El Chompiras - Final Years

Final Years

As the years passed, Chimoltrufia became more and more prominent until she was as much of the focus of the sketch as Chompiras, possibly more. (To call it a "sketch" is not really fair at this point; by 1992, almost all "Chespirito" episodes were hour-long Chompiras "sketches".) A few changes came at that time. First, Angelines Fernández stopped appearing (presumably due to her declining health and subsequent death in 1994 from lung cancer) and was gradually placed by Chimoltrufia's mother Espotaverderona (Anabel Gutierréz), who looked like a plump, middle-aged version of Chimoltrufia. Also, one hotel guest began appearing regularly; her name was Maruja (María Antonieta de las Nieves) and she attracted the attention of a lot of men, especially Sgt. Refugio. Then, Don Lucho closed his hotel, and the trio had to look for other jobs. For several episodes they tried other lines of work but in 1993 a new hotel opened, run by Don Cecilio (Moisés Suárez) and they got their old jobs back. Cecilio's hotel, Hotel Buenavista, was nicer than Don Lucho's, but the routine was just the same and some of the storylines from the early Lucho episodes were recycled. In 1994 and 1995, "Chespirito" started returning to its old format of presenting several different sketches during the show, but most featured a long "Chompiras" sketch. In 1995, Chespirito decided to bring the whole thing to a close and stopped producing episodes.

For a short time, Edgar Vivar left the show due to health problems stemming from his weight. To explain Vivar's absence, it was written into the show that Botija was away at a weight-loss clinic, which was also the actor's real-life health situation. Vivar would return some time later, having lost a noticeable amount of weight.