Un homenaje a Manlio Argueta / An Homage to Manlio Argueta
Esta caricatura se la dedico al señor Manlio Argueta, un tesoro nacional salvadoreño, que hoy cumple sus 80 años de vida. Yo leí Un día en la vida por primera vez cuando estaba en proceso de completar mi licenciatura de la Universidad del Sur de California (USC) en el 2008. En aquel entonces, sentía un profundo aislamiento de mis raíces salvadoreñas, no sólo por razones personales, pero también por el sistema y el ambiente opresivo de mi universidad. El párrafo en la caricatura es uno que conmovió muchísimo porque reflejaba la realidad de mis padres y la mía. Que aunque estuviéramos en los Estados Unidos, siempre le seguíamos agachando la cabeza a la autoridad, ya sean nuestros patrones o nuestros profesores.
Gracias señor Argueta por todo lo que ha aportado por nuestro pueblo.
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Cartoon Translation:
“We were always trying to be good. We believed that to be good was to lower your head, to not protest, to not demand, to not get angry. No one had ever cleared these things up for us. To the contrary, at every instance we were offered the paradise of heaven. The prize for being good. To respect your fellow man in reality meant to respect the boss. And to respect the boss meant to be conformed with whatever he decided… We had confused goodness with resignation.”
I dedicate this cartoon to Manlio Argueta, a Salvadoran national treasure, who today celebrates 80 years of life. I read One Day of Life for the first time when I was completing my bachelors from USC in 2008. Back then, I felt a profound sense of isolation from my own Salvadoran roots, not only for personal reasons, but also due to the oppressive system and environment at my university. The paragraph in the cartoon is one that moved me tremendously because it reflected both the reality of my parents and my own. Although we lived in the United States, we [as Salvadorans] were still lowering our heads to the authority, whether they were our bosses or our professors.
Thank you Mr. Argueta for everything that you have contributed to our people.