Uruguayan puppeteer. Graduating in 1948, Gustavo Sosa Zerpa, known as Policho, began his long career in puppetry while a high school student in the 1940s. In 1954, he created with his father (the renowned educator Jesualdo Sosa) a puppet company called Títeres de Potichin (Potichin’s Puppets).

He was arrested in 1976 by the military dictatorship and imprisoned for seven years. When he was released, he devoted his efforts to the organization of Uruguayan puppeteers, which evolved into the creation, in 1986, of the Asociación de Titiriteros de Uruguay (ATU, Association of Uruguayan Puppeteers), an institution he led for two years.

Policho played an important role in the development and diffusion of puppetry in the country as part of the “Misiones Socio-Pedagógicas” (Socio-Pedagogical Missions) undertaken by the country in the postwar period to reduce the social, educational and cultural divide between rural and urban Uruguay.

Since 1951, he has resided in Piriápolis, regularly touring with his puppets around the country. Among his most memorable plays is Farsas en papel y trapo (Farces in Paper and Cloth, 1958), created in collaboration with Héctor Balsas.

(See Uruguay.)