Vochos Unidos
by Rodrigo Gaya Villar
“Volkswagen brought the Beetle to Mexico in 1954, and it immediately helped get the country moving. Now, more than 70 years later, … they’re everywhere, ubiquitous, and you can learn a lot about a place by its vochos.”
Do Volkswagen Beetles draw your eye even as they trigger memories of when they captivated and were among, if not the, most affordable form of personal transportation? And does seeing one or more of those little round-topped shapes rekindle the delights of these quirky yet competent cars?
Then treat yourself to a copy of Vochos Unidos. It is reasonably priced, surprisingly so given its slightly oversize, hardcover presentation. Equal care and attention has been given to interior page layouts. And that’s the standard edition. Spend a bit more and your copy will arrive signed by the photographer/author, Rodrigo Gaya Villar, and will be in a handsome slipcase, accompanied by a Leen-produced VW Beetle pin in its own presentation folder. Those content with a standard edition to enjoy the variety of images—approaching 200—on the book’s 308 pages—won’t be disappointed.
It’s a book of few words although those in the Prologue and the others introducing each of the six sections are printed in both Spanish and English reflecting the author/photographer’s reality of being an American child born in Florida of Mexican parents. As a child he’d visited his ancestral home with his parents but now, about to turn 30, he embarked on a series of trips on his own over five years always carrying his mirrorless digital camera mounted with one single Fujifilm 35mm lens—a purposely simple setup to make it possible to move about easily and freely.
Rodrigo Gaya Villar arrived in Mexico on the first day of January 2016. Over the next five years he would spend much of his time exploring all around Mexico with trips back to Florida to fulfill work assignments and likewise others to Mexico City. Beetles were, of course, everywhere having been produced in Mexico for over 40 years, early 1960s to 2003. The Spanish term of endearment for them is vochos, and those who own, drive and preserve them are vocheros.
With this, Gaya Villar’s first book, he celebrates the spirit and culture of a nation, and the car that has become its mascot. Each image is unobtrusively identified with information indicating where it was taken and during which year.
In one of the section introductions, Rodgrigo shares “I learned to hear the cars coming before they’d arise into frame. Perched up on a pedestrian crossway like a pigeon, I’d listen for the rumble of the flat four-cylinder engine. … You need a keen ear to hear that specific vochos frequency, allowing ample time to prep the camera and consider a frame.”
As said, this is a picture book—and filled with wonderful photos at that. Thus without further ado, enjoy the images we show here; in the book they are identified by general location and year in which the image was captured. There are a few others on the publisher’s website that you can gander at. Best idea, though, is acquire a copy of the entire book for yourself. Enjoy!
Copyright 2026 Helen V Hutchings (speedreaders.info)
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