Border-Crossing Identities, Culture, and Citizenship: El Chavo and Pepito as Latin American Cultural Icons

• In Event: Resonances of El Chavo del 8 in Latin American Schooling, Childhood, and Societies

Abstract

Since Chespirito’s programs first aired in Mexican television, many have marveled at the international and intergenerational prominence of characters like El Chavo, inviting comparisons to other cultural icons. El Chavo’s antics are as familiar as those of Pepito, a mischievous personage in many Latin American jokes and tales. Like Chavo, Pepito is a figure recognized and cherished in many Spanish-speaking countries; a boy that never grows up, whose escapades inspire laughter and incite social commentary. For example, the Pepito featured in many Cuban jokes and stories (whether on or off the island), gets himself into all kinds of scrapes and is associated with jokes that reflect a nation’s (and a nation-in-exile’s) widely-held values. In this paper, the “border crossings” of Chespirito and Pepito, experienced across Latin American contexts in similar and dissimilar ways, are framed as sites of possibility for rethinking static notions of identities, cultures, and citizenship (Author, 2011, 2012; Guerra, 2012, 2015) with/in immigrant and minoritized communities.

Reading across reflections about Chavo and Pepito as cultural icons, this inquiry underscores the values and cultural perspectives implicit in the jokes and sketches that many have enjoyed for generations. In a narrative inquiry of reflections about El Chavo and Pepito gathered from various generations from the Caribbean and Latin America, Paper 2 frames Chavo and Pepito as situated in particular cultural worlds, described by Holland (1998) as figured worlds. A figured world exists in relation to other cultural boundaries and contexts, like those determined by individuals’ local, national, or ethnic affiliations, which in turn shape what counts as humor within and beyond cultural groups.

Among popular variety shows in Latin America in the 1970s, El Show de Chespirito was one among few to cross multiple national and generational borders. Several decades later, Chespirito’s continued popularity underscores the significance of his comedy across Latin American nations, prompting viewers to consider what has led to the prolonged resonance of his iconic characters within such diverse cultures and communities. Chespirito’s comedy is iconic in its ability to supersede national and regional borders, leading to its association with a broader Latin American identity. However, the idea of a Latin American identity can be problematic when it obscures the situated nature of our experiences, including our experiences of humor. As Alharthi argues, humor is a social phenomenon, and while many communities “may share the same concept of what humour is,” as many Latin Americans have enjoyed Chespirito’s sketches for decades, communities also have “unique techniques… for provoking laughter which, in many instances, distinguish them from others” (2014, p. 4). Exploring the similarities and differences among audiences’ recollections of figures such as Chavo and Pepito, whose appeal crosses many cultural and national borders, invites a deliberate engagement with some of the political and socioeconomic narratives that inform current social discourses and power relations in Latin American societies.

Author

• Limarys Caraballo, Teachers College, Columbia University