Roberto Weil

Roberto Weil is a Venezuelan visual artist, caricaturist, and illustrator whose practice spans political cartooning, painting, and graphic narrative. Trained as an engineer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Weil developed a parallel career in visual art that has critically engaged with power, ideology, and freedom of expression. He is widely known for his graphic novel collaborations with writer and scholar Ilan Stavans, including Mr. Spic Goes to Washington (2008) and Don Quixote of La Mancha, in Spanglish (2019), a vibrant, bilingual reimagining of Cervantes’ classic that preserves its absurdity, moral tension, and enduring inquiry into the primacy of ideas over reality. Weil has published several books of caricatures—Anécdotas de un Sueño Revolucionario (2006), La bota que derramó el vaso (2010), and No le hagas al potro lo que no quieras que te hagan a ti (2012)—and has exhibited his drawings, paintings, and sculptures in solo and group exhibitions in Venezuela and the United States. In 2014, he was dismissed from the Venezuelan newspaper Últimas Noticias following controversy surrounding one of his political cartoons, underscoring his longstanding commitment to critical commentary and artistic independence. His work has earned numerous distinctions, including the Pedro León Zapata Award, the Municipal Journalism Prize, and the Inter American Press Association’s Excellence in Journalism Award. Since 2019, he has been a member of Cartooning for Peace. He currently lives and works in the United States.