Los Caquitos

Los Caquitos
Created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Written by Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Starring Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Édgar Vivar
Florinda Meza
Country of origin  Mexico
Original language(s) Spanish
Release
Original network Televisa
External links
Chespirito.com

Los Caquitos (English: "The Little Thieves") is a sketch comedy of the Chespirito television comedy program that ran from 1980 to 1995. It was created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, who also played one of the title characters, "El Chómpiras".[1]

Origins

Originally, Chómpiras was a pickpocket and cat burglar who worked with an associate named Peterete (Ramón Valdés). Their skills in thievery were marginal, but Peterete was ostensibly the more intelligent and skilled of the pair. Together, they were known as Los Caquitos (which is roughly translated as "The Little Thieves", "caquito" being a diminutive of "caco" which is Spanish for "thief" or "hoodlum") and appeared on Chespirito's comedy programs in the 1970s, usually preceding an episode of El Chavo del Ocho or El Chapulín Colorado that did not last the full half-hour. By 1973, El Chavo episodes were all a half-hour long and did not need the filler sketches, and shorter Chapulín episodes ceased to use Caquitos sketches, so the characters virtually disappeared.

Debut on Chespirito

In 1980, a new show premiered called Chespirito, which was an-hour-long and employed all of Chespirito's characters in sketches of varying lengths. On Chespirito, El Chómpiras and Los Caquitos were revived. However, Ramón Valdés had left Chespirito's troupe in 1979, so Peterete was forgotten and replaced with Botija (Édgar Vivar). Since most of the Caquitos sketches performed on the new show were simply remakes of the ones that had appeared years before on the older ones, Botija's character was extremely similar to Peterete's, except physically, since Botija was extremely fat, and Peterete was extremely thin.

Development

The characters weren't very fleshed out originally, but as Chespirito began writing new sketches for the hour-long show, some of which lasted the entire hour, their backstories became more expanded. Botija was single at first, but got married very quickly to a woman called Chimoltrufia (Florinda Meza) who had moplike hair, a chipped tooth and constantly chewed a piece of gum. She was soon established as the conscience of the sketches; often she would earn money doing a respectable job, usually cleaning or babysitting. Many episodes didn't have to do with Chómpiras's and Botija's incompetent burgling, but instead focused on life in Chimoltrufia and Botija's tiny apartment. A neighbor named Doña Nachita (Angelines Fernández) started appearing frequently and eventually became a regular. Policemen were a regular feature in Caquitos sketches, but by the mid 1980s, Rubén Aguirre became the sketch's definitive policeman, the dimwitted Sgt. Refugio. Around this time, there were many sketches that took place at the police station as the characters tried to argue their innocence after being arrested; presiding over these cases was a judge played by Raúl Padilla, who was eventually named Licenciado Morales.

By the late 1980s, Chespirito started shifting away from Chavo and Chapulín sketches, as Chespirito and the others were getting older and less believable in those roles. The focus went to Los Caquitos, prompting a major change. Inspired by an episode of El Chavo, in which Chavo is wrongly accused of stealing, Botija and Chómpiras vow to never steal again and get honest jobs. They and Chimoltrufia eventually settle into jobs at the inexpensive Hotel Lucho, run by Don Lucho (Carlos Pouliot). Chimoltrufia was a chambermaid and always did her job to the best of her ability, but Botija and Chómpiras tried to get by doing as little work as possible.

Final years

As the years passed, Chimoltrufia became more and more prominent until she was as much of the focus of the sketch as Chómpiras, possibly more. (To call it a "sketch" is not really fair at this point; by 1992, almost all Chespirito episodes were hour-long Chómpiras "sketches".) A few changes came at that time. First, Angelines Fernández stopped appearing (presumably due to her declining health and subsequent death in 1994 from lung cancer) and was gradually replaced by Chimoltrufia's mother Espotaverderona (Anabel Gutiérrez), who looked like a plump, middle-aged version of Chimoltrufia. Also, one hotel guest began appearing regularly, her name was Maruja (María Antonieta de las Nieves) and she attracted the attention of a lot of men, especially Sgt. Refugio. Then, Don Lucho closed his hotel, and the trio had to look for other jobs. For several episodes they tried other lines of work, but in 1993 a new hotel opened, run by Don Cecilio (Moisés Suárez) and they got their old jobs back. Cecilio's hotel, Hotel Buenavista, was nicer than Don Lucho's, but the routine was just the same and some of the storylines from the early Lucho episodes were recycled. In 1994 and 1995, Chespirito started returning to its old format of presenting several different sketches during the show, but most featured a long Chómpiras sketch. In 1995, Chespirito decided to bring the whole thing to a close and stopped producing episodes.

For a short time, Édgar Vivar left the show due to health problems stemming from his weight. To explain Vivar's absence, it was written into the show that Botija was away at a weight-loss clinic, which was also the actor's real-life health situation. Vivar would return some time later, having lost a noticeable amount of weight.

Regular characters

Other characters

Running gags

References

  1. 1 2 "Chespirito - Personajes - Los Caquitos". Chespirito.com. February 3, 2011.
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