Nov
6
Well, that didn’t take long….
It’s been less than 48 hours since Barack Obama became President-Elect of the United States but a family-owned business in Girona, Spain already has a caganer of his likeness on the market.
What’s a caganer? It’s the Catalan version of a bobblehead doll, only way more scatological. 
The term caganer is a Catalan word that translates as “pooper” in polite English. The little figurines are very popular, particularly at Christmas time. In Spanish society you haven’t truly arrived as a celebrity until you have your very own caganer.
The reason why the company, Terra i Mar, was able to have the Obama figurine on the market so quickly is because its owners followed the U.S. election closely and were aware of polling predicting an Obama win. The George Bush caganer, a beady-eyed grey-haired dude who has the planet Earth under his arm while he “does his business,” is currently the company’s No. 1 best seller. So it was a no-brainer to make one of Obama, which went into production before the election but only went on sale yesterday. Some readers at 20Minutos.es wonder if the company took the mold used for Spanish race car driver Fernando Alonso to make the Obama caganer since both figurines have the same elongated blockhead. 
(You can find all three -Alonso, Bush and Obama- at El Caganer.)
Jajaja, saw it in the news yesterday. Thought of buying one as a Christmas present for a US friend but I am afraid she might not appreciate the tradition.
Well, why not, I live close to Torroella de Montgri where these thingies are made, so I will be in my right, promoting the local traditions… 
Okay, I *never* heard of this. The weiderst thing I’ve seen so far were the naked gnomes here in the Netherlands. But a crapping doll? Whahaha!
I might check this out when I’m in Spain next time. Man, this is so weird…
I wish there were one of Sarah Palin. La caganer Palin would’ve broken all sales records in the U.S.
@Costarossa…I say go for it. Will be a great stocking stuffer!
@Ramses….last year what I had difficulty wrapping my mind around was how come it was OK to have figurines of members of Spain’s royal family taking a crap but not OK for a magazine to publish a caricature of Prince Felipe having sex with his wife. The magazine got taken to court by the Spanish government while El Caganer continues to €€€laugh€€€ all the way to the bank. If you ask me, taking a dump is way more intimate and private than making the beastie with two backs.
Ramses, by the way, this is not a Spanish but Catalan tradition.
The word caganer actually means something like “shitter” in Catalan (I don’t mean to be rude, but this is how it is).
Yeah, I figured that out. Still, Cataluña is in Spain eh
.
ummm, costarossa, I don’t quite get the “not Spanish but Catalan tradition”, you probably mean “not Castillian but Catalan”, or “not Galician but Catalan” or maybe “not Andalusian but Catalan”.
Spain is a -let’s call it- “multinational entity” composed by many regions with its own customs, climates, cultures and sometimes languages, and Cataluña just happens to be one of them. That’s why Spain is a federal state.
If you ever take Catalonia away from Spain, “the rest”, the remaining part of Iberia excluding Portugal shouldn’t be called “Spain” anymore, we’d have to figure out a new name. I propose “Castilla-León-Galicia-Asturias-Euskadi-Andalucia-Extremadura-Rioja-Navarra-Aragón-ia”
And yes, caganer means crapper or shitter, that’s absolutely right.