QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MIINICrPIO — ^BRAND 



45 



of the smaller, had a distinctive name painted in 

 large colored letters somewhere on the front — ■ 

 usually just above the door. This name never 

 was connected with the name of the owner, and 

 seldom was indicative of the nature of the business. 

 At present there are still visible such names as 

 Sal6n Tere, El Horizonte, La Luz, El Nuevo 

 Paris, Union Pacifico, La Esmeralda, El Page, La 

 Barata, El Porvenir, and Buenavista. These 

 names represent the more or less modern equiva- 

 lent (for a presumably hterate public) of the 

 colonial and early nineteenth century carved or 

 painted emblems which could be understood by 

 an illiterate people. Some of the defunct street 

 names carry the memory of the older store names; 

 e. g., the Calle de la Campana (present Manuel 

 Doblado) got its name from a large bell which was 

 painted on a store at the corner of Doblado and 

 Ram6n Corona more than a century ago. A few 

 stores and the hotels and restaurants have modern 

 names painted above the doorway or on a swinging 

 board sign. These include the various tourist or 

 "regional curiosities" shops, the Botica Vasco 

 de Quiroga (a drug store), the hotel and restau- 

 rant Atzimba, the Hotel Central, and the Posada 

 Escobedo. 



Since there is practically no local vehicular 

 traffic, and busses and automobiles from the 

 outside do not pass more frequently than about 

 five or six an hour, the bulk of pedestrian as well 

 as animal traffic moves on the streets rather thao 

 on the sidewalks. However, the beasts of burden 

 (principally burros, some mules, and a few horses) 

 when going around a corner tend to conserve steps 

 by cutting the corner as closely as possible. Since 

 most of the packing by animals is from and to the 

 north (busses and trucks are available in the other 

 directions) there has been considerable attrition 

 of the whitewash and of the adobe walls on the 

 corners in the two northern cuarteles. It is only 

 in those districts of town that stone corners (stone 

 used instead of adobes in the comer portions of 

 houses) and stone guards (guarda esquinas) are to 

 be found. The typical guarda esquina is an elon- 

 gated slab of stone, inserted in the ground about 

 1 foot out from the corner, which stands 4 to 

 5 feet above the street surface and absorbs the 

 abrasive contact with fagots, sacks of charcoal 

 and maize, building stones, bricks, adobes, tiles, 

 etc. The streets are fairly open since only a few 

 contam trees (planted along the sidewallvs) , and 



the public utilities are few. There are only about 

 100 poles which cany electric wires from two 

 transformers (one at the intersection of Arteaga 

 and Lerdo de Tejada, and the other at the inter- 

 section of the Plazuela de Bravo and Degollado). 

 Electricity reaches 44 of the 89 occupied "blocks" 

 in Quiroga, and is utilized by 281 families and 

 businesses in 239 houses. There are a total of 

 927 bulbs or "lamps" in Quiroga, of which 77 pro- 

 vide the illumination for the town. Wlien street 

 lighting began in Quiroga we do not know. There 

 were faroles or lantern posts already erected on 

 some of the principal streets and in some of the 

 plazas when municipal records begiji m the 1860's. 

 By the 1880's there were 26 faroles, and the number 

 had increased to 62 iji 1899. Conversion from 

 liquid fuel to electricity, provided by a wood-steam 

 plant containing two direct-current dynamos, was 

 made in 1906. At present the electricity (since 

 September of 1942) comes from the Bartolinas plant 

 of the Comisi6n Nacional de Eloctricidad near 

 Tacambaro. The ojily other impediments in the 

 streets are some 30 telephone poles, which are 

 restricted to the southern part of town. In 1878 

 the telegraph line reached Quiroga from Patz- 

 cuaro; in 1893 conversion was made to telephone; 

 and in 1899 the line was continued out Carreras 

 and northwestward to Coeneo. There are only the 

 State telephone office in the municipal building 

 and one private telephone. 



WATER SUPPLY AND PLAZAS 



Two springs well up on the margins of the 

 Arroyo de Quiroga (Arroyo de Cutzaro, etc.) 

 some 1,500 meters north of the center of town. 

 Two small concrete and stone houses (cajas) have 

 been built over these springs, and the water is 

 conveyed from them by a conduit of terra-cotta 

 pipes or tubes which were laid in a shallow trench 

 and covered with earth. This conduit or caneria 

 runs along the west side of the arroyo to a brick 

 diversion tank known as La Alcantarilla del 

 Aguacate because of its location on the street of 

 that name. From this alcantarilla metal piping 

 laid on the surface carries water southwest to the 

 cement water-basin or font (pila) in the center of 

 the Plaza de la Constituci(5n. The main water line 

 continues in an underground terra-cotta caneria 

 from La Alcantarilla del Aguacate eastward, is 

 carried across the arroyo by an arch (which has 



