Quino celebrates his 81 years of life

The Latin America’s most iconic cartoonist turns 81, and we remember him with a small report of his life.

Son of Spanish immigrants, Joaquín Salvador Lavado was born in Mendoza, Argentina during the military dictatorship in 1932. Inmediatly his family nicknamed him Quino, to distinguish him from his uncle, the painter and illustrator, Joaquín Tejón. But it was not until the elementary school that Quino knew about his true name, producing severe confusions that he could vent through his character Felipe.

At the age of 13, his mother died and three years later, his father passed too. After high school, Quino entered the School of Fine Arts in Mendoza and his greatest ambition was to publish in the journal “Rico Tipo”.

At 17, Joaquin leaves the School of Fine Arts and he decides to become be a cartoonist and humorist. At 18 he sells his first story graph, called Sedalina.

In 1953 Quino began the military service claiming it was a horrible experience. But he says that  sharing his life with boys from different social backgrounds helped him to start drawing something different.

When he turns 20, he settled in Buenos Aires. He published  his first humor page  in the weekly newspaper: “Esto es”. From there, other media followed as ” Vea y Lea”, “Leoplán”, “Damas y Damitas”, “TV Guía”, “Usted”, “Che”, “Panorama”, “Atlántida”, “Adán”, Journal “Democracia” among others. Even in “Rico Tipo”, the first magazine he wanted to publish.

From then until now, his humorous drawings have been published continuously in countless newspapers and magazines in Latin America and Europe, becoming one of the world’s most influential cartoonists.

Mafalda is born:

Although he doesn’t have any biological children, in 1964 he created Mafalda, a questioning girl who became his most famous character, whose cartoons are still been published in newspapers and magazines around the world in different languages, with successful sales  worldwide.

In 1972, ten years after a continuous publication, Quino decided to stop drawing her, due to the  pressure caused by the  daily print-run.