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The best cartoonist in the world is Cuban
26June
Articles

The best cartoonist in the world is Cuban

Ángel Boligán:

I am one of the two Cuban cartoonists with more international awards, I do not know how many Ares have today, as he has continued to reap laurels and it is possible that this week  I will be the one with another award and the next he will be the one winning and award and so we spend our lives.

In the city of Tabriz, Iran, site recognized by the tradition of drawing, fifty cartoonists gather every year since 2006, during the month of April, to nominate and select the best in the world. This April 16 they gathered and chose our Angel Boligán. Since 1992 he lives in Mexico and is the editorial cartoonist for the newspaper El Universal, along with Naranjo and Helio Flores, two great authors of the caricature of Mexico and Latin America.

He graduated as a professor of visual arts instructor in Havana in 1987. He cultivates graphic humor, personal caricature and cartoon, in which he has obtained fifty national awards and mentions in Cuba, five in Mexico and sixteen internationals.

When he was only 22 he was third in the VIII International Biennial of Humor and Satire, held in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, in 1987. He received the First Prize in General Humor and four Special in the IX International Biennial of Humor, held in Cuba in 1995 and the second in Personal Caricature in the tenth edition in 1997.

He holds the Prize at the II Portocartoon World Festival held in Oporto, Portugal (2000), Honorable Mention in the first Cartoonnet Festival, 1st. International Cartoon Contest on the Net, organized by Fanofunny, Italy (2000) and the National Award of Journalism awarded by the Club of Journalists of Mexico for his published drawings during 1999 in the newspaper El Universal, Mexico (2000).

He holds the National Journalism Prize José Pagés Llergo awarded by the foundation of the same name and Siempre magazine for his published drawings in 2002 in the El Universal newspaper, Mexico (2002), Grand Prix at the XIII International Biennial of Humor held in Cuba (2003) and a Mention for being a finalist of the National Journalism Award of Mexico (2003).

Boligán won the award (National Journalism Award in the category of Caricature-Humor) for his drawing Wall Streetanic, published last year.

I was a witness and informant of his competition with Aristides Hernandez, pure prize to see who won more international awards.

How did the competition end between you and Ares?

With the triumph of both ... getting between the two over eighty international awards in eighteen months. There can not be a "loser" with healthy competition that accelerated our creation, raised our professional quality and reinforced our friendship.

Are you the Cuban caricaturist with more international awards? Do you think Ares will reach you?

I think it would be more accurate to say that I am one of the two Cuban cartoonists with more international awards, I do not know how many Ares have today, as he has continued to reap laurels and it is possible that this week I am the most awarded one and in the following he will be and so we spend our lives.

What is your opinion about the Cuban young people who venture in this art?

I am happy to see a new generation of cartoonists emerging everywhere and with a high aesthetic level and content. I like to see that they see humor very seriously and projects being undertaken despite the limitations, embargos and auto locks, and becoming known internationally and triumphing.

Do you miss San Antonio?

We as human beings were scattered as seeds around the world and germinated at random by the gardens around the world, we send down root, grow and our branches are often looking for more space, light or mere chance go to neighboring yards and even bear fruit for those yards and gardens in the world. But our roots always remain firm where they germinated.

I'm actually living in San Antonio, only that the distance and bureaucratic paperwork process of input and output is bigger than the kilometers that separate me from my Ariguanabo.

The Boli did well to share in my section "La vida en cuadritos" that I published in The Jiribilla, a definition of what a caricature and a cartoon is that I reproduce below: "A cartoon is the artistic medium of choice to make us laugh but also to think and reflect the heat of the facts, the restless brother of the house of the arts, a gun pointing to the head and sometimes to the heart. The cartoonist puts history and drawing and the reader rolls the tape; in the house of the arts is the sister who tells the stories and dreams of her characters. "

With caricatures he answered what love, peace, friendship and Cuba mean to him.

Dam nature

The gardener