Mafalda y Condorito

In addition to being funny, the comics Condorito, Mafalda, and Macanudo can offer a great insight into the Hispanic culture and language. Mafalda, drawn by Quino (Jauquín Salvador Lavado) is a national symbol in Argentina. Condorito, the pride of Chilean comics, is brought to us by the mind of Pepo (René Ríos).

But today, we’d like to take a look at another Argentine comic. On a recent trip to South America we happened to pick up a collection of Macanudo comics at a local bookstore and not long after reading, we were already craving more and purchased several books online.

Pin this post

Macanudo is one of the more creative and original series we have seen in a long time. It combines ingenious wit and thoughtful insight to come up with delightful and hilarious strips. Macanudo is a creation of Liniers (Ricardo Siri).

Liniers, who draws himself as a rabbit (see picture, right), has created characters such as los Pengüinos, El misterioso hombre de negro, Enriqueta y su gato Fellini y su oso de peluche Madariaga, y el chico Martín y su imaginación Olga, and Z-25 el robot sensible, among many others.

For how to use these in your Spanish class and some sample strips…

Utilizing comics in your teaching is a great way to connect to your students and a good motivation to promote fluency. Students enjoy trying to understand comics and figure out the joke. You can incorporate them by:

• displaying as the students enter the room to start class
• copying on the back of tests, for students to explain as extra credit
• posting on the class website or sites such as Edmodo for students to comment on
• showing along with specific vocabulary or grammar used in the comic that goes along with your lesson
• creating a “chiste bulletin board“
• Take out the words and have students rewrite the dialogue
• Take out the last column and have students create an ending for the strip
• Have students create their own comics by using simple websites
• Incorporate comics they students might be familiar with, but translated. Garfield, Ziggy, Calvin and Hobbes, and others are available at gocomics.com/explore/espanol

Use during familia unit

¿Quién es grande o chiquito?

You can see more of Macanudo at the following sites:

http://macanudo.com.ar/ – daily comic
http://macanudoliniers.blogspot.com/ – blog of Liniers, with tiras

Click to make larger

What are your favorite comics from the Target Culture you teach? How do you incorporate them into your teaching?