MEXICO CITY — Characters from the Chilean puppet show "31 Minutos" performed a free concert in Mexico City's Zócalo on April 30, 2026. The event, held to celebrate Children's Day, drew more than 230,000 spectators.
Journalists Álvaro Díaz González and Pedro Peirano created the series, which is a Chilean puppet television show. The program was developed during Chile's transition away from Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. The show's title parodies 60 Minutos, a Chilean news program that was used for propaganda during the 1970s and 1980s.
Díaz González and Peirano secured government funding to launch the show in 2003. Mexican public television began broadcasting the program in 2005. Musicians from the Chilean rock group Chancho en Piedra composed the show's soundtrack.
At the concert, performers led the audience in singing a song titled La Desgracia Ajena. One of the puppet characters, Tulio Triviño, who is designed as a suit-clad sock monkey, responded to a question about his presence in Mexico by stating, "I have absolutely no idea."
Adriana Solis, a filmmaker and professor specializing in children's media, said, "Even though it's Chilean, it connects with Mexico." Juanín Juan Harry is another puppet character, characterized by voluminous white fur and an orange headset. In the song "I Never Watched Television," a puppet chorus said, "One day, the television exploded. And I discovered a very complex world of imagination out there."
Children's Day is an observance focused on children's rights, well-being, and development. Mexico's education ministry had announced and later withdrew a plan to cancel one month of school in connection with the World Cup.