Packing up and moving to Mexico is a double-edged sword. Right? You’re not just moving to Mexico, but you’re also leaving the USA. Or wherever. And maybe, just maybe, it’s the tiniest bit of an F.U. to your home country. I can just hear your old, Aunt Midge exclaim, “What? Fifty totally diverse states and three and a half million square miles to choose from and you can’t just be happy here? Jeeze…what’s wrong with you? You really think Ajijic is cheaper than small-town Alabama?”
Hollywood stars and musicians amplify this F.U. message, usually around elections. How many regularly threaten to leave the USA if (fill in the blank) “___________” wins the election? There’s always some of them. And yet none of them actually ever leave when their candidate loses. (And amusingly enough, Canada seems to be the preferred destination; wait until they find out about the snow, hehe. Fortunately my readers are wiser.)
Yeah, I’m guilty too. Though I haven’t yet fully packed up, sold my Boston house, burned bridges, or fully planted a flag here, I have my own things that I’m fleeing. But I’m not going to whine. At least not in this post.
But say I do finally move here for good. How could I stick the knife in and give it just a little linguistic twist? How about moving somewhere my American friends can’t even pronounce? How about a place that even the CIA can’t pronounce? (After all, if you’re on the lam, why make finding you easy?) What better place could possibly exist than Mexico? Oh, sure, I could probably find some place in China or Japan, or definitely in Thailand, what with its seventeen-syllable, tonally-inflected words. But that’s frankly too much trouble. They’re in the wrong time zone. And every single word of every single sentence there is unpronounceable. Pure overkill. So no. In terms of bang-for-the-buck, sheer, on-demand, unpronounceability, Mexico is unbeatable.
So my secret is out: I’ve long fantasized about living at a totally unpronounceable address in Mexico. Now if you share this particular, weird fantasy, the only proper way to start is at the state level. There are thirty one or two states here, depending on whether you count the Federal District (CDMX) as a state. Sure some of them are easy-peasy, like Baja California. But how about Tlaxcala? How about Coahuila? Tamaulipas? Even Michoacán might trip up the uninitiated.
Speaking of Michoacán, it has some of the more unpronounceable place names in the country. Just driving through the state is mind-bending. You’ll be whizzing along the cuota at 70 MPH and suddenly a sign will appear with four town names, and your mind won’t even be able to get around them, never mind internally pronouncing them before the sign is a mile behind you. If you were stopped by a cop right after you passed one of those signs, I’ll bet you couldn’t even name a single town. I know I couldn’t.
But as lovely as it is, especially the area around Morelia or Lake Pátzcuaro, I don’t really want to live in Michoacán. In fact, I’m pretty committed to Mexico City. So in the unpronounceability wars, I’m starting at a distinct disadvantage. Everyone can pronounce the name of the city, and almost everyone has heard of it. That totally ruins the element of surprise. Worse, all my favorite neighborhoods are easy to pronounce too. Even a moron could easily get Roma Norte right on the first try. And La Condesa isn’t exactly a tongue twister, though the delegation, Cuauhtémoc, might throw a few for a loop.
So maybe I’ll have to set my sights a little farther afield. My favorite neighborhoods may be easily pronounced, but there are plenty of almost totally unpronounceable neighborhoods. How about the nearby Mixcoac? OK, that one is not that hard to pronounce, at least once you hear it. It’s not too far out, and is hilly, so I could probably find a place with a fantastic view. But it’s a little, “conflictivo,” and I’m not sure I’d fit in. A little farther south there’s the touristically famous Xochimilco. That one took me some time to learn. But why not set my sights a little higher, right? Try Santiago Tepalcatlalpan. That one lures you in with the seductively easy “Santiago,” and then plunges the dagger in when you get to the second word. Or how about Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl? Hehe… even the residents there can’t pronounce it. They all call it Neza. But there’s plenty of other choices: Acapotzalco, Tecacalango, or even San Luis Tlaxialtemalco. And yes. These are all real places; just click the links.
