“With your work you can inspire movements,” said Carlos Latuff, the Brazilian cartoonist whose illustrations have transcended borders by telling stories of resistance and injustices. He has published cartoons about the war in Syria, the “Mães de Maio” movement in São Paulo, the struggles of the People’s Popular Assembly in Oaxaca, and the media duopoly that Televisa and TV Azteca have in Mexico, which was highlighted most recently by the Yo Soy 132 youth movement.
His latest cartoons, however, are about the war being waged in the occupied territories in Palestine, which he said “is almost like déjà vu… when elections take place, Israel decides to attack Gaza. It’s more or less like this: when you have problems, invent a war and your popularity will grow.”
Over Skype, I spoke with Latuff from his home in Rio de Janeiro about the importance of creativity and art as a tool for resistance and the role of artists, cartoonists and independent journalists who report on social movements around the world.
What do you try to reflect through your illustrations about what is happening now in Gaza?
My drawings try to reflect the indignation of someone who simply cannot manage to see reality through the established mainstream media. I believe that the mainstream media takes sides when it shows what is happening in Gaza, and it is without any doubt “pro-Israel” and on the side of the United States.
What I try to do with my cartoons is expose the double standard of the commercial media, which tends to justify the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians in the name of a so-called “self-defense” or “security,” and show the other side — the side of Palestinians, which is the one not shown.