Silkscreen Print, Mexican Man
date: label: date made
content: 1938
notes: label: Description
content: This silkscreen print on paper is set in a thin wooden frame, on which the date 1938 is written. It depicts an image of a Mexican man with a broad mustache, wearing a wide brim sombrero, golden earrings, and a red and yellow striped blanket-like shawl known as a “serape,” draped over a brown poncho and green shirt. He is shown lighting a cigarette.
label: Description
content: The print came to the museum as part of a collection of objects and archival materials relating to Charles Elmer “C.E.” Doolin and the Fritos corn chip empire he founded. The Mexican man depicted is not explicitly connected to the Frito Company’s 1967 “Frito Bandito” advertising campaign, which was retired in 1971, due to complaints from the public and the National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee. But the painting does connect to the Mexican heritage of Fritos, and their introduction to American consumers as a Tex-Mex-inspired snack with connections to the masa-based-foods of Mexico.
label: Description
content: C.E. Doolin launched “Fritos” in 1932, inspired by a recipe he had purchased from Gustavo Olguin, a Mexican-American restaurant owner in San Antonio, where Doolin had worked as a fry cook. Olguin’s “fritos” (the name came from the Spanish word frit, meaning fried) were small fried corn chips made from masa dough. Doolin bought the recipe, Olguin’s hand-operated potato ricer, and nineteen customer accounts for the snack, all for $100. He then patented his own device for extruding the masa dough through a cutter, which produced ribbon-like strips that were then fried in hot oil. Doolin marketed the chips as an ingredient in recipes, many of which were inspired by his mother Daisy Dean Stephenson Doolin’s dishes for entertaining. The chips were used in both sweet and savory preparations, including as crust for fruitcakes, breading for salmon croquettes, and garnish for tuna salad.
label: Description
content: In 1945 Doolin connected with Herman Lay, famous for automating the manufacturing process of potato chips and the head of H.W. Lay & Co. Lay took on the nationwide distribution of Fritos at this time. Doolin passed away in 1959, and in 1961 The Frito Company officially merged with H.W. Lay & Co. to become Frito-Lay. Frito-Lay went on to develop more products (including the wildly popular snack foods Cheetos and Doritos) and become the largest snack conglomerate in the world. Initially promoted as an ingredient in foods for entertaining, Fritos were advertised mostly to children, both in print and television campaigns and via cartoon characters such as the cowboy-inspired “Frito Kid.”
label: Description
content: Fritos were most successful as a standalone snack. Following the success of the commercial potato chip in the 1930s, there was a growing market for other salty snacks and pre-packaged foods to be eaten on the go and in-between meals. The creation of “snack time” as a new type of American meal helped bolster the popularity of Doolin’s invention. The packaging of these snacks would also prove revolutionary—before 1900, snack foods and sweets were sold in small paper bags and portioned out by the grocer or shop owner. As manufacturers experimented with cans and glassine bags and materials such as wax paper and cellophane, they found new ways to keep food fresh and vacuum-packed until the customer opened it. Over the second half of the twentieth century, snack foods would develop into a $22 billion dollar industry.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
label: See more items in
content: Food
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Kaleta A. Doolin
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2012.0078.02
label: catalog number
content: 2012.0078.02
label: accession number
content: 2012.0078
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Silkscreen print
label: Object Name
content: silkscreen print
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (painting material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (frame material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 1/2 in x 12 in x 1 in; 34.29 cm x 30.48 cm x 2.54 cm