That includes a prize from Spain's King Felipe. He turned her into a comic strip character.ĭEL BARCO: 'I love Mafalda for everything she's given me,' he said. He first drew Mafalda for an electrical appliance ad that was never used. When Quino was 20, he moved to Buenos Aires to illustrate for newspapers and magazines. His tio babysat him and his brothers, entertaining them by drawing.ĭEL BARCO: With one small pencil, Quino said, his tio Joaquin opened to him the world of illustration. That's what Quino told an audience in 2014 at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair.ĭEL BARCO: Quino thanked his tio Joaquin, his uncle, who was a painter and graphic designer, for inspiring him. Quino grew up there, the son of Andalusian immigrants who discussed politics at the dinner table. This week, REP mourned his friend and mentor Quino by leaving his own comic strip blank.ĭEL BARCO: REP says he will forever miss his friend, who died at home in the town where he was born, Mendoza, Argentina. Among their many fans around the world is Argentine cartoonist Miguel Repiso, known as REP.ĭEL BARCO: ''Mafalda' comics are pacifist, progressive, humanist,' says REP, reflecting the rebellious spirit of youth in the 1960s and '70s. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Mafalda, speaking Spanish).ĭEL BARCO: Mafalda's adorable baby brother Guille loves to eat soup when he's not sucking on his pacifier.ĭEL BARCO: The story includes their bemused parents and their friends - Manolito the capitalist, Felipe the dreamer, Susanita the gossip and politically radical Libertad. The crusader with a bob haircut, bangs and a bow raises her fist against social injustice, fascism and soup. Mafalda is a middle-class 6-year-old girl in Buenos Aires - smart, irreverent, feminist and worried about the state of the world. The 88-year-old was known as the father of Mafalda, star of comic strips, books and cartoons. MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Quino is the pen name of cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado Tejon. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on the cartoonist beloved in Latin America and around the world.

The cartoonist died in Argentina this past week, and the country observed a national day of mourning for him Thursday.

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