The Citizen Council of the National Journalism Award posthumously awarded the 2021 prize , in the Cartoon category, to Antonio Helguera Martínez, a founding member of La Jornada .
The artist received a third award in this field; first in 1996, and then in 2002, organized by a civil association, for his cartoon What to See and Not to See?, in which he criticizes pedophiles in the Catholic Church.
Now, the jury members have considered the work titled "Mina," published in these pages on March 28, 2020.
Tere Gil, a member of the Citizen Council jury , said that this recognition is one of the "most fair awards, not only for the quality of the work, but because we all know that Antonio Helguera, the cartoonist for La Jornada , passed away, and this for me represents a just tribute to his talent, to what he offered over so many years, with his penetration into the cartooning profession."
The Mina cartoon is striking not only for its design and for fulfilling the characteristics of its category, but also for the generic and universal message it sends, he explained.
The image depicts a battleship called Neoliberalism , which, on its journey across the high seas, encounters the Covid-19 virus, from which most of the ills currently afflicting humanity have stemmed. The encounter highlights the enormous flaws in that system. The award is given for this grasp of the global problem with excellent strokes and interpretation, and for the global message sent by the artist, a talented cartoonist and committed journalist, in a work of social denunciation, he noted.
