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Mexican Rótulos: An Endangered Species?
July 25, 2023 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
with Romina Hernández
This Letterform Lecture invites you come along for a signage journey across central Mexico City.
About a year ago, Sandra Cuevas, the mayor of the Cuauhtémoc district in central Mexico City, decided to remove hundreds of hand-painted signs from food stalls, carts, newsstands, and street vendors. Even tamaleras with only a table and a pot had to paint everything plain white and stencil the municipality’s logo in blue.
Overnight, what millions of other chilangos walking across the busy city streets always thought was a given, a part of their everyday background, was gone. Why were these Rótulos removed while the ones on buildings remained? Why, after a year in an ever-evolving city with bustling street commerce, are they not back? And why are so many people sad about it?
Join Romina Hernández for a journey through a collection of amazing and overlooked Rótulos from México City and beyond. Explore why some folks chose to put paint on their walls instead of vinyl and how sign painting in México can be both an endangered craft and a relevant everyday activity.
Letterform Lectures are a public aspect of the Type West postgraduate program. The series is co-presented by the San Francisco Public Library, where events are free and open to all.
