The Newsboy’s Good Deed: Billiken Magazine’s Construction of Argentine Childhood in 1942

This story of Luis Román’s good deed, published in Billiken magazine on September 14, 1942, in a small frame within a serialized story, opens a window onto the wider socio-cultural significance of this children’s weekly and its constructions of Argentine childhood. Taking Luis Román’s story as a starting point, this article will analyze Billiken’s editorial construction of childhood at this time using historical contextualization to explore the competing discourses which are packaged within this commercial product.