Ángel García Mesa, better known as Antolín El Pichón, is a renowned Cuban comedian born in 1953 in Manacas, Villa Clara, Cuba.
He began his career at the Cubanacán cabaret in Santa Clara. By day, he was a welder and tractor driver, but at night he transformed into a comedian. This duality allowed the artist within him to emerge. With the help of Chaflán and through an audition, he launched his artistic career with a comedy group that enlivened the nights of Santa Clara, "Los Píos."
Little by little, he began to gain recognition in the music scene and grew closer to various institutions. This led him to become a member of the Provincial Music Center in Santa Clara, opening doors to the city's nightclubs. In 1991, Santa Clara felt too small, and Antolín, along with "Los Píos", set their sights on Havana in search of the big city.
The great city separates Ángel García from Los Píos and Alberto Luberta, another renowned comedian whom we all remember for his humorous scripts on the afternoons of Radio Progreso. He brings to life the character we all know as Antolín el pichón. He begins his adventure in the capital and gradually makes his way to the most popular medium in Cuba, television. There, he shares the stage with many great Cuban comedians, and Antolín becomes intertwined with La Pía, and La Pía with Antolín. Many Cubans will remember the nights of laughter from the show "Sabadazo", where Carlos Otero, Boncó Quiñongo, Geonel Martín, and Antolín, among others, formed a cast that brought together many talented comedians on a television set.
He has also participated in Palmas y Cañas and in the program No quiero llanto, where he stayed for several years with a humorous segment titled La Voz Quimbombó, featuring Antolín and other comedians such as El habanero, Pantera, Mariconchi, and Rikimbili.
In 2012, he fulfilled his dream of meeting the Cuban comedian Guillermo Álvarez Guedes in person, who told him at that meeting: "You are the purest of Cuban humor that has come in the last sixty years." "I just want you to remember that anyone who casts a shadow on you will leave."
On several occasions, Antolín visited Miami and took part in comedy programs where he reunited with professional colleagues such as Carlos Otero, Geonel Martín, and Boncó Quiñongo. In 2016, El guajiro de Manacas became a regular on the entertainment show TN3, hosted by Carlos Otero and Venezuelan Mónica Pasqualotto on the Miami network América Tevé. During his debut as an actor in Miami, he portrayed a character with Mexican undertones.
In 2017, Antolín stopped appearing on Cuban television programs. Years later, Ángel García explained in an interview on the show Esto no tiene nombre in Miami that, according to a survey conducted, he had been informed that he was not well-liked in Cuba and that all the programs in which he appeared were considered to have very poor taste.
In November 2020, the comedian lost his son Dayán García, who passed away in Cuba due to digestive sepsis.
Antolín resides in Miami with his partner, the Cuban Misleydi Armas Garcés.
