Estación Ministro Carranza

During my time here in Argentina (only three weeks in!), I have noticed that some stations in the subway have themes. How fun! Most of the time in the stations, there are just advertisements or maps for the Subté, but every so often, you will catch a themed station. The whole station of Ministro Carranza (Minister Carranza) has art from the comic “Gaturro”. No joke, when I first saw this art, I genuinely thought it was Garfield. Turns out, it is Argentina’s own comic strip created by the Cartoonist, Cristian Dzwonik or Nik for short. The cartoon is fairly new, starting in 1993 and still continues today. I love how this whole subway is covered in a local icon. Even if you come into Argentina and don’t know anything about Gaturro, walking into this subway WILL inform you that it is a big deal. Argentines are very proud of their cultural products ranging from food to icons to accents.

In the graphic designs (it is clear they are not hand painted), the cartoonist is recognized as Nik -commonly displayed in white letters and a black circle or organic shape around it. Gaturro is shown all over the subway sometimes with his other cat family, and usually with some psychedelic 70’s-looking background. Gaturro, the cartoon cat, is also used in the subway as a form of advertising such as encouraging people to recycle. In one of the pictures (shown above) Gaturro is leaning against the recycling can and above there is a thought bubble that translates “Help us to recycle”. Recycling is another common act found in Argentina. If there is a trash can in a store, there is almost always a recycle bin right next to it. Argentines are thankfully very big on recycling. Hint, hint, @ United States!!!

In the long blue background picture with Gaturro and his family the words roughly translate, “Communicate, Be connected, Be united”. It is fascinating that a comic teaches children and adults these lessons. After learning more about the comic itself, I am beginning to understand more of the Argentine dynamic. In the States, we have comics of fighting crime and women with unrealistic body types and in Argentina, they have a comic about being united and the interactions of family (even if they may or may not have stolen the cat icon from Garfield which I am low-key convinced they did). I am confident though that there is a direct correlation that this is what society teaches the community and it is clear to see the affects in the country. Although Argentina is not perfect, especially economically, I value their morals and attitude towards people around them. Walking through this subway station reminds me of the times people would give up their seat for a mom and her kid, or how a random man held the door open and guided an abuelita (grandma) by the hand into the store, and how perfect strangers on the street would give up two hours of their time to help someone just to help adjust her bike, because the seat was too high.

Yup, Gaturro is more than just a comic - it’s a platform to encourage a certain mindset. One that I want to be a part of.

http://www.gaturro.com/