| | |  Vallarta Living | Art Talk 
Art-Naco: Super Hip Mexicans Get Back to Basics
 Erik Geddes - The Full Montezuma
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June 22, 2010
A new style of Latin-cool is emerging in Coyoacán, a district five miles south of the centre of Mexico City.
‘Naco’, a term which was once used as an insult for lower-class and uneducated Mexicans, is now being reclaimed and celebrated in a post-modern movement.
Art-Naco has an underground vibe with artistic student followers but also has cash-backers, including Hollywood star Diego Luna.
Diego Luna, of the critically acclaimed cult classic Y Tu Mamá También, is loved locally for his support. He is a silent partner all-be-it something of rarity in the La Bipo, the bar which is symbolic of the Naco-revival.
Diego Luna has four other business partners including Diego Ruiz Sabio, a self-admitted workaholic who can be found most evenings at La Bipo.
The Real Diego – as his friends call him – was born and bred Coyoacán has business interests in a number of bars in the area.
He says there is no secret in the Naco format of the bar which is ingeniously decked out with interior walls made of recycled plastic crates, old butcher board table-tops and corrugated iron toilets.
The bar serves excellent traditional Mexican cuisine complimented by a cocktail menu with a strong emphasis on Mescal, fresh limes and chilli.
He said: “It’s real life: the style is typical of everywhere in Mexico. It’s cheap and easy and it’s for the common people.”
“This place,” he says – pointing at the washing line across the terrace that is used to promote La Bipo merchandise as well as to dry wet dish towels – “it reflects what is the reality in the streets and houses in Mexcio City.”
There is a huge social divide in Mexico City; the haves and have-nots are easily identified and the emergence of a middle class has not been as prominent as in most European cities.
While Coyoacán is one of the wealthiest areas in the city it also has a rich cultural pedigree.
Coyoacán is most famous for once being the home of artisans Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo along with exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in the 1920s and 30s.
Diego, a 34-year-old Brad Pitt look-a-like, isn’t overly-precious about his bars many of which he is the idea-architect behind.
He said: “Sure, the people in this area are rich, they tend to think Art-Naco it is funny but some others from outside are more serious about it.”
“It’s important to understand but I don’t want to tell anyone how it must be interpreted.”
Diego previously studied Marine Biology and lives something of a double-life in that he gets calls to rescue trapped mammals from time to time.
He added: “For now Art-Naco is good, it makes sense and helps people remember where they are from. But I don’t know if this style is forever.
“The city opens many possibilities, but to pay for my children’s school and private health care I have to work all the time. Maybe in five or six years I will go to the beach with my wife and family to live where I can have my own dolphin sanctuary, which is my real dream.” |
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