Through our merchandise sales and fundraising efforts, we have raised money to assist various organizations in the following areas: Education, Undocumented Youth & Immigration Reform, Women’s Reproductive Rights, Wildlife Animal Protection, and LGBTQ Advocacy.
Opened by John Rexer in the early 2000s, Café No Sé has become the beating heart of an international music scene in Antigua, Guatemala. This is the original home of Ilegal Mezcal + the first mezcal bar opened outside of Mexico.
Bar Ilegal is an experiential outpost of Café No Sé. Bar Ilegal 2022 began with four straight weekends in Hunter, NY, followed by two March dates in Florida, two stops in California in April, and a night in San Antonio in May.
On May 19th, the Bar Ilegal crew took over Tulips in Fort Worth. Rexer, the local Texas team, and much of our national team were in attendance for an unforgettable night. SUSU ripped through another set, and John Clark and Outlook Tattoo provided Ilegal flash tattoos.
See how it all went down in the video by Renato Rimach, and in the gallery of pics by Sarah Craig.
“It was around ten or twelve years ago, when I was [feeling] lost and had a couple beers here, that the ideas started to dance in my head,” says Juan Pablo Romero Fuentes, the founder of Ilegal Mezcal community partner El Patojismo, tells our global brand ambassador Gilbert Marquez over shots of mezcal. “Fifteen years later, we have a big beautiful school,” he says with pride. “Soon, we’ll have the Centro Oportunidad. A bunch of kids turned an idea into an institution, and that’s beautiful.”
The experimental education center, located in the small town of Jocotenango in Guatemala’s Valle de Panchoy, lies somewhere between a high school, an interdisciplinary vocational academy, a restaurant, and a hub for community youth activism. Outside of a metropolitan area, and devoid of the resources that such a location would entail, Romero Fuentes wanted to create an inclusive and safe space for the children and young adults of the area to grow, learn, and prepare themselves for the future.
This emphasis on education as a site for mutual aid was a huge part of the conversations Romero Fuentes was having in 2004 with Ilegal Mezcal founder John Rexer when they met at Café No Sé, our flagship bar in Antigua. Not far from Jocotenango, our space — already the by-product of Rexer thinking outside the box when he came to Guatemala way back when — has been known to provide the backdrop for outsider souls with revolutionary ideas to gather and dream up a different world over shots of mezcal. In Romero Fuentes’ case, the creation of a school that actually served the youth of his under-served town.
“The idea was to think about what a school should look like,” he says. “It was [about] creating dignity. I didn’t expect it to grow very effectively for obvious reasons: in Guatemala, the system is every day against you. It’s the biggest monster we have to defeat.” Imagining outside of the limits of the Guatemalan education system has paid off. Founded in 2006, the project was first run out of Romero Fuentes’ house as a primary school. From humble beginnings, El Patojismo has since grown to include several projects serving the community of Jocotenango. At the core of the organization is the Los Patojos school, which now offers classes for both children and young adults, as well as a restaurant that serves the town run entirely by enrolled students. The hybrid work-school concept both stimulates the local economy and syncretizes valuable soft skills learned at Los Patojos into invaluable real-world experience.
Effectively providing 320 days of educational instruction compared to the 200 days mandated by the Guatemalan Ministry of Education, El Patojismo is a community effort through and through. When faced by a system that would rather see youth in areas like Jocotenango languish, thinking outside the box is the standard for meeting — and exceeding — a community’s needs. “To me, the constant feeling of anger mixed with hope and love…El Patojismo is a result of that,” says Romero Fuentes.
This love and unity is perhaps best illustrated in the public mural El Patojismo’s students have created in town, a verdant and lush work inspired by the flora and fauna of their country in an increasingly environmentally-embattled zone. “We’re against the rich perspective of bringing a muralist who gives a tour and charges $10 to show something on the street — if it’s on the street, it’s for everyone,” he says. “We are putting flowers and Guatemalan nature on the walls so the families can see local families first and recognize the importance of nature. We don’t have any more green areas left in Jocotenango, so the more art we put up encouraging the protection of it, the more we expect a big impact.”
El Patojismo may be centered on lifting up the youth of Jocotenango, but the school’s core mission lies in preparing them for a future beyond the town. “We’re building the final part of the dream, he says. “We took care of the kids, but when you’re a young adult, imagine: you’re done with school, you don’t have a job, you don’t have opportunities. What’s the point of getting an education if you’re not going to be able to work? We’re making an institution where you can learn different things: cooking, business, innovation, technology, public relations, and we put them together as a restaurant so you’re simultaneously running your own business locally.”
One of the school’s most disciplined pupils and Romero Fuentes’ protégé Ester Salasar is the embodiment of that final part of the dream. A longtime student of the school, Salasar is prepping to one day take it over, stepping up to the plate and paying it forward for her community and her mentor in a big way.
“Ester is one of the strongest people I know,” says Romero Fuentes. “In Guatemala, there’s a lot of hate when you do things like this. People complain but don’t do much, and come at you when you do make things that [leave an impact]. Ester is going to take my place. She’s ready to lead the entire organization.”
Despite everything they are up against, Romero Fuentes maintains a hopeful outlook for the future of El Patojismo and its alumni. “I hope we can create a local economy and change the idea of education in the comunidad, because the young people can learn how to run a business, have an identity, have a sense of life, make sure they understand the value of money as a resource and use it correctly so everyone can have a better life,” he says. “Imagine, you’re eighteen, you just graduated, you’re done with school, you understand business, you understand technology, you’re great with the arts, you’re healthy, you do sports…these are citizens that can change the path of an entire country.”
