Rafael Barajas Durán, better known by his pen name El Fisgón ("The Rubbernecker" or "The Peeper"[1] in Spanish) is a Mexican cartoonist and illustrator who received the 1999 National Journalism Prize of Mexico for Editorial Cartooning.
[2] The son of a schoolteacher and a psychoanalyst, Barajas was born on 1 January 1956 in Mexico City and graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in Architecture.
[1][3] At the age of 20 he decided to become a cartoonist and eventually sent collaborations to the Sunday supplement of Unomásuno (1981–1984), designed covers for Nexos magazine (1984–1986) and received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2003) to study dissenting political cartoonists in Mexico who worked between 1872 and 1910.
[3] According to himself, Barajas is also a committed leftist activist who has led campaigns to support the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas and regularly promote student involvement in politics.
[1] He has co-directed satirical magazines such as El Chahuistle (1994–1997) and El Chamuco y los hijos del Averno (1997–2000)[3] and, since 1984, he contributes regularly to La Jornada, a left-leaning newspaper published in the Mexican capital.