Gus Arriola
Encyclopedia
Gustavo "Gus" Arriola was a Mexican-American comic strip
cartoonist and animator
, primarily known for the comic strip Gordo
, which ran from 1941 through 1985.
Arriola's father, Aquiles Arriola, was born on a hacienda
in Sonora
.. Gus Arriola was born in Florence, Arizona
, the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by an older sister in a Spanish
-speaking household. He learned English by reading the Sunday comics
. His family moved to Los Angeles, California
, when he was eight years old. He first studied art formally in Manual Arts High School
in Los Angeles, California.
he spent a year working on Krazy Kat
for Screen Gems
, then three years animating Tom and Jerry
and Lonesome Stranger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
as a "sketch man", before leaving to start his own comic strip. During World War II
, he directed training film
s for the United States Army
while continuing to produce Sunday Gordo cartoons.
, with a highly caricature
d style and a lazy overweight title character who spoke in heavily accented English and took naps under a tree wearing a sombrero
. The character reflected popular conceptions of Mexicans at the time, particularly Leo Carrillo
's portrayal of the Cisco Kid's sidekick, Pancho
, on television and film.
After his early strips were criticized for Hollywood-style cultural stereotypes
, Arriola realized that his was the only periodical work in American mass media
that depicted life in Mexico and modified the strip to be more sympathetic. A much thinner and contemplative Gordo eventually became a flirtatious tour guide
, whom Arriola often described as an "accidental ambassador" for Mexican culture. The strip introduced America to such now-popular words and phrases as "hasta la vista," "amigo," "piñata," "compadre," "muchacho" and "hasta mañana," as well as Mayan
, Aztec
and Mexican
customs, history and folklore
.
Arriola did all of the writing, illustration and production of Gordo himself, creating strips every day (except in his army years) for 45 years. Charles Schulz
described it as "probably the most beautifully drawn strip in the history of the business." Arriola received the National Cartoonist Society's Humor Comic Strip Award in 1957 and 1965. Although not overtly political, Gordo was also one of the first pop culture works that regularly raised environmentalist
concerns.
The last Gordo strip was published on March 2, 1985.
and then Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
, where he ran a shop selling Mexican arts, crafts and artifacts from 1961 to 1963.
He died in Carmel on 2 February 2008. Shortly before his death he received a lifetime achievement award from the Arts Council
for Monterey, California
. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease
. Arriola met his wife, Mary Frances, at MGM in 1939. They remained married until his death.
On February 20, 2008, the comic strip Baldo
noted, "In memory of our amigo Gus Arriola, 1917-2008." The March 21, 2008, version of the comic strip La Cucaracha, by Lalo Alcaraz, was also a tribute to Arriola.
Humor Comic Strip Award.
2007 – Arts Council
for Monterey, California
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
cartoonist and animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
, primarily known for the comic strip Gordo
Gordo (comic strip)
Gordo was a comic strip written and drawn by the Mexican-American artist Gustavo "Gus" Arriola that introduced many Americans to Mexican culture.-Characters and story:...
, which ran from 1941 through 1985.
Arriola's father, Aquiles Arriola, was born on a hacienda
Hacienda
Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...
in Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
.. Gus Arriola was born in Florence, Arizona
Florence, Arizona
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 17,054 people, 2,226 households, and 1,540 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,056.2 people per square mile . There were 3,216 housing units at an average density of 387.7 per square mile...
, the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by an older sister in a Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-speaking household. He learned English by reading the Sunday comics
Sunday comics
Sunday comics is the commonly accepted term for the full-color comic strip section carried in most American newspapers. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies....
. His family moved to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, when he was eight years old. He first studied art formally in Manual Arts High School
Manual Arts High School
Manual Arts High School is a secondary school in Los Angeles, California. When founded, Manual Arts was a vocational high school, but later converted to a traditional curriculum.-History:...
in Los Angeles, California.
