Content note: Dehumanizing caricature of the Emperor of Brazil and two other leaders as apes. This object is shown as it was published. Why

Toma! Y qué hacen aquí esos tres?, 1867 Paraguay cartoon: A woodcut cartoon from a Paraguayan army newspaper shows three

Toma! Y qué hacen aquí esos tres? (Look! And What Are These Three Doing Here?), El Centinela cartoon

A woodcut cartoon from a Paraguayan army newspaper shows three seated or standing apes in braided uniforms, with tails, around a small table holding an imperial crown. Printed labels name them 'Tamandare', 'El Emperador' and 'Polidoro', and a bold line below jokes that they are the Emperor of Brazil, the Viscount of Tamandare and a marshal 'in secret conference on the war of Paraguay'. The tell is the substitution of ape bodies for the enemy's sovereign and commanders, a loaded label in picture form.

Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

Name-calling

Date: May 9, 1867
Period: Pre-1914
Made by: El Centinela, Paraguayan army newspaper; artist not identified

Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

Region: Latin America
Country: Paraguay
Medium: Cartoon
Issuer type: Military
Regime: Lopez Government
Leader: Francisco Solano Lopez
Audience: Own forces
Purpose: Demonize
Themes: War and the military, Race and ethnicity
Event: Paraguayan War
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
Rights: Public domain (published 1867, before 1931; Commons: PD-old-70-expired, Public Domain Mark 1.0)
El Centinela (Paraguay), 9 May 1867, p. 3, via Wikimedia Commons

Text on the object

Original (Spanish) · read from the image, not independently checked

Tamandaré.
El Emperador.
Polidoro.

Toma! Y qué hacen aquí esos tres?—Chit! Es el Emperador del Brasil, el Visconde de Tamandaré y el Mariscal Poli[cut off] que están en conferencia secreta sobre la guerra del Paraguay . . . . . . . . . . . ☞ ¡ Monada ! ☜

Tamandaré: V. M. I. conoce el [cut off]

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

Tamandaré.
The Emperor.
Polidoro.

Look! And what are these three doing here?—Shh! It is the Emperor of Brazil, the Viscount of Tamandaré and Marshal Poli[cut off] who are in secret conference on the war of Paraguay . . . . . . . . . . . ☞ Monkey business! ☜

Tamandaré: Your Imperial Majesty knows the [cut off]

The last line is only partly visible at the lower edge of the hosted crop, and the joke line is truncated at the right edge. 'Monada' means a monkey's trick or a piece of foolishness, a pun on the ape figures.