Top Photo: The torch of Liberty beneath a distressed Hitler. The National WWII Museum, 2025.387.001
Even before the start of World War II, Mexican caricaturist Antonio Arias Bernal launched his own campaign against the Axis. From his studio in Mexico’s Federal District (now Mexico City), he transformed Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito into laughable tyrants who were unworthy of admiration yet too dangerous to ignore. Facing the threat of unchecked authoritarianism, Bernal used satire to strip the Axis leaders of their allure and align his nation with the Allied cause.
His message mattered enormously. Both Axis and Allied powers recognized Latin America as a battleground for influence that could tilt the balance of power in their favor. Nazi agents spread propaganda and stirred anti-American sentiment, while US officials rushed to respond. It was a battle of ideas, a fight for hearts and minds, and, in the early stages of the war, the outcome of that contest was far from certain.
In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a bold initiative to strengthen ties with Latin American republics. He established the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) under Nelson Rockefeller to promote hemispheric unity through cultural diplomacy. Using posters, radio programs, films, and art exhibitions, the agency worked to combat Axis influence in Latin America. But persuasion required more than propaganda—the OCIAA needed authenticity. Local voices carried the most weight, and among them, Bernal stood out. Fiercely outspoken against fascism, he became one of the OCIAA’s most powerful foreign allies.
Nelson Rockefeller (left), head of the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, views a painting and photo exhibit with Vice Admiral Russell Waesche. Courtesy National Archives.
From Aguascalientes to the World Stage
Born in 1913 in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Antonio Arias Bernal was the youngest of 14 children. He began drawing at a young age, sketching on the walls of his home and on coffin boards from his father’s funeral parlor. By his teens, Bernal was already using art to combat injustice and skewering local officials with biting caricatures. In the early 1930s, Bernal moved to Mexico City, where he studied at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts and quickly became a fixture in leading magazines and newspapers with a distinct satirical style that made him both admired and controversial.
The November 8, 1941, issue of Hoy depicts Mussolini and company peeling potatoes beneath the Kingdom of Italy flag. The caption reads: ‘In the German rearguard or “the Force of Destiny,”’ a reference to an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
By the late 1930s, Bernal’s focus widened from local figures to global threats. His weekly cover illustrations on the magazine Hoy (Today) lampooned fascist dictators with bold satire. Early caricatures of Hitler drew threatening letters from Nazi sympathizers, but Bernal refused to be intimidated. Week after week, his caricatures invited readers to laugh at Axis leaders, and in that laughter, reject them.
During this period, Bernal earned the nickname El Brigadier. Whether that name reflected his political convictions and growing following or was simply a play on briago (Spanish slang meaning “drunk”) remains unclear, but what mattered was his impact. Bernal’s caricatures helped crystallize what was at stake if Mexico did not stand with the Allies.
A spread in Life magazine illustrates some of Bernal’s magazine covers. Gift of Tom Hermreck, 2002.423.021
Joining the Allied Campaign
Recognizing Bernal’s talent and influence, the OCIAA invited him to Washington, D.C., in 1942. There, he created posters that would blanket Latin America, warning against fascism, celebrating democracy, and promoting Pan-American friendship. His poster “Como un Solo Hombre (As One Man)” became one of the agency’s most popular.
A towering sentry emerges in equal parts from North and South America. Courtesy National Archives.
Fortunately for the OCIAA, Bernal was prolific. One report claimed he could finish an entire design in the time it took to smoke 10 cigarettes, and within months he produced several of the agency’s most successful posters. Bernal’s caricatures expertly distilled geopolitics into instantly recognizable scenes that villagers and city dwellers alike could understand. As he explained, posters could “reach the thousands of our people who do not read but who can understand quickly a dramatic picture.” His works also appeared in Shoulder to Shoulder, an exhibition at the Library of Congress that further cemented his role as a cultural diplomat.
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Uncle Sam and his Mexican counterpart hold up Vs for victory and laugh as Hitler parachutes his way into a prickly cactus. Courtesy National Archives.
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A Mexican man with rolled up sleeves singlehandedly stops a parade of Nazis led by Hitler. Courtesy National Archives.
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Mussolini, Hitler, and Hirohito cower in fear at the combined industrial and military might of the Americas. Courtesy National Archives.
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Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito are crushed by a giant V with representations of the United States and Mexico sitting atop. Courtesy National Archives.
A War in Cards
Among Bernal’s most inventive wartime projects was a collection of 56 lithographs he began in 1944. Formatted as a deck of playing cards and organized by suit, they chronicle the rise and fall of the Axis, depicting major events and key figures. The completed folio contains the standard 52 cards, three jokers, and a card back design featuring Lady Liberty torching Hitler’s backside.
The frontispiece of the folio shows the torch of Liberty beneath a distressed Hitler. The National WWII Museum, 2025.387.001
The plan was to use the designs to mass-produce actual decks of cards for distribution across the Americas as a readily accessible and entertaining form of propaganda. Though that never came to pass, Bernal and collaborator Ignacio Carral Icaza printed a limited number of folios in Mexico City under the title Album Historico La II Guerra Mundial. The National WWII Museum recently acquired one of these rare sets.
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Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt laugh as the latter paints a V with sharpened teeth crushing Hitler’s head. The National WWII Museum, 2025.387.001
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With only rats for company, an imprisoned Hitler works on Mein Kampf. The National WWII Museum, 2025.387.001
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In a similar pose to the sentry depicted in Bernal’s Como un Solo Hombre poster, an American soldier straddles the English Channel. The National WWII Museum, 2025.387.001
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A host of Rosies work to build a tank. The National WWII Museum, 2025.387.001
The lithographs embody the creativity of wartime propaganda and the cultural dimensions of Mexico’s role during the war. With the exception of the 201st Fighter Squadron in the Pacific, Mexican forces rarely saw combat. Nonetheless, the nation’s entry into the war brought vital resources, economic cooperation, and labor assistance to the Allied effort. Behind those tangible contributions were years of cultural groundwork that Bernal laid with every caricature.
The Brigadier’s Legacy
Today, Bernal’s art reminds us that World War II was also a war of ideas, fought with pens and brushes as much as with troops and firearms. His work underscores Mexico’s contribution to the Allied victory and demonstrates the power of cultural expression in moments of crisis. Dictators fear artists for good reason: they can inspire resistance, expose lies, change minds, and diminish fear. That is what Bernal achieved with his art.
Truman, Atlee, and Molotov gather at the Potsdam Conference with Churchill and Roosevelt watching over them from their frames above. Though Mexican president Manuel Ávila Camacho did not attend, Bernal inserted him to the far left, suggesting that Mexico earned its place at the table.
In 1952, eight years before his death, Columbia University awarded Bernal the prestigious Maria Moors Cabot Prize, honoring his contributions to journalism and inter-American understanding. The recognition validated his wartime conviction that together, the Americas could defeat tyranny and restore peace to the world.
Chase Tomlin
Chase Tomlin is an Associate Curator at The National WWII Museum.
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