Quote:
Racial issues[
While MemĂ*n suffers a degree of racist taunting, especially in the first issues, the characters mocking him are depicted as either cruel or ignorant. As the story progresses, his race becomes less of an issue.
In an earlier story, Memin and his friends go to Ricardo's house after the then spoiled kid decides to make them to take a bath because of a mud fight they were involved. While bathing Memin forgets a soap bar and walked outside the bathroom without caring to dress, just to walk in front of Ricardo's mother that, scared, began to scream that a chimp was in her house, Memin, not catching the offense, really thinks that there is a chimp in the house and both began running scared, the woman from Memin, himself from the supposed chimp.
In one famous issue, MemĂ*n, having read that Cleopatra VII of Egypt took milk baths to lighten her skin, tries the same treatment. His mother weeps with sorrow that her son would want to change his skin color. A repentant MemĂ*n decides to be proud of his race and color to honor his good mother.
In another, MemĂ*n decides not to receive Communion at his church, after a cruel boy tells him blacks are not allowed in Heaven, pointing to the lack of black angels in religious paintings as proof (this was inspired by a popular song "Angelitos negros" that asked the same question and a popular Mexican motion picture of 1948 of the same name). MemĂ*n reasons that, since he is going toHell anyway, he can get away with any mischief he wants. This prompted some Roman Catholic priests to boycott the magazine. After sales plummeted in response to the boycott, an issue was published in which MemĂ*n's friends, with the aid of the church priest, paint one of the angels in the church black; MemĂ*n returns to church and dreams of becoming an angel.
In yet another adventure called "LĂ*os Gordos"[2] MemĂ*n and his friends travel to Texas to play soccer. They go for a chocolate milkshake, but the place refuses to sell to MemĂ*n, because it doesn't serve "Negroes". His friends stand up for him, get into a fight, and end up in jail.[3]
In a later adventure, Memin and Eufrosina decide to work in New York City but Memin got lost in the process and begin working for a Mexican family where a blind girl begins to bring affection to his new employee, she thinks that he is blond and white because of his cheerful attitude (inspired by Marianela from Benito Perez Galdos) and then later Memin met her cousin, a spoiled kid who he begin to have some fights. Finally the girl is cured from her condition, but Memin, scared to be seen by the girl decides to retire from the house while the girl misses her cousin with Memin. Some days later, she frees Memin and his mother from jail and reveals that she learned about the truth and explains all the masquerade to Eufrosina's dismay.
Finally, Memin and his friends went along a millionaire to Africa, where the most racial details were put in hot place, first Memin got a motherly friendship with a female gorilla, that later tends to be very useful for the kids to save the millionaire to be killed by his ambitious son. Later, they got trapped by cannibals that thought that Memin is a gift from the gods because of his bald condition and they named him King, just to be captured by slave traders (that freed Memin's friends in the process) and, while Memin was suffering in the ship, his friends finally freed him not without having a very angry Memin punching everyone (including his friends) due to their bad attitude over black people.
Memin in popular culture
As a result of the character's fame, MemĂ*n has appeared in other magazines. In 1965, he gave a lengthy interview for the magazine Contenido, where he appeared in a tuxedo. In addition, he was considered one of the most famous members of the Mexican Scout Association, and included in the cover of their magazine in June 1995 to coincide with the publication of the "History of Mexican Comics" stamps by the Mexican Postal Service.
Controversy
MemĂ*n was criticized on its first runs (1960–1970), but the critics were more concerned with his popularity, since intellectuals of that time had a very low opinion of comics in general. The average age of the comic reader in Mexico was higher than in the United States, about 18 instead of 13,[4] so some argue the content of comics had a very strong influence on Mexican society. MemĂ*nwas read mostly by poor and middle-class Mexicans. Some of the critics touch upon the racial aspects, but this topic was mostly ignored. Critics were more concerned with the stereotypical treatment of certain social themes and the values the stories typically reflect, which more or less echo the ideals of a Catholic middle class.[citation needed] Yolanda was very sensitive to critics, since they reflect heavily on sales. As Harold Hinds comments in his book Not just for children, the study of these comics is important to understand Mexican society.[4]
In June 2005, as part of a "History of Mexican Comics" series, the Mexican Postal Service (SEPOMEX) issued a series of postage stamps featuring the character of MemĂ*n. The stamps were deemed offensive by a number of African American community groups and politicians in the United States, including Jesse Jackson, prompting the Mexican government to assert that MemĂ*n had done a lot to oppose racism and that the stereotypical Warner Brothers' character Speedy Gonzales was never interpreted as offensive in Mexico.[5] LULAC and NCLR, Hispanic Americans civil rights organizations, also issued statements calling the stamps racist.
The charges of racism stem from the manner in which PinguĂ*n and his mother are rendered, in the style of "darky iconography" (a form which, in the United States, has its roots in blackface and the American minstrel show tradition.) Early Mexican comic artists adopted this mode of depicting people of African descent which had become commonplace around the world. MemĂ*n and his mother are depicted stereotypically as the "pickaninny" and the "mammy", respectively. The dress and attitudes of MemĂ*n's mother are a caricature of Afro-Cuban women of the time[6] and mirror Afrodiasporic clothing in various Latin American countries.[7]
Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez declared to the press that "it is a total lack of knowledge of our culture; it looks to me that it is a total lack of respect to our culture that some people are making an issue out of this which does not resemble the reality."
According to Enrique Krauze, these different opinions may owe to the very different racial attitudes held by the British colonizers in the United States and the Spanish in Mexico, the much earlier, and nonviolent, abolition of slavery in Mexico (1810 through federal decree in Mexico versus 1865 through a civil war in the United States) and the nonexistence in Mexico of what in the United States were known as the "Jim Crow laws."[8]
The criticism from United States officials was not only ridiculed by public opinion leaders in Mexico and by most of the Mexican population, but it also spurred interest in the stamps: from the day they were criticized, they were offered in Internet auction sites for several times their face value, and Mexican collectors bought the full edition of 750,000 copies in a few days. Sales of the magazine increased, and the publisher decided to relaunch the series from the first issue alongside the current printing.[9] Mexican intellectuals both from right and left have denounced this criticism as an attack on Mexico, and political magazines like Proceso have questioned the chain of events that led to the criticism, making this criticism, a political issue against MĂ©xico.[10][11]
In 2008, after complaints from an African-American shopper regarding what one news organization reported to be Memin's simian-like appearance and his "Aunt Jemima-like mother," all MemĂ*n periodicals were pulled from Wal-Mart stores in Texas.[12] This came after the latest issue titled "Memin para presidente" ("Memin for President") was being sold at locations with a large Hispanic population.[citation needed]
In 2011, in one of the Mexican reprints of the comic, there is a picture involving Memin Pinguin walking alongside Michelle Obama. Memin says "and this one is really a work that also the afroamerican really want to do" poking fun on the 2005 comment of President Fox, but probably also telling the irony over the fact that an afroamerican is currently the president of the United States (and that the latest issue of Memin Pinguin in USA was called Memin for President).
![kopimaya [dot] kom - Secangkir Kehangatan di Dunia Maya - Powered by vBulletin](images/misc/vbulletin4_logo.png){kind=logo}