Enrique ChagoyaBanishing Fear Through Laughter

“Enrique Chagoya” (2007), Mergatroid Films, posted March 18, 2010, video, 7:23 minutes. Courtesy Matt Bertles, Mergatroid Films.

Enrique Chagoya began making political cartoons in the 1970s for union and student newspapers while studying economics at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México in Mexico City. When he moved to California in 1979, Chagoya shifted from economics to pursue a career in art. He first worked as an illustrator and graphic designer, then in 1984 he earned a BFA in printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute. Rather than pushing a particular ideology in his art, Chagoya views the politics of his work as a reflection of his personal fears and anxieties about the world: “I try to exorcise my demons and my fears in my work.”1 His use of satire and cartoons lightens even his most scathing critiques of power.

  1. Enrique Chagoya, in Wendy Edelstein, “Rewriting History and Poking Fun at the Powers that Be,” Berkeleyan, February 6, 2008, available at [berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2008/02/06_]chagoya.shtml.](https://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2008/02/06_chagoya.shtml.). ↩︎