Imitating Incas and becoming llama: Tintin in Latin America - Or the Latin American in Tintin?

This article revisits Tintin's adventures in Latin America, not only tracing the themes of colonialism and the ethnographic present in the works but also reconsidering the traditional reading of The Adventures of Tintin as simply a patronizing vision of the Latin American other. The article draws on fluid notions of latinidad to highlight how Tintin and friends are sometimes (unwittingly) able to 'act Latin' - at least until Tintin becomes weary of his adventures and, in so doing, loses his own sacred nature. Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications.