Cantinflas

Signature in black fountain pen on single album page.

Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes (1911-1993) was a Mexican comedian and stage and film actor, known professionally as Cantinflas. He often portrayed impoverished campesinos or a peasant of pelado origin. The character came to be associated with the national identity of Mexico, and allowed Cantinflas to establish a long, successful film career that included a foray into Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin once commented that he was the best comedian alive, and Moreno has even been referred to as the “Charlie Chaplin of Mexico.” To audiences in the United States, he is best remembered as costarring with David Niven in Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

As a pioneer of the cinema of Mexico, Moreno helped usher in its golden era. In addition to being a business leader, he also became involved in Mexico’s tangled and often dangerous labor politics. Although he was himself politically conservative, his reputation as a spokesperson for the downtrodden gave his actions authenticity and became important in the early struggle against charrismo, the one-party government’s practice of co-opting and controlling unions.

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