Padrón book captures “the identity of an entire people”

This year Screen Cuba will give a special place to the work of Cuban director Juan Padrón (1947-2020), the island’s revered godfather of animation. Not only are we screening two of his first animations, we are welcoming his daughter Silvia Padrón, who is working to preserve his legacy, and we are also making available for the first time in the UK a recently published book De historietas y animaciones La vida de Juan Padrón (Comics and Animation: The Life of Juan Padrón). The book, launched at the Havana Film Festival in December 2024, was widely and warmly welcomed. Mercy Ruiz, director of editionsIcaic the book’s publishers, spoke of the privilege of producing this tribute to ‘one of the most important artists, of universal scope, of our country, not only for his genius in graphic humor, but because no one else has managed to synthesize in their work the cubanía and the identity of an entire people’.

Written by Aramis Acosta Caulineau, an outstanding film producer and general advisor to the Animation Studios of the Cuban film institute ICAIC, the book tells the story of the life and artistic work of Padrón who is remembered above all for his cartoon character Elpidio Valdés. This is a famous and much loved cartoon character in Cuban culture, who has entertained generations of Cuban children as a symbol of rebellion against colonialism and imperialism. The cartoons always make fun of the colonial powers.

Screen Cuba is delighted that funds raised at last year’s festival supported ICAIC’s restoration of the two animated shorts created by Padrón in the 1970s which are in this year’s festival programme.

The paperback volume of De historietas y animaciones La vida de Juan Padrón is in the Spanish language, with 16 pages of colourful images of Padron’s work. Introduction by Silvio Rodríguez; cover illustration by Reinerio Tamayo and Alexis Rodríguez