Memín Pinguín is a long-running comic magazine in Mexico, whose titular character is a full-lipped (the one part accused of looking like a blackface caricature), large-eared, dark-skinned Cuban-Mexican boy.
The stories were partially based on recollection of the childhood adventures of Yolanda Vargas Dulché in the Colonia Guerrero near downtown Mexico City. The character of Memín Pinguín was inspired by Cuban children seen by the author Yolanda Vargas Dulché on her travels.
Memín Pinguín debuts in 1943 as part of the kid magazine, Pepin, to compose 372 weekly episodes drawn in sepia that was reedited in its full in 1952, then in 1963 (now drawn by Sixto Valencia Burgos) and in 1988, 2000 and 2005 in full color. Sadly the "homage" version released in 2005 were not well appreciated due to bad drawning as long as Valencia Burgos has retired at the time.
As his sister publication, "Lagrimas, Risas y Amor", this magazine has both comedy and soap opera elements in it. The magazine comic series resembles soap operas in that its story is a continuous one. Every week, the newest publication of Memin begins where the last publication had left off. In addition, because of the elements involved in the comic magazine's story, such as poverty, parental abandonment, death and alcoholism, often there are dramatic moments in the magazine as well.
The 1988 version was the blank of controversies due to its adult oriented story lines in a kid magazine, specially one involving Memin renouncing Catholicism due to a misunderstanding provoked by a bully. In 2005 it was again the blank of controversy when the SEPOMEX released postal stamps involving Memin and other popular Mexican comic characters, being to lead to have African American groups to denounce the comic.
This Work Provides Examples of:
- Blind and the Beast : In a story arc where Memin finds himself lost in New York, he is able to find a job helping cleaning a house of a Mexican family and befriend Silvia, the only daughter of the family, who is blind and she thinks he is a beautiful blonde boy by hearing his voice and gentile attitude, he follows the ruse as long as their friendship goes on (let´s remind that Memin is not exactly a beautiful Cuban-Mexican kid). Sometime later, Silvia gets surgery in her eyes and when she is able to see, she sees a beautiful blonde boy and calls him "Memin"... to be actually Federico, her cousin that has a rivalry with Memin for her attention (the arc was based in Benito Perez Galdos´s Marianela).
- Butt-Monkey : Memin tends to speak too much or to say the most inadequate comment in the most inadecuate time resulting in his friends hitting him in the head (or even worse). Very common in the first arcs of the comic. Only averted the day when Carlos´s grandmother died, and Memin said "Muchos dias de estos" (More of these days) that is a birthday greeting, Carlos, being the rudest of the gang, only smiled understanding the real intentions of what he said.
- Christianity is Catholic : When the arcs involve religion, is shown that all the main characters at least are Catholic. The most controversial arc involves Memin breaking bad when a bully saw him preparing for First Comunion and make a racist remark about getting to Paradise. This leads Memin to abandon his religion, believing what the bully said. This leads even to people to stop reading the comic because of the "bad message" it provoked according to the Catholic Church (it was averted, anyway and Memin turned to good again and made his First Communion). Curiously averted, when the Christmas celebrations were changed, in the '80s edition, to celebrate Independence Day instead (very weird considering that, in Mexico, there are no special dinners or gift exchange during that holiday).
- Disappeared Dad : Memin´s father died some time before the story starts. Initially the trope also applied to Carlangas, as long as his father Carlos, a rich man, abandoned Isabel because his mother does not want him to be married with her, but later averted when Carlangas met his father and, some time later, Carlos and Isabel got married.
- Dream Episode : Memin Pinguin had two:
- One has Memin dreaming that he and his gang are The Three Musketeers trying to save Paris from a famine made by the incorrect decisions of the king. In some sort, the dream was mean to relax Memin after his intervention in a The Three Musketeers school representation earlier on ends in disaster.
- Another has Memin dreaming that he and Ernestillo are in XIX Century´s China, curiously a very long arc for a dream.
