La Mexicana Gran Fabrica de Puros y Cigarros
Not paper money but a flyer for the La Mexicana cigarette factory with an advert for El Zocato cigarettes on the reverse, stating that the company will reward consumers by means of vales printed on the back of each packet.
Interior of La Mexicana
This factory, at calle de San Antonio Abad,núm. 2, Mexico City, was opened by the highly successful Spanish businessman, Iñigo Noriega, in 1876. By 1899 it was run by Señores Noriega sucesores and employed 150 workers.
On 10 September 1894 the company was granted the right to produce cigarettes under the trademark, El ZocatoDiario Oficial, Núm 63, 12 September 1894, named in honour of the bullfighter Carlos Borrego Ruiz, nicknamed “El Zocato (the Southpaw)”.
Carlos Borrego Ruiz was born in Seville, Spain, on 18 March 1862, and began his career in that country. In 1886 he moved to Uruguay, and the next year went to Mexico. By 1888 he was the second highest-paid bullfighter in Mexico, earning 6,000 pesos, though his talents were less appreciated when he returned to fight in Spain. He decided to go back to Mexico, and on 12 May 1895 was badly gored (hurrah!) in the Plaza de Guadalajara. He retired in Guadalajara in 1907, returned to Spain and lived in Seville, though it seems that he died in Guadalajara on 1 September 1938.