The Caricature Museum will reopen its permanent exhibition in April

Mexico City. After seven years of waiting for its restoration, the Caricature Museum (Donceles 99, Centro Historico) will inaugurate its permanent exhibition in April on the evolution of that art in the country, in the rooms previously closed due to the damage caused by the earthquake of September 19, 2017.

About eight employees they leftand since then, As director of the museum, I am the only employee, and without salary. I have to take out the trash, wash the bathroom, open and close the museumhe explained in an interview for The Conference the also president of the Mexican Society of Cartoonists, Juan Terrazas Campos.

Between 2018 and 2019, through a resource granted by the Secretariat of Urban Development and Housing of Mexico City, structural work was carried out on the property; However, this was not enough to restore the building, which dates back to the 17th century.

In 2018, the federal government began to design the National Reconstruction Plan, which consisted of providing support to serve the communities affected by the earthquakes of September 2017 and February 2018. Since then we have asked for the restoration to be donesaid Terrazas Campos, who, on behalf of the Mexican Society of Caricaturists, sought to have the Caricature Museum building included in the project.

Between April and May 2023, the property of the Antiguo Colegio de Cristo, current headquarters of the Museum of Caricature, was chosen by the federal government to receive 3 million 260 thousand 581 pesos through the Trust of the Historical Center of Mexico City, according to information from the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage Sites and Monuments of the federal Ministry of Culture.

Before receiving support from the National Reconstruction Plan His response was that a particular organism could not be helped; That is, they could not grant public money to a private entity. However, the cartoonist society does not own the building, since they are only users of the Antiguo Colegio de Cristo, since the government lends us the property.

The society was born in 1975 by “the best cartoonists in Mexico, which really were all of them. It was founded by David Carrillo, Freyre, the historical yourself, “Helio Flores, Naranjo, Abel Quezada… that is, everyone from that time.”

The earthquake of September 19, 1985 collapsed the building on Humboldt Street, in Mexico City, where the headquarters of the Mexican Society of Cartoonists was located. Fortunately, there were no human losses.Terrazas pointed out.

After the incident, talks began with the government of Miguel de la Madrid to request that it offer them an alternative location. Then, the authorities expropriated and restored the property located at Donceles 99 to grant it, as a loan, to the company, with the condition that it would always be a cultural venue.

The government doesn’t really charge us rent, if it did, for this place it would have to be around 40 thousand pesos, something we couldn’t pay. What we can afford is the 3,500 pesos for services every two monthswhich are paid for with donations from visitors, purchases of souvenirs and the support of six cartoonists who give 20 percent of each illustration they make within the museum.

During the new restoration, the two archaeological windows of the building were covered. This was done for the good of the property, because it had more weight on the right side than on the left. With the supervision of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), work was done with the aim of having the same weight on both sides, so that, if it sinks, it sinks evenly.detailed the museum director.

In addition, he explained that the pre-Hispanic remains will not be forgotten, since in the backyard of the Antiguo Colegio de Cristo they were found very interesting basements, so INAH is working to, in the immediate future, open other archaeological windows.

Joya colonial

He added that they will continue to seek support from the Trust of the Historic Center of Mexico City, in order to tell them What actions to take and ensure that the building is not abandoned. This property is a national heritage site, since it dates back to 1612, a true jewel of the Colony. We have to fight so that it is always in restoration and that the government never releases it.

The Caricature Museum rescues and protects the work of all the members of the Mexican Society of Caricaturists and older illustrators, who forged this art in the country.

Perhaps a lot has been lost today because newspapers have stopped selling. People discovered that to get informed they do not need to buy a newspaper, since they do it on social networks. But people still like to come see how a cartoon is made. That has not been lost, because although there are many applications that caricature you, a person’s opinion of you through the drawing cannot be replaced by a machine.said Juan Terrazas.

For Laura Bonilla, an academic at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and member of the Network of Historians of the Press and Journalism in Ibero-America, a museum of this type has historical relevance for our country due to the weight it had before and after the Porfiriato and for its critical power as a representation of the political ideals of society.

“A museum on this topic is important because we rescue the artistic value, the technique and, above all, the importance of seeing what society and its culture were like.

The caricature is a document itself, like any other on paper, which allows us to study it as an object in all its components.he pointed out.