Mexico Vivo Fest Workshops: Matchboxes to Burn Injustice

Many will remember the iconic La Imperial matchboxes from Mexico, often illustrated with imagery inspired by the Lotería — small, everyday objects carrying bold archetypes such as La Sirena, El Valiente, La Dama, and El Diablito. These images have long helped define how Mexican identity is visualised and imagined.

This workshop revisits those familiar matchboxes and asks: who are today’s archetypes? Participants will decorate matchboxes directly, reimagining contemporary figures such as La Feminista, El Migrante, La Desaparecida, La Madre Buscadora, La Frontera, El Sistema, and La Resistencia. Through drawing, collage, and text, each matchbox becomes a symbolic “spark” — reflecting on migration, feminist movements, borders, and collective resilience. Rooted in celebration and critical reflection, the workshop honours Mexican visual culture while boldly questioning and reimagining the systems that shape our present.

All profits from this event will be donated to the Immigrant Defense Project (IDP).

Founded nearly 30 years ago, IDP works to combat the human rights crisis created by the mass criminalization, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States. As immigration enforcement has intensified—particularly through the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—many immigrant communities face increasing risks of detention, family separation, and deportation.

Through legal advice and training, impact litigation, policy advocacy, community defense, and strategic communications, IDP fights to protect the rights of immigrants and challenge unjust policies within the U.S. immigration and criminal legal systems.

By supporting this event, you are helping fund vital work that defends immigrant communities, responds to the current challenges they face, and helps keep families together.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Mexibrit