Hecho En

This project began with a free sombrero. I picked up this sombrero at a restaurant where I was working at. It was a free giveaway from a beer rep for Cinco de Mayo. It
felt ironic on many levels. The first was that I was working at a restaurant that was trying to be authentically Mexican. The second was that this restaurant prided itself
on being fair to its workers. It wasn’t the kind of establishment that would pawn free logoed sombreros to its patrons. We were instructed to throw the sombreros away,
but it felt wrong to me. I kept looking at them and thinking how beautiful the lines were, and the effort and time put into making them. That’s not even considering that
the people who made it were most definitely paid almost nothing, in environments the US would never allow, for a holiday that was meant to commemorate them.
In no way am I meaning to appropriate this headpiece. Even though I am Hispanic, I am not of this culture nor am I trying to claim a grasp of their struggles. I simply
wanted to see something that was being disregarded and respect it for its effort. I know the world I’m in and I’m trying to make the most of it.