I was googling Mexican place names in preparation for my new gig as a Spanish interpreter for US Probation officers doing presentence interviews. The PO has to take a social history of the newly convicted felon- what are your parents' names? Names of all of your siblings? Where did you grow up? Work history? Physical or sexual abuse? Mental health problems? Drugs, alcohol? OK, tell me about the crime you pled guilty to. What did you do?
The first time I did it the answers to "where are you from" proved to be the most challenging. The interviewee is in prison in another part of the state, so the interview is done over a video system, and the sound is ok, but much less optimal than being in the same room with the person, and you can't always see their face.
So when the PO asks, "Where are you from?", I need to be ready to understand and transcribe Nezahualcóyotl (State of Mexico, pop. over 1 million) or Tlajomulco de Zuñiga (Jalisco) or Huixquilucan (State of Mexico) or San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec (Oaxaca).
Here are some cool links relating to Mexican place names.
To start, Wikipedia's list of Mexico's 173 biggest cities, which yielded the examples mentioned above:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Mexico
From Mexico´s Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, a searchable map and place name registry:
http://mapserver.inegi.org.mx/rnng/index.cfm?s=geo&c=1312
http://gaia.inegi.org.mx/mdm5/viewer.html
From Australia, a cool hub of place names in general
http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/placenames.htm
And then there's this -- http://www.mexica.net/nahuatl/ --fascinating information about nahuatl culture and vocabulary. You have the the food words, of course -- aguacate (avocado), chocolate, tomate, cacahuate (peanut), milpa (cultivated field); and then there are animal names -- tecolote (owl), chapulin (grasshopper), coyote. One I had never thought about before was the word chamaco (boy, young person). That's Nahua too. That's why Mexicans, but not other Spanish speakers, say chamaco. There are words that are in general diffusion in the Spanish speaking world, that you never would have thought were Aztec - tocayo (namesake), petaca (suitcase; con camas y petacas, with all your worldly goods), chicle (gum). Love this site.
This one is of interest to me because it addresses pronunciation. http://www.therealmexico.com/placenames.htm
After 5 years in Arizona, I've learned to speak a little 'Mexican.' I was pleased with how many of the words I was familiar with, things that I learned on the job but never saw in print, like chapopote (tar, i.e. road asphalt). But the field of what I still don't know is always so vast.
