2013News

DR loses its finest cartoonist

On Friday night, 25 January, leading Dominican political caricaturist Harold Priego was having a good time during an event where the Ministry of Culture presented its strategic plans for this year. Using his popular Boquechivo character, he drew a resume of Minister Jose Antonio Rodriguez’s first 100 days as Minister of Culture.

But the following day, Saturday 26 January at 4pm, the country learned of his sudden passing. He died of a heart attack that took his life at just 58 years of age.

The news was met with widespread sorrow. Within a few minutes, he and his creations, Diogenes and Boquechivo, which is published in Diario Libre, became the main news on the Twitter and Facebook social networks.

The artist, son of the sculptor Joaquin Priego and grandson of the painter Enrique Garcia Godoy was born in La Vega in 1955. He studied architecture for three years and went on to work in several advertising agencies.

As well as Diogenes and Boquechivo, he also published political and satirical caricatures in other media, including Hoy (Eloy en el Hoy), Listin Diario (Dona Marmara and her inoffensive husband don Chichi), and Matias and Berroa in El Caribe.

Priego’s most famous creation was his Boquechivo character, who together with his alter ego Diogenes illustrated some of the country’s most significant moments over these past years.