Los Mijos, mostly known as Mijos, are toy characters created by David Gonzales

David Gonzales

David Gonzales is a Mexican-American cartoonist from Richmond, California, currently living in nearby Hercules. He is the creator of the Homies line of toys.-Biography:...

 loosely based upon Chicano

Chicano

The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...

 Mexican American

Mexican American

Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...

 characters, the mijos line include girls as well and other ethnicities of characters as well as Puerto Rican

Puerto Rican people

A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

, African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

, Caucasian

Caucasian race

The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...

. It's how he sees "through the eyes of hispanic children."

He came out with series of mijos toy

Toy

A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...

s, and book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

s. Before you could get the toys out of vending machine

Vending machine

A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

s. Gonzales even won awards for toys being in vending machines for Best Vending Machine Toy Award.

The Mijos live in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

 in the same area of town as the Homies

Homies

Homies are a series of 2-inch figurines loosely based upon Chicano characters in the life of artist David Gonzales. First created in 1998, these plastic figurines were initially sold via vending machines typically positioned in supermarkets, mainly in International marts. Homies have become a...

.
Some of Gonzales' characters are named after his real life children Andres, Monica, and Anthony.

Names of the Mijos characters

• Andres Ramos
• Maria Nevarez
• Antonio Salamanca
• Angela Rodriguez
• Esteban Mendoza
• Selena Perez
• Carlos Martinez
• Juan Ricardo Cervantes
• Teresa Cervantes
• Marcos Mendoza
• Reynaldo Nevarez
• Juan Tito Ibañez
• Reggie Baggett
• Brenda Santos
• Manuel Casas
• Pancho Camacho
• Salvador Dominguez
• Hector Diaz
• Brian Downey
• Javier Soria
• Natalia Solis
• Chaz Williams
• Carolina Mendoza
• Roberto Rodriguez
• Miguel Espino
• Bennie Nuñez
• Julian Gonzalez
• Juanito Juan Castillo
• Monica Naranjo
• Pedro Lopez
• Pablo Villegas
• Enrique Huerta
• Charlie Gomez
• Jaime Ruiz