At the outskirts of Cuenca, Ecuador, bar hoppers may by accident wander from the Andes proper into Los Simpson. On one facet of the street, Springfield is spelled out, Hollywood sign-style, above illustrations of Leader Wiggum arresting Bart, Kearney, and Dolph for vandalism. Throughout the best way, the facade of Springfield Fundamental Faculty towers over two squat constructions (the total extent of this tiny DIY TV the town): “Krosty Burger” and Los angeles Taberna de Mou. Within the latter, enthusiasts are greeted on the bar through a life-size Moe Szyslak cutout, who extends the telephone Bart steadily prank calls within the sequence. There’s a to-scale Love Tester gadget, themed artwork masking the partitions, and barrels of Duff beer, which could also be to be had through can or on faucet.
This isn’t the one boozy tribute to the display in Latin The us — no longer even the one one in Ecuador. From northern Mexico the entire manner right down to Argentina, rankings of bars percentage a reputation with Moe — maximum steadily Taberna de Moe or Mou. There are examples in states all throughout Mexico: Moe’s in Los angeles Piedad de Cavadas, Moe’s Beer in Coyoacán, Mexico Town (entire with melting Homer-meets-Dali decor), San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Guadalajara, Guanajuato. In Central The us, you’ll to find Tabernas de Moe in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, and farther south in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Peru. Lots of them seem within the spitting symbol of Springfield’s dingiest watering hollow, and a few even serve character-themed beverages along Duff beer. The bars might not be canonically correct and so they most likely don’t have the explicit written consent of Disney (which owns twenty first Century Fox, and thus The Simpsons), however none of that issues to enthusiasts.
Los Simpson is very large all the way through Latin The us. It’s essentially the most a success imported TV display of all time in Mexico, which produces the dubbed model that’s most well-liked all the way through Spanish-speaking Latin The us. It’s in part accountable for popularizing “Mexicanisms” like pendejo and chavo in international locations like Colombia, and one group in Mexico Town, Iztacalco, is even dubbed “Sprayfield” for its many colourful Simpsons work of art.
In step with Michell Alvarez and Magaly Lopez, homeowners of Los angeles Taberna de Moe in San José Pinula, Guatemala, The Simpsons is so in style in Guatemala that they “don’t assume there’s a unmarried particular person” in their era who hasn’t observed it. The duo had dreamed of opening a bar named after Szyslak from a tender age, given he’s “the most efficient bartender in historical past,” earlier than in any case succeeding in December 2020, after shedding different jobs all over the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if not too long ago opened, their bar simply west of Guatemala Town already draws locals and Simpsons enthusiasts, and whilst there’s no Simpsons-related pieces at the menu, a wall is adorned with framed stills of the display.
For somebody in Latin The us, visiting this sort of unlicensed bars is so much inexpensive than flying to California or Florida to the respectable Moe’s Tavern at Common Studios. “For lots of, our bar is the one probability to reside the Simpsons revel in, since our consumers steadily don’t have the method to consult with the respectable Moe’s Tavern,” says Nicolás González Milano. In 2017, he and a gaggle of buddies at “differing scales of Simpsons fanaticism” opened a Moe’s Tavern within the Ituzaingó district of Buenos Aires, which has served enthusiasts who can’t go back and forth around the globe.
However earlier than Milano’s Tavern was once a 12 months outdated, Fox issued a copyright declare towards the trade: Holders of precious highbrow belongings don’t have a tendency to take copyright infringement mendacity down, regardless of how just right the intentions of enthusiasts. There’s been no scarcity of unauthorized Simpsons products through the years, and the display itself has riffed at the phenomenon. However merch dealers can offload a truckload of bootleg T-shirts after which disappear. Tabernas de Moe running in vast sunlight draw in extra consideration, from each enthusiasts and attorneys. Two years later, Milano and his companions relocated and renamed it the fewer legally difficult Ribbon Bar (an homage to Moe’s bow tie). The brand new pub maintains its Moe’s-esque facade, replete with a life-sized Lyle Lanley, the villainous monorail charlatan and scourge of Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, peeking out from a repurposed teach cabin.
It will appear absurd for a $284 billion company to strong-arm a small bar within the Buenos Aires suburbs, however transnational megacorporations like Disney have quite a bit to lose in the event that they let bootlegs slip through. In step with highbrow belongings regulation specialist Estelle Derclaye on the College of Nottingham, transnationals are extraordinarily litigious and “very protecting” in their IP. Companies usually worry “dilution,” Derclaye explains, when trademark or copyright breaches weaken the unique model, regardless of the dimensions of the alleged wrongdoer. Worse, companies are petrified of damaging associations with their model if consumers at an unlicensed eating place, for instance, undergo meals poisoning.
That doesn’t imply the battle has been one-sided. Some Latin American knockoffs have helped bully the litigious media corporate into assembly enthusiasts midway. After combating bootleg variations of Duff in Colombia and Mexico, Fox began brewing the beer itself. An organization rep mentioned on the time, “If you see sufficient piracy, you might be confronted with two alternatives. One is deciding to battle it, and the opposite is deciding to move out [into the market] with it.” The corporate had no selection however to brew Duff if it sought after to determine trademark rights, which don’t usually quilt fictional merchandise. With the assistance of British brewer Paul Farnsworth, the corporate formally introduced Duff in Chile, which helped provide Tabernas de Moe around the area. (At the present time, Milano says provide has dried up from the one importer in Argentina, leaving him not able to get sufficient of that superb Duff.)
Nonetheless, it’s sudden that almost all of Tabernas de Moe all the way through Latin The us appear to have escaped punishment. Derclaye explains that pursuing authorized motion towards fan-run enterprises isn’t at all times the wisest choice for companies as it can lead to shopper backlash.
The not-quite-legal facet of the tabernas is essential to their appeal. It prices $109 to go into Common Studios to achieve get admission to to the respectable, aesthetically correct Moe’s Tavern, however that model is wrapped within the shiny, sanitized sheen of The Simpsons circa Season 3,000 — or anyplace we’re at now. The off-brand Tabernas de Moe include the playful parody and scrappy antiestablishment ethos of the display’s celebrated previous seasons, and the ones issues resonate with many Latin American enthusiasts.
Some audience percentage Matt Groening’s left-leaning convictions, radically pro-working-class view, and mistrust of authority, whilst others establish with Homer’s archetypal, blue-collar circle of relatives. “The sense of sometimes-savage irony could be very Latin American, whilst self-criticism and self-mockery are, too,” says Toby Miller, cultural critic and professor at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. “However the focal point on category could also be essential, as a result of the preferred regional program in Mexico earlier than it, El Chavo del Ocho, did the similar factor.”
On the Taberna de Mou in Ecuador, subsequent to Leader Wiggum maintaining a poster that reads “Sought after: El Barto,” there’s a message in vintage Simpsons font that reads “Un pedacito de Springfield en Cuenca” (somewhat piece of Springfield in Cuenca). It’s an inexpensive snippet, only a few greenbacks for some cans of Duff whilst you’re taking photos on the bar, and so much inexpensive than a flight to the States. There are different items of the TV the town in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, with San Salvador Volcano towering within sight, at the coast of Chile’s Los angeles Serena amid neocolonial structure, alongside the Pan-American Freeway on the tip of southernmost Argentina. The life-size cutouts is probably not authorized through Disney and the homeowners may must rebrand now and again, however each and every Taberna de Moe holds a work of the soul of Los Simpson, in some way the flashy theme park model by no means can.
Tamlin Magee is a tradition and generation creator from London.
