Mexican Political Satire, Rius and Los Agachados on Papal Power, Inflation, Policing, and Disappearances, 1978 to 1979

Los Agachados Echeverria

Archive

[Mexican Political Media] Del Río, Eduardo “Rius,” Los Agachados, seven early issues from the first year of the series, shows how Mexican comic satire carried political argument onto the newsstand during the late PRI period, using caricature, short essays, and comic headlines to attack clerical power, consumer inflation, police violence, celebrity culture, and the unresolved disappearances tied on one cover to “Echeverría y sus sucesores.” Issued in late 1978 and early 1979 through Editorial Posada, these numbers belong to the phase in which Rius turned inexpensive comic pamphlets into a mass forum for anti authoritarian and anti clerical commentary, placing topical political critique in a format sold alongside popular periodicals rather than in party or university publications.

Los Agachados / rius. Mexico: Editorial Posada, 1978 to 1979. Seven issues, Año I, Núms. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9. Approx. 32 pages each. 5.5 x 8 inches. Group of seven first year issues in original pictorial wrappers, all printed in Mexico, with covers and interior advertising keyed to current Mexican politics, Vatican controversy, commodity prices, and the commercial book world around Rius and Posada.

[1] Los Agachados / rius. Año I, Núm. 1. Mexico: Editorial Posada, November 8, 1978. Approx. 32 pp. Cover titled “¿quién mató al Papa?” with a caricature of the pope and the line “además: todo lo que usted quería saber sobre los papas, pero que le daba pena preguntárselo a su confesor,” fixing the issue in the immediate aftermath of the 1978 papal succession crisis.

[2] Los Agachados / rius. Año I, Núm. 2. Mexico: Editorial Posada, November 22, 1978. Approx. 32 pp. Cover titled “¡cuidado: la policía anda suelta!,” illustrated with a fleeing civilian pursued by armed officers, bringing street level policing and state force into the comic’s headline space.

[3] Los Agachados / rius. Año I, Núm. 3. Mexico: Editorial Posada, December 6, 1978. Approx. 32 pp. Cover titled “travolta,” with a caricature of John Travolta labeled “sociedad anónima,” using international celebrity culture as material for Rius’s satirical treatment of consumer society and imported mass media.

[4] Los Agachados / rius. Año I, Núm. 4. Mexico: Editorial Posada, December 20, 1978. Approx. 32 pp. Cover titled “Encuentros cercanos del tercer mundo” with the subtitle “Los desaparecidos de Echeverría y sus sucesores.” A photographed interior page headed “Correo de Libros” advertises titles including Braceros: la frontera explosiva, Pancho Villa, Eva no fue una mujer, and “el problema del petróleo: Tabasco Chiapas y el gasoducto,” followed by advertisements for El Pornócrata and ¿A dónde va México?

[5] Los Agachados / rius. Año I, Núm. 5. Mexico: Editorial Posada, January 3, 1979. Approx. 32 pp. Cover titled “¡Este año no subirán los precios!” with a long nosed politician under circus stripes, placing inflation and official economic rhetoric at the center of the issue. A photographed rear advertising page promotes Iván Illich’s Energía y Equidad / Desempleo Creador and the novel Graduación, showing Posada’s overlap between comic satire and critical political publishing.

[6] Los Agachados / rius. Año I, Núm. 6. Mexico: Editorial Posada, January 17, 1979. Approx. 32 pp. Cover titled “La lana del Papa,” subtitled “Las finanzas del Vaticano,” extending the anti clerical line of the opening numbers from papal death toward church wealth and financial power.

[7] Los Agachados / rius. Año I, Núm. 9. Mexico: Editorial Posada, February 28, 1979. Approx. 32 pp. Cover titled “¡mande a volar la carne!,” with a cutaway butcher’s chart rendered as comic graphic satire, returning to food prices and everyday economic strain as material for political ridicule.

Rius had already established himself through politically charged comic publishing before launching Los Agachados, and these first year issues show the series in direct engagement with the subjects that defined public argument in Mexico at the end of the 1970s: the legacy of repression after 1968 and the Dirty War, the authority of the Church, the inflationary pressures of the López Portillo period, and the saturation of public life by imported celebrity images and state messaging. The archive also preserves the Editorial Posada ecosystem visible inside the issues themselves, where advertisements for books on petroleum, Pancho Villa, Mexico’s political direction, and Illich’s critique of industrial society place the comic within the critical Mexican print culture surrounding Editorial Posada and Rius rather than treating it as disposable humor alone. Light browning and discoloration to some pages; text fully readable; minor handling wear only; overall very good condition. Early first year Los Agachados issues with this concentration of topical covers offer a tight documentary cross section of Rius’s political satire at the point of its initial circulation.

Item #23143

Price: $650.00