De Pucho a Cucho (1985)
In 1985, La Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas published a collection of comic strips by the artist Virgilio Martínez Gainza entitled "De Pucho a Cucho." Tracing his illustrations from when he was a clandestine artist in 1955 to the flourish of creative output post-revolution, the collection offers a deeper look into one of Cuba's most beloved comic artists.
Below, a few comic strips from Gainza's clandestine period are analyzed to outline his political values as a revolutionary artist.
The cover of "De Pucho a Cucho," published in 1985 by the Editora Abril of La Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas. The cover depicts the strip's main character, who was named "Pucho" during Gainza's clandestine period, only to become "Cucho" post-revolution.
In the collection's prologue, the editor, Marcos Behmaras, tries to define the book. Admitting that it's "many things all at once," it says the book is a "manual of good drawing, of grace, of fine Creole humor, of aggressive satire against the enemy from within and without."
It celebrates Gainza for his "service to the Revolution," and implores readers to approach the work without prejudice, instead grappling with the characters and using our own experiences as context.
This page introduces Gainza's "clandestine period," which lasted from 1955 towards the end of the Batista regime in 1958. It explains how Pucho was born three years after the beginning of Batista's dictatorship in 1952, only to become a "symbol of the desires and aspirations of the Cuban people."
The second paragraph reads:
"Pucho was born fighting. Combative and radical like the Cuban youth, whom he represented, he devoted himself, during the remainder of the batistato (Batista's regime) and the neo-colony, to waging war against the tyrant and denouncing that imperialism and the economic interests of the big capitals were behind him."
On the right is a comic depicting Pucho urinating on a poster of Batista's face.
In this period, Virgilio Martínez Gainza went by the pseudonym "Laura" to protect himself, and a few strips from this period are presented below.
In this strip entitled "Pucho visits some countries of the Western World," Pucho witnesses the role the United States plays in several Latin American countries. From exploiting the labor of farmers and oil workers in Guatemala and Venezuela to having his boots licked by native Puerto Ricans and walking Cuba by a leash, the United States is depicted as an oppressive overseer to Latin America, leading Pucho to urinate on Uncle Sam's shoes in the last panel.
In this strip, Pucho sees unemployed Cubans standing outside of factories that are either closed or not hiring. Pucho stumbles on the dictator Batista in his home, known as "Kuquine," where he is shining the shoes of members of his cabinet, like the secretaries of education, the economy, and anti-communism, as well as his military attaché and American ambassador, all of whom were "Made in U.S.A."
Pucho bites Batista's butt, and his cabinet flees.
On this strip, Pucho sees Rafael Díaz-Balart, Batista's deputy Secretary of the Interior, depicted as a monkey, riding a tank with Batista and another cabinet member.
Pucho notices a flyer reading "August 12," a reminder of Cuba's last succesful revolution in their independece war from Spain. The flyer inspires Pucho to urinate on Diaz-Balart's tank.