Condorito
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Type | Week magazine |
| Format | Tabloid |
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| Owner | Televisa |
| Editor | René Rios |
| Founded | 1950 |
| Headquarters | Santiago, Chile |
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| Website: www.condorito.com | |
Condorito is a famous cartoon character, a personification of a funny condor living in a fictitious town named Pelotillehue — a setting typical of many small Chilean provincial towns. He is meant to be a representation of the Chilean people.
Condorito was created by the Chilean cartoonist René Ríos, known as Pepo. In spite of his Chilean origin, Condorito is very popular throughout Latin America, where the character is considered part of the general popular culture, and has a growing readership in the United States as well. Condorito and his friends are featured monthly in a magazine that carries the name of the main character, as well as a deluxe "best of" magazine entitled Condorito de Oro.
The structure in Condorito is a very simplistic one: each page is an independent joke, without any continuity on the others (though some jokes are larger or shorter than one page). One peculiar characteristic of Condorito is that the character that goes through the embarrassing moment and/or serves as the butt of the joke in a given strip almost always falls backwards to the floor (or out of frame) in the final panel. This classic comic strip "flop take" is accompanied by the ¡PLOP! sound effect. From time to time, this is replaced by the victim of the joke saying Exijo una explicación! ("I demand an explanation!"), usually as a twist or downbeat-ending.
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[edit] Characters
- Condorito: The main character, Condorito is a humanoid condor, lackadaisical and unambitious, but also kind and ingenious. Is always a picaresque character, an anti-hero who gets away from his problems using his wit, not his talent. Is portrayed as holding a wide variety of jobs, to humorous effect.
- Yayita: Condorito's "fashionable eternal girlfriend".
- Don Chuma: Condorito's best friend, he is a kind tall thin man who helps Condorito several times to solve some of his problems. Condorito calls him "Compadre" or "Cumpa". His signature quote is "No se fije en gastos, Compadre" ("Don't worry about costs, pal").
- Pepe Cortisona a.k.a "Saco de Plomo": Condorito's nemesis, especially when it comes to courting Yayita. Tall, arrogant and muscular; he calls Condorito "pajarraco".
- Coné and Yuyito: Condorito's young nephew and Yayita's niece respectively.
- Don Cuasimodo and Doña Tremebunda: Yayita's parents. They reluctantly accept their daughter's engagement with Condorito.
- Garganta de Lata: Condorito's alcoholic pal. He spends most of his time at the "Bar El Tufo". His constant drunkenness makes his wife very upset.
- Ungenio Gonzalez: A not-so-smart pal of Condorito. He has white hair, long nose, and big teeth, reminiscent of a donkey's teeth. He has a son, Genito who is almost identical to him.
- Huevoduro ("Boiledegg"): An eggheaded (and completely colorless) character which Rios claims is based upon a Canadian ambassador.
- Don Máximo Tacaño: A (humorous) miser who would die rather than part with his money.
- Padre Venancio: Pelotillehue's priest. He tries to guide Condorito in "the good way".
- Tomate: Red, short, fat and bald, his head resembles a tomato.
- Comegatos ("Cat-eater"): A freind of Condorito, who has a feline face, and uses to eat cats.
- Cabellos de ángel: Big-nosed, his hair is like a sea urchin.
- Chacalito: Criminal character, usually seen in jail or trial for his several crimes (which range from stealing to homicide).
- Che Copete: Stereotyped Argentinian character, who resembles an old-fashionated tango singer. Is very arrogant and proud of his country.
- Titicaco: Stereotyped Bolivian character, wears a typically Bolivian hat.
- Washington , Mandíbula and Matías: Condorito's pets. Washington is his dog, Mandíbula his horse, and Matías his parrot.
[edit] Places
- Pelotillehue: Native city of Condorito.
- Buenas Peras: Rival and neighboring city of Pelotillehue.
- Cumpeo: Neighboring city of Pelotillehue.
[edit] Origins of Condorito
In 1942, the Walt Disney Company created the animated film Saludos Amigos depicting Donald Duck and a cast of anthropomorphic characters representing various nations of the Americas. In the film, while the Disney characters are represented as humorous versions of charros, gauchos, etc., Chile was represented as Pedro, a small airplane engaged in his very first flight, whose attempt to fly over the Andes to pick up air mail from Mendoza is humorously depicted. Pepo created Condorito in response to what he perceived as a slight to the image of Chile. Despite Rios' anger with Disney, however, his first Condorito character resembled Donald Duck.
[edit] Condorito and Politics
Condorito through the 1960s and 1970s held to a conservative perspective on Chile and its society, poking fun at both the new left-wing poets and the hippies. In his adventures there was a chauvinistic undertone to the jokes, with blacks often represented as villains and women relegated to domestic roles. After the military coup of 1973, some Chilean cartoonists were censored by the military regime, yet unlike other publications (such as the Argentinian Mafalda), which combined both criticism of society and humor, Condorito's publication continued, possibly due to its humor-oriented lack of social criticism. Since that time, many Chilean comics with a political view on society (e.g Hervi's Super Cifuentes) have been forgotten.
Now owned by the Mexican multimedia corporation Televisa, Condorito remains the best-known Chilean comic book character.
