Los Kitos
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Los Kitos is a comic strip. It is the brain-child of 12-year-old Martha Montoya, who began drawing in her native country, Colombia. Los Kitos is derived from the Spanish term “muñequitos" meaning little dolls or cartoons.
Los Kitos were published for the first time in La Opinion and now is in over 300 newspapers around the world. You can see them locally through their website and in Newspapers In Education, also with La Opinion. Martha and her characters are on the 1020AM Univision airwaves every day at 6AM giving "consejos" and fun topics about and for kids.
Martha derived the name "Los Kitos" from the word "Los Muñequitos," meaning "little dolls," the ending "ito" in Spanish meaning "little, cute or dear." It is this endearing quality that has made Los Kitos a popular favorite among children and parents alike. When she was a teacher she used her characters to teach chemistry; one of the hardest subjects to maintain the attention of students. She made the class fun and entertaining while teaching. The concept of Edu-Entertaining was born.
Drawn to America as a land of vast opportunity, Martha left her home at age twenty-five determined to turn her dream into a reality and held positions in various industries, all the while working on her goal.
During this artistically creative incubation period, she continued to work hard at bringing Los Kitos to life-her comic strip, which was teaching kids about virtues and the importance of culture, all wrapped up in a bilingual format. Slowly at first, the strip began to appear in newspapers in the United States and Mexico. But week by week, the popularity of the strip grew and today Los Kitos appears in daily or weekly syndication in 365 newspapers-that's more than 12 million readers worldwide-as well as daily in several others, including La Opinion.
Los Kitos’ whose message is that in today's multicultural world, tolerance, patience, respect, laughter, joy, and the building of right human relations are essential, have been used in various projects to develop campaigns for educational purposes. They have appeared with corporations edu-entertaining campaigns ranging from how to use a bank, to how to guide yourself in a hospital, to compilations of these and other subjects to guide people through what could be a confusing situation.
Some of the latest projects in which Los Kitos characters have developed a socio-economic message are various bilingual Edu-Entertaining Books including “Steps to Success for You and Your Family” for the Orange County Business Council and “Adventures In Engineering” for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Her cartoons travel Latin America during 2006 exhibiting on book fairs across the continent.
Among the many honors she has received are: the Film Advisory Board Cartoonist of the Year Award, Latin Business Association Latina Entrepreneur of the Year, Hispanic Businesswoman of the Year by California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce among many others. She was also named “One of the 100 most influential people in the U.S. Market" by several publications and organizations including Hispanic Business Magazine.
Martha’s immigration to the United Status and the lessons learned of tolerance, patience, respect, laughter, joy, are at the very core of the message in the Los Kitos cartoon strips.
Some of Los Kitos clients include: Good Humor Ice Cream, Bank of America, State Farm, White Memorial Hospital, Blue Cross of California (WellPoint) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
