This article examines the Chilean comic strip Condorito as an object of historical study. Created in 1949 by René Ríos Boettiger (1911–2000), better known as Pepo, his popular fictional condor is deeply rooted in the Chilean and Latin American cultural heritage. Thus, the aim of this study is threefold: to identify the meaning-making of Condorito’s Chileanness, to explore ubiquitous messages that lie behind the cultural artefact, and to introduce the appropriateness of the strip as a historical document. The article does so by focusing on urban spaces and civism, covering the first five decades of its publication while Pepo was still alive, creating multiple lives for his condor.
PLOP! The Condorito comic strip as a source for historical study
Claudia STERN
2026
Abstract
This article examines the Chilean comic strip Condorito as an object of historical study. Created in 1949 by René Ríos Boettiger (1911–2000), better known as Pepo, his popular fictional condor is deeply rooted in the Chilean and Latin American cultural heritage. Thus, the aim of this study is threefold: to identify the meaning-making of Condorito’s Chileanness, to explore ubiquitous messages that lie behind the cultural artefact, and to introduce the appropriateness of the strip as a historical document. The article does so by focusing on urban spaces and civism, covering the first five decades of its publication while Pepo was still alive, creating multiple lives for his condor.
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