- Here We Go Again! : The last arc of Memin Pinguin relates to the end of the academic year, this leads to Memin and his gang to remember his adventures while walking home, during that they find a fortune teller who, instead of telling them their future, he decides to show them how they met in his crystal ball, sending the characters (and the reader) back exactly to the very first scene of the first number. The second number of the '80s shows Memin relating the highlights of the first number while the gang is seeing the crystal ball. This allowed the 372 weekly episode story to start until the 1962 version reached more than 1,000 consecutive episodes.
- Humble Parent, Spoiled Kids : Despite his good position in society, Rogelio Alcaraz, the dad of Ricardo, is very humble and that´s why he decided to enroll his son in a public school. Also when he learns about Ernestillo´s family economic problems, he does not hesitate in provide some economic help. However his son, Ricardo, becomes a spoiled brat due to the way he was educated and decided to enroll him in a public school.
- Main/Mammy : Eufrosina, Memin´s mother, is drawn are written like one, leading to several critics in the last prints.
- Missing Mom : Ernestillo´s mother died some time before the story starts, leading his husband to Alcoholism.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The protagonist is drawn in a cartoony style while everyone else, including his three friends, Carlangas, Ernestillo, Ricardo, and his mother, Eufrosina, is done in a far more realistic style, while dressed and modeled as a Main/Mammy .
- Pauper Patches : Ernestillo was the poorest kid of the gang, and his overall tends to have patches and also he walks barefoot to the school and back. Ricardo blames him for a bad smell he catches in his first day at school ending in a fight with Carlos. After Ricardo begin to tend for his new friends, he gives Ernestillo new shoes and, when the economic situation of the family started to improve he started to use overalls without patches.
- Playing Drunk: One night, Isabel, Carlos´s mother, decided to play drunk to make his son believe she went back to her job as fichera (dancer) and let him leave her to live with his separated rich father.
- Put on a Bus: If the character is not Memin, his mother or his friends, regularly he/she disappear once his/her story arc is completed. Even Carlos´s father, despite getting married to his mother, never appear in the comic again.
- Shoe Slap: Eufrosina gave one to Guillermo Pinguin, her future husband and father of Memin, when she met him, after he laughs at her when her "chancla" was thrown into the trash truck he drived by mistake.
- Spoiled Brat: Ricardo Alcaraz initially was one, to the point to have problems in every private school he attended, so his father enrolled him in the same school as the rest of the gang so he can learn some humilty. After some arcs, he became closer to his friends and more friendly with the employees of his house.
- The Alcoholic: Juan Vargas, Ernestillo´s widowed father, tends to be one until his son drinks alcohol when he hears from him that he sees his dead mother when drunk and ends up in the hospital by intoxication. This leads to a "The Reason You Suck" Speech provided by his teacher Antonio Romero that leads him to stop for some time, but a bad friendship lead him to drink again suffering an accident that almost cost his leg, finishing his alcoholism for good.
- Tough Love: Despite that Eufrosina loves her son more than her life, his antics always pushed her to punish him physically when the situation calls it (regularly by hitting him in the butt with a plank with a nail) or even leaving him with a brown eye when he gets in home too late. In one episode arc she was close to hit Ricardo parents when they went to her house to look for him when Ricardo moved to Guadalajara to avoid living with his divorced parents (with Memin on his tail).
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What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? : While Memin is a kid, the stories are not so kid friendly, indeed, it has several stories that would make one or more parents to look suspicious, the first arcs involves Alcoholism and one of Memin´s friends, Ernestillo, getting drunk with industrial alcohol, in another arc another friend, Carlangas, looks for her mother in the city´s nightclubs only to find her in the middle of a fight and hitting a man with a bottle after he shoot her, another arc shows the parents of Ricardo getting divorced, and even the main character finds himself in an arc renouncing Catholicism as long as one bully told him a racist remark about Heaven. And still it was aimed for kids...
