Cultural Subconscious

"In an era of globalization, cultural heritage helps us to remember our cultural diversity..." -- Elena Franchi

Greyhound Bus

There is a local bus company in Merida called "Rapidos de Merida".  You see their buses everywhere.  At first I thought that they were Greyhound buses, but they aren't -- their logo is just pretty darn close to the old Greyhound logo. I had a kind of mixed emotion about this bus line -- on the one hand, regret about the phenomenon of globalization, on the other hand, admiration that they were so brazen in copying the Greyhound logo.  But my main thought when I saw a Rapidos de Merida bus was generally "that is a pretty bad drawing of a dog... tail too thick... front legs too short... too meaty in the haunches... just plain wrong.”

Well yesterday the scales dropped away from my eyes and I saw the logo for what it really is.  True, it is a rip-off of the Greyhound logo, but one drawn by an artist who comes from the Yucatan and a Mayan cultural heritage.  

Rapidos de Merida Bus

Sprinting Jaguar

The artist's subconscious is steeped not in dog, but in cat.  And that drove his or her hand when creating the Rapidos de Merida logo.  The logo is not a greyhound dog -- it is really a jaguar (albeit with kind of a doggy head).  Now I can't see the logo any other way.  It is a dog-headed jaguar.

I wonder whether the artist intentionally drew a jaguar in place of a greyhound, or the substitution of jaguar for greyhound was  subconscious.  I wonder if I am the last person to notice this, or the first.  The management of the bus company might well say "of course it is a jaguar ... you thought it was a dog?  Jeez.  Tourists."

Mesoamerican Jaguar Figure