In January, Turma da Mônica launched a new character. He is a little boy, André. This kid is Lucila’s brother, a boy who has autism. However, he is not the first character with special needs: there are also other children in the gang, like Dorinha, Luca, Humbert, Cebolinha and Tati. In a interview, Mauricio de Sousa said that they need to present this reality of Monica’s friends because if he didn’t, the gang would not be complete
In the begging, Mauricio thought in a character who is blind. He remembered of Dorina Nowill, who inspired the Dorinha personage. She is very intelligent, aware of everything, Dorinha is sweet! The character has a dog, Radar, a labrador very clever, which helps the girl to walk on the street. Dorinha knows her friends by the voice or by smell and the girl was created in 2004, she is the first character with special health conditions in the Monica’s Gang. After this child, Mauricio started a better social inclusion with some characters.
The second personage was Luca, a boy who uses a wheelchair. He is very happy, loves sports and Luca likes to have fun with his friends, to study a lot and he also dreams with the university. Meanwhile this does not happen, the boy plays with Cascão and Cebolinha and runs of the “coelhadas” given by Monica. Luca goes through difficulties to get around the city. Even in this situation, he is always happy.
Humberto is the next. He is a deaf person. His name is inspired by the signs language, because when someone tries to talk with the boy, he just says “hum hum hum”. Humberto was created with the older characters, in the decade of 60. Some people think that the kid saves the voice. Sometimes, this actions transform a little thing in a big confusion.
Tati was inspired by Tathi Heiderich, a woman with down syndrome. She and her parents created the MetaSocial Institute, and they do a lot of things aiming to encourage the social inclusion. Tati has all the physical characteristics that we use to relate with the syndrome, her eyes are a little small, like she is too. The girl is the smallest in the Monica’s Gang. The last personage is Andre, a boy with autism. He is the last creation of Mauricio de Sousa. The writer said this inclusion is very important and a try to make the society understand a big part of the things.
Image Source: Turma da Mônica
In an interview with a psychologist, Lucila Maria Pastorello, she said that when there is intention to include a person with special needs in the society, is necessary to know the needs of this person. The social inclusion has been growing but we are walking slowly. Lucila said that this drawings can create some stereotype, making the social vision distorted. Is very important to emphasize that any person is totally equal to another.
Because of this, it is necessary to work on social inclusion. Even because, always in the society, there are people with special needs. However, none is the same to another. There is a need to prepare the people for this, creating a lot of characters with the same deficiency or, even, making a drawing just with deficient characters. The social inclusion is very necessary, starts with yours!