QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MUNICIPIO — BRANT) 



41 



Table 1. — Numeration of Tnanzanas in Quiroga. — Con. 



SIGNS AND NUMBERING 



Four streets are oiled or asphalt-surfaced — the 

 streets traversed by the Morelia-Guadalajara high- 

 way (Benito Juarez and Zaragoza), the street on 

 which the branch highway turns off to Patzcuaro 

 and Tacambaro (Calle Nacional), and the cut-off 

 connecting the Patzcuaro road with the Guada- 

 lajara road at the southwest of town (Carreras). 

 These streets were surfaced in 1938 and 1939, at 

 which time it was necessary to widen Benito 

 Juarez and Zaragoza by cutting away the fronts 

 of all of the houses along the south side of the 

 street. As one consequence, there are no signs 

 indicating cuartel or manazana numbers or giving 

 the names of streets in the northern portions of 

 cuarteles I and IV. In all the town there are only 

 25 name signs (painted in black on whitewashed 

 walls of buildings) which give the identity of 20 

 streets. Considering the local usage of applying 

 a street name to distances varyuig from ji block 

 to 6 blocks, there are 119 "blocks" or segments of 

 streets within the limits of Quiroga, which carry 

 52 different names (including plazuelas and por- 

 tales) and eight streets are without names. This 



means that only one-third of the streets are posted. 

 There are 89 occupied "blocks" on 51 streets and 

 plazas. At least three systems of house number- 

 ing have been applied in recent times, since we 

 found a number of houses having 3 different num- 

 bers, each number being painted in black with 

 a different type of stencU. Away from the central 

 streets the numbering at present is chaotic. The 

 preservation of numbers from earlier times, the 

 eradication of numbers by whitewashing or loss 

 through weathering, the abandonment and com- 

 plete elimination of houses that formerly occupied 

 a place in a sequence, and the subdivision of 

 solares and erection of new houses for which there 

 was no place in any sequence used previously, 

 have combined to make the sequence of house 

 numbers on some streets highly irregular and 

 misleading. As an example we give the sequence 

 of current house numbers on the west side of 

 Ram6n Corona (older numbers are within paren- 

 theses): 1 (80), 3 (4), 5 (78), 7, (76), (74), (72), 13, 

 17, 19, 21 (66), 23 (64), 25; 27 (24, 62), 29 (26), 

 31 (58), 33, 35, 37, (50), 41, 43, 45 (44), 47 (40, 42), 

 49 (40, 42), .X, X, X, 55, 57 (48); 59 (50), 61 (52), 

 63, 65 (54), 67, 69, 71, 73, 75 (66), 77, x, 81 (68), 

 83 (70), 85, X, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95; x, 97 (82), x, 99 

 (84), 101, 103, 107, (73, 88), x, x. Although the 

 odd numbers are commonly on the left side as one 

 goes out from the center of town, it will be noted 

 that at one time the reverse procedure was in 

 vogue. It should be mentioned that in Quiroga, 

 and commonly elsewhere in Mexico, numbers are 

 continued in alternating sequence from block to 

 block. In the example given above four blocks 

 were involved, which are set off by semicolons. 



PAVEMENT 



At one time, prior to the Madero Revolution, 

 all four axial streets were paved with cobblestones, 

 and most of the other streets within three blocks 

 of the center were paved in the same fashion. In 

 recent years there has been little or no attempt to 

 keep the streets in repair; and one encounters a 

 regular sequence, going out from the center, of 

 fully cobblestoned streets, degenerated pavement 

 with many stones missing, and dirt streets that 

 probably never were paved. At least 20 streets 

 have no pavement of any description. These dirt 

 streets are usually far more pleasant to walk upon 

 than are the cobblestone streets; but the stone 



