In 1992, on the island of Puerto Rico, an experiment took place to see if a "paper" superhero could make a real difference. For six years every Sunday in the newspaper El Nuevo Día, Paladín and the Campeadores Boricuas entertained readers of all ages while trying to take the pulse of how the island of enchantment dealt with the problems of progress during a particularly trying time. Nostalgia Gives Birth to Nostalgia In 1992, Puerto Rico was going through a crisis. An article in the San Juan Star carried the headline, “Puerto Rico crime wave reaches tidal proportions.” The article went on to state that “for 1991 the per capita homicide rate (if ranked among the 50 United States) was the highest in the nation” averaging 2.3 killings per day. This rate translated to 23.3 killings per 1000,000 citizens. On an island with a 1990 population of 3,552,037, the murder rate exceeded that of England which with a population of 48,774,700 had a rate of 1.3 slayings per 100,000 people. As their innocence was being stolen, the youth of the island followed the adventures of the Ninja Turtles and anxiously awaited the next Batman movie. Having grown up in the wake of the Golden Age of comics, rode the crest of the Silver Age and witnessed the revival of comics in the sixties, I felt that a touch of good-old, homegrown heroism might help. So, though not speaking the language at that time, but with the help of my island-born wife, Paladín was born. My gratitude to José Diaz de Villega and El Nuevo Día for the opportunity for this labor of love for a very special people.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 14:32:26 +0000
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