Bio
Power Paola is a Colombian-Ecuadorian cartoonist. She is the author of several graphic memoirs. Her work deals with themes of sexuality, feminism, family, and personal identity. She is a member of the international comics collective Chicks on Comics.
Plot
Virus Tropical tells the story of growing up in a matriarcado. The story goes over her parents’ divorce, money problems, survival tactics, and moving between two countries as a form of empowerment and femme exploration. Powerpaola uses anecdotes about her parents, two older sisters, and housekeeper to explore her life story from girlhood to young womanhood.
On the Rising Interest in Women’s Stories
Paola: In the beginning, I didn’t think about feminism. It was just my story. I was always a feminist even without using that title. These days, we talk a lot about the current feminist moment/movement and my story talks a lot about the social climate we’re living in now. We [women artists] show that women can take ownership of their stories, and their lives and make their own decisions. We don’t need to ask for permission. The timing was just right for this story.
I love women’s stories. I love their voice. Growing up it was rare to find comic books [and graphic novels] by women, and now, it’s not like that.
On Creating the Eye-Popping Visual Style of Virus Tropical
Paola: It’s important to me to experiment. Over five years [of working on the project], I couldn’t draw everything the same way. I stopped thinking about how I could make the best drawing. You’ll notice some drawings are not as pretty as others. There are some drawings that are more expressive or more animated. There are many distinctions.
Caicedo: You sometimes have more sketchy animation than finished animation. It also has to fit within the character’s story. The main character is not finished, she’s only just starting to understand who she is. Animation-wise, that’s a lot of things we wanted to use: unfinished, sketchy drawings. It became a personality trait. You sometimes will also see super complex, almost baroque frames with a lot of information.
Presentations
Feminism and Graphic/Animated Storytelling
One of the main themes of Virus Tropical is the critique of traditional gender roles and the limitations imposed on women by a patriarchal-catholic society. The story of the comic and the film portrays the difficulties faced by Paola and other femme characters as they deal with the pressures and expectations of being women. Conforming to beauty standards, prioritizing motherhood and caregiving, or submitting to men’s desires and control are some of the situations the film addresses. The graphic novel and eventual film expose the harmful consequences of gender inequality and argue for the importance of women’s autonomy and agency.
With a partner discuss relevant scenes from the film that illustrates Powerpaola’s feminist views and how each character navigates and challenges patriarchal repression defending agency?
Mother Hilda is felt as a stereotypical female figure in South America. (In my perception, the gender roles in South America are men work for the family and earn money, while women enter the home and take care of the family”, and in society women’s social obviously low in terms of social status”)
Her failure to defend herself when accused by her husband of harassment by her mother clearly shows that Hilda was raised that way. She also feels that the connection with her family is very strong. I have some doubts about her willingness to do whatever she can for her daughters (studying abroad in return for a promise not to smoke cocaine seems a little different), but I’m sure it’s all for her daughters’ future possibilities. Hilda wants her daughters to study, have a job, and grow up to be independent adults. She (want her daughters to avoid getting married, pregnant, or starting a family at a young age)
Her eldest daughter, Claudia, is living the exact opposite of what her mother wants her to do. She smokes cocaine, and in exchange for quitting her cocaine, she agrees to go to Milan to study fashion. However, at the farewell party, she receives a proposal from her boyfriend, cancels her study abroad, and she gets married in secret. Speaking of unplanned, it was the situation Hilda feared the most. However, she has a son, has left her unreliable husband, and is on her way to becoming independent.Claudia is able to take responsibility for her own life, although not in the way her mother wanted it.