RIP Gus Arriola - anyone here read Gordo?

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http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingn...nclick_check=1

'Gordo" creator Arriola dies at age 90
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 02/02/2008 01:58:12 PM PST

CARMEL, Calif.—Cartoonist Gus Arriola, whose long-running "Gordo" was one of the first syndicated comic strips to celebrate Hispanic culture, died Saturday following a lengthy illness, according to his publicist. He was 90 years old.

Arriola, who had suffered from Parkinson's disease for some time, died at home in Carmel Saturday with his wife, Mary Frances, by his side, according to publicist Alan Richman.

Arriola, who was born in Arizona but of Mexican-American descent, started drawing "Gordo" in 1941 and his strip about a bean farmer-turned-tour guide who taught Americans about life south of the border ran for 44 years in as many as 270 newspapers. He retired in 1995.

Fellow cartoonists praised Arriola's skill as an artist, which was also recognized last month by the Arts Council for Monterey. He was also praised for helping to break down anti-Mexican stereotypes and educating readers about life in a neighboring country.

"He became an accidental ambassador. I didn't intend for him to be, but the readers made him that," Arriola said of his main character during a 2002 interview with The Associated Press. "People would write and tell me that they went to Mexico because of reading about it in the strip."

Early in his career, when Arriola worked as an animator for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's, his talent with pen and ink were put to use reinforcing the popular image of Mexican banditos, and his original incarnation of Gordo featured a lazy scoundrel taking siestas under a tree.

He remade the strip after a few readers complained that his work was a disservice to fellow Hispanics.

"I was going to do a Mexican Li'l Abner," Arriola said. "I was just going to be funny, then I realized that I'm depicting a real group of people here. I was caught, and I had to go with what I had created."

Although his didn't visit Mexico himself until 1961, Arriola learned about Mexican culture from his father, who was born on a hacienda in the Mexican state of Sonora and from growing up as the youngest of nine children in Florence, Ariz., about 120 miles northwest of the border. He would later recall that he learned to speak English by reading the Sunday funny pages.

Richman said plans for a memorial service were pending.