The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.
When the Mexican Consulateβs Vice Counsel asked me if I wanted to meet a famous Mexican cartoonist who was coming to town, I jumped at the chance. For me, Latin Americaβs cartoonists consistently create the most striking work this side of Goyaβs inkwell. Angel Boligan, Helioflores and Quino are my favorites.
And Trino, our guest? He is just wonderfully funny.
First, lunch with Mr. Vice Counsul. I arrived at the Consulate, an impressive modern multi-storied edifice, and was escorted upstairs. βVice Counsel Enrique A. GΓ³mez Montiel?β
βCall me Enrique.β
Iβm calling you educated, suave and stylish. I liked the John Travolta βPulp Fictionβ ponytail. βWould you like to tour the consulate?β
The floor above us surprised me. βSo many people! Looks like a call center.β
βWe have more than 50 operators. They answer over 1,500 calls a day, from all over the United States. Everything from questions about SB 1070 β¦ to help finding a loved one.β
A map of our border, sliced into sectors, spanned the length of the wall.
We took the stairs up. βMeet JerΓ³nimo GarcΓa-Ceballos, Departamento de ProtecciΓ³n. Legal Affairs Department.β The patient man stood behind his desk, which was covered with file folders and a curious shoebox-sized white box. βCon much gusto. I identify remains found in the desert and return them to their familias.β
I glanced below at an open folder and saw the license of a nice looking man, paper-clipped to a horrifying photograph of a desiccated skeleton. The pleasant man in the license was a world away from his grisly end. JerΓ³nimo handed me the white box. βThe cremains of a young woman.β It was heavy, carrying all the weight of needless loss, dithering, cruelty and scapegoating. On the wall a lone battered rosary hung from a pushpin.
Over lunch, Enrique and I concluded our world is reeling from globalization, which political forces are exploiting, in a divisive, and destructive attempt to reverse the irreversible. We also concluded gyros are delicious, Enriqueβs love of playing rugby is insane and our kids rock.
Thursday morning I met JosΓ© Trinidad Camacho Orozco, βTrino,β for coffee. He had more pens than names. (My family teases me for carrying too many pens. A good cartoonist never travels unarmed.)
In his suit, Enrique, looked like a cartoonistβs bodyguard. Trinoβs handsome, a 50-something dimpled Don Quixote. Did you and I sit next to each other in the 3rd grade and get into trouble for drawing the same teacher? Trinoβs famous for his irreverence. His best known character, βEl Santoβ, is anything but a saint. βFΓ‘bulas de PolicΓas y Ladronesβ, fables of cops and thieves, is an irreverent take on law and order. Our conversation bounces. βI live in Chapala,β he chuckles, βPeople move there and forget to die.β Sun City did not come to mind. I swear.
βMy dad was a dentist. He worried about me.β
βThe master sergeant suggested Iβd have better luck carving gargoyles, at all the cathedrals you donβt see βanywhere-around-here-anyplace-everβ.β
We are twins living parallel lives. Trino does TV. Trino does radio. Trino does standup. I do radio. I do TV. I do standup. Trino is discerning. Trino is delightful. And he draws fast. And, like Trino, I draw fast.
At this point we inexplicably think weβre both hilarious.
We do not impress our kids. We feel compelled to draw. And we are proud to be cheerfully childlike. Trino had three wives. Fourth timeβs a charm for me. Trino smiles. βMy wife is a child psychologist.β Perfect. She has to be.
βVisit again, mi amigo, for fun. Stay in touch. We can scheme on hosting a trans-national humor festival.β Enrique, his bodyguard, liked the idea.
On Thursday Trino did a βBrown bag and Coffeeβ lecture at the university. On Friday, at the Center for Creative Photography he discussed his animated movie, βEl Santos versus la Tetona Mendozaβ. βTetonaβ means βBusty.β So juvenile. So childish. So kindred. The subtitles tickled my ribs.
βDo your characters say things you would never dare to say aloud yourself?β Absolutely. Trino is kind, gentle and intelligent. His characters are unkind, rude and witless. They possess one saving grace. Like Trino, theyβre always funny. βI had 10 aunts and uncles growing up in Guadalajara. They were all funny.β
On Thursday night I returned to the consulate to hear my long lost younger brother speak. As I sat among the guests I thought of the picture in the file folder on the desk of GarcΓa-Ceballos, upstairs, a ghost above our warm fellowship and laughter. The man looked so familiar. With a joke and laugh Trino brought me back to the present. And the recognition we are all next of kin.