With text in both English and Spanish
Drawing upon the reach of one of the world’s largest production companies, How to Read El Pato Pascual explores the prevalent presence of the Walt Disney Company within Latin America.
Examined through artworks spanning painting, photography, graphic work, drawing, sculpture, and video, as well as folk art, handcrafts and other vernacular objects, the book considers Disney’s engagement within Latin America, that extends from Donald Duck’s first featured role, the 1937 Mexican-themed short Don Donald, to the 2013 attempt to copyright The Day of the Dead.
The reach and influence of Disney is also viewed through a series of commissioned essays, with themes including "Disney, Marx and Labor” and “he Politics of Appropriations”. How to Read El Pato Pascual also features a reprint of How to Read Donald Duck, the essay by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart that critiques Disney comics from a Marxist point of view as being vehicles for American cultural imperialism.
The book includes artistic contributions from artists including Liliana Porter, Carlos Amorales and Arturo Herrera, as well as written contributions from Jesse Lerner and Ruben Ortiz-Torres, amongst others.