Editorial photo #12683170 Labour
Reopening Of The El Oso Factory In Mexico
On August 27, 2025, workers at the El Oso shoe polish factory in Mexico City, Mexico, offer a tour of their new facilities to the media. This occurs after officers from the Ministry of Citizen Security and staff from the Benito Juarez mayor's office in the capital arbitrarily and violently remove their supplies, raw materials, machinery, and work tools on January 17 of this year, following a coordinated operation stemming from a private dispute. Workers at El Oso report that the clerk, Ernesto Gonzalez Escobar, demands a payment of 100,000 pesos in advance for the use of electricity, for ''starting and using the machinery,'' and for removing the supplies used in the production of shoe polish. From that day on, the company has 10 business days to collect its belongings and move them to its new facilities in the Iztapalapa borough, where it currently resides. According to information from the El Oso factory, its history begins at the beginning of the 20th century with Don Prisciliano Perez Buenrostro, originally from Jalpan, Queretaro, who arrives in Mexico City with an entrepreneurial spirit and a clear vision: to build something of his own. He takes his first steps as a popular photographer at the Chapultepec Zoo, where he witnesses the arrival of the first polar bear to the park. That powerful and symbolic image becomes the inspiration for the company's name years later. The El Oso factory is a 100% Mexican company with a presence throughout the country and exports to destinations such as the United States, Cuba, France, Norway, and Japan. (Photo by Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto)
