''Tía Vicenta'' ("Aunt Vicenta") was a satirical current events magazine published in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
between 1957 and 1966. Created by
caricature
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
artist Juan Carlos Colombres, aka "
Landrú
Juan Carlos Colombres (January 19, 1923 – July 6, 2017) was an Argentine caricaturist and humorist whose work has illustrated articles and editorials in a number of the nation's leading periodicals. His contributions appear under the byline of '' ...
", ''Tía Vicenta'' became highly popular, being one of the most influential magazines of its genre.
[La revista (historia)]
by Landrú on Tía Vicenta website (archived, 13 Jul 2017)
In 1970, the magazine was regarded as one of the six best political and military humor magazines in the world.
Editorial Haynes published the magazine as a supplement to ''
El Mundo'' newspaper, with 500,000 copies printed. After then ''de facto'' president of Argentina
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo (; 17 March 1914 – 8 June 1995) was President of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as dictator after toppling the president Arturo Illia in a coup d'état self-named ''Revolución Arge ...
was depicted as a ''
walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the f ...
'' (a nickname given due to his big moustache), the dictatorship closed the magazine in July 1966.
History
Caricaturist and commentator Juan Carlos Colombres (mostly known for its nickname "
Landrú
Juan Carlos Colombres (January 19, 1923 – July 6, 2017) was an Argentine caricaturist and humorist whose work has illustrated articles and editorials in a number of the nation's leading periodicals. His contributions appear under the byline of '' ...
") established ''Tía Vicenta'' with fellow illustrator
Oski in 1957.
The
current events
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events ...
weekly quickly earned renown for its satirical content, particularly regarding
Argentine politics
The politics of Argentina take place in the framework of what the Constitution defines as a federal presidential representative democratic republic, where the President of Argentina is both Head of State and Head of Government. Legislative p ...
, and its circulation, which initially averaged 50,000, doubled shortly afterward.

One of its recurring topics was the ban on
Peronism
Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of ...
, which its editorials referred to often and in violation of
Decree Law 4161/56 (the decree, signed by President
Pedro Aramburu
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Silveti (May 21, 1903 – June 1, 1970) was an Argentine Army general. He was a major figure behind the ''Revolución Libertadora'', the military coup against Juan Perón in 1955. He became dictator of Argentina, serving ...
in 1956, prohibited any mention of or references to exiled populist leader
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was electe ...
or Peronism). Another political controversy whose coverage made ''Tía Vicenta'' memorable was the dispute between President
Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi Ércoli (October 28, 1908 – April 18, 1995) was an Argentine lawyer, journalist, teacher and politician, who was elected President of Argentina and ruled between May 1, 1958 and March 29, 1962, when he was overthrown by a ...
and Vice President
Alejandro Gómez regarding
Frondizi's decision in 1958 to open the nation's
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...
fields to foreign exploration (a reversal of Frondizi's earlier stance). The Vice President had not made his opposition to this policy in public. The covers of ''Tía Vicenta'', however, appeared for a number of weeks with a corner photo of Gómez in a circular insert with an epigraph asking: ''¿A mi por qué me miran?'' ("Why are you looking at me?"). Gómez was forced to resign by the President in November, merely six months after their swearing in.
''Tía Vicenta'' also appeared as a supplement to the popular news daily ''
El Mundo'' beginning in 1960,
and with a circulation ranging from 200,000 to 450,000 per issue it would become the best-selling magazine in the country.
[ Numerous well known Argentine illustrators and journalists began their career at ''Tía Vicenta'', including ]Quino
Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, better known by his pen name Quino (; 17 July 193230 September 2020), was an Argentinian cartoonist. His comic strip '' Mafalda'' (which ran from 1964 to 1973) is popular in many parts of the Americas and Euro ...
, Faruk, Caloi, and Copi
COPI is a coatomer, a protein complex that coats vesicles transporting proteins from the ''cis'' end of the Golgi complex back to the rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where they were originally synthesized, and between Golgi compartments. This ...
.[ Other noted contributors included Conrado Nalé Roxlo, ]Hermenegildo Sábat
Hermenegildo Sábat (23 June 1933 – 2 October 2018) was an Argentine-Uruguayan caricaturist.
Life and work Early career in journalism
Hermenegildo Sábat was born in the oceanfront Pocitos section of Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1933. Named after a ...
, and María Elena Walsh
María Elena Walsh (1 February 1930 – 10 January 2011) was an Argentine poet, novelist, musician, playwright, writer and composer, mainly known for her songs and books for children. Her work includes many of the most popular children's book ...
, as well as its co-founder, Oscar Conti (Oski)
Oscar "Oski" Conti (191430 October 1979) was a prominent Argentine cartoonist and humorist.
Life and work
Oscar Esteban Conti was born in Buenos Aires in 1914. Enrolling at the National Fine Arts School, he helped finance his studies by creating ...
. Landrú used surreal humor
Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causality, causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Portrayal ...
to lampoon both politicians and prevailing issues. He made a likewise liberal use of artistic license on the magazine's covers themselves, which typically featured his caricatures (drawn as naïve art
Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). When this aesthetic is ...
), and whose design changed frequently; to parody talk of a looming recession in 1966, for instance, he changed the magazine's name at one point to ''Carestía Vicenta'' ("Famine Vicenta"). His irreverent portrayals of General Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo (; 17 March 1914 – 8 June 1995) was President of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as dictator after toppling the president Arturo Illia in a coup d'état self-named ''Revolución Arge ...
, who had seized power in a 1966 coup d'état, as a walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the f ...
(a nickname with which colleagues in the Argentine Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, in es, Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina, are controlled by the Commander-in-Chief (the President) and a civilian Minister of Defense. In addition to the Army, Navy and Air Force, there are t ...
referred to the laconic and moustachioed Onganía) resulted in the closure of ''Tía Vicenta'' by government edict in July of that year.[ The shuttered magazine returned as ''Tío Landrú'' from 1967 to 1969,] and again returned, by its original name though in a less successful version, from 1977 to 1979.[
Landrú would continue to illustrate editorials in numerous other publications in subsequent decades, notably '' Clarín''.][ Edgardo Russo wrote a history of the periodical, ''Historia de Tía Vicenta'', published by ]Espasa-Calpe
Espasa-Calpe was a Spanish publisher which existed during the 20th century. It was created in 1925, by the union of Editorial Calpe, founded by Nicolás María de Urgoiti in 1918, and Editorial Espasa, founded by José and Pau Espasa i Anguera i ...
in 1994.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tia Vicenta
1957 establishments in Argentina
1966 disestablishments in Argentina
Censorship in Argentina
Defunct magazines published in Argentina
Argentine political satire
Satirical magazines published in Argentina
Magazines established in 1957
Magazines disestablished in 1966
Spanish-language magazines
Banned magazines