An image that has become one of the most controversial archetypes for Mexicans in the last century has been composed of a resting body wrapped in a shawl (or sarape) and a sombrero covering the face. In the 1930s Mexican folk artists began employing this image in their art as a reflection of their environments. The depiction since then has often been distributed as a racist and derogatory stereotype of “the lazy Mexican”. Charles Philip Jimenez explains in his book “The Sleeping Mexican Phenomenon” that these images originated not to depict laziness but exhaustion. The conditions that early indigenous Mexican workers were forced to endure were ones that called for rest. Andrew Alba reclaims the image in his painting Seated Figure. He paints the irony that resting may be one of the most radical acts that can be enjoyed by Mexicans.