Colonial Semiotics

Another chapter in the history of Merida street signage.   Semiotics -- the study of signage -- this is exciting stuff!

Click here -- Los Cuadros -- for a basic rundown on the ultra-cool street signage system evolved in Merida, and some photos of same.

Neighborhood?  The Electric Bulb

There isn't a lot of formal published history of this system, so I've had to piece some of this together.  It seems to me that the painted street corner signs date from late-19th century through mid-20th century.  Some are clearly pretty old, but some are more recent -- like the "Electric Bulb".  Edison patented the lightbulb in 1879, so the sign is probably early-20th century?  And I've seen one sign showing a primitive helicopter -- which I'm guessing must date from mid-20th century.  Nothing more recent than that.

This signage system is actually not the original -- it is a "new and improved" version, introduced as a modernization of the original colonial system at some point after 1840. Stephen's describes the original colonial-era system on page 48 of Incidents in Yucatan:

"...The streets are distinguished in a manner peculiar to Yucatan.  In  the angle of corner house, and on top, stands a painted wooden figure of an elephant, a bull, a flamingo, or some other visible object... that in which we lived had on the corner house a flamingo, and was called The Street of the Flamingo."

I had only seen the modern signs, the kind painted on a wall plaque, never the original physical statue kind.  Thought it would be interesting to see if I could find any physical evidence of the original system.  I've walked all over looking at corner rooftops, but no luck so far -- they may all be gone.

Original Statue

Then I happened to visit the Merida City Museum.  By lucky chance, they had a photograph showing a corner with both types of signage -- it has the original statue on the roof, and also he more "modern" painted graphic much closer to the ground!  They also had the original rooftop statue on display, beside the photo.

Mid 20th Century Painting, Street of "The Elephant"