COMUNICACIÓN

The European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation presented the comic Descalzos. Los doce apóstoles de México, by the illustrator Mayte Alvarado in Guadalupe. This is the seventh volume of the Collection “Extremeños en Iberoamérica y Europa-Historieta”.

This comic, narrated with Mayte Alvarado’s care and deep poetic sensitivity, tells the story of a group of Franciscan friars -originally from the Convent of San Francisco in Belvís de Monroy- who left form the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1524 with the mission ordered by the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church to evangelise the New World. They arrived in Veracruz, Mexico, almost four months later. Their adventure was not free of danger or vicissitudes, but their determination and conviction that the Indians were also children of God, helped them to overcome these obstacles. The regulated evangelisation of the new continent began with these twelve Franciscan friars, known as the Twelve Apostles of Mexico.

The Academic Director of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation, César Chaparro; the Mayor of Guadalupe, Felipe Sánchez, and the author of the comic participated in the presentation.

César Chaparro pointed out that this publication is included in the Foundation’s editorial line which encompasses different collections already consolidated, such as “Pensamiento Iberoamericano”, “Extremeños en Iberoamérica” or this one: “Historieta”, which aims to give visibility to those Extremaduran characters related to Ibero-America and whose action has been transcendent, but who are not as well-known as great names, such as Cortés, Pizarro or Núñez de Balboa, who have gone down in History.

In this sense, Chaparro pointed out that with this publication the intention was to emphasise the figure of those missionaries and religious men “who sowed not only religion, but also culture and merged with the indigenous people and defended their rights, teaching them to read, write and rhetoric so that they could have access to works that would give them freedom of thought”.

The Academic Director of Yuste Foundation underlined the “great importance” of the twelve friars that left Belvis de Monroy in the “development of religion and the first letters in Mexico” as shown by the fact that their presence in those lands is “referred to very positively by chroniclers and researchers”. In this sense it is necessary to “defend all those who did not leave Extremadura with a sword in their hand, but with a cross and culture to improve the lives of those who lived there”, Chaparro pointed out.

The Mayor of Guadalupe was grateful to hold the presentation of the publication in this local community that is so closely linked to the evangelisation of the New World. These twelve friars were in some way “the origin of Christianism in Mexico”, and he highlighted the indissoluble link between the Virgin of Guadalupe and that country.

The author of the comic went into detail about how she assembled the comic focusing on themes, such as language or the foundation of schools, and it was on these grounds that she structured the publication in seven chapters preceded by a documentary text, graphically developing each chapter in a more poetical manner.

This is Mayte Alvarado’s first historical comic release and she pointed out that she seeked a rapprochement with the work carried out by the Franciscans.

THE AUTHOR 

Mayte Alvarado (Badajoz) is a comic author and illustrator. She codirected the independent printing house “El verano del Cohete” and published the illustrated tale Miss Marjorie as well as the comic E-19. In her latest work she illustrated La casa de Bernarda Alba, an edition recently published by Alfaguara Clásicos.

EXTREMEÑOS EN IBEROAMÉRICA Y EUROPA-HISTORIETA

The collection “Extremeños en Iberoamérica y Europa- Historieta”, published by the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation, intends to recover essential characters in the history that Extremadura shares with America. The comic becomes an enjoyable and entertaining means of expression in order to convey these snippets of our history to all types of public. The rigour in the construction of history and its most adventurous aspect is added to this, because the attempt is also to make the reader want to know more about the character and our history through this reading.

At present, seven volumes make up this collection. Apart from the one recently presented the following are included: Navío de tuertos. Francisco de Orellana y el descubrimiento del Amazonas, by Fermín Solís; Hombre perdido. Ñuflo de Chaves en el Iguazú, by Enrique Flores and José Luis Forte; Huida hacia la Gloria. Vasco Núñez de Balboa y el descubrimiento del Océano Pacífico, by Gol; Martín Álvarez: el camino de un héroe, by Pedro Camello; Inés Suárez. La conquista de Chile, by Borja González and La Araucana. Alonso de Ercilla sobre Pedro de Valdivia, by María Ramos.