Memín Pinguín
[1] In addition to Mexico, Memín remains a popular magazine in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, and other countries.
[citation needed] The stories were partially based on recollection of the childhood adventures of Yolanda Vargas Dulché in the Colonia Guerrero near downtown Mexico City.
Memín is an alteration of Memo, the shortened form of Guillermo, her husband's name; Pinguín comes from pingo (roughly meaning mischievous, in an affectionate tone).
Some of these titles also had stories related to black people, such as "Rarotonga", "Majestad Negra", and "Carne de Ébano", but only Memín was set in Mexico.
In an earlier story, Memín and his friends go to Ricardo's house after the then spoiled kid decides to make them to take a bath because of a mud fight they were involved.
In another, Memín decides not to receive Communion at his church, after a cruel boy tells him blacks are not allowed in Heaven, pointing to the lack of black angels in religious paintings as proof (this was inspired by a popular song "Angelitos negros" that asked the same question and a popular Mexican motion picture of 1948 of the same name).
Some days later, she frees Memín and his mother from jail and reveals that she learned about the truth and explains all the masquerade to Eufrosina's dismay.
Critics were more concerned with the stereotypical treatment of certain social themes and the values the stories typically reflect, which more or less echo the ideals of a Catholic middle class.
The stamps were deemed offensive by a number of African American community groups and politicians in the United States, including Jesse Jackson, prompting the Mexican government to assert that Memín had done a lot to oppose racism and that the stereotypical Warner Brothers' character Speedy Gonzales was never interpreted as offensive in Mexico.
The charges of racism stem from the manner in which Pinguín and his mother are rendered, in the style of "darky iconography" (a form which, in the United States, has its roots in blackface and the American minstrel show tradition.)
Early Mexican comic artists adopted this mode of depicting people of African descent which had become commonplace around the world.
The dress and attitudes of Memín's mother are a caricature of Afro-Cuban women of the time[8] and mirror Afrodiasporic clothing in various Latin American countries.
According to Mexican author Enrique Krauze, the difference of reactions to Memín Pinguín in the United States and Mexico stem from each nations history.
[10] The criticism from United States officials was not only ridiculed by public opinion leaders in Mexico and by most of the Mexican population, but it also spurred interest in the stamps: from the day they were criticized, they were offered in Internet auction sites for several times their face value, and Mexican collectors bought the full edition of 750,000 copies in a few days.
