"Dear Godmother:

I look forward to your visit during this year’s Christmas celebrations. I look forward to your generous 10 pesetas bonus. Although this Christmas I’d rather read Mickey’s almanac of the New Year we’re entering, 1936. It comes with many surprises and gifts It’s a great read! When you come from Barcelona to Elche Could you bring it to me?

A hug from your dearest niece"

Upon reading the letter our dear godmother wondered "Mickey? Who is Mickey?" That nice mouse on the other side of the pond took a while to reach Spain. Until 1930 we could not see it on the big screen, being reduced to the public of Barcelona and Madrid. This limitation led Disney to create a series of daily comic strips, starring Mickey and his friends. It was La Vanguardia that was in charge of this project, although it took almost four years.

However, our friend had to change his name in the passport, introducing himself as "the mouse Miguelín" along with "the fickle Mimi" and "the faithful Tribilín" (currently known as Mickey and Minie Mouse and the dog Pluto). The vignettes gave the possibility to develop a series of stories longer and deeper than cinema, which was limited by a duration of about 7 or 8 minutes. In addition to getting a wider audience, as there were many cinemas available to all. Soon it reached great popularity, it was not usual to have graphics, beyond advertising illustrations. We enjoyed these vignettes daily and uninterruptedly for 28 and a half months, stopping production on the day of the military uprising that triggered the Spanish Civil War. 

The adaptation to the Spanish public was not only in the name, but also in the nickname. Those responsible for his arrival during the Republic insisted on the need to make him even more familiar. Back then, what other mouse did we know? The tooth fairy, of course! At first, that was our friend’s nickname, who would say. Although the proposal was not very successful and ended up staying as it began.

However, this need to find a viable market makes us have toys as curious as the one on display at the Pusol School Museum (in the section of Parreño Stores). In the pictures of this post you can find the Disney gang dressed as bullfighters in a bullring. It was one of the first Disney toys to reach Spain and our town, Elche. It represents such a typical Spanish vision for foreigners.

We also have multiple books with a thousand different adventures of our friends. Without a doubt, my favorite is the almanac of 1936, a jewel of time. The illustrations, the humor due to their context, the courtesy in the vocabulary and their proposals to the little ones (contests and gifts) are unique. As a complement, you can not miss the book "Mickey in the races" (which, as a curiosity, is announced in the Almanac of 36), since it provides us with some magnificent paper toys that walk alone!

In conclusion and paraphrasing Disney, "if you can dream it you can do it, remember that all this started with a mouse".

Author: Rosa Antón, historian and volunteer at the School Museum.

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Sources:

La Vanguardia www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20181118/452999766650/mickey-mouse-mouse-miguelin-historia-la-vanguardia-publicaciones.html