Career
Immediately after high schoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
he spent a year working on Krazy Kat
Krazy Kat
Krazy Kat is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George Herriman, published daily in newspapers between 1913 and 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal, whose owner, William Randolph Hearst, was a major booster for the strip throughout its run...
for Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
, then three years animating Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
and Lonesome Stranger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
as a "sketch man", before leaving to start his own comic strip. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he directed training film
Training film
A training film is a form of educational film – a short subject documentary movie, that provides an introduction to a topic. Both narrative documentary and dramatisation styles may be used, sometimes both in the same production...
s for the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
while continuing to produce Sunday Gordo cartoons.
Gordo
Although Arriola did not visit Mexico until 1961, he used the human and animal characters of his strip to introduce Mexican culture to readers throughout the world. Gordo was initially designed to be a Mexican version of Li'l AbnerLi'l Abner
Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Written and drawn by Al Capp , the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through...
, with a highly caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
d style and a lazy overweight title character who spoke in heavily accented English and took naps under a tree wearing a sombrero
Sombrero
Sombrero in English refers to a type of wide-brimmed hat originating in Mexico. In Spanish, however, it is the generic word for "hat", which originates from "sombra", meaning "shade"....
. The character reflected popular conceptions of Mexicans at the time, particularly Leo Carrillo
Leo Carrillo
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo , was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.-Family roots:...
's portrayal of the Cisco Kid's sidekick, Pancho
Pancho
Pancho is a nickname for Spanish name FranciscoIt is also used as a nickname for Francis .Likewise "Pancha" is used as a nickname for Francesca, or Francis Pancho may also refer to:...
, on television and film.
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
, Arriola realized that his was the only periodical work in American mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
that depicted life in Mexico and modified the strip to be more sympathetic. A much thinner and contemplative Gordo eventually became a flirtatious tour guide
Tour guide
A tour guide provides assistance, information and cultural, historical and contemporary heritage interpretation to people on organized tours, individual clients, educational establishments, at religious and historical sites, museums, and at venues of other significant interest...
, whom Arriola often described as an "accidental ambassador" for Mexican culture. The strip introduced America to such now-popular words and phrases as "hasta la vista," "amigo," "piñata," "compadre," "muchacho" and "hasta mañana," as well as Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
, Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
and Mexican
Culture of Mexico
Mexico has changed rapidly during the 20th century. In many ways, contemporary life in its cities has become similar to that in neighboring United States and Europe. Most Mexican villagers follow the older way of life more than the city people do. More than 45% of the people of Mexico live in...
customs, history and folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
.
Arriola did all of the writing, illustration and production of Gordo himself, creating strips every day (except in his army years) for 45 years. Charles Schulz
Charles M. Schulz
Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.-Early life and education:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul...
described it as "probably the most beautifully drawn strip in the history of the business." Arriola received the National Cartoonist Society's Humor Comic Strip Award in 1957 and 1965. Although not overtly political, Gordo was also one of the first pop culture works that regularly raised environmentalist
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
concerns.
The last Gordo strip was published on March 2, 1985.
Personal life
While working on Gordo Arriola lived in La Jolla, California, Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
and then Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Carmel-by-the-Sea, often called simply Carmel, is a small city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history...
, where he ran a shop selling Mexican arts, crafts and artifacts from 1961 to 1963.
He died in Carmel on 2 February 2008. Shortly before his death he received a lifetime achievement award from the Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
for Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
. Arriola met his wife, Mary Frances, at MGM in 1939. They remained married until his death.
On February 20, 2008, the comic strip Baldo
Baldo
Baldo is an American comic strip written by Hector Cantú and illustrated by Carlos Castellanos. It was launched in April 2000, and is widely billed as the first comic strip featuring Latino characters and themes to be marketed to a mainstream audience....
noted, "In memory of our amigo Gus Arriola, 1917-2008." The March 21, 2008, version of the comic strip La Cucaracha, by Lalo Alcaraz, was also a tribute to Arriola.
Awards
1957 and 1965 – National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
Humor Comic Strip Award.
2007 – Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
for Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Watch
External links
- NCS Awards
- Gus Arriola Interview
- Obituary in the Monterey Herald