A Mexican franchise is an apparent franchise, that's to say, a bunch of different shops that through imitation, fear of the new and herd instinct look exactly the same, and in many cases even share the same name.

One example is "La Michoacana". In Mexico City there is a gazillion La Michoacana ice cream shops, but do you think that there is a Michoacana Corporation ? Nope, it is just that a lot of people thought that that was a cool name. The really bizarre thing is that at time they even use a very similar logo, a stylized girl holding an ice cream cone.
Another one is the torta stands. They all look exactly the same, serve the same things and have very similar prices. But they have different owners, and there is no Organización Mexicana de los Puestos de Tortas. In fact many of them are illegal.

actually, there is a story behind La Michoacana. I can't quite remember what magazine it was in though, but basically there is a small town in the Mexican state of Michoacán which is home to the original. People loved the ice cream so much that they began to pop-up all over the Republic, and now even into the United States (there is one in my neighborhood here in Detroit). I still remember the first time I ate a "paleta de limón" from La Michoacana. The one on Avenida Juárez in León, the same Avenida Juárez I would walk down to reach the central plaza in León (see constitucion) where the Hotel Condesa is.