The actor Xavier López “Chabelo”, one of the best-known faces in the history of cinema and television in Mexico, died at the age of 88, his family reported this Saturday.
“This is a very sad morning, Xavier López ‘Chabelo’, father, brother and husband has left us suddenly, due to abdominal complications,” his family wrote on his Twitter account.
“We ask you to pray for his rest and give us the opportunity to spend in peace the mourning that overwhelms our entire family,” he added.
Of Mexican parents, the actor was born on February 17, 1935 in Chicago, United States, and spent his entire career in Mexico.
His character “Chabelo” represented a mischievous boy dressed in shorts and tennis shoes who used different words that ended up being incorporated into the Mexican lexicon such as “cuate” to refer to a friend or “cataphyxia” to talk about exchanging one object for another.
When representing that character, López made a characteristic child’s voice that contrasted with his real voice, with a much deeper tone.
“Chabelo” was an important presence in the so-called golden age of Mexican cinema, where he shared the screen with actors of the stature of Mario Moreno “Cantinflas” and Mauricio Garcés.
However, his name became famous throughout Mexico for the program “En familia con Chabelo”, which Televisa, the largest television network in the Spanish-speaking world, broadcast on Sundays from 1967 to 2015.
It was a family program in which the actor presented contests and songs and lasted several hours.
The broadcast time of that program earned “Chabelo” a Guinness record.
The actor also participated in other broadcasts, such as “La carabina de Ambrosio”, a comedy program that was broadcast in several Latin American countries and where he shared credits with other important Mexican television figures of the moment, such as Alejandro Suárez or Paco Stanley.
“Chabelo” also recorded several albums using the voice of his character and his image was used on toys and shoes.
After the news of the death, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, expressed his condolences.
«I hug family and friends for the death of Xavier López ‘Chabelo’. How can I forget that my eldest son woke up early to see him over 40 years ago,” he wrote on Twitter.
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© Agence France-Presse