Iconic Cartoon Character Mafalda Realizes Her Dream Of Being A UN Interpreter

26 November 2024

Mafalda, the inquisitive and sharp-witted creation of the late humorist Quino, also fulfilled a long-held dream on her birthday: “to learn languages to be a UN interpreter” and “to help people understand each other”.

A statuette of the eternal six-year-old, sculpted by the Argentine artist Pablo Irrgang, arrived at the UN and was placed in the interpreters’ booth in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber, thanks to the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, her hometown.

“It is not by chance that she wants to be an interpreter at the UN, because the values that Mafalda always promulgated were the values of peace over war, justice, education and, above all, freedom,” the Minister of Culture of Buenos Aires, Gabriela Ricardes, told UN News.

Challenging injustice and inequality

Mafalda is hugely popular throughout Latin America and Spain, but she has crossed borders and cultures, gaining fans as far afield as China and Japan.

As soon as she entered the UN grounds, Mafalda posed by Non-Violence, the famous knotted gun sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd.

She was immediately recognized by a group of young Japanese women visiting the Organization.

“Mafalda is a girl with a unique outlook – perceptive, critical and interested in world problems; a girl from San Telmo, a neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, but concerned about world peace and what was happening to the planet,” said Ms. Ricardes.

Mafalda provides comical and insightful social and political critique through the eyes of a curious and idealistic girl. With her sharp wit, she questions injustice, inequality, and hypocrisy in the world, while expressing concerns about peace, human rights, and the future of humanity.

She is, without a doubt, a symbol of social conscience and the desire to transform the world, mixing humour with profound reflections.

One of her characteristics is her use of naivety as a powerful tool. Her childlike character allows her to ask seemingly simple but profound and critical questions, disarming the adults around her and exposing their contradictions or lack of answers to complex problems.

Guillermo Lavado, Quino’s nephew, pointed out that “it was a dream of hers to contribute to world peace, perhaps a little innocently thinking that by being a translator for the UN she could put the ideas of the different leaders in order and harmonise them so that there would be fewer conflicts and fewer wars.”

Argentine cartoon character Mafalda sits in at her country's assigned seat during her visit to the United Nations.

Message still resonates

Mr. Lavado, together with Ms. Ricardes and Mr. Irrang, accompanied Mafalda throughout her tour of UN. They all stressed that she is still relevant today, even though 60 years have passed since she made her debut in a comic strip.

“Mafalda embodies a lot of values that at this time in this world are much more needed: the values of peace, feminism, equity, equality, ecology, care for the world. These are values that are so transcendent and important that, at this moment, they are more important than ever,” said Mr. Irrang.

“Unfortunately, it is still relevant because the conflicts have changed a bit geographically, although let’s say that the Middle East has remained the same for so many years and since (Mafalda) was born, but we always have the same interests that produce the same wars,” Mr. Lavado noted.

Upholding our common humanity

For this reason, he believes that Mafalda’s message today would still be the same: “that hopefully we can agree as humanity to collaborate and not compete, and to be more with each other instead of against each other.”

Ms. Ricardes pointed out that “For Mafalda, education, justice and freedom were unquestionable values, as was the exercise of good sense in a senseless world,” stressing that this would be her message today.

After strolling through the UN lobby, the Mafalda statuette headed to the ECOSOC Chamber, where it was received by Spanish language interpreters working for the global body.

Among them was an Argentinean colleague who expressed how her dream, and Mafalda's, was fulfilled and “left a ray of hope”.

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