Trino’s World
Discover and explore the drawings, watercolors, and objects of José Trinidad Camacho, better known as Trino, in his first exhibit in a U.S. museum. Drawing from Trino’s personal collection, Trino’s World is a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with the creative universe of this artist, a master of Mexican humor.
About the Artist
Irreverent and sharp-witted, subversive and pitted against solemnity, but above all deeply human, the Mexican cartoonist Trino has created a universe of characters and situations that are now a fundamental part of Mexican popular culture. With his drawings, his comic strips, and his animations, Trino has developed a kind of irresistible humor based on both a keen observation of reality and the direct and clever reaction to it. Though it is deeply Mexican at its root and in its tone, Trino’s humor is ultimately universal and accessible to all.
Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1961, he launched his career in 1981 with the newsprint funnies "Galimatías" (Gibberish) along with cartoonists Jis and Falcón.
Heir to a long line of caricaturists like Eduardo del Rio "Rius," Trino soon discovered an inimitable personal language for portraying the absurdities of life in Mexico. With a professional career of over 40 years in print and electronic media, he has received many awards including the National Prize for Journalism in Political Cartoons (2000), the National Prize in Communication José Pagés Llergo (2006), the Inkpot Award at Comic-Con 2022 for his contributions to the world of comics, and the tribute “La Catrina 2022” bestowed by the Guadalajara International Book Fair for his work in comics.
Along with his partner-in-comics Jis, he made the animated film El Santos vs La Tetona Mendoza (Santos Vs. The Busty Mendoza) in 2012, based on the comic strip of the same name. He has published around 20 books with some of the most important publishers in Mexico, 11 volumes of which belong to the “El Santos” series. Since 2021, he co-hosts a television program with Jis, La Chora Interminable (The Neverending Banter) which broadcasts weekly on the Mexican Ministry of Culture’s Channel 22 and on the University of Guadalajara’s Channel 44.
El Santos y la Tetona Mendoza (Santos and the Busty Mendoza), El Rey Chiquito (The Tiny King), Fábulas de Policías y Ladrones (Tales of Cops and Robbers), Don Taquero (Mr. Taco-Man) are memorable characters and comic strips that satirize and poke fun at, while simultaneously celebrating, Mexican life, offering us a carnival fun house mirror that, while distorting our appearance in amusing ways, allows us to recognize our essential characteristics. We can all find a bit of ourselves in one of the characters, situations, and dialogues that Trino masterfully illustrates and writes, which perhaps teach us the ultimate lesson that we should not take life too seriously, beginning with ourselves.
His retrospective of Mexican history deserves special mention. In Historias Desconocidas de la Conquista (Unknown Stories of the Conquest), Trino humorously revisits the moment in which Indigenous Peoples and Spaniards meet, giving his unique and personal version of that moment in which, for many, the Mexican nation was forged.
Alongside this, Trino's work also has a profoundly imaginative aspect, expressed in comic series like “Mundo de Juguete” (Toy’s World) or in his most intimate work with ink drawing and watercolor. Here another sensibility emerges, one entirely open to playfulness, inventiveness, and fantasy, in which color plays a fundamental role and where immense creative freedom manifests.
Trino's work, with its multiplicity of characters, voices, and situations is already a benchmark of popular culture and the history of humor in contemporary Mexico.
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