In every day life, Hector Rodriguez is a mild-mannered ESL grade school teacher in Eagle Pass, Texas. But in free time, he is a modern day Clark Kent with a vivid imagination and a moral call to duty.
Since 2011, Rodriguez has been the creator of “El Peso Hero,” a comic book icon with super powers to wage war for the greater good against evil forces. His first opponent was Donald Trump in 2015, and El Peso Hero delivered some powerful “Trumpazos” against the former president for calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. Now, Rodriguez is taking aim at Mexico’s current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for his weak stance during the Russian occupation in Ukraine.
“Mexico’s complete neutrality in this conflict is disappointing to me, because it has always been there for humanitarian causes,” notes Rodriguez. “So if Obrador isn’t stepping up, then El Peso Hero will do the right thing for the citizens of Ukraine.”
This week, Rodriguez sprung into action by publishing a free, 18 page special edition on the invasion, and asking readers to support UNICEF’s relief fund for Ukrainian children. In the plot Rodriguez cooks up, the Red Cross calls on El Peso Hero to help find a volunteer who went missing in Ukraine. The Mexican superhero is at first reluctant to get involved in a conflict so far away from his territory here at home. But upon arriving in Kyiv, he sees that human tragedy has no borders.
El Peso Hero stands as a symbol for what other countries should be doing to help the children and citizens in Ukraine,” reasons Rodriguez. “Readers will see him facing two bad options. But as a superhero, he always invents a third option that is a force of good, regardless of politics.”
The special edition cover pays homage to both Superman and Captain America. It depicts El Peso Hero lifting a Russian tank away from a Ukrainian family trapped in Kyiv.
