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STORY: UN / ARGENTINA MAFALDA
TRT: 2:49
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 NOVEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations General Assembly building
2. Various shots, Sculptor Pablo Irrgang holding his Mafalda image outside GA building
3. Tracking shot, Irrgang carting the sculpture into the building
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pablo Irrgang, Sculptor:
“Mafalda is that rebellious, questioning, protesting girl, who educated my generation to a great extent and continues to do so today with children - and is doing it with my children - and embodies a lot of values that right now, in this world, are super necessary. She constantly questions herself about the need to promote peace; what place other than the United Nations to promote it? And the values of feminism, of equity, of equality, of ecology, of caring for the world, of fraternity. These are values so transcendent and so important that they are now more important than ever.”
5. Various shots, Mafalda at the Trusteeship Council
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Guillermo Lavado, Nephew, Mafalda’s Creator:
“I think the message remains the same: for humanity to come to an agreement, to collaborate instead of competing; to see others from your own heart and from from own needs as well, also putting yourself in the other's place. And that way perhaps conflicts would be less common or less frequent and understanding would perhaps be more common.”
7. Various shots, Mafalda at the Trusteeship Council
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Maria Belen Macri, First Lady, Buenos Aires:
“All the tourists who see Mafalda, when they encounter her, they feel her as their own, she generates a lot of empathy, she surely generates a lot of memories, a lot of sense of belonging. And what better thing than Mafalda being from Buenos Aires.”
9. Wide shot, Mafalda in the interpreters’ booth seen from below
10. Various shots, Mafalda inside the interpreters’ booth
11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gabriela Ricardes, Minister of Culture, Buenos Aires:
“That Mafalda had arrived today at 60 years-old here at the UN to fulfill her dream of being a UN interpreter - because as she said, most of the problems are problems of interpretation here – that this girl from Buenos Aires who taught us to question, who taught us to argue, who taught us to look at things in a different way, it represents all those values in this body. It gives us enormous pride and pleasure.”
12. Med shot, UN interpreters cheering Mafalda
Mafalda, a beloved Argentine cartoon character today (25 Nov) visited the UN, fulfilling her dream of becoming a United Nations interpreter.
Mafalda was created in the 60's by renowned Argentina cartoonist Joaquin "Quino" Lavado. She was conceived as an irreverent and non-conformist six-year-old who hated fascism, militarism, and soup, and loved The Beatles. Her dream was to be an interpreter at the United Nations.
Pablo Irrgang, the sculptor who created the image brought to the UN said, “Mafalda is that rebellious, questioning, protesting girl, who educated my generation to a great extent and continues to do so today with children - and is doing it with my children - and embodies a lot of values that right now, in this world, are super necessary.”
Irrgang said, “she constantly questions herself about the need to promote peace; what place other than the United Nations to promote it? And the values of feminism, of equity, of equality, of ecology, of caring for the world, of fraternity. These are values so transcendent and so important that they are now more important than ever.”
In 1977, Mafalda was one of the faces used to illustrate the Declaration of the Rights of the Child for UNICEF
Quino passed away in 2020. During today’s visit, his nephew Guillermo Lavado, said, “I think the message remains the same: for humanity to come to an agreement, to collaborate instead of competing; to see others from your own heart and from from own needs as well, also putting yourself in the other's place. And that way perhaps conflicts would be less common or less frequent and understanding would perhaps be more common.”
Mafalda is now 60 years old, and she has been selected to present the 3rd International Emmy Kids categories this coming Monday November 25th in New York City.
Buenos Aires First Lady, Maria Belen Macri said, “all the tourists who see Mafalda, when they encounter her, they feel her as their own, she generates a lot of empathy, she surely generates a lot of memories, a lot of sense of belonging. And what better thing than Mafalda being from Buenos Aires.”
Mafalda visited an interpreter's booth at the Trusteeship Council. In a recurrent gag in the comic strip, she dreamed of becoming a UN interpreter to help countries better understand each other and therefore avoid conflict.
Buenos Aires Minister of Culture Gabriela Ricardes said, “that Mafalda had arrived today at 60 years-old here at the UN to fulfill her dream of being a UN interpreter - because as she said, most of the problems are problems of interpretation here – that this girl from Buenos Aires who taught us to question, who taught us to argue, who taught us to look at things in a different way, it represents all those values in this body. It gives us enormous pride and pleasure.”
A Mafalda series is expected to debut on Netflix in 2025.
