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By Daniel Samper Pizano

July 13, 2005

Original Article (Spanish)

Memin Pinguin

In 1953 a quick, wild unpretentiously dressed cartoon character appeared in the United States. He was called Speedy Gonzalez (El Rapido), and Mexicans celebrated the cartoon and applied the nickname to some of their sportsmen. For about 60 years the character Chito Bandido was famous for personifying a rotten Mexican brigand. Some Chicanos [Americans of Mexican descent] protested, but the majority smiled, shrugged their shoulders and ate some more potato chips. Now we have the case of a postage-stamp tribute to Memin Pinguin, a famous Mexican comic book character, which has apparently left a number of foreign politicians and the White House indignant.

Memin, whose illustration first appeared in 1942 and was created by writer Vargas Dulche during a visit to Cuba, was a pop sensation to several generations of Mexicans. The character, depicted as friendly, worried and poor by artist Sixto Valencia, adores his friends and lives in fear of the pranks played on him by people in his neighborhood. His comics have shaped Mexico's popular culture, from Cantinflas [a Mexican comedian/producer/writer/singer], to the Eight Chavo [a smash hit TV show] to Chapulin Colorado [a parody of a super-hero]. In the Philippines, Memin Pinguin stories were obligatory scholastic reading, which shows the nobility of the character. So recently, when the Mexican Postal Service decided to issue stamps of national comics that had become popular around and had sold millions of copies, Memin Pinguin was one of the characters chosen.

But now as a result of the Bush government and some American social moralists, possessed by the demons of arrogant thinking, soft living and ignorance, have asked the President of Mexico to cancel the stamps, because they, in their omnipotence, consider Memin "a racist stereotype." Who are they to say so! By the same criteria, Uncle Tom would be kept in his cabin, the Indian assistant of the Lone Ranger - the foolish dark-skinned Tonto - would be eliminated - the absent-minded Speedy Gonzalez and the sinister Chito Bandito - gone!

The Luthiers

This is to say nothing of films on drug trafficking that cause cramps to my compatriots and bring letters to the Mayor of Bogota. So now, the White House has made a target of the black cartoon character. But if the U.S. request fails - and it will - because the Mexican government has already told the United States that these comics will not bring an end to the world - the following things could be censured: Copetín [a Latin Comedian], because he caricatures famous people; to The Luthiers [an Argentine singing group], because they make fun of Protestant preachers and Arab sheiks; or Don Quixote, because his ironies drive people crazy.

This is the malady of "political correctness," a shallow nuisance devoid of humor that, incapable of altering reality, attempts to modify the images that represent it. President Uribe has prohibited us from using the expressions "armed conflict" and "armed groups," and for that reason, national violence has not diminished.

And as bacteria attack any able-bodied organism, the government of the simpleton Brazilian President Lula Da Silva has even distributed a pamphlet where he recommends calling foreigners "gringos," alcoholics "drunkards," and blacks "afro-Brazilians." With it will be necessary to rewrite therefore the famous phrase of Vinicius de Moraes [a Brazilian Poet]: "I am more of a euro-Brazilian than an afro-Brazilian of Brazil."

Oh the stupidities of religious zealots, prudes and phonies! Give more to Africa, suspend the blockade on Cuba, close the discos in Cartagena that don't accept blacks, give schools to the street urchins from ghettos and then we will see how the adventures of Memin Pinguin seem charming to them.

cambalache@mail.ddnet.es