✖ FRANKO ROSAS

ICON 𐄂 CONCEPT 𐄂 MEXICAN

This is a project and research I have been doing for quite some years. It’s not a coincidence that I publish this now. Have to thank @yimbo8 for giving life to the first prototype of the “Mexican Icon 1.0” . We are not resting, we are alway vigilant.

So, let’s get something straight, most Mexicans I know are some of the hardest-working MF’s on the planet. (Look it up). The whole “sleeping Mexican” thing? It’s a tired stereotype, cooked up and revived by the USA media and then exported across the world.
I can’t count how many times I’ve told someone I’m Mexican, only to hear: “Oh, you must love siestas!” Like, WTF? Most of the Mexicans that I know don’t have the privilege to take siestas, and if they do, it’s probably because they have a time to rest from grinding and hustling all day.

But this is how the “sleeping mexican” icon began. Back in pre-revolutionary Mexico, workers would labor from sunrise and take breaks in the scorching day heat, real, backbreaking work. Some foreigner photographs from that era snap photos of people resting in a sombrero under the sun, and long story-short a stereotype is born. That image got twisted, repackaged, and slapped on souvenirs at the border towns between Mexico and the USa. Suddenly, that’s how we’re seen.
Guess what? Yeah, we might rest, but we wake up ready. Ready to shoot our creativity, hustle, and fight. We are resilient, resourceful, and damn creative!
More on this subject soon…. This is my thesis on Mexicans that are silent and make Mexico great, this creative people that enjoy life, and are creative most of the time by necessity.

#MexicanIcon #ToyDesign #DesignerToys #StickerDesign #HechoEnMexico #RedefineMexican #BreakTheStereotype #NotYourStereotype #WeWakeUpReady #VisualStorytelling #CreativeThesis #ResearchBasedArt #MeaningfulDesign #SleepingMexicanMyth #CulturalNarrative #MadeInMexico