Guanajuato, Gto., 09 de septiembre de 2017.- Bring together the art and culture of Mexico in a worldwide product to promote the Mexican richness, is one of the uneasiness of Antonio Espinoza Estrada, student of the ninth semester of the degree in International Trade at the University of Guanajuato (UG).

As a result, from such uneasiness, in 2016 he created ZÄNÄ, a business dedicated to fabricating leather bags with an artisanal process, with which he seeks for more women in Mexico and the world to wear such bags with pride, to wear the handcrafts made in our country.

"I sought to represent my country in one product, to represent quality, colors and maintain the culture, I feel proud to have achieved that and contribute so people from other parts of the world know about the culture of Mexico."

Currently, two kinds of artisan bags for women are made with artisan work, a line that includes cross-stitch embroidery made by elders, and the other, painted by artisans in Guanajuato capital. This supports vulnerable groups, preserve the techniques and boosts local economy.

The young entrepreneur explains that the bags have an innovative design. "The interior has a space for the cell phone and protects the screen with a special fabric, a band for keys and a space for the laptop."

Despite the official launch of the brand will be done in the next few weeks, the bags are circulating in Korea and France, and soon, he will try to reach more countries and cities in Mexico.

Antonio Espinoza explains that the idea to promote Mexico with an artisanal product, emerged from his participation in three volunteer programs in Egypt where he made a promotional video of the place from the point of view of a foreigner. In Romania and Brazil, he taught English to children and talked to them about Mexican culture. Also, he had the opportunity to learn languages such as Portuguese, Romanian, Chinese, German and Arab.

After those experiences, he says, "I wanted to see how I could use that experience in may advantage, apply the knowledge of my degree and send the Mexican culture around the globe."

Besides this, "I was looking to use the tools I acquired in my degree and approach the professors to be more aware of the topic, and start developing the business sooner."

About the involvement of elders and artisans in this project, Espinoza mentions that he seeks to involve them because "they are a very vulnerable group and I really like when I help them, indirectly, I also help myself, we create opportunities for them and that is a great satisfaction."

Finally, he mentioned that "being an entrepreneur doesn't always mean to create businesses, there are two areas, the social entrepreneur and the business entrepreneur, so entrepreneur is starting something new and especially, finish it."

He invited all the university community to set goals and make them true, "when you reach a goal, you feel capable of making even more, so you grow as a person, you know yourself better, you know your weaknesses and strengths and begin to explore yourself and discover how far you can take yourself."

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