Street Names, or Who Wants to Live on HEGEL

(Note, this is going to be an insanely long post, but probably my favorite so far)

Yea, that's right. This is a common theme in Mexico. Like our forefathers in los Estados Unidos, there was a bit of a European...uh, love going on. Except here, the rich were straight up European surrounded by millions of natives. So in order to preserve their idea of Europe, two major things happened that I've noticed so far.

First, the rich act like they're living in 19th century Europe. They have a lot of the same formalities, a lot of the same rules governing conduct between classes, etc. Two examples happened just yesterday about this.


We had this meeting in the gallery yesterday. Before it started, all of the spare chairs in the gallery were rounded up and put up in an empty display room, that apparently doubles as a meeting room. I have no idea who brought them up there, but they were there. The meeting ended and everyone started back to their offices, all of which are on different floors, most downstairs where the chairs came from.

Not one person took their chair with them. Instead they let Edith, the tiny 4'10" 65 year old woman carry all of these chairs up and down the stairs. Edith is the all-purpose cleaning and cooking woman at the gallery. I couldn't believe it, so I went and took as many as I could, as she was clearly struggling.

The next was at lunch. Edith cooked an insanely delicious meal for a "gallery lunch." She served the entire meal, which was okay considering that that was pretty much her job title. But the other maintenance staff, who not only basically run the entire place, but are in charge of caring for and protecting all this ridiculous artwork, including wrapping them in bubble wrap which is incredibly difficult and time consuming, was forced to eat outside the room we were in, despite a lot of open seats at the table. Remember, there's only 10 people that work there at all, so any divisions are purely invented. It was just weird (although we all got tequila...)

The other main thing they did that I've noticed so far is street naming. Not kidding. It's unbelievable, and almost entirely in the wealthy portions of town.

For instance, I live on Biarritz (a beach city in France, known for being incredibly glitzy) and my cross streets are Londres and Hamburgo. The streets to either side are Praga and Sevilla. Let's just say my entire neighborhood is city names from the Old World or the megalopolises of Asia (Tokio)


I meant to mark where it is I live, but it's easy enough to find. Between Sevilla and Praga in the bottom left corner. It's only one block long, haha.

But look at all the names. It's like someone pulled out a map of Europe and wrote down everything he saw on Mexico City.

And of course the rivers, I find these particularly amusing.



But nothing does justice like living on one of the great lakes. Haha, who wants to live by Lake Erie, when you can live on it in la Ciudad.




But of course, here is where it gets messed up. Apparently, whatever socialite was responsible for all this naming of streets ran out of things on the map of Europe on which to transplant to the map in Mexico.

So he apparently opened up a "Who's Who of Europe" and came up with this disaster. Mind you the next two slides are only about 2 of 5 I could have made, but these two are particularly hilarious.


I mean seriously. Darwin? Hegel? Just plain silly. Living on Gutenberg is actually impressive, it's a very beautiful street. But really. Gutenberg?

Other things to point out:

1. Even in Mexico, Leibniz and Newton don't see eye-to-eye.
2. Who gave Rousseau such a small street?
3. Sorry Dave, even in Mexico poor Tesla gets no credit. (and notice Curie and Emerson to point out that he probably should have, not to mention Edison)

But easily the best part is the "Writer's District." My relative actually lives very near here. But still, just silly. All writers and thinkers.



Catch you on Ibsen Street. I can't even say that with a straight face. Bernard Shaw would be proud.