Friday, December 5, 2008

Una rosa por otro nombre. . .

Moving plans have finally been cemented, and I have a one-way ticket with my name on it. I'm really, truly moving to Mexico. Soon.

Though the nation has progressed in numerous ways in the last several decades, Mexican mail service is still notoriously third-world. So, we've got a P.O. Box just on the other side of the border. It's small place; a few bars, gas stations, last-chance-Mexican-auto-insurance offices, a trailer park, and the post office. Both usps.com and the maps I've seen refer to the town as "Lukeville", but when we stopped there on our way through over Thanksgiving, the sign on the post office wall said "Gringo Crossing". I noticed that several other signs in town had the same name. I asked my husband about it, and he didn't have any illuminating information on the subject. Oh, where is the fount of Arizona history minutia when you need one?

Maybe "Gringo Crossing" is an older name? I can understand why you'd change it; it sounds like something out of a lame western, and "gringo" isn't exactly a compliment. It's an ugly name, but intriguing in its overt tackiness. Part of me is tempted to give out my new mailing address as Gringo Crossing, precisely because it's so awful. I assume the mail will still get there, since we rely on the ZIP code more than anything else. Yes, tempting.

Lola is NOT a gringo, no matter where she crosses the border.

1 comment:

Jane said...

I am totally writing to you at "Gringo Crossing" - well meant or not, that is hilarious. It's like the hazard sign in San Diego of the man and woman pulling two kids and a teddy bear across the interstate. Maybe not flattering, but dang funny.