Famous Street Names in Mexico

Every now and again, Mexico’s National Statistics Institute publishes off-beat snippets of information that have no bearing on the country’s current economic situation, no clues as to whether it’s time to invest, time to buy property, time to sell up, or whatever other applications people have for the reams of information it generates.

INEGI, as the institute is known, has a custom of coming up with marriage statistics on Valentine’s day, education data on Teachers Day, birth and death rates on Day of the Dead, and a host of other trivia for the innumerable World days and International days that dot the international calendar.

September is Mexico’s Mes de la Patria when the country celebrates its independence from Spain and the historical characters who helped bring it about, and in September 2014 the usually conventional institute outdid itself in creativity by publishing statistics on the number of streets in the country that are named after the different national heroes and key dates in the nation’s history.

Some of the results are not so surprising: Miguel Hidalgo, or just Hidalgo, known as Father of the Homeland, is the most common name for streets nationwide, with more than 14,000 currently in existence. He is followed by revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata. So far so good.

Perhaps less expected is that Cinco de Mayo, the date that marks the 1862 victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla, is more common than 16 de Septiembre, Mexico’s Independence Day. The irony is that Cinco de Mayo is more celebrated by Mexicans in the U.S., where many apparently confuse the date with Mexico’s Independence (could it be that it’s more similar in sound to Fourth of July?).

Other popular street names include Benito Juárez, Francisco I. Madero, and Lázaro Cárdenas.

The list with number of streets–and even a breakdown of street name by States–can be found by searching INEGI’s website