In this essay, Juan Acevedo outlines the guidelines he has developed and used at his workshops focused on the creation of comic strips as a popular medium of communication, in particular at the Taller de Historieta del Taller de Publicaciones [Comic Strip and Publications Workshop] organized by the Centro de Comunicación Popular in the Villa El Salvador neighborhood of Lima, Peru’s capital city. Based on the premise that it is not necessary to know how to draw to create a comic strip, the author describes what is specifically addressed in this type of workshop, including the objectives and ultimate dissemination of the works and how the component parts are developed. He also outlines how the comic strip workshop works, the sequence and situations involved in the narrative, and the critical reading and publication, with a constant emphasis on the social communication achieved by the dialogue that has been created. He ends by saying that “The possibility that the comic strip might contribute to the common good thereby becomes its essential function.”

The Peruvian communication theorist and cartoonist, Juan Acevedo (b. 1949), explains in this essay the significance and methodology of the comic strip as a popular means of social communication. This document was complemented by another document published a week earlier titled (“El avance de la historieta popular (I),” Marka, nº 134, December 13, 1979).  [Please refer to the following ICAA digital archive: (doc. No. 1141902">1141902)].

Acevedo is considered one of Peru’s best cartoonists.  His best-known character is a guinea pig named El Cuy that was closely identified with left wing culture in Peru. In the wake of the failure of the economic, sociopolitical, and cultural policies of velasquismo—the first term (1968−75) of the so-called revolutionary government of the armed forces led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado—Acevedo addressed these policies through his cartoon characters and by conducting workshops on the art of popular communication. In 1978 he published the well-known book Para hacer historietas based on the workshops presented in the province of Ayacucho (1974) and in Villa El Salvador (1975), an iconic Lima neighborhood known for its urban popular struggles. Para hacer historietas has been reprinted several times and translated into other languages. Following the aforementioned premise, that it is not necessary to know how to draw in order to create a comic strip, his systematized method has been, and still is, taught in many Latin American countries.

[Please refer to the ICAA digital archive (doc. no. 1141902">1141902). See also these other texts by Juan Acevedo: “La Escuela Regional de Bellas Artes de Ayacucho: una experiencia revolucionaria” (doc. no. 1139339) and “Historieta popular en Nicaragua” (doc. no. 1139355)].