[!@#$%!]

anyway latin america has had a bunch of different responses to american superheroes but the most enduring and significant one has been this

 

el chapulín colorado

you may have seen a bad copy of it on the simpsons but that’s totally lost in translation. do not/cannot compare based on looks.

chapulín colorado fits the latin american mythical imagination perfectly. he’s not an earnest overpowered bully with supreme weapons and bruce wayne/tony stark’s money. instead he’s a bumbling fool in cheap-looking costume, full of good intentions, and totally incompetent.

his weapons are a squeaky plastic mallet and some shrinking pills that get him in more trouble than they solve. as superheroes goes he’s supercowardly, but a mexican would tell you that más vale un cobarde vivo que un valiente muerto.

he wins in spite of his shortcomings through sheer luck, which he boast is cunning in front of others. he’s got a number of catchphrases that are just a bunch of bungled popular sayings, so he sounds like a well-meaning idiot.

he’s the perfect symbol of underdevelopment—cheerful and determined in spite of a great povery of material, moral and intellectual means.

like cheeto said, WHEN you read things is important— but also WHERE you read them from. perspective is everything, and it’s a big big big world of meaning out there.