Gustavo Arriola, a cartoonist who created "Gordo," a pioneering comic strip that celebrated Latino culture and traditions, has died. He was 90.
Arriola died Saturday of complications from cancer and Parkinson's disease at his home in Carmel, said his wife Mary Frances.
Known as "Gus," Arriola launched his cartoon in 1941 featuring Gordo Lopez, a Mexican bean farmer, as the main character. By the late 1940s "Gordo" was published seven days a week, a schedule that continued until the last cartoon appeared in March 1985.
At the height of its popularity in the 1960s, "Gordo" appeared in 270 newspapers, historian Robert C. Harvey said.
It was "the most visible ethnic comic strip in America and its creator the most visible American of Mexican descent working as a syndicated cartoonist," said Harvey, coauthor with Arriola of "Accidental Ambassador Gordo," published in 2000.
Originally, the character was a fat, lazy bumpkin who spoke with a thick accent.
After Arriola's readers complained about the stereotype, the cartoonist transformed Gordo into a slimmed-down tour guide who drove a rickety bus named for Halley's Comet, a hint at how rarely the vehicle actually came around.
Gordo lived in rural Mexico, dressed in sombreros and a charro outfit. His companions included a menagerie of farm animals including Senor Dog. Eventually Gordo married his housekeeper, Tehuana Mama.
Donkeys, cactus, clay pots and other bits from rural life dotted the scenery.
When "Gordo" premiered, "it was the only nationally distributed comic strip with a Mexican milieu," Harvey said. Later, when the bean farmer became a tour guide, Harvey said, "There was nothing like 'Gordo' on the planet."
The strip was known for its gentle humor and a story that followed Gordo's romantic adventures, his bickering with his nephew Pepito, and other events from his daily life that made him a Latino Everyman.
Arriola's Sunday cartoon included frames that stood alone as abstract artworks.
"The Sunday strip was a stunning composition with lively line work and dazzling colors," said Malcolm Whyte, founder of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. Arriola evoked Mexican cut-paper designs in some of his drawings. He used Latino festivals and folklore in some strips and often returned to ecological themes that related to rural Mexico.
