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Devoted m4dbl0g readers may remember my Zote vignette from a few months back. Both my neighbor and I were sort of mystified by the Mexican laundry soap, which had no directions in either English or Spanish.
Yesterday, a mysterious Mr. Zote added a comment to the entry, explaining the uses of Zote. I sent him an email thanking him for making him the premier English-language Zote resource online. He emailed me back to day, giving even more info:
Hi Chris!
I actually work at the factory where the Zote soap is manufactured. (www.lacorona.com.mx)
To understand the existance of this soap, we need to understand it origin. This soap was used in the past (no washing machines yet) in México, when people used to go to the river and wash their clothes. They simple rub the clothes on a rugged surface (like a rock), and hand wash the clothes. Then consumers started to use a machine called "palangana" that is like the Belly of a turtle (rugged) to wash in home. That´s why no instructions are needed (at least in Mexico) Nowadays, with more washing machines around this technique trends to desapear, but consumers are still finding a way to keep using the Zote soap. We are developing a new Liquid Zote (like a liquid detergent) that you can pour directly to the machine.
Since there are a lot of Mexicans in the USA (Texas), they are demanding this product and that´s the reason you can find it on the shelves in Wal-Mart and other stores.
It is funny, but there are some many alternate uses for this bar, like Mosquito repelent, hair treatment,fishing bite, fabric softener, YOU NAME IT!!
With a 36,000,000 million bars sold last year you can bet we´ll have Zote bar soap for a while.
If you need more information, I´ll be glad to help you!
EDUARDO RUEDA GONZALEZ
INTERNATIONAL SALES
FABRICA DE JABON LA CORONA
I know this seems banal, but I think this a demonstration of the power of the Internet. I posed a question on my site, asking for information that was unavailable in English, and a domain expert found my site and provided the relevant information. He even gave me a little bit of Mexican folklore to further my understanding of Zote's role in the culture. Thank you Mr. Zote!
