Shared Coordinates: Writing Herstory in Ibero American Comics

Abstract

This study focuses on the emergence of a transnational sisterhood under three projects originating from the cooperation between groups of female comic book writers in Spain and Latin America. After the 2016 exhibition “Presentes: Autoras de Tebeo de Ayer y de Hoy” and the publication of its catalogue by Autoras de Cómic, there was a shared need to claim back the role of female or non-male authorship, and its involvement in comic book production and business. The Argentinian group Feminismo Gráfico tapped into such endeavors, and in 2019 produced “Nosotras Contamos”, a travelling exhibition and a catalogue, with a thematic and a diachronic approach. When COVID-19 broke out, Spanish and Argentinian cooperation and development institutions (Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional y Desarrollo and Centro Cultural España Córdoba) engaged in a discussion on the previous experiences. The project resulted in a publication and an online exhibition Coordenadas Gráficas (Graphic Coordinates), highlighting the work of non-male authors from Spain, Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica. The transnational perspective of this last project extends beyond the previous national experiences and includes a meaningful selection of comic stories that, regardless of the nationality of the author, can be defined as feminist. Sexism, gender discrimination, gender violence, and sexual and reproductive rights are the shared coordinates discussed by this long list of authors, who question gender normativity from its very composition. By introducing the associative experiences that gave life to the projects and analyzing them in the international context, the study will focus on the appropriate practice of sharing knowledge to pursue a similar recognition. Moreover, based on the words of the curators and the creators, the study ultimately seeks to shed light on the production and circulation of works of collective interest, meant to recover the role of women in the history of comics.