Why Would The Houston Chronicle Pull Its Only Latino Comic Strip?
By Vince Leibowitz on Sep 11, 2007 in Activism
If you are a fan of modern comics, then you no doubt are aware of la cucaracha.
Via Stace Medellin over at Dos Centavos, we learn that the Houston Chronicle has unceremoniously dumped la cucaracha from its print editions:
The Houston Chronicle has dropped the ONLY COMIC STRIP IN THE UNITED STATES that regularly supports Latino immigrant rights and explores Chicano / Latino / Mexicano political and social issues- “la cucaracha,” by me, Lalo Alcaraz, and has replaced it with a PENGUIN-themed comic strip by a New Zealand cartoonist!
The Chron is obviously playing a similar game that the Dallas Morning News did some years ago with The Boondocks. Via Seeing Black, you can read that story, which resulted in the reinstatement of that strip in 2001-2002:
This past February, when the Dallas Morning News said they would not publish the strip again because it was too political, local Black radio broadcasters started a call-in campaign to that newspaper. Angry callers demanded an explanation for why the Morning News would cease publication of its only African American written comic strip, and particularly why it would choose to do so during Black History Month. By the end the day, the strip had been reinstated.
We don’t often get involved in issues not related to politics at Capitol Annex, but we’re a big fan of Alcaraz’s strip and not a big fan of censorship. So, we encourage you to call the Chron’s posted number to comment on their comics section: Call 713-362-3222. Tell them to reinstate la cucaracha. Texas papers are way, way, way too notorious in their censorship of the comics section.
Honestly, I think it is well within the perview of the Chronicle editors to pull any comic strip they want. I think calling it political cencorship is preemptive and off base since neither the Chronicle nor any sources from inside the chronicle have given a reason why the comic was removed from the print edition. It is still online by the way.
Before you discredit me as some chronicle employee or anti-latino racist, let me assure that I am a longtime Texas Democrat and a graduate student with absolutely no ties to the Chronicle and no financial stake in it or its parent company.
If you want to start a movement to bring the comic back by popular demand that is well within your rights and I would join you in such a movement since I also enjoy the comic. But assuming the strip was removed in order to censor political ideals is an absolute conjecture at this point.
Capital Annex is usually one of the more disciplined blogs out there when it comes to journalistic integrity. Why not keep it that way?
DShankTU,
It just seems very odd that it was pulled without any comment. Other papers, like the Des Moines Register, and a long time ago, the DMN, actually conducted “reader polls” to shuffle their comics pages.
I guess I should have said that it “smelled like” censorship since you are right in that we don’t know if it is or not. It just looks like it. I hope it isn’t.