"Los Caquitos: Ұсақ ұрылар мен олардың хикаясы"

Los Caquitos is a sketch comedy of the Chespirito television comedy program that ran from 1980 to 1995. It was created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, who also played one of the title characters, "El Chómpiras".

Originally, Chómpiras was a pickpocket and cat burglar who worked with an associate named Peterete (Ramón Valdés). Their skills in thievery were marginal, but Peterete was ostensibly the more intelligent and skilled of the pair. Together, they were known as Los Caquitos (which is roughly translated as "The Little Thieves", "caquito" being a diminutive of "caco" which is Spanish for "thief" or "hoodlum") and appeared on Chespirito's comedy programs in the 1970s, usually preceding an episode of El Chavo del Ocho or El Chapulín Colorado that did not last the full half hour. By 1973, El Chavo episodes were all a half hour long and did not need the filler sketches, and shorter Chapulín episodes ceased to use Caquitos sketches, so the characters virtually disappeared.

In 1980, a new show premiered called Chespirito, which was an hour long and employed all of Chespirito's characters in sketches of varying lengths. On Chespirito, El Chómpiras and Los Caquitos were revived. However, Ramón Valdés had left Chespirito's troupe in 1979, so Peterete was forgotten and replaced with Botija (Édgar Vivar). Since most of the Caquitos sketches performed on the new show were simply remakes of the ones that had appeared years before on the older ones, Botija's character was extremely similar to Peterete's, except physically, since Botija was extremely fat, and Peterete was extremely thin.

The characters weren't very fleshed out (no pun intended) originally, but as Chespirito began writing new sketches for the hour long show, some of which lasted the entire hour, their backstories became more expanded. Botija was single at first, but got married very quickly to a woman called Chimoltrufia (Florinda Meza) who had moplike hair, a chipped tooth and constantly chewed a piece of gum. She was soon established as the conscience of the sketches; often she would earn money doing a respectable job, usually cleaning or babysitting. Many episodes didn't have to do with Chómpiras's and Botija's incompetent burgling, but instead focused on life in Chimoltrufia and Botija's tiny apartment. A neighbor named Doña Nachita (Angelines Fernández) started appearing frequently and eventually became a regular. Policemen were a regular feature in Caquitos sketches, but by the mid 1980s, Rubén Aguirre became the sketch's definitive policeman, the dimwitted Sgt. Refugio. Around this time, there were many sketches that took place at the police station as the characters tried to argue their innocence after being arrested; presiding over these cases was the police chief played by Raúl Padilla, who was eventually named Licenciado Morales. By the late 1980s, Chespirito started shifting away from Chavo and Chapulín sketches, as Chespirito and the others were getting older and less believable in those roles. The focus went to Los Caquitos, prompting a major change. Inspired by an episode of El Chavo, in which Chavo is wrongly accused of stealing, Botija and Chómpiras vow to never steal again and get honest jobs. They and Chimoltrufia eventually settle into jobs at the inexpensive Hotel Lucho, run by Don Lucho (Carlos Pouliot). Chimoltrufia was a chambermaid and always did her job to the best of her ability, but Botija and Chómpiras tried to get by doing as little work as possible.

As the years passed, Chimoltrufia became more and more prominent until she was as much of the focus of the sketch as Chómpiras, possibly more. (To call it a "sketch" is not really fair at this point; by 1992, almost all Chespirito episodes were hour long Chómpiras "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 replaced by Chimoltrufia's mother Espotaverderona (Anabel Gutiérrez), 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 Chómpiras sketch. In 1995, Chespirito decided to bring the whole thing to a close and stopped producing episodes. For a short time, Édgar 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.

El Chómpiras (1970 1995) (Roberto Gómez Bolaños) is the title character. Previously he was an "amateur" thief as he recalls, along with Peterete and later Botija. Both he and el Botija stopped being thieves after viewing an episode of El Chavo del Ocho where el Chavo was falsely accused of being a thief and ran away. The episode so touched their conscience that they gave up their criminal lives to become honorable men. Chómpiras' full name is Aquíles Esquivel Madrazo, and was only mentioned once in passing. While more dim witted than Botija, Chompiras proved himself to be somewhat more responsible than him, as he constantly works during their days off, while the lazy Botija only rests during those days. Additionally, Chompiras is implied to be somewhat worried about his economic status, evidently due to the low salary he gets from his work, due to him always working only if somebody gives him a tip, working during his days off, and even doing another job while working at the Hotel Lucho/Buenavista, the latter which irritates the hotel's administrator. In interviews, Bolaños said that out of all of his characters, he enjoyed playing el Chómpiras the most. El Peterete (1970 1978) (Ramón Valdés): El Chómpiras' original partner in crime. After Vivar's Botija character took his place, no mention was made of what happened to El Peterete. It is believed that this was due to Valdés no longer being involved with the Chespirito program, whether due to failing health or his decision to appear on Ah, Qué Kiko! with Carlos Villagrán. However, Chompiras' bio in the Chespirito website states that El Peterete left Chompiras for the latter's stupidity, and went to another city. Gordon Botija (also known as El Botija) (1979 1995) (Édgar Vivar) is the second regular from 1979 to 1995. He is "large", and was also a thief along with Chómpiras. According to Chompiras' bio in the Chespirito website, Botija met Chompiras shortly after the latter was abandoned by El Peterete. Botija married Chimoltrufia, and later worked in the Hotel Buenavista. Over the length of Vivar's tenure as Botija, the character's last name has changed. In one of the earliest sketches, he claimed that his first name was "Boti" and his last name was "Ja". In other sketches, he claims his full name is "Gordon Botija y Aguado", and in others, "Gordon Botija Pompa y Pompa", both names being puns on Vivar's rotund figure. In Botija's bio in the Chespirito website, it was explained that his full name is "Gordon Botija Aguado Pompa y Pompa". The character also claims that his father was English, and that he was also a fan of Flash Gordon, hence his first name of "Gordon". In spite of constantly mistreating Chompiras, he admitted to love him like a brother when he assumed him to be in critical condition in "El Chompiras es mordido por Dracula" (1994). Following Vivar's gastric bypass surgery, he retired the character of Botija. La Chimoltrufia (1980 1995) (Florinda Meza), born María Expropiación Petronila Lascuráin y Torquemada de Botija, The series centers on Chimoltrufia as she answers a series of interviews while in her new work. During the earliest shorts, the fate of several characters from Los Caquitos were revealed, with Chompiras, Botija Doña Nachita, Licenciado Morales, and Sargento Refugio having passed away (reflecting how, aside from Botija actor Edgar Vivar, each of those characters' actors have passed away), while Chimoltrufia and Maruja ended up strained, and Don Cecilio had to close his hotel.