Summary

National doll produced to represent a Mexican man. It was purchased for Monica Gates by her family's landlord at a market in Mexico City in 1962. The doll is dressed in clothing which is representative of traditional Mexican men's dress: baggy pants (calzones), a loose cotton shirt (guayabera), a poncho and often a hat (sombrero). This style of dress is a mix of Spanish and indigenous Mexican influences.

The Gates collection contains 170 national dolls from 74 different countries and some correspondence relating to the acquisition of several of the dolls. The costumes of the dolls represent national costumes from the 19th Century to the 1990s. Monica Gates collected or was given these dolls between 1957 and 1990.

These dolls were purchased as souvenirs of particular countries and like many mass produced souvenirs they are often not accurate representations of a particular country or region, and may actually better reflect neighbouring counties or regions. This occurs because costumes are often stylised and simplified resulting dolls wearing generic costume elements which are common to many countries/regions. Often the fabrics and decorations used are selected to make the dolls cheap and easy to manufacture and aesthetically pleasing. This can result in the fabrics, colours and decorations of the doll's clothing having little or no reflection of the costume associated with a particular country or region they are meant to be representative of.

Physical Description

Doll, male, Mexican. Wooden doll with painted features and red painted shoes. He is wearing a raffia hat with an upturned brim and white cotton trousers and shirt. There is a red waistband around the trousers. He is also wearing a poncho with horizontal stripes in shades of yellow, red, purple and green. It has a small fringe.

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