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Almost two years after his election win, when he became Mexico’s President, some urban spaces in Mexico, such as streets, neighborhoods, alleys, and even avenues, are already named after Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In an inspection carried out by EL UNIVERSAL to the registries of streets in Mexico, it was found that at least six entities – Mexico City, Tabasco, the State of Mexico, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Veracruz – have used the name of the President although he has previously mentioned he does not wish for any public space to be named after him.
Last October 2, López Obrador announced that once his term in front of the country’s presidency is over, he will retire from politics and that he does not want any streets to be named after him or any statues of him in the country.
“If people want my term to end in 2024, I want to be in peace; I want to retire; I’m not going to reelect myself, and I’m not going to be meddling in political issues, not even in my part; I will completely retire. I also want to do nothing with persona cult; I don’t want streets to be named after me, statues, tributes, or anything like that,” he said.
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“He helped us with water”
At the skirts of the Tezontitla hill, in the Xochimilco borough, an old wooden sign states the location of López Obrador Street, which was founded on early 2000 and that has borne the name of the federal mandatary due to the social programs he endorsed when he was the head of Mexico City’s government and because of different kinds of support he provided for the inhabitants of this street .
López Obrador Street, which is unpaved, has a rural landscape where dozens of sheep graze in lands where maize and nopal grow along with some avocado and peach trees.
Mr. Eluterio Guadalupe Morales, the founder of the street , remembers that in 2003, a commission of locals got together and decided to go the offices of the then-called Federal District Government to ask authorities for help so that pipes could have access to the street to bring them water.
After the successful meeting, the locals agreed to call the street after López Obrador .
María Ramírez has lived in this place for over 20 years and mentions that the name of the street was not only due to the water but also for the economic support to elderly people when the now-President was in front of Mexico City.
“When we arrived, it had no name; it was later called like this; when López Obrador began giving money to elderly people, neighbors began calling it like this,” she says with a smile.
Doña Mari, as everyone calls her, asserts that the name of the neighborhood is legal and to prove it, she went fast into her home to look for her ID and showed it with pride to EL UNIVERSAL.
“The card says I live at López Obrador Street, is there any document that is more valuable than a voter card?”
In Antorcha Campesina land
40 kilometers away from there, at San Vicente Chicolapa de Juárez in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico, there is another public space named after Andrés Manuel López Obrador: an avenue.
In lands of the PRI organization Antorcha Campesina, the López Obrador Avenue has had this name for a couple of years; its name was given by the inhabitants of these lands that were invaded during the 1990s.
Some blocks from there, EL UNIVERSAL asked a couple of young people at local commerce if they knew the date and origin of the avenue’s name, however, they say they ignore it "the drivers who deliver soda have asked us about the name too, but we have no idea.”
Few people walk on the avenue, in part due to the COVID-19 lockdown and because there are still few people living there. Most of the land is still on construction or only have fences, so it is common to see signs announcing their sale or their ownership so that they are not invaded.
On the quest to find the origin of the avenue’s name, Guadalupe Torres mentions that there is not a clear trace of how and when it was decided to call this place after the current Mexico’s President, but some people started calling it like that.
“Here, everyone calls it as they want; some call it López Obrador Avenue, others Camino al Cerrito or Camino Real; everyone does as he likes,” she says while she walks back home after buying eggs to eat.
Streets in other four states
Just as in Mexico City and the State of Mexico, Guerrero’s Arcelia municipality has a neighborhood named after the President.
Likewise, a small alley in López Obrador’s state home of Guerrero is named after him.
At the San Juan Bautista community in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, a 200-meter streets is also called López Obrador . The same happens at La Concepción, Veracruz.
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