Carlos Villagrán “Kiko” sought the office of governor of Querétaro in 2021 for the Querétaro Independiente party (Photo: EL UNIVERSAL Agency)
The video, which shows Carlos Villagrán stumbling on the steps to the stage at a show, sparked criticism from those who question whether the actor is still alive at 80 presents itself with the figure “Kiko”. Although the incident did not escalate.
The actor directs the show “El circo de Kiko”, in which he sings and does sketches. In 2023, he had an international tour in countries such as Peru, Panama, Colombia and the United States. where there is an audience that grew up with El Chavo del Ocho and appreciates the characters of the show.
But there is also a part of the audience that questions Villagrán for continuing to play a role that has not been seen on television since the 80s alone and since the 70s together with Roberto Gómez Bolaños: “A genius, but he never got rid of that character.”
There are those who accuse him of exploiting an image concept that is not his authorship: “He took advantage of something he didn’t create. Without Kiko he could never be anything.” Just as he has fans, the actor also has critics who question his acting quality, because since 1973 he has played the boy disguised as a sailor, the son of Doña Florinda.
In an interview during his lifetime, the late Rubén Aguirre stated that he felt sorry for Carlos Villagrán because he was never able to overcome the success of El Chavo del Ocho and was trapped in a childish imitation that he squeezed into old age. He regretted that his former partner did not dare to explore other types of projects and characters.
Unlike actors like Edgar Vivar, who knew how to reinvent himself as an actor in films, soap operas and comedy shows, Carlos Villagrán limited all his possibilities to the role that offered him in the company of Gómez Bolaños, Florinda Meza and María Antonieta de las Nieves, Ramón Valdés, Edgar Vivar and Rubén Aguirre.
It was in 1988 that he stopped appearing on Mexican television after its release Oh what a Kiko! In Performance, a white comedy program with the outstanding participation of Ramón Valdés, an actor who died on August 9 of the same year and whose death led to the content no longer being broadcast.
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He has not appeared on the national screen since. Villagrán focused solely on exploiting Kiko's character to the maximum. Name he registered in this way because Gómez Bolaños was the owner of the name “Quico”. To avoid legal trouble, he also changed the way he dressed and the colors of his clothing, aiming to remain visible to people like the infant who shouts “mob, mob!”
“He believed that he could be successful on his own because he was already successful in a group, but he suffered a setback in life because he ran many programs that failed.” “He didn't know that he owed his success to Roberto Gómez Bolaños,” explained Rubén Aguirre about the solo career that Villagrán embarked on with private shows like Kiko, after his failure on television following his exit from El Chavo del Ocho in 1978.
Villagrán appeared on television again from 2001 to 2005 with his participation in the Venezuelan game show The War of the Sexes. He did so by revealing himself to be the son of Doña Florinda. The only time he did anything else was in 2017 when he joined the cast of the film Como se Tornar or Pior aluno da Escola, a Brazilian comedy directed by Fabricio Bittar. There he plays a strict headmaster.
In 2021, he made headlines for registering for the Querétaro Independiente (QI) party as a pre-candidate for governor of Querétaro. After the alliance between QI and the National Action Party (PAN), he gave up the search for this popularly elected position and the actor was not considered as a candidate: “The decision was made after receiving positive and negative comments on my application “I saw that allowed me to understand that it was not my path.”
Now, thanks to a viral stumble and the comments generated, she's back in the spotlight to prove her validity with a figure she hasn't been able to shake since she rose to prominence in 1973. While María Antonieta de las Nieves had attempts to differentiate herself from La Chilindrina with soap operas (Dame Chocolate, Sueños y Caramels), Carlos Villagrán didn't want to look beyond Kiko.
