Ahuizote, El

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Ahuizote, El

El Ahuizote (The Barb) was a weekly satirical humor publication in Mexico that ran from 1874 to 1876, created in express opposition to President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. It was founded by Vicente Riva Palacio, an exceptional writer and humorist, together with the talented cartoonist José María Villasana. Political cartoons engraved and lithographed by Villasana and Jesús T. Alamilla; editorials written by Juan N. Mira-fuentes; and satirical texts, couplets, and songs by Riva Palacio filled its pages. Originally planning to call the newspaper El Nahual (a mythological person who can take on animal forms), Riva Palacio and Villasana chose instead El Ahuizote, which had a more confrontational connotation in the popular mind as something troublesome and irritating that brings bad luck—a perfect title for an opposition newspaper.

See alsoJournalism in Mexico; Riva Palacio, Vicente.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barajas Durán, Rafael (el Fisgón). El país de "El Ahuizote": La caricatura mexicana de oposición durante el gobierno de Sebastían Lerdo de Tejada (1872–1876). Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica/Tezontle, 2005.

Ortiz Monasterio, José. Patria, tu ronca voz me repetía: Vicente Riva Palacio y Guerrero. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México-Instituto Mora, 1999.

                                      Regina Tapia

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