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The Mexican Issue

El Hombre Arana

In the fall of 2006 I was on the Morrissey Tour. I had been touring since March ‘06, traveling all over the world photographing his concerts and fans.

In the fall of 2006 I was on the Morrissey Tour. I had been touring since March ‘06, traveling all over the world photographing his concerts and fans. These pictures were taken in November at the Mexico City Zoo. I was walking into the park where the zoo was located and the first craft cart I encountered was amazing. It had all these pictures of celebrities with their faces painted like clowns and superheroes. I asked the woman how much the Eminem-as-Spider-Man picture cost. She said 50 pesos and I said I'll buy it, psyched at the idea of having new piece of art from Mexico to put on my wall when I got home. Then she said sit down and I got very confused. She then proceeded to start drawing on my face. I was freaked out at first and then it slowly dawned on me what was going on. After about ten minutes I was turned into a half Spider-Man. I never questioned why she only did half of my face but I was pretty enthusiastic about the whole deal. Being over six feet tall and white in Mexico City already made me feel like Spider-Man even without my face painted. I towered over everybody and all the Mexicans just stared. With my new identity I was a marked man. Once I entered the zoo all the little kids wanted to be my friend—they ran up to me and tugged on my clothes. One young girl wouldn't leave me alone and kept trying to kiss me. I spent all day wandering around looking at the animals and then went to the concert that night as is. I think I freaked out the Mozzer and his fans. Nobody really got the joke.