Traditions and Evolution of Political Caricature in Argentina: Who Gets The Last Laugh?

Humor, which is an integral part of the Argentine national character, reflects not only the daily life of Argentines, but also the political processes taking place in the country. The relevance of the report is related to the abrupt change in the country's political course, which began with the advent of X.Miley´s candidacy for the presidency also marked a new stage in the development of Argentine political caricature. The report examines the evolution of political caricature from the beginning of the period of democratization in Argentina (when satire was revived) to the present day. For analysis, the author reviewed caricatures published in leading Argentine newspapers (La Nación, Clarín, Página 12) and a number of other publications containing the works of cartoonists (for example, Quino, Fontanarrosa, Carlos Trillo, Nik, Daniel Paz). In this report, the author identifies several stages since the renaissance of caricature: the era of K. Menem and neoliberalism, where the president of the country is depicted as a likeness of the “sun king”; the transition to more aggressive images in caricature in the era of Kirchnerism; the era of M. Macri with cartoons ridiculing the “bourgeois president”; as well as the era of the return of the Peronists to power (images of a “weak leader” in the person of A. Fernandez, who became a “target” for failures in the economy and ill-conceived policies during the pandemic) and the arrival of X.Miley, in which the following trends appeared in the evolution of caricature: a) digitalization (the acquisition of meme format by caricatures), b) polarization (caricature as a tool in the struggle of peronists against antiperonists), c) the emergence of a trend towards more thorough censorship of the media space.