From New York City: There's really no iconic "Made in the U.S.A." emblem. Sure, the words are stamped on anything and everything made in part or entirely in this country. For decades, Mexico's stenciled crates and boxes with an emblem that's the stylized profile of a screaming eagle. Before globalization Mexico's leaders had tried to replace most imports with products produced within the country. So the "Hecho en Mexico" emblem was their way to brag that it was working. The emblem's eagle resembles the one on the Mexican flag or the one drawn by the Aztecs to represent the eagle warriors, the Marines of their time.
Leaving Carnegie Deli in midtown Manhattan I glimpsed a black-blue tattoo of that same logo on the arm of a 20-something busboy. It was about the size of a passport. It was aligned on the part of the inner arm where a shield strap is held, where the strap of the tefillin wraps seven times for prayer, where the tecato tracks his pleasure.
My glimpse was as long as a camera flash of a photograph not taken and questions unasked about birthplace, identity, migration, departure, exile, cultural pride, new home, loss, assimilation, and language gained and lost. The young man was leaning on a glass that was a window to chopped liver, gefilte fish pools of pickles. Head to toe, the walls were covered with glossies of A, B and C-list celebrities.
My father in law, who'd come to this deli as a kid with his uncle, noticed all the Eastern European staff who'd worked at Carnegie were gone. The Jewish vibe made him feel at home. Now, the waiters are Asian American and the rest of the staff is East Asian or Latino. He said the food wasn't as good as he remembered. I told him it wasn't the food.
The photo on this page was taken by flickr user bunchofpants. It was used under Creative Commons license.
3 Comments
This is a great subject. A native Angeleno, I remember how I felt when I first heard Nortena on the streets again when I moved to New York City.
Anyway, a dear friend Maria Teresa Giancoli is a fine arts photographer (MFA Hunter) who's been documenting NYC's Mexican immigrant community for over a decade. She subsequently married a man from Puebla and they now run a photo research company in Queens together: http://www.crismaimaging.com/intro.html.
She might be a resource in the future.
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Carmelo says :
Que Onda Hombre "Hecho En Mexico" Check out hemcrewtj.com. While working in Tijuana helping to create La Casa del Tunel Art Center, I met some cool graf writers from a crew call Hecho En Mexico(HEM)and some perro break dance crews like "Sopitas Con Huevos","Baja Skill" and "Show Time". I really wanted to open a jazz club but these kids won my heart so I had to flow with the groove and opened El Espacio, Centro de Art Urbano AKA Espacio Tijuana@myspace.com,Oh well Be Bop ...Hip Hop,it's just a progression.
The kids in Mexico are connected to writers and B'boys & girls from all over the world. Thanks to them I got reunited with Old School LA writers and breakers(from the Radio Tron days) who came to visit. We held the first TJ-LA Break Dance Battle at an Art Exhibit named Tijuana Cruda.
Things are tuff all over now but especially in our beloved Tijaus. Hechen le ganas muchachos!!! Better days are coming.
Los vemos en La Revolucion. Como dicen Dolores and Barak ,"Si Se Puede/YES WE CAN! ". Any way, I'm back in L.A, working on WATER and YOUTH RESTORATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE.
Con Amor Y Paz, Carmelo