With Cinco de Mayo approaching, today on the blog we’re highlighting Gus Arriola’s comic strip Gordo. Arriola was a Mexican-American cartoonist, raised by his sisters in a Spanish-speaking family in Arizona- where he laid claim to learning English by reading the Sunday comics. His widely syndicated strip Gordo which ran from 1941-1985, was considered to be the first comic to introduce Mexican culture to America.
Original from Gus Arriola's "Gordo". From the Mark J. Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
An important note about Gordo is that–having not visited Mexico himself until the 1960s–Arriola’s first inception of the characters was through a somewhat stereotypical lens. As a young cartoonist wanting to draw something new, light, and above all, fun- Arriola relied on the visually-identifiable concepts of Mexicans that were popular in Hollywood at the time. It wasn’t until 5 or 6 years in that he realized his strip was actually the only comics representation many American’s were getting of Mexican culture, leading him to put away his gimmicks and focus instead on purely reflecting Mexican life and folklore. Below, we can see an example of one of Arriola’s less-enlightened earlier strips from Gordo. When he purged his stereotype crutch, he got rid of the painful-to-read broken English his characters were using as well. However, he did maintain a heavy usage of Spanish language words. As a result, the strip has been credited with popularizing such words and phrases as “hasta la vista”, “amigo”, “muchacho”, “pinata”, “andales” and many many more. Arriola’s Gordo received wide praise from the Mexican Government, and was stated to have done more for changing the racist attitudes of American’s toward Mexicans than any other medium in its time.
Early original from Gus Arriola's "Gordo". From the Mark J. Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
May 4, 2012 at 9:29 pm
Thank you for posting these Gus Arriola Sundays. GORDO was the first comic strip that cought this three year old’s eye in 1957 when it ran in the Los Angeles Mirror. I loved the line work, the animation of the characters, the animals and the open heartedness of the who enterprise. I lost track of GORDO for awhile and re-discovered it when I moved to the Bay Area in 1972 and was happy to follow it in The San Francisco Chronicle until Gus retired in 1985. I was able to purchase some of his personal files of strip proofs from his estate and they are treasured artifacts indeed.