Zorrino
Surname: Unknown
First name: Zorrino
Occupations: Young orange seller / guide
First name: Zorrino
Occupations: Young orange seller / guide
There aren't many of them. Children and young teenagers in The Adventures of Tintin can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Chang, Abdullah and Zorrino form the star trio.
Zorrino, a ‘little fox’ with a generous heart.
The young boy is despised by the descendants of the Spanish colonists because he is a Quechua Indian, the term used to describe the civilisation that founded the kingdom of Cuzco around the 12th century, before becoming part of the Inca dynasty in the 13th century.
What inspired the introduction of Zorrino, the little boy whose name means ‘little fox’ in Spanish, or evokes the very supple, silky fur of the zorilla? Undoubtedly from the need to find a character who could act as a bridge between two civilisations, one contemporary and the other, miraculously preserved, from the Incas.
Authentic Indian!
Zorrino is an authentic Indian. Hergé dressed him as such, choosing a typically Peruvian wardrobe. Zorrino wears a ‘chullo’, the famous Peruvian bonnet from the high plateaux of the Andes, when he first appears. Made from alpaca wool, the “chullo” is an inseparable part of Peruvian culture. When it comes to guiding Tintin through the Cordillera, Zorrino will be wearing a magnificent poncho, which has been used for thousands of years as a survival suit.
