Photos: 'I Was Selling Honey to Survive.' Then Mel Gibson Threatened to Sue

Chilean unemployed teacher Yohana Agurto, empties a bucket containing organic honey for it packaging as her son Matias Coussy looks on, at her home in Santiago. "Big problems, big solutions." A motto that applies to Yohana Agurto, a honey seller in Santiago under the name "Miel (honey) Gibson", a pun that led to a disagreement with Hollywood actor Mel Gibson, but ended up being a business springboard. Four months into quarantine, Yohana Agurto, an unemployed teacher in Chile, was scrolling through social media to take her mind off her dwindling savings and the four children she had to feed.

Friends of Chilean unemployed teacher Yohana Agurto's son, fill jars with organic honey at Yohana's home in Santiago.

That was the origin of Miel Gibson, the tiniest and scrappiest of businesses, which catered, according to the label, "Only to the brave." She advertised on social media and by word-of-mouth, picking up enough orders to keep her reasonably busy and the family's bills paid. Then last week a most unwelcome email popped into Agurto's inbox with the subject line: "Cease and Desist/Miel Gibson."

Yohana Agurto in her home where she packs her honey with her team. A single mother in Chile began selling organic honey from home during quarantine, using the actor’s name as a play on words. His lawyer was not amused.

Chile's quarantine has been among the longest and strictest in the world, and the country is still reeling from one of the highest per capita rates of infection. The government recently authorized Chileans to dip into their pension plans early to provide a lifeline to millions who are struggling to make ends meet as several sectors of the economy remain paralyzed.

Regardless of how the matter gets resolved, Agurto said she would love to send a courtesy sample of Miel Gibson to Mel Gibson. She wants him to know, she added, that the ordeal has not made her any less of a fan.

A friend of Chilean unemployed teacher Yohana Agurto's son, fills jars with organic honey at Yohana's home.

Chilean unemployed teacher Yohana Agurto, shows labels of 'Miel Gibson' organic honey, at her home in Santiago.

Agurto remembered she had a large stash of organic honey in the pantry. Mel sounds quite similar to the Spanish word for honey, miel. So on a whim, Agurto had a graphic designer friend sketch out a logo with an iconic scene from the movie "Braveheart," printed a handful at home and glued them onto glass jars. Above, Yohana Agurto checks logo designs for her new brand of organic honey, at her home in Santiago.

Jars of packaged honey pots in the home of Yohana Agurto sit on a counter in her home in Santiago, Chile. Under the slogan "Miel Gibson, only for brave hearts", the original label on the small honey jars shows an image of American actor Mel Gibson as his William Wallace character from his film "Braveheart." Agurto has been warned by a U.S. law firm, which identified itself as representing the actor, of legal action against her if she did not stop advertising her honey with the actor's image. "My motivation was not to profit by using the image of a famous person," she said. "I was selling honey to survive."