Cantinflas is sometimes seen as a Mexican Groucho Marx character, one who uses his skill with words to puncture the pretensions of the wealthy and powerful, the police and the government. Historian and author of Cantinflas and the Chaos of Mexican Modernity, writes, "Cantinflas symbolized the underdog who triumphed through trickery over more powerful opponents" and presents Cantinflas as a self image of a transitional Mexico.
To understand Cantinflas is to understand Mexico.
He earned wide popularity with his stage and film persona Cantinflas, usually portrayed as an impoverished campesino slumdweller of pelado origin. The character came to be associated with the national identity of Mexico, and allowed Moreno to establish a long, successful film career that included a foray into Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin once called him "the greatest comedian in the world", and Moreno is often referred to as the "Charlie Chaplin of Mexico"
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