Honest Hustlers
Sculpture
Wood carving by Mario Sanchez depicting the Shut Up Your Mouth Froot & Vegitable [sic] cart and a bicycle shoe salesman. They are outside of Pancho's Hot Bollos cafe.
A caption written by Sanchez reads, 'Most everyone in my old neighborhood had a nickname. I don't even remember Shut-Up-U-Mouth's real name. He was nicknamed as a baby when he was being baptized. Like most babies being baptized, he was crying during the ceremony. The Catholic priest very tenderly told him, 'Shut up your mouth, baby.' His mother didn't understand what the priest meant because, although all her children were born in Key West, she was Cuban and hadn't learned much English. She answered in Spanish, 'His name isn't 'Shut-Up-U-Mouth'.' Everybody had a good laugh and from that day his nickname was Shut-Up-U-Mouth. When Shut-Up-U-Mouth grew up he worked as a cigarmaker but he quit to sell fruit from his own push cart. Fruit has always been a part of the Key West diet. Key limes, avocados, mangoes and sugar apples were grown in town and with some luck, can be found in backyards even today. Plantains and pineapples were shipped in from Cuba or the Bahamas. Like most of the vendors of Key West, Shut-Up-U-Mouth started selling on the streets in a push cart. Shut-Up-U-Mouth was a very popular vendor. Customers would wait for him because he sold on credit when times were tough for his customers. After hard work, he saved enough money to buy a Model T Ford truck.'
2022.02.0003
Relief
OilWood
Key West
Florida
United States of America
North America
Monroe
Mario Sanchez Collection
Sanchez, Mario
Artist
circa 1960
20th Century
Key West
Florida
United States of America
North America
Monroe
Signature
Bottom Right Corner
Mario Sanchez
English
Painted
Intaglio
Sculpture
Art
Category 08: Communication Objects
17 in
27-1/2 in
1-1/2 in
At Acquisition
Very Good