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'Gordo' cartoonist, Carmel resident Gus Arriola dies
The Monterey County Herald ^ | February 3, 2008 | Dennis Taylor

Posted on 02/03/2008 7:57:32 PM PST by EveningStar

Gustavo "Gus" Arriola, the celebrated Mexican-American cartoonist who created the strip known as "Gordo," died Saturday at his Carmel home after a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 90...

(Excerpt) Read more at montereyherald.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: americana; americanculture; arriola; cartoonists; comics; gordo; gusarriola; obituary
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To: The KG9 Kid
Thanks. He was a very good man.

Neighbor (the Poet, I think) visiting Gordo's house watches Trailing Arbutus fiddling with the kitchen faucets as "Yeeks" squeal through the house. He asks Tijuana Mama, "Air in the pipes?"

"No", she replies, "Lard in the shower." A dripping Gordo in a towel appears to chase Trailing Arbutus.

21 posted on 02/03/2008 8:28:58 PM PST by Thud
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To: EveningStar
I'm sure you do. lol.
I posted that in case some people don't know.
Go Ahead: Click It!
22 posted on 02/03/2008 8:29:07 PM PST by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: EveningStar

I grew up with him too.


23 posted on 02/03/2008 8:30:30 PM PST by Thud
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To: sionnsar
Very sad!

I know. This was in the era where Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans were not afraid of saying that we were one and we love each other.

24 posted on 02/03/2008 8:36:35 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: sionnsar

Not sad. A reminder to celebrate his life and the joy he shared with so many of us.


25 posted on 02/03/2008 8:45:30 PM PST by Thud
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To: Kirkwood

He was widely syndicated at the time. His cartoon is included in two large anthologies I own on the history of the newspaper cartoon.

It was a very kind cartoon, sort of straddled a few genres. Happy to hear he lived a long life.


26 posted on 02/03/2008 8:50:06 PM PST by Dan Lacey
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To: Thud
I think she was called Tehuana Mama.

It was a different kind of comic strip but often funny on its own terms. The cat was a masterpiece.

I've read that in the early years Gordo was depicted along the lines of American stereotypes of Mexicans (current when the strip began), but that changed after a while. There was a Widow Gonzalez who wanted Gordo to marry her, but she disappeared after a while. The strip just stopped abruptly with no warning. It deserved to be better known that it was.

27 posted on 02/03/2008 8:53:41 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Fiddlstix
Gordo was the name of the first primate, a spider monkey, that the US put into space.

Alas, the capsule sank, before the Navy could recovery it, taking Gordo to the bottom of the Atlantic.

28 posted on 02/03/2008 9:06:02 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: EveningStar
In the mid-1960's, Gordo was carried by The Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for Amerian servicemen and their dependents in Europe. At the time, I lived in Darmstadt, Germany, where my father was a teacher for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, and I looked forward to reading Gordo every Sunday.
29 posted on 02/03/2008 9:38:35 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: EveningStar
One of my favorites, too. Arriola could poke fun at both Anglo and Mexican culture in a way that did not offend, and the dialect was downright funny, in the same way that Li'l Abner's characters came off as humorous without degrading the hillbilly culture (any more than necessary).

I particularly remember a series of several months of strips featuring a wealthy family of Texans doing the tourist bit, getting hauled around in Halley's Comet. The wife was trying to start a "Jun-ya League" among the society set, without much luck.

The comics sure aren't what they used to be.

30 posted on 02/03/2008 9:56:40 PM PST by logician2u
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To: Kirkwood
Yes, he was. I remember reading ‘Gordo’ as a kid in the Tulsa and Washington papers.
31 posted on 02/04/2008 4:27:13 AM PST by GAB-1955 (Kicking and Screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven!)
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To: EveningStar

I read Gordo for many years and liked it a lot. I didn’t know why he ended it until now. Sad.


32 posted on 02/04/2008 9:44:16 AM PST by John Jorsett (scam never sleeps)
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