By travelling to Mexico for the last 8 years, it doesn’t suprise that the VW beetle was the first car I drove in my life. 2 years later I travelled daily by a green beetle taxi to do office of my internship in Mexico City.
During a trip in 2008 I discovered that the Mexican government planned to abandon the “Vocho Verde” (slang for the green beetle taxi). I spend the whole month April in 2009 hunting for the green cars, stumbling upon a few painted in the new colours red-gold. “Angelitos” is the new word for these cheap taxi’s, referring to the angels painted on the side of the car. 2 months later I heard from friends the beetle taxi’s were taken away if they didn’t carry the new colours.
During my trip in July I could identify the changed street scenery myself. And the amount dropped enormously when I returned in October. The Mexican government doesn’t prolong the taxi licences for the beetle taxi’s. And several taxi drivers didn’t have the money to repaint them and sold them to the authorities. It’s part of their plan to banish all the beetles by 2010-2012.
The expo is a tribute to the Mexicans and their passion to turn a German car into a part of their own culture.
In the last images you can notice a distance between the camera and the taxi which represents the disappearance of this icon in the Mexican culture.
Wow i love ur project im from mexico city and i live on the usa from 19 years now and i got a 1963 and a 1968 volkswagen beetle and i just want to say that i love ur pics, movie and ur website, im in love with this cars because like u said this germans inventions is one of are own colture in mexico, i hope that this cars keep rolling on mexico it be sad if we dont see them anymore.
saludos
from vegas.