What ‘Chespirito’ Left Us

*From the article: “A number of undisputed kings of our imagination transcended national backgrounds, among them the freedom fighter Che Guevara, the poet Pablo Neruda, the comedian Cantinflas, and, yes, the TV star Chespirito.” VL

By Ilan Stavans, New York Times

AMHERST, Mass. — I first came to grips with the true power of television when, in the late 1970s in my native Mexico, my father had a couple of guest appearances in the astoundingly popular TV variety show “Chespirito.” I was used to the fact that, as a soap-opera actor in demand, my father would occasionally be stopped on the street for an autograph. If he played a principal character, people would even connect him personally to whatever traits that character had. If a villain, they would harass him; if a hero, he would suddenly hear applause as he walked by.

But, as I remember it, at no time was my father more besieged than when he played an amusement-park owner in “Chespirito.” He would be seated at a restaurant without delay. Groups of people would ask him to take a picture with them. And at the bank where he did his business, the manager told him never to wait in line. I even remember an old lady coming to him at a grocery store in tears, telling him he had been saved by Jesus Christ because of the amusement-park owner’s connection to one character in the program, El Chavo.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by Ziggy Maiguel/Flickr]

Subscribe today!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Must Read