During the process of creating a new busniess structure that would allow the family business to give the necessary steps towards the next level, many interesting, fun, and eye-opening conversations have taken place with Mr. Román.
We have tried to collect them all in a sort of imaginary interview (as it never took place as such) with the intention of condensating some of his words and sentences which are interesting and it might help the curious reader to find out more details about this fantastical story.
So, probably the questions were never planted as such, but rather the answers came out espontaniously in brief sentences during any given conversation, mainly between Mr. McBrusin who appears as the interviewer and Mr. Román Alanís.
Interviewer. -After getting involved in the project I started doing some research, and I found without much surprise that there are several sites over the internet that claim to be the inventors of the Acapulco chair. I am sorry to ask so, but why should I believe you are the one they claim to be, and not anyone of them?-.
Mr. Román. -I have never claimed to be ¨the one¨, but rather: ¨one of the¨, meaning that I could never claim falsehood in their statements nor I would ever want to do so. I believe it is quite possible that different people in different parts of the world can have similar ideas. So, if I had the idea based on my grandfathers needs, I don´t see why anyone else would not do-.
Interviewer. -But..., so many?
Mr. Román. -Yeah, well... I give you that one. Must probable must of them are just using one story or the other as a marketing tool. Which is fine, I think it is valid and widely accepted in today´s practices. What matters is to make feel the customer they are as close as it gets to the origin. That attracts people´s will, it is marketing, I know. So, it´s fine... I guess.
Besides, you know that the more you go around claiming something, the more probable you are not what you claim. So that is why we don´t go around trying to get glory out of an uncertain fact.
And lastly, we must admit that we, no, sorry, that I was late, very late, very much late. I never really had the idea of developing this concept further than within my immediate surroundings. I never had the vision to forsee a business, and evenmore, never one at an international scope, and yet, here we are today and that is what values the most for me-.
Interviewer. -You don´t mind about not getting credit, public recognition for the invention of the hammock-chair, eh?
Mr. Román. - Not at all. Firstly, because as I said, it is not important, really. Second, because probably I was not the only one, and perhaps not even the first to come up with, what in reality is a very simple idea, no rocket science here-.
Interviewer. -So, you think there was a sprout of similar ideas around the country. Ok, I´ll take that one. They all, or some of them might also be original creators of the silla Acapulco, but the timming and location in your particular story works on your favour, as you are older than they are, and you are from Acapulco while the other ¨original creator´s¨ claims come from Guadalajara, Puebla, and Mexico city, amongst others-.
Mr. Román. -Yes, well, remember I have spent all my adult life in Cuernavaca, so I couldn´t proclaim my self any appellation of origin, and as you mentioned just moments ago, I am quite old now which means I am more from Cuernavaca than from Acapulco-.
Interviewer. -But still, from Acapulco. The actual name of the product itself has the name of the place where you were born, wher you invented it and where you probably got it...
Mr. Román. -Stolen? No man, nobody stole anything from me. I left back those eight or nine pieces when I moved to Jiutepec. And those chairs continued their own march under someone elses initiative, not mine. And honestly I would have never thought of naming a chair ¨Acapulco¨. For me it was a clear Hammock-Chair (more like a back-pain treatment utility tool) and not so much a stylish, posh furniture which would later on would capture the paparazzi lenses attention.
Interviewer. -And yet, I still see a time-window that opens many possibilities. There is a time gap and an uncertanity that gives you some more credibility over other ¨original claimers¨ or their descendants. If you only new what happened to those first chairs after you left Acapulco. You never asked your mother about it? -.
Mr. Román. -I have wonder about that many times. I never asked her, because by the time I got to see that couple of chairs at the ranch, the ones that ressembled to the ones I had built many years before, by mother had already passed away. So I have nothing but hypothesis.
I believe the most obvious thing is that whenever my mother got married, her new husband and her moved and either she took them with her or she gave them away. No matter what, at some point one of the few people who had access to those original pieces or sufficently just one of them, might have been fortunate to forsee an opportunity, copied it, replicated it and to a high degree improved it. So, my hypothesys is that he/she developed it, and just like it happens in life, one thing lead to another until... they say it became popular when hollywood actors, italian nobilty and french artists would visit Acapulco as it became the new retreat jewel for the elites.
And ever since, you know the rest of the story. So those other claimers may just well be the real descendants of whomever took over right where I left.
That is how I think it all went, and I take it as it is.
Interviewer. -So you are not worried for not getting the glory of the invention?
Mr. Román. -On the contrary, I am proud. I truly believe that glory does not mean a famous name, but rather that your acts will trascend time and space.
Interviewer. -So, how come you are launching your business as Acapulco Furniture and not as Hammock-Chair? -.
Mr. Román. -Well, my family and I have given it a good thought over. At the end, we realized several things. You see, almost 60 years ago when I assembled that original piece, I called it the Hammock-Chair because the concept was very obvious for my mother, my granfather and for myself. The frame did the chair, the wooven fiber the hammock. However, normally a hammock is more a concept of swinging in the air, and not so much the material of which is made and the way is threaded... and definitively the hammock concept does not go really well with a static concept like a chair that used to stick into the grass or the sand.
And it is quite logic as well, because what we do is all sorts of furniture and not only chairs.