Mafalda statue, Bronze statue of Mafalda on bench in San Telmo, Argentina.

The Mafalda statue is a life-sized bronze figure sitting on a white bench at the corner of Chile and Defensa Streets. Additional comic characters from the same strip sit alongside on the bench.

Quino's strip Mafalda first appeared in 1964 in the magazine Primera Plana and ran until 1973. Sculptor Pablo Irgang made the bronze figure, installed on the bench at Chile and Defensa in San Telmo in 2009, on the 25th anniversary of the 1984 demolition of the building where Quino lived as a child. The bench was added so visitors could sit beside her.

The statue represents one of Argentina's most beloved comic characters and shows how popular culture shapes the public spaces of Buenos Aires. Visitors immediately recognize the symbolic meaning this figure holds in the city's everyday life.

The statue sits at a central corner that is easy to locate and surrounded by several cafes and shops. The area is particularly busy on Sundays when the local street market takes place.

The bench is bronze, not epoxy: the seated figure and the two companions are cast in bronze, which is why visitors rub the statue's hair and hands to a shine. The piece was placed here in 2009, on the corner where Mafalda's creator Quino set many of her scenes.