'El Duende y su Camarilla' (El Deber, December 2009). Translation: "Baby Jesus is born! I want to scream like someone who spots land in sight: "Hope in sight!".
Oscar Barbery Suarez, who uses the pseudonym Gaspar (and sometimes Raspapinchete) for his comics work, was born in 1954 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He was the son of politician and writer Barbery Justiniano. Barbery's mother worked as a teacher. While Barbery had literary aspirations, his father felt one couldn't make a living out of this profession and insisted that Barbery went into politics. Yet Barbery's grandfather paid for a written course in comic art, which Barbery completed. He went to study Architecture in Córdoba, Argentina, and won fifth place at the National Architectural Humor contest. This motivated Barbery to become a writer, poet and cartoonist. Later in life, he married artist María Elena Busso, with whom he had two children: Óscar Guido (who also became an artist) and María Belén.
In 1982, Barbery created the political comic strip 'El Duende y su Camarilla' for the newspaper El Deber, in a time when there were barely any comics in Bolivian printed media. His main inspiration was Quino's 'Mafalda'. Barbery wanted to present the news from a different perspective than what journalists wrote, but since Bolivia's comic tradition was so minimal, many people didn't understand his intentions. Luckily, the chief editor of El Deber did, and so, on 5 September 1982, 'El Duende y su Camarilla', made its debut. Barbery used Bolivian folklore characters as his cast members, since readers would be more receptive towards characters they already recognized from oral traditions. The Duende ('The Goblin') is the title character. Originally, Barbery portrayed him with a visible face, but evenually he let the character's face be obscured by shadows and a large saó hat , giving him a more mysterious appearance. The Duende also has a dog, Jacuú. In original folklore, the Duende was an evil goblin, but in Barbery's version, he is a more friendly, playful, contemplative character. La Viudita (The Widow) is a maternal character, an old, conservative, moralistic, yet slightly gossipy woman. Like most widows in Spanish Roman Catholic traditions, she always wears black, since she's in lifelong mourning. Her eyes are obscured by her large bushy hair. The Widow is in love with the permanently sad, shy, solemn and pessimistic El Mojón ('The Stone Man'). El Cairn plays the role of the straight man in many gags and often finds himself at the receiving end of the punchline. More black comedy is provided by characters from another folkloric tale, namely a ghostly chariot driven by skeletons in the sky who carry people's souls to the afterlife. The spider Araña Doña is a heroic spider character found in Caribbean and Latin American oral traditions, who also has a recurring role in 'El Duende y su Camarilla'.
As the series continued, Barbery also created characters not derived from Bolivian folklore. The green parrot Asésoro is an advisor of politicians. Gaspar based her design on a real-life pony-tailed advisor he once observed. Asésoro's greatest fear is that politicians might no longer need her services, or as she puts it: "They might start thinking for themselves." Another colorful character is El Semáforo Intelligente: a talking traffic light.
Many gags offer political-social commentary on Bolivian society, which many readers considered to be very recognizable. 'El Duende y su Camarilla' slowly but surely gained a fanbase, won several awards and ran for more than 30 years, though with occasional interruptions. Gags were compiled in various books. Though, as can be expected from a political satirical comic, Barbery also caused controversy. On 24 August 2009, the cast members commented on the 'Plata Commando', a real-life ongoing military infrastructural plan to build a Ministery of the Bolivian Presidency. After two years, the first stone still hadn't been laid. The characters wonder about this situation, especially since President Evo Morales had raised the necessary funding for the project, but conclude that a plan to raise a building "isn't the same as one to steal money." General José Antonio Agreda Mendívil, head of the Bolivian Army and the Plata Commando, felt so offended by this gag that he sued the newspaper. The judge ruled in the paper's favor that this comic's episode wasn't libel, but Agreda Mendívil's lawyers contested the sentence. The case sparked a huge public debate about freedom of expression and several Bolivian graphic artists and cartoonists sent an open letter to defend Gaspar and freedom of expression. Among them Jorge Siles, Susana Villegas, Marco Tóxico, Joaquín Cuevas and Alejandro Archondo.
Since 1989, Barbery also had his own political satire column, 'Raspapinchete', in Deber's Sunday supplement Deber Extra. The column was popular, but he also received a few death threats.
'El Duende y su Camarilla'. Translation: "During the holidays, people's insecurity grows: they rob everywhere and at the moment you least expect. For instance, I was watching the prices and a witness of such an event." - "What happened?" - "They robbed my desire to buy."
Barbery has additionaly written theatrical plays, such as the 1988 production 'Laberintos', which later became a television mini-series. In 1991, he wrote the screenplay for the film 'Los Igualitarios'. The city council of Santa Cruz honored him with a Medal of Merit (1997), for his contributions to national culture. He won a Muncipal Literary Award (1996) for his poetry, a National Theatre Award (1988) for his plays and a general National Literary Award (2012). From 12 September until 2 November 2014 on, his work was subjection of a large exhibition at the Manzana 1 Espacio de Arte in Santa Cruz.
'El Duende y su Camarilla'. Translation: "It's the celebration of love. Love for ourselves, for whom we are as individuals and a group. Love for our families, for our close ones... it's the night baby Jesus was born and love is the best way to receive it." - "Good, that's fine. Give me a kiss!" - "I earned that."
'El Duende y su Camarilla'.