Even though Old El Paso has produced numerous adverts in its time, many Aussies will remember one in particular.
The Tex-Mex-style American food company featured an Aussie six-year-old girl who said the iconic line “por qué no los dos?” as her TV family argued about whether to use soft or hard tortilla shells for dinner.
That girl is Mia Agraviador, who is now all grown up as a 25-year-old.
She told Yahoo Lifestyle that while the advert is nearly two decades old, it’s still following her around today.
“It’s crazy. It’s hilarious,” she said.
“Por qué no los dos” loosely translates to “why don’t we have both”, and it’s used all the time as a meme when people are presented with two options.
Mia said her classmates at school would get her to utter those five words all the time while she was growing up.
While she admitted she would just go along with it, she said it often left her annoyed, and she struggled to have long-term friends.
Even though she was initially shy about her small screen fame, she later learned to embrace it.
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Mia saw the meme as recent as this year when she was looking for tickets to Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny’s two Sydney concerts.
“I got tickets like two hours before. But an influencer posted ‘Are you going to Bad Bunny on the first or the second day’ and then my meme was there.
“And that was only three weeks ago.
“This is so current and it’s so crazy because everyone uses it.”
Mia told Yahoo Lifestyle that her family regularly tells her how it’s used by strangers at their workplaces or in group chats.
“I always think, ‘It’s been 20 years now, like, surely people are starting to forget’, and it’s not happened yet,” she said.
What is Mia up to now?
Mia has done a lot since that now infamous ad.
She was a finalist for the Young Archibald Prize in 2015, has worked as a barista, and plunged herself into learning how to dance.
Even though it’s been two decades since she was on set for the Old El Paso ad, Mia is keen on getting back in front of the camera.
The now 25-year-old wants to do more acting and pursue content creation, marketing, and being a social media influencer.
“I really feel like I want to work with brands that care about me as a person,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.
She recreated the iconic meme during a collaboration with Koala Mattresses in 2020.
Mia appeared in a Koala advertisement with her famous catchphrase. Source: Old El Paso/Koala
She’s since teamed up with Mingle Seasoning back in 2024 to promote their products, and reunited with the brand this year.
It comes as Mingle’s Mexican range has been extended at Woolworths to include Everyone’s Fave Taco Recipe Base, Fire Roasted Salsa & Taco Sauce and Taco or Guac Recipe base.
The recent partnership was spawned after the 25-year-old spent nine months travelling through Europe, the Middle East, and Central America.
Mia is now 25 and working with Mingle Seasoning. Source: Supplied
At the end of her trip, she visited her mum’s side of the family in Costa Rica and Honduras, which felt like a homecoming after being away from Australia for such a long time.
“I got to do the local style of eating and I really noticed that they have natural ways of cooking,” she said.
“They use natural ingredients whenever they can.”
She said it helped her realise that Australia has some of the best sources of ingredients, particularly as a multicultural country.
“When I was little, like when I was six on the taco commercial, we didn’t have that many options,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.
“Especially with healthy options, like you’d have to get a relative to bring a special maize to make tortillas with.
“These are all the things I’m thinking about now. I want to cook. I want to cook for my future. I’d like to cook things that keep my cultural heritage there but at the same time be healthy.”
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