense streets a life-size Sculpture of Mafalda awaits sitting on a bench the arrival of tourists and has become one of the main attractions of the neighborhood.
3. A book “for adults”
– I will explain: millibars are a measure of pressure. Depending on the atmosphere, it is said that there is a pressure of so many millili…
– Sorry Dad, I asked you about the millibars; not for the military,” Mafalda replies.
The ever-critical Mafalda did not sit too well for some sectors.
Mafalda’s books have been translated into at least 30 languages
In Spain, Franco’s censorship forced publishers to place a stripe on the cover of Mafalda’s first book declaring it an “For Adults” work.
Mafalda also had to face censorship in other countries, Bolivia, Chile or Brazil.
“At first I just had it,” Quino says of censorship and his early work as a graphic comedian.
“They said to me, ‘Pibe, jokes against the family no, not military, not naked. I was born with self-censity.”
4. Philip really existed, and lived in Cuba
Mafalda’s best friend loves fantasizing, playing The Lone Ranger and delaying school duties as much as possible.
But perhaps what most defines Philip are his rabbit teeth and his elongated face, with tore hair.
Philip is inspired by a real-life character
Those same factions are those of Argentine journalist Jorge Timossi, who worked at the Cuban agency Prensa Latina and was a good friend of Quino’s.
“When I was in Algeria I dropped the Mafalda’s first booklet“, Timossi recounted in an interview with Peru21 before dying in 2011.
“I saw it and thought, here’s something familiar. Soon after, in Chile, I dropped an address of his and sent him a business card of mine on which I put him: Quino, confess, son of a… And on the way back from the mail, I got a poster with Felipito, who said, “It’s my turn to be like me.””
5. Mafalda even in soup
Mafalda’s everywhere. And not just because their books have been translated into 30 languages.
Murals of Mafalda adorn the Buenos Aires metro
In buenos Aires’ Colegiales district, there is a Plaza Mafalda. And in San Telmo’s is the sculpture of the girl in real size, by artist Pablo Irrgang.
But also underground there is a tribute to the strip. At Peru’s Underground station in argentina’s capital, there is a mural of “El MundoGún Mafalda”.
And on the Paris metro, at The Argentine Station, Mafalda watches from a mural to figures of science, politics or the arts of Argentina, such as Jorge Luis Borges.
