Barbie mania sweeps Latin America, but sometimes takes on a macabre tone

Stores are offering Barbie-themed pastries, tacos and tortillas, while the pink craze has also spread into politics

Barbie has also featured in protests in Peru, and outfitted as a ‘Searching Mother’ – part of a group of volunteers searching for gravesites in Mexico that might contain their children’s remains

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A plate with “Barbie” style beef tacos at a taco shop in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 9:20am, 23 Jul 2023

Latin America is taking Barbie mania to an extreme, with everything from pink-coloured tacos and pastries, commercial planes bearing the Barbie logo, political ads and even Barbie-themed protests.

But it is not all high heels and pom-poms: Barbie mania in the region has taken on a darker, macabre tone.

In Peru, anti-government demonstrators this week dressed up two women in pink and put them in giant Barbie boxes in the main square of Lima, the capital, to protest against current President Dina Boluarte, under whose administration police have often clashed with protesters.

An anti-government protester, dressed as Barbie holding a fake gun, takes part in a demonstration against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte in Lima, Peru, on Saturday. Photo: AP

One actress, whose box was labelled “Barbie Dictator”, held a pink gun. The doll, according to the box legend, “includes tear gas and dum-dum bullets”. Another protester’s box was labelled “Genocidal Barbie”.

Meanwhile, stores, street vendors and restaurants throughout Latin America are offering up all sorts of Barbie-themed goodies.

In Mexico, there are Barbie tortillas (the corn dough is coloured pink with beet juice, with some imprinted with an edible-dye ponytailed Barbie silhouette); Barbie pastries and Barbie tacos (marinated pork meat served in pink tortillas and accompanied by a strawberry milkshake).

An entire Barbie-themed restaurant opened this week in Guayaquil, Ecuador; it is – of course – built to resemble Barbie’s house.