Chinos and palomillas: Comics, Childhood and Race in Colombia and Peru (1920-1940)

Abstract

This article examines the comics Para los niños Mojicón and Pedrito, el indiecito estudiante, published between 1920 and 1940 in Bogota and Lima, respectively. I explore how these graphic narratives are part of a moral project within the prevailing white-mestizo social order. In this regard, I reflect on the concept of racial innocence, whiteness, and inferential racism in the construction of child characters and the playful spaces in which their actions unfold. Additionally, I analyse how the discourse of eugenics acts as a catalyst for anxieties and fears associated with race. I argue that the construction of these childhoods portrayed in the comics heavily relied on perpetuating such imagery, reinforcing the notion that healthy and innocent children were synonymous with whiteness. This text seeks to establish the connections between these urban experiences and the representations of childhood life in the Andean cities during the first half of the 20th century.