Pedro X. Molina is a Nicaraguan-born political cartoonist now living and working in the United States doing cartoons for Confidencial digital and Counterpoint.com. He is also a visiting critic in the Einaudi Center’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) program and was an Institute for International Education-Artist Protection Fund (IIE-APF) 2021-2022 fellow in Cornell University.
In Nicaragua, Molina’s work was well-known for regularly skewering the government of President Daniel Ortega. He fled the country with his family on Christmas Day in 2018 after government forces killed a journalist, jailed two others, and raided and occupied the offices of his main outlet, Confidencial, a digital newspaper that featured Molina’s biting caricatures of Ortega and his tyranny.
His work was recognized in October 2021 with the 2021 Gabo Award for Excellence, one of the most prestigious journalism prizes in Latin America. He was awarded the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent in 2023. While at Cornell, Molina has given workshops, lectures, and taught a class in cartooning. He also continues to produce cartoons for Confidencial, Counterpoint.com, and other publications such as the Washington Post and Politico, and his work appears regularly online.
Pedro X. Molina is a visiting critic in the Einaudi Center’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) program and was an Institute for International Education-Artist Protection Fund (IIE-APF) 2021-2022 fellow.
In Nicaragua, Molina’s work was well-known for regularly skewering the government of President Daniel Ortega. He fled the country with his family on Christmas Day in 2018 after government forces killed a journalist, jailed two others, and raided and occupied the offices of his main outlet, El Confidencial, a digital newspaper that featured Molina’s biting caricatures of Ortega and his tyranny. He and his family came to Ithaca as guests of the Ithaca City of Asylum organization, and he was a visiting scholar at Ithaca College from 2019-2021.
Molina was awarded the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent, which celebrates “those who unmask the lie of dictatorship through art” in 2023, and was recognized in October 2021 with the 2021 Gabo Award for Excellence, one of the most prestigious journalism prizes in Latin America. His work appears in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Courrier International (France), and many other publications.
While at Cornell, Molina has given workshops, lectures, and taught a class in cartooning. He is continuing his work as cartoonist for Confidencial and Counterpoint, and is also doing some events with the Voices of Vigilance Program at Monroe Community College and is the Brunnell Visiting Scholar for Cayuga Community College.
https://www.cartooningforpeace.org/en/dessinateurs/pedro-molina/
https://www.pxmolina.com/
https://www.gocomics.com/pedroxmolina
The 2024 Herblock judges stated "Threatened by the regime in his native Nicaragua, Pedro Molina has proven himself a master cartoonist in the United States, where he chose to exile himself. Bringing an immigrant’s point of view, he depicts anti-immigrant rhetoric as toxic to the United States. His insight on the failure of humankind to improve itself morally while manipulating and destroying the environment impressed all the judges with its message and execution."
Molina had an additional comment, "one thing I'm also concerned with, is to alert US citizens of authoritarian behaviors that I have already seen and experienced as a citizen in Latin America for them to not fall into those same traps, such as the manipulation of religion, the control of the Judicial System by a single person, the violence, the populism and the search for common "enemies" from outside our borders."
Herb Block is among the world’s best known and most admired political cartoonists. Born on October 13, 1909, the native Chicagoan spent his 72-year career fighting against abuses of the powerful.