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“Water” in Mexican Place Names

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Joseph Raymond
Joseph Raymond*
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York, N. Y.
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Extract

Water is a Prominent Theme in Mexican place names. Of at least 50,000 Indian toponyms, an untold number of references are made to water: its abundance, scarcity, shape, size and quality (i.e., color, taste and purity for drinking).

A study of Mexican place names makes it apparent that the proper distribution of water is historically one of the basic problems confronting the country; this is indirectly substantiated by many allusions to aqueducts and to the question of water ownerships in a given place. Rivers, too, play an important part in Mexican toponyms; the same applies perhaps more so to springs. Vegetation and fauna frequently are identified with hydronyms in Mexican place names. Diverse actions are associated with another group, while stones and soil figure in still another class. Canoes appear in another cluster of place names.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , October 1952 , pp. 201 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1952

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