COOL BEGINNINGS

In the 1940s, Ignacio and Luis Alcázar and their cousin Agustín Andrade left the small town of Tocumbo, Michoacán, dreaming of a better life. The trio arrived in Mexico City, where they opened a small shop selling paletas, frozen treats on a stick made from real fruit and fresh ingredients, which they had been concocting for their neighbors in Tocumbo for years.

Their paletería was a great success, and they expanded quickly, offering franchises to their friends and relatives back in Tocumbo. Soon there were thousands of paleterías all over Mexico, and so many of them were owned by natives of Tocumbo that these shops became widely known as Las Michoacanas.

Mexican immigrants brought paleterías with them to the United States–first throughout the American Southwest, then to cities like New York, Miami, and Chicago. Today, thankfully, paletas can be found just about anywhere in the U.S.A.

TRADITION

Norma and José, the owners of Chicago’s multigenerational Paletaría Los Magos in the Pilsen neighborhood, shared with us how they uphold the traditional and artisanal methods of paleta making.

REAL, FRESH INGREDIENTS

The covers are printed on 12pt WestRock Tango C1S cover stock, with shiny gloss and frosty matte varnishes. Inside are 48 cream-colored dot-grid pages of 60#T Domtar Lynx paper. 

Local Chicanx artist Atlan Arceo-Witzl illustrated a logo in the iconic style of a paleta wrapper for each pack’s transparent backing card.