Meet 'Juan Direcshon,' the Mexican One Direction Alejandro Mendoza - VICE News
go to original March 18, 2016

Niall (Bernardo Méndez), Liam (Dylan de Jossineau), Louis (Brandon González) and Zayn (Israel Carreño). (Katia Tort)

"I'm looking for boys who look like Niall, Liam, Harry, and Louis," read the ad that was posted with a photo of One Direction on Facebook, three years ago. That was the beginning of Imitators Top - a Mexican agency representing impersonators of some of the biggest pop stars of our time: Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Five Seconds of Summer, and, of course, 1D.

Israel Carreño, 23, and his girlfriend Karla Magaña founded the company in 2012. They first came up with the idea of putting together a 1D tribute band after watching one of the group's music videos. "We realized no one else was offering that kind of service in Mexico. I had some savings that I wanted to invest in something, so we decided to put together a 1D wardrobe," recalled Israel, when I met the group at the center of Mexico City a couple of weeks ago.

In addition to running the company, Israel impersonates Zayn Malik, who left the band in 2015. "Following orders was never my thing, so I decided to become my own boss. But in order to be a boss, you have to be the best at your job. I had to learn to be a good impersonator, so I could show others how to do it," he went on.

After going through hundreds of Facebook profiles of friends and acquaintances, Israel and Karla found four guys they felt could become the Mexican 1D. The next step was filming a video in Mexico City's Bellas Artes, in an attempt to raise their profile.

"A mom will hire us without telling her daughter and we'll just show up at the party as a surprise. People laugh because they know us from the memes and then they have a good time. They call us Juan Direcshon."

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