My question is: Which is the problem? Should I change the DBD::mysql configuration to enable utf-8?

Your mysqld setup appears correct. I am curious about your desktop OS and language settings.

Are you using Windows? What keyboard do you have setup? And how do you input the diacritical characters?

I am experiencing differences in the the default diacritical representations between Mac OSX and WinXP.

--Joe Atzberger