Biting Mexican comic, satirist Héctor Suárez dies at 81

Mexican comic Héctor Suárez, whose decades-long career celebrated the common man and satirized the rich, corrupt and arrogant, has died at 81.

His son Héctor Suárez Gomís posted a statement Tuesday confirming his father’s death, though he did not specify the cause.

Mexico’s Culture Department posted a statement mourning Suárez, calling him a “pioneer.”

Suárez started delivering biting social commentary on poverty, corruption and decaying values in the 1970s and 80s, before it was popular or easy to do so under Mexico’s authoritarian governments.

He played a desperate, ragged proletarian in the 1983 movie “El mil usos” and lampooned officials and shopkeepers in the TV program “¿Qué nos pasa?” or “What’s happening to us?”

Unafraid to swear, he had a rough, scratchy voice that often portrayed the harder side of life for Mexico’s poor, but he could perfectly modulate his words to imitate the vacuous pronouncements of politicians.

Born Oct. 21, 1938, in Mexico City, Suárez had a career as a director and actor on screen and in the theater. He is survived by his wife and four children.