René Ríos Boettiger (Concepción, 15 December 1911 — 14 July 2000), also known as Pepo, was a Chilean cartoonist, creator of the famous character Condorito.[1] He has been credited as the most prominent Chilean graphic humorist of the 20th century.[2][3][4]
| Pepo | |
|---|---|
 Self-caricature by Pepo | |
| Born | René Rodolfo Ríos Boettiger 15 December 1911 Concepción, Chile |
| Died | 14 July 2000 (aged 88) Santiago, Chile |
| Area(s) | Writer, Artist |
Notable works | Condorito Viborita CanCan Pobre Diablo Pingüino |
| Children | 2 |
Biography
He was the son of the marriage of Amanda Boettiger Krause and the doctor René Ríos Guzmán.[5] He published his first cartoon at the age of 7 in the newspaper El Sur of Concepción.[5] Encouraged by his father, he continued with his drawings until he held his first exhibition, at the age of 10, at the Palet confectionery in his city.[6] Although he studied medicine at the Universidad de Concepción, Rios abandoned his studies in the early 1930s to devote all his time to creating his cartoons.[5][6] In 1932 he moved to Santiago to work as a cartoonist at the satirical magazine Topaze.[6] Adopting the pseudonym "Pepo" (from pepón, "little barrel", his childhood nickname), he created the comic strip Don Gabito for the magazine, a strip featuring a caricatured Chilean president Gabriel González Videla.[6] He also caricatured president Pedro Aguirre Cerda as Don Pedrito.[6]
In 1949[7][8] he created Condorito, his most famous character, taking the idea from the condor of the Chilean coat of arms.
Over the next sixty years Rios contributed cartoons to a great number of publications, including El Pingüino, Ganso, Pobre Diablo, Can Can, Pichanga, El Saquero, El Peneca, and branched out into other forms of illustration as well.[6][9] Rios died of cancer in 2000 at the age of 88.[10][11]
A great lover of the seaside, Rios often drew while looking at the sea at El Quisco on the Chilean Central Coast. A statue of Condorito now stands at the location. In 2000, an effort led by Omar Pérez Santiago (a scholar of Chilean cartooning and a co-founder of the academic Chilean Center for Comics) resulted in a sculpture of Condorito memorializing Rios being installed in the Chilean House of Culture in San Miguel.
References
- ^ "Pepo". San Francisco: Goodreads, Inc. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
- ^ Lent, John A. (2005). Cartooning in Latin America. Hampton Press. p. 174. ISBN 9781572735606. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ ""Pepo, mi hermano de oro"" (in Spanish). Revista Nos (Chile). Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ Rivas, Francisca (15 December 2012). "Pepo más allá de Condorito: conoce las otras revistas fundadas por el popular dibujante" (in Spanish). Radio Bío-Bío. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ a b c Yáñez Morales, Luis (2020). Pepo es de Conce (in Spanish). ISBN 978-956-401-421-0. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f "Condorito (1949-)". Memoria Chilena. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
- ^ "Pepo". Lambiek.net. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ Gravett, Paul, "1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die", Universe, page 145.
- ^ "René Rodolfo Ríos Boettinger "Pepo"". www.revistachilena.com. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ La revista latinoamericana de estudios sobre la historieta Volumes 1-2. Pablo de la Torriente. 2001. p. 46. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ L'Hoeste, H., ed. (2009). Redrawing The Nation National Identity in Latin/o American Comics. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 36. ISBN 9780230103184. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
External links
- Condorito official site (in Spanish)
- Condorito Video