La Michoacana, Legendary Mexican Popsicle Company, Changing Name Due to State's Association with Drug Cartels

​One of the great Mexican-food stories of the past 30 years is the spread of paletas, Mexican popsicles--but not just any paletas. Most of the paleta business in this country and Mexico is run under the brand name La Michoacana and its iconic logo (seen above), with the industry started by people from the village of Tocumbo, Michoacán (Mexico being Mexico, most La Michoacanas are ripoffs). If you walk into nearly any nieveria in OC, you'll either see the name, its color scheme, or the flavor template that Tocumba's natives set some 25 years ago.

But what you'll no longer see is the brand name La Michoacana. It's the latest casualty of Mexico's horrible drug war.

Mexico's El Universal newspaper had the news yesterday (you'll have to habla to read it), with the execs for La Michoacana changing the name to La Tucumbita (the Little Tocumban Girl), citing the bad name the state currently has among Mexicans in the United States due to the fanatical drug cartels currently wrecking havoc to the state, specifically La Familia Michoacana, which mixes religion with beheadings. The brand will unveil itself this year in the United States in La Michoacan's core stores (there are some in LA, none in OC, a shocker given SanTana's huge michoacana community)

Don't believe all the hype that the American press is saying about how Mexico is emerging from its narcowars with a vibrant middle class blah blah blah. Tijuana is good, as is Mexico City, but that such an iconic brand like La Michoacana has to change its name is telling of the tragedy of it all...