Hispanic Cartoon Artist Ends Hispanic Heritage Celebrations at CSU

Closing out the month long Hispanic Heritage celebration and beginning the 2008- 2009 Cultural Crossings Lecture Series, cartoon artist Hector Cantú spoke last Wednesday night at Mather Mansion.

Cantú, the award winner and second generation Texan, spoke to a packed room on the third floor of Mather about the importance of the introduction of the Latino experience to the mainstream media.

"I wanted to create a character and create things that I hadn't seen in the paper," Cantú said during his speech. His creation, Baldo, is circulated by over 225 papers nationwide and has been looked into by the Spanish speaking Television channel, Univision, for an half and hour show. Cantú pointed out that there have been not many Hispanic cartoons in the past 20 years as Gordo, a cartoon featuring a Mexican bean farmer turned tour guide, was the last one.

"You have a national stage," Cantú said, "and it's just a matter of having different voices on the national stage. It's a chance to entertain people, and if you are good at it, you survive." Survive he has as Baldo has been circulating throughout national papers for over eight years. With the popularity of Hispanic actors, such as Carols Mencia and George Lopez and Cantú, Latin Americans have been able make their culture known and hopefully breakdown the stereotypes in today's society.

"Breaking down stereotypes is important so that people can have another look at things," Cleveland State Director of Cultural Crossings and host of the event Dr. Antonio Medina-Rivera said after the speech. The most important idea that Cantú had during the night was to introduce Hispanic and other stereotypes, not to perpetuate them, but to make light of them. This was illustrated by Presidential candidates Sen. John McCain in a queen's dress and Sen. Barack Obama dressed as a street thug since the event was the same night of the debate.

"It's also good to play with them [the stereotypes], like Hector does," Dr. Medina- Rivera added. "We have a low number of Hispanics at the University, so having a Hispanic entertainer, like Hector, I think is an inspiration to show to them." Hector and his illustrator, Carlos Castellanos, have also encouraged more activism throughout the Latino community.

Baldo, who is influenced by both his American and Latino cultures, is accompanied by his know-it-all sister, Gracie, his stern yet proud Hispanic father, Sergio, and his aunt who is the embodiment of a traditional Hispanic woman, Tia Carmen. The comics of Baldo are quite funny, but also make readers think of the stereotypes put on Hispanics.

"Most of the time people have stereotypes because of one bad experience that they had. You can't fixate on that, you have to look around more," Dr. Media Rivera said on the awareness of stereotypes in the public.

Cantú did share the personal emails he did get about the negative stereotypes people think he displays, ranging from Caucasians being very law enforcing people to Hispanics being superstitious, lazy, and uneducated. His most telling email, however, was from an angered fan that wrote to him about his stereotypical treatment of people wearing costumes after Baldo wore a chicken suit in one of his strips. The email received a great laugh from the crowd.

"You want people to be aware of stereotypes. Stereotypes are tied into awareness. I think people who are more aware to their surroundings are probably less to have stereotypes," Cantú would add to his point.

Cantú has also helped the boost the image of the Hispanic heroes of World War II, when he included the stories of his men and women into his comic strip. Cantú would say it was to show not only the pride the servicemen and women had, but also show their patriotism to the United States, even though they were still actively discriminated against.

Cantú's engagement at Cleveland State kicked off the Cultural Crossings: Memories, Reflections, and Recollections. Other events throughout the series includes Eleanor Lerman (Vampires are Happier When They Are Homosexual, or Adventures in the Poetry Trade) on Nov. 13, Jim Northrup (I AM Anishinaabe and You Ain't) on Nov. 20, Steve Cagan (El Chocó, Colombia, Struggle for Cultural and Environmental Survival: An Everyday Resistance) on Feb. 5, 2009, and concludes with Arn Chorn Pond (Child of War- Man of Peace) on Apr. 9. 2009.