Panchito Pistoles

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From left to right: José Carioca, Panchito Pistolas and Donald Duck
From left to right: José Carioca, Panchito Pistolas and Donald Duck

Panchito Pistoles, often called Panchito (and sometimes Panchito Pistolas), is a cartoon character drawn as an anthropomorphized rooster. He appeared in the film The Three Caballeros. Later he appeared in several Disney comics, including Don Rosa's The Three Caballeros Ride Again. Panchito was the only one of the three caballeros never to appear in Saludos Amigos, in fact, he did not exist yet when the 1942 movie was released.

He is a friend of Donald Duck and José Carioca. He lives in Mexico and rides on a horse called Señor Martínez. He had some appearances in Disney's House of Mouse. Among his other appearances is the tale properly called "Panchito" where he meets and falls for Clara Cluck.

Panchito's full name is Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González. Probably, his first name is Pancho, not Panchito, as Spanish suffix -ito is mainly used for familiar names (For instance Pepe turns to Pepito). In fact, Pancho/Paco and Pepe itself are nicknames or diminutives for Francisco and José respectively.

As there is no reference to his surname "Pistoles", some people assume that it is another nickname. The word "Pistoles" does not exist in Spanish, although "Pistolas" would mean Guns. Specifically, handguns, pistols. Probably the -E in Pistoles was a phonetical adaptation to ease pronunciation for non-Spanish-speakers in the United States.