“When you allow somebody to take agency over a photoshoot, they feel empowered. The aesthetic result is always more enriching than if I was to be solely directing” Wynn says. “People often feel pigeonholed. Preconceived notions put onto all of us as a result of internal bias and sociological conditioning limit our drive to be creative. We deserve more than that. These photoshoots are meant to act as a physical and emotional olive branch to the parts of ourselves unseen by the world, each other and even in our own reflection. I want to give them the opportunity to see outside these identities and to put themselves in a different light.`
Wynn worked for over a decade in the commercial beauty world as a photographer before deciding to embark on a personal project to better connect with her photography and her subjects. “It became the jump-off for the aesthetic you see in my work now,” she says. It all started with a Craigslist advertisement, asking if anyone wanted to be photographed nude, covered in paint, maybe some other props, but more so in the particular visual style that she envisioned. It was all about light, reflection, shadow, the way these elements visually played against and harmoniously with one another. It was only until later that she realized this was a conceptual cornerstone of her work as well. Her post received several responses, mainly from older men. “People would come off of Craigslist, they’d get naked, and I’d paint their body. It was a really bizarre evolution at the beginning of this work, but it was very fun. It was really cool to empower people to come and bare it all. Express themselves with light and movement.”
At the time, Wynn was doing a lot of work with body paint, but she has always had a unique relationship with light. She was born and raised in San Diego, California. At age 17, feeling dissatisfied with the lack of empathy and support for artistic types in her learning environment, she dropped out of high school and registered at a community college. She then transferred to Pratt Institute, where she completed her B.F.A. in Painting. “Back in my painting days, I focused on California light and color mixing. Light and reflection are all very much a part of the ambiance in California,” she explains. “That is also represented in my photographs. These are body landscapes to some degree, and we’re watching light fall across them in different ways.” Her work often features harsh elements that are diffused by something else within the composition. “Because it’s such a collaboration with the person, I spend time explaining the light sources (what it’s doing) so they can make pose and movement choices that correspond to their mood, music, whatever it may be in that moment” she explains. “These photos are about creating unique dynamism within all these, sometimes unorthodox methods. The studio light is dynamic, sometimes paired with window light or reflectors to help compliment and contrast light and shadow over the body like it would on a landscape. So, you’re looking at the skin and the folds in a way that still feels really delicate and discoverable, in a similar way you would interact with or view elements of nature.”
Wynn’s work is ultimately a celebration of people and self-expression. We are proud to display her work at Ilegal Headquarters in Brooklyn in the month where we Celebrate YOU. A selection of her work appears in the gallery below.
To learn more about Lindsay Wynn’s work visit – ILEGAL GALLERY PRESENTS – or come see it in person at 38 Greenpoint Avenue. Lindsay’s work will be displayed through September 30th, on Saturdays from 10AM-2PM.
A visual director and painter, Shahryar’s work is deeply connected to his own personal experience and human expression, with imagery taken from popular culture and contemporary media. Scroll down to see a selection of his work, along with a gallery of images from the opening event.
The gallery at Ilegal Headquarters is open Saturdays 10AM – 2PM through the August 14th. Stop by to view!
Location – Ilegal Mezcal Headquarters, 38 Greenpoint Ave, Brooklyn NY Artist – Shahryar Shahamat Showing – Saturdays from 10AM – 2PM until Aug 14th Photography Credit – Beata Kanter
This year in the US alone, 42 million people are at risk of food insecurity; 19% of Latinx and 25% of Black children are currently food insecure.
Our impact is an ongoing discussion at Ilegal. This year we are starting the conversation locally. Through grassroots initiatives, we can help create sustainable, long-term access and support for food-insecure communities. For instance, public fridges are one way to help us get to know our neighbors, raise awareness and help feed those who need access to food.
Take action – Visit our interactive map to find the community fridge nearest you.
Learn more about and support our community partners – Humans4, Los Patojos, No Us Without You, and Team Brownsville – who do amazing work within their communities 365 days a year: ilegalmezcal.com/love
Exceptionally smooth, especially rare. Aged for over seven years in 35 barrels of French Oak, Ilegal Mezcal 7 Year Añejo makes for an exceptional gift, or an ideal sidekick to break out on a special night.
Ilegal Mezcal helped introduce the world to aged mezcal with its Reposado and Añejo expressions, and our new Limited Edition 7 Year Añejo further expands our showcasing of barrel aged innovation and artisanal craft. A very limited quantity is available at our online shop, and arrives to select markets in December 2022.
From our founding, Ilegal Mezcal has strived to build the sort of community & environment that Café No Sé, the birthplace of Ilegal, has long provided artists and musicians.
Since the start of the pandemic, in order to keep our friends, families, and partners safe, we have cancelled large scale, in-person events and introduced new virtual programming. We are in this together, and we look forward to bellying up to the bar with you again soon.
Handcrafted in small-batches, Ilegal Mezcal has a beautifully balanced profile, with a mouthful of agave and a hint of smoke. A unique and complex taste for those who enjoy sipping spirits like tequila, bourbon, or craft gin.
While our mezcal is perfect neat, it is exceptional in cocktails – originals and reimagined classics alike. Check out our signature mezcal cocktail recipes, and try Ilegal as the base spirit in a Mezcal Margarita, a Mezcal Mule, or your favorite cocktail.
This raw kitchen counter acoustic series digitally brings the artist and their music from their home. Two of the four members of what used to be Revel in Dimes, Premo and Eric are long time friends of Ilegal Mezcal, and now the duo go by Tractor Supply Co.
