The Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) hosted a guest panel with Argentinian experts to explore the iconic political cartoon Mafalda and her relationship to the 21st century.

This Wednesday, the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) hosted an event called “Mafalda Beyond the Comic: Cinema and Research for a Globalized Audience.” The talk was moderated by ILAS Director Victoria Murillo, who was joined by guest speakers Isabella Cosse and Julian Trokesberg. Cosse is a professor and researcher at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin and the author of Mafalda: A Social and Political History of Latin America’s Global Comic. Trokesberg is an Argentinian film director and writer. 

The three speakers built on their expertise to describe the unique political context under which the Malfada comic was developed. Mafalda, the titular main character of the comic, is the intellectual child of Argentinian cartoonist Quino, who first developed the strip in the 1960s as a response to the unique political conditions in Argentina and Latin America at the time. That being said, Cosse described Mafalda as an unique product of the 20th century—an anachronism to be more specific, but it is her atemporal quality that continues to make Mafalda so captivating to audiences. 

As the three panelists spoke, their discussions reflected one unwavering and timeless quality of Mafalda: she is incredibly captivating. Mafalda’s image is characterized by her small size and young age, alongside her big black hair adorned with a bright bow and an accompanying red dress, but her size is powerfully offset by the magnitude of her voice and intellect. Mafalda may be small, but her voice never is. 

Mafalda the comic may be over 50 years old, but her character’s six-year-old innocence never changed. For readers who are unaware of Mafalda’s personality, she is characterized by the curiosity and wonder of a young child, but there is an indelible mark of astuteness and rebellion behind her incessant questions. Much of the cartoon depicts Mafalda driving her parents insane as she grapples with questions about the state of the world, but there is an intangible and arguably indescribable quality to Quino’s perfect mix of cleverness, irony, and naïveté in Mafalda. 

However, Cosse and Trokesberg recognized that not all aspects of Mafalda aged as well as her character did. Mafalda is embedded in an incredibly distant socio-political context. Every character in the strip generally represents a different view of the world, but Quino made a point of emphasizing their connection through their shared identity as middle-class Argentinians. Nevertheless, as Murillo pointed out, in such a polarized age, Mafalda’s Argentina doesn’t exist anymore. Throughout the talk, the panelists continuously grappled with the aspects of the cartoon that seem incongruent with the 21st century like Quino’s humor and the cartoon’s physical production as classically vintage black and white comic strip.

These concerns were emphasized by the fact that, whether they like it or not, Mafalda is being brought into the 21st century. Trokesberg spoke about his experience working on the Disney+ series Releyendo Mafalda (Rereading Mafalda), a four episode docuseries that aired on Disney+ Argentina. This forced the panelists and the audience to grapple with what it meant to bring Mafalda to non-Latin American viewers in the 21st century.

As Murillo opened the discussion up for questions from the audience, most of the people in the room reflected a personal affinity to Mafalda as Latin Americans who grew up knowing her. In a lot of ways, Mafalda is part of a cultural legacy that allows us to look into the world of our parents and grandparents precisely because it feels so distant, but still relatable. And that’s the beauty of Mafalda, her “opportunity for resignification” in the 21st century as Cosse described it. Cosse then spoke about the strip’s translation into a number of languages, her welcome reception in Europe during its initial publication, and the use of Mafalda’s image in modern feminist movements throughout Latin America. 

Regardless of the temporal and cultural divide, Mafalda has made it into the 21st century because the image of her big black hair and bright red dress will always signify a certain sense of rebellion and defiance that is not limited to any century. 

Mafalda image via Flickr