While reading the Isabella Cosse article titled “Mafalda: Middle Class, Everyday Life, and Politics in Argentina, 1964-1973” it made me draw comparisons to popular comics that I might have read growing up such as Betty and Veronica, and the Archie comics. What drew me to these comics was seeing similar in nature characters displayed throughout. Being middle class Betty and Veronica going through the dramatics of westernized life. I feel as though Mafalda exploded as a character in Argentina and then eventually beyond because of the way that people were able to connect with her character and relate stories back to their own lives.

Cosse discusses how the influx of European immigrants and modernization at this time grew Argentina’s middle class. Therefore, starting to solidify a certain identity in terms of what/who the middle class are and act like. The middle class during this time was integral in political conversation (whether this we good or bad; re the discrimination of indigenous individuals).

What Cosse is wanting to get across is that Mafalda was so popular because the middle class was able to relate to certain social material and as one knows representation in the media is important. However, it went both ways as the comic was also used to shape the middle class. The author would do this by displaying situations of social identities with humour as well as interpreting everyday people intersecting in the political sphere. Which is important in a democratic functioning society.

Crosse states “Laughter is an act that presupposes shared meanings that make humor intelligible because it requires an audience familiar with the subjects evoked” (39). What this tells the reader is that the popularity of the comic was due to the humorous nature along. This also opens a conversation looking at the intersection of humour and political messages that one might see today in various comics around the world (Canada for one has an abundance of politically humorous comics all while stating opinions in newspapers).

The comic displayed a married couple that consisted of a “normal” family structure at the time being a stay at home mom and a white collar working mother with the little girl Mafalda living in the city. This makes sense at the main consumers of the comic were middle class individuals living in urban areas. As was shown through survey’s at the time which were a leading business tool as described by Cosse.

Question for the class: Why do you think the Author of Mafalda, Joaquı´n Lavado, stopped writing these comics 1973? Not even 10 years after the original strip was published in 1964.