In August 1949, René Ríos "Pepo" created the comic character known as Condorito.  For over fifty years, the comic was produced continuously, first individually by Pepo and later with an entire team of artists.  From a single character of Condorito, there is now an extended cast including his girl friend Yayita, his rival Pepe Cortisona, the dog Washington, his neighbor Coné, and others.

In 1983, Condorito was acquired by the publishing giant Editorial Televisa.  This development enabled Condorito to reach the rest of the Americas.  Today, it is just as easy for someone to purchase a copy of Condorito in Santiago as in Grand Central Station, New York City, USA.  Actually, there is not one single edition of Condorito; rather, in the countries in which Condorito has large circulation, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, there are specialist teams who adapt the jokes into the local idiom and social reality.  For example, the Argentine edition contains approximately 50% Chilean content with the other 50% being produced in Argentina.

While Condorito has been propagated for over fifty years in print form, it is not certain what it will do in the Internet age.  In 1998, when Microsoft launched its new Windows 98 operating system and Internet Explorer Browser 4.0, Condorito was the figure that was chosen in the Latin American editions.  Of course, while this prestigious presence generated royalty revenues, it does not mean that Condorito has consolidated an Internet presence.  There is a website (www.condorito.cl), which appears to be minimal, and it is unclear as to how this can be made into an attractive website to visit.

According to the Pan-Latin American Kids Study, 21% of Spanish-speaking Latin American children between the ages of 7 and 11 years old have read Condorito.  The frequency and recency characteristics of these readers are shown in the next table.  These readership chracteristics suggest that there is a small core group of readers who read Condorito regularly.

In the next table, we show the geo-demographic characteristics of these Condorito readers.

We make these observations:

• The condor is a vulture found in the Andean mountains in South America.  Condorito is certainly quite popular in the home country of Chile, but it is also popular in other Andean countries such as Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. 
• In terms of gender, Condorito has more male readers than females.
• In terms of age, Condorito readership is an increasing function of age.  Strictly speaking, Condorito is not a comic made for children in the manner of the Disney titles.  The stories are about typically about adult situations, in which one of the characters gives an inappropriate response which causes the other character to keel over with the famous PLOP!
• In terms of socio-economic level, the Condorito readers are more likely to be middle-class.  There is certainly nothing fashionable or elitist about Condorito, which is a series that has stuck to a tried-and-true formula for over fifty years and catered squarely at middle-of-the-road values.

WWW LINKS

• Condorito (Televicio webzine)
• Condorito, Latin America's favorite "Bird Brain" has come to America!
• Condorito.cl
• Condorito chilensis será la cara latinoamericana de Windows 98
• Condorito (Chile Hoy)
• Condorito Cumple 50 Años de Vida
• Condorito, una historieta con historia
• Habla argentino que acusó a Condorito de ridiculizar a San Martín
• Polémica causa Condorito en Argentina

(posted by Roland Soong on 11/19/00)

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