July 17 marks the 90th anniversary of his birth of one of the most famous Argentine artists worldwide, Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, better known as Quino, the creator of Mafalda, the also popular irreverent, spontaneous girl who doesn’t like soup and wants to change the world.
And Google has decided to honor him, showing throughout the day in its search engine a doodle or black and white image of the artist who became known for his use of social satire to portray situations in daily life.
Although Quino was born in Argentina, the celebration that Google has made for him will not only be visible in this country but from 25 other nations it will be possible to interact with the tribute paid to the exponent of the cartoon.
From these places in the world you will have access to the doodle: Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Sweden and Venezuela.
Likewise, Florencia Sabatini, Director of Communications for Google Latin America, assured that “This is our tribute to a great Argentine artist and his enormous legacy. A man of unparalleled talent, who gave life to characters that we will never forget, and who have kept his validity intact through the years. The 90th anniversary of Quino’s birth is a date that touches the soul of those of us who were born and grew up in Argentina, but also for the thousands of people who were captivated by the stories of Mafalda in other parts of the world.”
Likewise, the director stated that with the doodle created by an emerging artist, Quino is sought to remember with great pride, who marked many generations and will also be known among the youngest this July 17.
Julieta Colombo, the artist’s niece, also had a few words to say, “I celebrate this tribute from Google to Quino and his work, both Mafalda and his Graphic Humor pages, to which my uncle dedicated 60 years of his life.”
The cartoonist’s heiress also stated that the validity of her uncle’s work is unquestionable due to the themes he addressed during all the years of his career, and that now his legacy and the task of all those who remember him fondly is to maintain the interest of readers, especially those of the new generations.
That is why Google signed up on this important date, since with this mention in its search engine, children and adolescents will wonder about the author and discover his career and great influence on Latin American artistic expressions.
“His fullest form of expression was drawing, which is why I wanted to portray him creating the memorable world we know. I studied his self-portraits and was inspired to see how he portrayed himself, concentrated drawing at his desk full of sheets, pencils and his lamp.” Said Azul Portillo, who also plays an important role in this celebration, since he was the one who made the doodle.
The artist invited to make this tribute, completed by saying that “from the beginning I imagined this Doodle in black and white, it seemed to me a characteristic that quickly evokes Quino’s strips, and on the other hand, I feel that I can reflect my imprint as an artist, since austerity in color is one of my favorite resources when illustrating”.
Definitely, Quino has been one of the most influential personalities in the Spanish-speaking worldand this can be accounted for by Google, since searches related to him have been very frequent in Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Peru, Spain, Costa Rica, Chile and Colombia.
Similarly, for the last 5 years the keyword “Mafalda” has been widely consulted in Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, Colombia, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.
Videos on YouTube to learn a little more about Quino
The audiovisual content platform has become a place widely used by users to learn, and that is why there are these videos that tell unpublished details about Quino.
1. Looking for Quino (2020 Documentary), is on the channel of the International Festival of Social Innovation (fiiS).
2. QUINO: 10 things that MAYBE you didn’t know about MAFALDA + TOP 5 JOKES | SORRY, CENTENNIALS. It is available on the channel of the creator Pablo Molinari
3. Quino: How was Mafalda born? From the Educatin channel
4. QUINO: the creator of MAFALDA by Draw My Life in Spanish
5. Curiosities about Quino and Mafalda. Available at AnimalMX.
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