Padre Azul meets the Prison Art Project
As you might know, our beautiful and entirely handmade Padre Azul Cristalino Añejo bottle was designed by no other than the creative minds of Prison Art, a Mexican design label and NGO based in Mexico City. Prison Art supports the reintegration of former prisoners into society through creative artwork – what a great cause! We are proud to support the NGO in its mission by donating part of the proceeds of our Cristalino. Padre family member Alberto recently paid Prison Art a visit to its headquarters in Mexico City to hand over the donations. On this occasion, Prison Art founder Jorge Cueto himself invited Alberto to take a peek behind the scenes.
Prison Art: design label and NGO
Prison Art, the creative force behind our beautiful Cristalino bottle, is much more than a design label. It’s a safe harbor for people who are often left out, and allows them to make a fresh start in an inspiring environment, free of prejudices and full of creative possibilities.
After spending 11 months in the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco before being declared innocent, the founder of the Prison Art Project Jorge Cueto had one dream: to create a rehabilitation program in Mexico that would support people while and after being imprisoned. Most employers in Mexico require a clean criminal record, therefore former prisoners often struggle to make a living and provide for their families. During his time in prison, Jorge developed a great understanding of the distress that many prisoners experience. Therefore, he wanted to help those who are trying to find their way back to a normal life.
With Prison Art, he developed a training program that promotes art and design skills and prepares imprisoned people for a job in the area of high-quality fashion products. After they have completed their sentence, the program’s participants are offered employment in various departments of Prison Art. For the ex-prisoners, this is an important step towards a successful reintegration into society. And for society, it’s an enrichment: The Prison Art Project already discovered far more than one hidden talent among the prisoners, and there are more to be found!
Tattoo art and leather bags
Jorge Cueto and his team decided that their project should be based on tattoo art. They created a machine that enabled them to tattoo leather instead of human skin. This tool opened up a whole new world of artistic possibilities. Prison Art started to create high-quality leather products, decorated with unique tattoos, designed and tattooed by current and former prisoners.
During his visit, Padre family member Alberto had the opportunity to admire a selection of the artistic items created by Prison Art: carefully decorated leather bags and wallets, suitcases, and key chains, but also T-shirts, jackets, caps, jewelry… The motives on the items range from dark to colorful and often reflect themes from Mexican culture, such as the omnipresent skull motive. Mexican tattoo art at its finest!
Prison Art and Padre Azul
Padre Azul is committed to carrying the Mexican way of life into the world, and to giving something back, too. That was the reason why we initially considered collaborating with the NGO Prison Art. And honestly, once we saw what they had to offer, we didn’t think twice. Our Cristalino Añejo bottle is the result of this collaboration: a wonderful piece of art, a precious designer item crowned by a noble Swarovski skull and filled with 100% blue agave tequila of the finest quality. The skillfully designed bottle does justice to the Mexican heritage and to our crystal clear super-premium tequila.
We are delighted to support the Prison Art Project with our donation and we wish Jorge Cueto and his team the best of luck and success for the future!
