Saturday marked the passing of 88-year-old Mexican actor, performer, and businessman Xavier López Rodriguez, who portrayed the squeaky-voiced, shorts-wearing child.
For nearly half a century, millions of Mexican families flocked around their televisions on Sunday mornings to watch Chabelo.
His En Familia con Chabelo (Family Time with Chabelo) children’s game show aired live every Sunday for 45 years and even earned the Guinness Book of World Records for its exceptional broadcast run.
This longevity spawned a large Internet fan base praising Chabelo’s seeming immortality. Even though the television series ended in 2015, jokes surrounding the figure lingered for years, inserting him into Mexican historical events, placing him at the Last Supper, and even alleging he witnessed the Big Bang.
Their sarcastic jokes, however, concealed a genuine affection. Chabelo’s records, films, and Sunday television series raised generations. According to Laura Martnez, a Mexican journalist residing in New York, “there is not a single Mexican who does not know Chabelo.”
Xavier Lopez Rodríguez was born in Chicago, Illinois to Mexican parents on February 17, 1935. Shortly thereafter, the family relocated to the central Mexican city of León, where he and his two sisters grew up. He told the magazine, Caras, in 2020, “I’ve lived in Mexico my entire life and I consider myself to be 100 percent Mexican.”
Due to his dual citizenship, he was drafted into the US army at the age of 18 during the Korean War, but the war ended before he could fight and he spent his brief duty on a military installation in California.
He later went to Mexico to study medicine and spent years working as a physician at a private clinic.
During his medical studies, he began working as an assistant at the headquarters of the Mexican television network Televisa. On one occasion, he was requested to recite a joke on air about a youngster named Chabelo after filling in for actors who were late for their shows.
“As I read it, a child’s voice emerged, and Chabelo was created,” López explained to Caras. He chose to abandon medicine and instead pursue a degree in theater. He told the magazine, “I will never forget the expression on my father’s face when I told him.”
In the 1950s, his character became one of Pepsi’s recognizable faces. Before beginning his own radio show in Mexico, La medium hora de Chabelo, Xavier Lopez Rodríguez appeared in their advertisements throughout North and South America (The Chabelo Half Hour).
But, it was his television show that really cemented him in Mexican society. Since its debut in December 1968, En Familia with Chabelo has been broadcast live each Sunday morning.
Families would compete in various challenges and games for prizes, including climbing greased-up poles, running in hamster wheels, and crossing the studio with a large water balloon between their legs. Tens of millions of children across Mexico sat in front of their televisions to converse with Chabelo.
Roberto Carrera Maldonado grew up in Zacatecas in the 1980s and would get up early every week to watch television. He stated,
“That was the highlight of Sunday morning.” My sister and I watched the television at a moderate volume so as not to disturb our parents.”
“Parents used [the TV] to keep their children calm while they attempted to nap longer,” he said. “I was quite envious of the children who were able to attend [the show]. I had long wondered how to gain access.”
In the late 1970s, Ms. Martnez was in the crowd for one of his performances. She recalls her grandmother awakening her at 6:00 a.m. to line up outside the Mexico City studio for a live broadcast.
She stated,
“I will never forgive her for that.” “I remember being incredibly let down because I thought it would be the same as what you see on television – Chabelo really near to you, with clowns and hostesses who wore miniskirts. “But, everything [in the studio] was so far away, it was dark, and the show was extraordinarily lengthy.”
At the conclusion of the presentation was a unique part titled La Catafixia. Chabelo would give contestants the option to gamble their winnings for prizes concealed behind three numbered doors.
The audience would be able to see the possibilities, which may range from inexpensive gifts like candies and toys to white and technological items, furniture, or even a car, but the contestants would have to choose blindly.
Many prize-sponsoring firms, such as the furniture manufacturer Muebles Troncoso, achieved fame as a result of the show.
This element of chance, risking what you had earned during the show for what could have been a worse prize, has subsequently become a word in Mexican Language that refers to a lottery or a dangerous wager.
“Many Mexicans use it to express this sentiment, as in, ‘I’m not going to catafixia my dreams for whatever’. They use it,” Ms. Martínez added. “I have no idea if it’s an actual term!”
As the sitcom gained popularity, so did Lopez’s cinematic career. Mr. Carrera recalls his acting in Saturday afternoon flicks battling “mummies, vampires, and lake monsters.”
“Chabelo completed a number of them, but I do not know how many. “But, I did watch quite a few of them,” he continued. “What’s strange is that he’s not Chabelo. Because I only saw Chabelo as a child. I never saw Xavier. The man constantly maintained his character. Later, I saw a few interviews and thought, “That’s strange! Why does he have a distinct voice?'”
En Familia con Chabelo aired practically every week for 47 years, with the exception of major events such as the 2009 swine flu pandemic, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the country in 2012, and López’s illness.
Later, he was recognized with two Guinness World Records, one for the longest tenure as a children’s television personality and the other for his six-decade run as Chabelo.
In the years following the show’s cancellation in 2015, a swarm of Chabelo-related memes arose every Sunday, grieving the demise of the legendary show.
Xavier Lopez Rodríguez, who occasionally performed in his later years and provided the voice of a small character in the Spanish-language version of Pixar’s Coco, was never upset by his internet success.
“I am extremely grateful to each and every person who takes the time to create a meme about me,” he said on the news program Hoy. “Maybe they believe they are disrespectful, but I consider it in no way that way… I say thank you.”
“His performance lasted so long,” Ms. Martnez remarked. My aunts and uncles were able to see him, as he was a figure in their youth. Then I was born, and he played a significant role in my childhood.
“Several decades have passed, and my brother’s kid Gael, who is maybe 17 or 18 years old, grew up watching this guy. Same program, same show, live on Sunday.
“I believe this is the reason behind the perception that he has been around forever – not so much because he is old, but because his show appeals to so many generations.”
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