Papirex
Oct 18, 2009, 5:10 PM
Post #3 of 6
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Re: [tonyburton] Spanish toponyms (place names)
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My Mexican wife has also told me that any place name that ends in “tlan” means “land of”. Since there is no word for word translation from one language to another, that is probably fairly accurate.
It was interesting to me that Tony mentioned the “pera”curve on the cuota between us and México City. It is about a 180 degree turn and if you look at a map it is definitely pear shaped.
The original Nahuatl name for Cuernavaca was Cuauhnahuac, which meant “place of great trees”. It is believed locally that the Spanish could not pronounce it easily, so they renamed this place “Cuernavaca” which means “cows horn” in Spanish. A few businesses here still use Cuauhnahuac in their advertising.
The great Moctezuna was born here and established a summer palace here, as did the would be emperor Maximilian. The Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes established a permanent palace for administering his domain which he had been granted by the Spanish king, and a home to live in. Both still exist, the palace is a museum, and Cortes' home is now a fine restaurant, It is expensive, and definitely a splurge experience to eat there.
It is interesting to dine in a 500 year old building, and putting the native Indians that were virtual slaves out of your mind, to speculate on what may have occurred inside those walls.
If anyone is curious, click here: http://www.clickoncuernavaca.com/History.htm
Rex
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
(This post was edited by Papirex on Oct 18, 2009, 5:23 PM)
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