Manos de Méxicanos (By Mexican Hands) is a new gallery and Mexican crafts store located on the Brooklyn Red Hook waterfront. Founded in 2011 by Steve Tarpin of “Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie” and his wife Victoria, the mission of the new endeavor is to build a link between the people of New York and artisans of Mexico, who are striving to carry on ancient artisan traditions established generations ago in order to incur additional resources to artisan communities that are currently being threatened by struggling local economies.
After more than a year of working with artisans from Mexico, struggling with shipping issues and trying to determine whether or not to file for 501 tax exempt status, we decided to open our doors December 3rd, 2011. We have decided that 501 status was too complicated and fraught with filing requirements and restrictive stipulations that would prevent us from staying on a productive direction. But we still seek cooperation with Mexican Federal, State and Local agencies in order to build relationships that will help us fulfill our intention of assisting the artisans directly.