Quino, winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities 2014
To speak about Quino is not easy because almost everything has been said about him. Certainly all that was said before has always been in a tone of great respect and admiration, especially for his universal humanistic philosophical thought, so well expressed by graphic humour.
A few days ago he was awarded with the “Premio Príncipe de Asturias en Comunicación y Humanidades 2014”, an award more among those who Quino already received, but perhaps one of the most important.
I wanted to write this article partly because I had the pleasure to meet personally Joaquín Lavado, alias Quino, during the remembered Biennials of Humour in Córdoba, Argentina, in the 80s and also because, being his fellow countrywoman I feel doubly happy for this recognition.
Such Biennials of Humour in Córdoba, an Argentina town which stands out for the good humour sense and spontaneity for the joke that its people have, were the occasion for the meeting of the top cartoonists of the moment. Not for anything there was produced and published the famous humour magazine “Hortensia”. So they participated in lectures, discussions and exhibitions among others Quino, Caloi, Fontanarrosa, Alberto Breccia, Patricia Breccia, Marino, Gulle, Crist, Roberto di Palma, Garaycochea… Quino did not much like the tributes and especially he did not like that people always asked him why he did not draw more Mafalda. His answer was clear: “I ran out ideas”.
Many years passed and Quino continues to be very current with his Mafalda but also with his cartoons about the human being, his vices and weaknesses. These cartoons, usually without words, are also a testimony of “Quinean” universal concept. People keep asking Quino about Mafalda, but this rebellious child was created during the dictatorship in Argentina to “improve the world”. Quino now recognizes that nothing improved nor worsened, that everything remains the same.
My last personal experience – this time with a three-dimensional and colourful Mafalda – was when wandering around Buenos Aires with my daughter Jimena and my dear friend and colleague Carlos Brito, we sat down very excited on the bench in the corner of Chile and Defensa in the neighbourhood San Telmo where Mafalda as a sculpture sits posing for all those who come to take pictures and reflecting, as she always has, on who the good and the bad of this world are.
Marlene Pohle, May 2014.
14-05 Quino Mafalda bis