Video: Thousands of Chespirito fans gather to dance to “El Chavo” song in Mexico City
By MANUEL RUEDA
Channel: Latin American Affairs
Mexico City felt like a colorful, playful neighborhood on Sunday, as 20,000 people danced in unison to the theme song of the popular TV program El Chavo del Ocho.
For those of you who are not so familiar with characters like the endearing (but annoying) El Chavo, the spoiled Kiko, and the lackluster Don Ramón –- who never seemed to have money to pay his rent — allow me to explain what the fuss was all about.
El Chavo, which is about the adventures of a young orphan in a humble Mexican neighborhood, is perhaps the most popular comedy show in Latin America, and one of the most watched TV programs anywhere in the world. Several generations have grown up with El Chavo, and although they stopped making new episodes in 1992, you can still find the show on TV anywhere you go in the region (as well as in the U.S. on Telefetura).
In its heyday in the 1970s, El Chavo was the Latin American equivalent to The Simpsons perhaps, not only because of its popularity and its child characters, but also because like The Simpsons, the program appealed to both children and adults.
However, El Chavo is different in that its characters are more innocent, and the humor sometimes is just plain silly, with Kiko and El Chavo (two grown men dressed as 8-year-old kids) often injuring the unlucky Don Ramón with a wide variety of items that included hammers, a saw, and buckets of plaster.
For many in Mexico, this show is an important part of their childhood.
“I first started to watch [El Chavo] one time when I wasn’t allowed to enter school, and I came home and there was nothing to do. I was seven years old, and I was in first grade,” said Benjamin Villegas, a musician, who took a six hour bus trip from Guadalajara to attend Sunday’s event.
With his high cheekbones, thick black moustache and wrinkles radiating from the corners of his eyes, Villegas has an eerie resemblance to —the now deceased actor Ramón Valdés — Don Ramón. When he dressed in Don Ramón’s black shirt, floppy hat, and blue pants on Sunday, Villegas practically looked like his reincarnation.
“When I didn’t understand things at school, I used to go through the same things as (characters) Kiko, Nono, and El Chavo. Back then, teachers would hit us or pull our ears or scream at us if we didn’t pay attention,” said Villegas, who dreams of meeting El Chavo’s creator (who himself played El Chavo), Roberto Gomez Bolaños, also known throughout Latin America as “Chespirito” (Little Shakespeare).
Rodrigo Florencio, who comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil, said that he timed his vacation to Mexico so that he could attend Sunday’s dance, as well as several other events that TV Channel Televisa is planning this month to celebrate 40 years of Chespirito’s career.
Florencio, 29, said he is a loyal fan of “Chaves” as the program is called in Portuguese.
For Sunday’s event he dressed up like the show’s female lead, Doña Florinda (actress Florinda Mesa, now married to Chespirito), with make-up, high heels, a pink dress, and a blonde wig.
“I like Chespirito because his humor is not dark or sarcastic, like what we see on TV today,” Florencio said. “With him, we can laugh at silly things.”
Check out the original version of the El Chavo song “Que bonita vecindad” performed by all the actors on the show.
