Mexican kid’s comic Xavier López, ‘Chabelo,’ dies at 88

Advertisement

Advertise with us

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Xavier López, a Mexican children’s comic better known by his stage name “Chabelo,” has died at 88, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote Saturday.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/03/2023 (1283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Xavier López, a Mexican children’s comic better known by his stage name “Chabelo,” has died at 88, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote Saturday.

López’s best-known work, the Sunday variety show “En Familia con Chabelo”, ran for an astonishing 48 years from 1967 to 2015, Mexico’s longest-running TV show.

The Mexican president wrote in his Twitter account that his own eldest son, José Ramón, “woke up early to see him (on television) more than 40 years ago.”

Francisco Javier Lopez Miranda, son of Xavier
Francisco Javier Lopez Miranda, son of Xavier "Chabelo" Lopez, confirms the death of his father, during a press conference in Mexico City, Saturday, March 25, 2023. Lopez, a Mexican children’s comic better known by his stage name “Chabelo,” died Saturday morning. He was 88. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

López, who was no relation to the president, usually performed dressed in kid’s clothing well into his 80s. He helped found a genre of adult comics dressed as kids that became a staple for decades on Mexican television.

His longevity — he performed in a child’s raspy squeak throughout his career — led to joking speculation he would outlive everyone else in show business.

López’s agent, Jessica Nevilley, said he died Saturday morning. A private funeral will be held for him later Saturday.

A U.S. citizen — he was born in Chicago to Mexican parents — López returned to Mexico with his family at a young age and trained as a doctor. But he found his calling in acting.

The comic’s family wrote on his fan page that López “died suddenly of abdominal complications.”

He was survived by several children and his wife.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30, 2026

Free Press staff 4 minute read Preview

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30, 2026

Free Press staff 4 minute read 10:38 AM CDT

The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, or Orange Shirt Day, as it's known in Manitoba, happens Sept. 30 with many commemorative community events scheduled.

Read
10:38 AM CDT

Special teams woes hurt Bombers in loss to Argos

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

Special teams woes hurt Bombers in loss to Argos

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Yesterday at 8:06 PM CDT

THEY’VE been the most consistent of the three phases in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers arsenal this season.

A port in the proverbial storm, throughout this topsy-turvy campaign of ups-and-downs, the special-teams units have been supplying strength to a group that is still searching for consistency with only four games left in the regular season.

That’s what made this momentary lapse so costly in a 30-28 loss to the Toronto Argonauts on Friday at Princess Auto Stadium.

“We didn’t keep up our end of the bargain. And that hurts our football team, hurts our chances of winning games,” said Blue Bombers special teams ace Tanner Cadwallader. “And if we want to win close games. we’ve got to be a whole lot better than that. And we will. We’re going to come in (on Saturday for the film session) and go through it with a fine-tooth comb and just work a little bit harder.”

Read
Yesterday at 8:06 PM CDT

Bison kicker Turner named captain, shows she belongs

Joshua Frey-Sam 8 minute read Preview

Bison kicker Turner named captain, shows she belongs

Joshua Frey-Sam 8 minute read Yesterday at 11:17 PM CDT

Even on nights like this, Maya Turner can appreciate how far she’s come.

Though it feels like yesterday that the Manitoba Bisons kicker arrived on the scene with an unheralded right leg and a point to prove, these days the fifth-year student-athlete is lining up to split the uprights with a veteran boot and the added responsibility of being a team captain.

Getting to this point wasn’t easy, though.

It’s now four years ago that Turner ditched her NCAA Division 1 soccer career at Loyola University in Chicago to kick a different ball on the gridiron and signed with the Bisons, who were one of more than one hundred programs across North America that she sent tape to in hopes of realizing a new dream.

Read
Yesterday at 11:17 PM CDT

Positive anticipation is growing about major housing developments underway in Winnipeg’s downtown

Gabrielle Piché 10 minute read Preview

Positive anticipation is growing about major housing developments underway in Winnipeg’s downtown

Gabrielle Piché 10 minute read Friday, Sep. 25, 2026

If traffic is light and the wind is down, Somia Sadiq is able to hear the roar of Winnipeg Jets fans twice: first through her window, then on TV.

From her apartment view high above downtown, she can look out at Graham Avenue’s painted pedestrian landscape, see construction cranes and hear the heavy equipment at work as massive housing projects take shape at The Forks, at what used to be Portage Place shopping centre and at the former Hudson’s Bay building.

Sadiq has lived at 300 Main for 2 1/2 years, a few steps from the city’s famous, windy and reopened-to-pedestrians Portage Avenue intersection. At 42 storeys, it’s the tallest building in Winnipeg.

She is among 18,000 downtown residents who will soon be joined by thousands of others attracted to the city’s core by the new wave of major construction projects.

Read
Friday, Sep. 25, 2026

Local Muslims, Indigenous people hold interfaith event

Malak Abas 3 minute read Preview

Local Muslims, Indigenous people hold interfaith event

Malak Abas 3 minute read 6:42 PM CDT

Bannock with wild rice and samosas with halal beef stew were served in equal measure as Indigenous and Muslim Winnipeggers sought common ground at an interfaith event discussing truth and reconciliation Sunday.

The Islamic Social Services Association’s second annual Muslim-Indigenous Solidarity event recognized Orange Shirt Day through conversations with elders, shared prayers and crafting.

Organizer Shahina Siddiqui said many of the people attending the gathering, held at Canadian Mennonite University, share the traumatic impacts of colonialism.

Siddiqui said she herself had attended a Catholic day school in her home country of Pakistan, where she and other students were forced to speak English, and were hurt if they didn’t. Many Muslim-majority countries, she said, have been harmed by colonialism.

Read
6:42 PM CDT

Puzzles Palace

1 minute read Monday, Jul. 27, 2026

To solve our puzzles, please subscribe with this special offer: |