Still, even for someone with as twisted a sense of humor as me, there are limits to how far I’ll literally go to achieve unpronounceability. But I haven’t given up either. There are plenty of unpronounceable streets in and around my preferred barrios. How about Citlaltépetl in La Condesa? Not only unpronounceable, it’s a lovely, tree-lined street with lots of nearby shops and cafés to boot. Or the nearby Calle Popocatepetl? OK, that one is too famous and too well known to be totally unpronounceable. What about Iztaccíhuatl? It’s also a pretty nice street, and very conveniently located. Or what about a street with a “TL” sound? “TL” is certainly not a sound we have in English (or any other European language for that matter). Personally, I have no trouble at all saying “Tlaloc,” “Tlatelolco,” “Tlalpan,” or any number of other “TL” words. Yet I had forgotten how difficult it was for most Gringos . During my road trip down here with Dave from San Francisco, he struggled mightily wherever we found it. And if you’ve spent any amount of time in Mexico, you know it’s far from rare. Heck, here in my modest rental apartment, I’m within a block of Calle Tlacotalpan. Which, confusingly enough, is also the name of a trolleybus stop that’s nowhere near here.
Or maybe I should just go for broke. Take the street where I lunched Tuesday. Jeeze, here almost a week later, even I, a fairly accomplished Spanish speaker can’t even pronounce it comfortably. Give it a try: Calle Tlacoquemécatl.
That might well be the ultimate, unpronounceable address. If you ever ask me where I live but don’t understand the answer, that’s likely where you’ll find me.
Good luck!
El Gringo Suelto 
OK. It is time to “just do it.” And we will all welcome you to your permanent new life here. Personally, I have had no regrets. And I can see that your list of “reasons not to leave Boston” is blessedly shrinking.
As for moving somewhere with an unpronounceable name, it depends on who your target audience is. I live in Barra de Navidad. You would think that anyone who could not pronounce that name was — well, let’s be charitable, a little limited. But a majority of the far northerners who visit here insist on pronouncing “Barra” as if it were the first name of a silent screen actress — and then turn the “a”s in the last word into concrete hard vowels (like “ask”).
So, just throw a dart at the map of Mexico. Wherever you go, there will be plenty of people who will give you pronunciation giggles. Just consider how many people are still baffled by “Ajijic.”
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Hola Steve,
Well, I’m here in CDMX in an apartment, not an Air BnB. But yes, I still have my house in Boston. And given that it’s paying me six figures a year just to hold onto it (insane appreciation), I don’t think I’m going to let it go any time soon. And I’ve been unremarkably unprepared to move here. Honestly, I’m not sure what I was thinking, but for example, I only have 2 pairs of long pants with me. And certainly not enough sweaters for the cool evenings around here.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Saludos!
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Let me tell you about a marvelous new innovation in Mexico City. Department stores. You can just walk in and buy anything that you may need — or want. Go buy some pants.
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Ha!!! You landed on the single thing that’s almost impossible for me to buy in the USA. Here? Fuggedaboudit. Six-foot tall, skinny guys need not apply. And there’s a particular catch 22. Amazon Mexico doesn’t sell my size of 401s here and Amazon USA is prohibited from sending my size to Mexico.
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You’re on a roll today. The Kung Flu must be totally behind you. I pray so. As for your moving to Mexico, we both know that ain’t gonna happen or you would have done it many, many years ago when you started talking about. It is fun to talk and think about, I am sure. If — wonder of wonders — you do move here one day, I hope it’s not the quake-prone, volcano zoned, polluted, traffic-jammed capital of our fair nation, a mysterious fixation of yours, but out here in the beautiful boonies where rational people live.
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Thanks for the kind words, made me laugh too. I just read your post on Cuanajo and thought it was a remarkable coincidence that we had both written on unpronounceable topics within 24 hours.
As for my quake-prone, volcano zoned, polluted, traffic-jammed capital location, just think of it as me joining forces with Steve Cotton to give you something to be perplexed about. You can thank me later. Cheers!
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P.S. I do think the “Kung Flu” is behind me.
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Forget about moving to someplace hard to pronounce. The ubiquitous cameras will find you. See https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/technology/minneapolis-protests-facial-recognition.html
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Hehe, yes. But even if they installed such things in Mexico, how long before they’d stop working? Cheers and thanks for stopping by!
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