The face that launched a million tourists

Said to be responsible for a million European tourists a year,  it’s no wonder Rafael Cal y Mayor, Secretary of Tourism for the State of Chiapas calls Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, the best public relations the state could have.

Guillén is a rather surpring figure to represent the south Mexican state best known for its Mayan culture.  The  son of a Spanish-immigrant Tampico furniture store owner and brother of Tamulipas Attorney-General Mercedes del Carmen Guillén Vicente, he  studied philosophy at UNAM, and worked in Tamalipas for the PRI before crafting a new career as spokesmodel for Zapatista^®-Brand Revolutionary Politics.

Of the four million mostly European visitors who come to Chiapas every year, a full quarter of them mention Zapatista^®-Brand when making their travel plans.   For most of these tourists, Guillén’s “sub-comandante Marcos” persona IS Zapatista^®-Brand’… raising him to that rare pantheon of models who ARE their product:    What Argentine pathologist Ernesto Guevera did for tee-shirts and Kentucky cook Nancy Green did for pancakes, Guillén — and his ski-mask — do for the State of Chiapas.