The two Argentines cry at the same time

Mafalda would have turned 56 on Tuesday, September 29.

It is extraordinary that this character, whose cartoons were published for less than nine years and ended almost half a century ago, remains so valid.

And that in divided Argentina, where if the "peronchos" like something, the "gorillas" cannot like something, and vice versa, it arouses such unanimous love.

Joaquín Salvador Lavado, Quino, drew much before and after Mafalda.

He created a vast work.

But at the time of his death it is Mafalda and her friends who symbolize the loss.

Mafalda's vignettes are world famous and have not aged.

However, they correspond to a very specific place and time.

When the character appeared, the military leadership, under the motto Revolución Argentina, had just overthrew President Arturo Illia.

The new dictator, Lieutenant General Juan Carlos Onganía, dissolved all political parties, destroyed the universities after the “night of the long sticks” (July 29, 1966) and established an iron censorship: even the ballet

was banned

by Béla Bartók, a sinister work but already classic at the time.

The police arrested young men with long hair.

It was a time of utter mediocrity, a prologue to the violence that would shake the country for the next decade.

It was also the epilogue of prosperous Argentina.

• Quino, creator of Mafalda and the most international cartoonist of the Spanish language, dies

The censorship forced Quino to spin very fine.

Hence, Mafalda was so interested in world peace or the Vietnam War, and so little (or so obliquely) in the situation in Argentina.

This probably contributed to the public in other countries identifying with the characters and their stories: feminism (there Mafalda was implacable), youth dissatisfaction, pacifism, the irruption of consumerism, were planetary phenomena.

The fact is that, despite the censorship, any Argentine captured the messages (always in favor of democracy, always in favor of progress) that Quino disguised as naivety.

Another relevant detail is that Quino was from Mendoza, not from Buenos Aires.

Somehow, neither were his characters.

They transcended the codes of the city of Buenos Aires, with their mythologies and their language, and were situated on a more universal plane.

Or at least more Argentine.

In a country without incontestable idols, except perhaps Carlos Gardel, already very remote and born in France or Uruguay, and Diego Maradona, being Maradona (Perón and Evita, Borges, Che Guevara, are as loved as they are hated), Mafalda and his friends called for unanimity.

No one was unaware of its importance.

When Julio Cotázar was asked what he thought of Mafalda, he replied that it was irrelevant, that the important thing was what Mafalda might think of him.

The success of Mafalda's cartoons in the press quickly moved on to the books.

Kuki Miller, from Ediciones de La Flor, which has compiled Quino's comics in books since 1970, told

that the circulation of the first volume was 200,000 copies: “These are figures that do not exist now, but at that time they flew, they lasted very little bit".

“Due to the urgency, the distribution was in kiosks more than in bookstores.

To make it faster, ”Miller continued,“ kiosk dealers would go straight to the print shop to look up the numbers.

One time, one of them went earlier and wanted to bribe [bribe] the printers to get the copies delivered earlier.

Such was greed ”.

When Julio Cortázar was asked what he thought of Mafalda, he replied that it was irrelevant, that the important thing was what Mafalda might think of him

The Mafalda comics ended in 1973, with the return to Argentina of Juan Domingo Perón and the bloody conflict between the government, and later the Armed Forces, and the guerrilla groups.

Quino went into exile.

He once said that Mafalda died "disappeared" during the last military dictatorship.

Quino's impact on popular culture is tremendous.

Because of the influence recognized by hundreds of contemporary cartoonists (Quino, almost sickly humble, said that he drew badly), because of the archetypes that he created and because of his trace in language.

When it is said of someone that “she is a Mafalda”, almost any Spanish speaker understands the reference.

Similarly, "a Susanita", at least in Argentina, is someone retrograde and classist.

Felipe's sentimental naivety, Manolito's practical sense and narrow-mindedness (caricature of the former “Galician” grocer, that is, Spanish), Libertad's union combativeness, remain as references.

The monument to Mafalda, on the corner of Defensa and Chile, in the typical Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo, began to fill with visitors and flowers when it was learned that Quino had died.

For once, the two political parties wept at the same time.

"Thank you, Quino.

For art and commitment.

Your immense work will always be present in Argentine history and in the collective memory of those of us who enjoy it.

Goodbye, teacher, ”tweeted Santiago Cafiero, chief of staff [prime minister] of the Peronist government.

Lilita Carrió, a fierce anti-Peronist opponent, chose as a farewell a famous phrase from Mafalda: "In the world there are more and less people."