My favorite artist

He was the son of the bilingual secretary Elsa Bolaños Cacho and of the painter, draftsman and illustrator Francisco Gómez Linares.6 He studied mechanical engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but never graduated.7

 

His father, a renowned painter of the time, passed away when he was six years old. His mother, who never got to know the fame of the series El Chavo del 8, died of pancreatic cancer.8

 

He began his career as an advertising creative, which connected him with radio and television, in which he was, during the 1950s, a very active screenwriter. He also wrote several film scripts for the Viruta and Capulina duo and briefly began as an actor with them in Two spoiled servants in 1960. However, he continued to spend most of his time writing, contributing dialogue for film scripts and Mexican television programs.

 

His professional name, Chespirito, is due to the film director Agustín P. Delgado, derived from the diminutive of the Spanish pronunciation of William Shakespeare's surname -phonically Chekspir-, due to the stature of Gómez Bolaños and because of his talent for writing stories that it resembled those of Shakespeare.

 

Between 1960 and 1965, he wrote scripts for the two programs with the highest audience ratings on Mexican television: Comics and Songs, as well as El estudio de Pedro Vargas, on the Telesistema Mexicano network.

El Chavo sculpture in Cali, Colombia.

 

In 1968, Mexico's Channel 8 began broadcasting and Chespirito was called as a writer with the offer to use a half hour a week at his pleasure. Thus, The Super Geniuses of the Square Table and his acting career were born.

 

In 1970, they extended their hours to an hour and on a program of their own. It was called Chespirito and the character of Chapulín Colorado was born. In 1972, El Chavo appeared. Both characters worked so well that the show was split into two, spending half an hour on each. In mid-1979, he began a short program called La chicharra, a series based on journalists, without much success.

 

Despite being well known for his roles as Chavo and Chapulín Colorado, he was also the creator of several other characters, such as Chómpiras, Doctor Chapatín, Vicente Chambón and Chaparrón Bonaparte. In an interview with Teresa Rodríguez, he commented that he decided to add words with chbecause it was used in "many rude words in Mexico" .9 because it was used in "many rude words in Mexico" .9