Up north, if you want to start a small business, you might contract with a franchise company, sign a lease with a mall that takes a portion of your sales for themselves, and conduct your business exactly the way the franchisers tell you to. Your pelletized ice cream stand looks exactly like everyone else's, but at least you're working for yourself. And the franchise company. And the mall. And the bank...

In Mexico, you put another quart of oil into your old pickup truck, drive on over to Costco, and buy a few cases of soft drinks and cello-wrapped munchies. You put shelves in your living room and, if you're going first class, you paint a sign on the outside of your building. Instant retail business!

Your startup costs are about one tenth of one percent of what you'd pay in the U. S. Of course, your profits will be pretty thin, but at least you have the freedom to do things your way.

The owner of Las Cuatro Milpas does things his way.

Just for laughs, he painted the name of his tiendita in mirror writing on one corner of the building. I don't know why he calls it "The Four Cornfields." I didn't think to ask him until now.

Two figures in a cornfield make up his logo.

They wear huaraches and those white, pajama-like pantalones and camisas common in Diego Rivera's day. (Does anyone know what this type of clothing is called?) The mustachioed Señor stands idly by while his wife works, trimming ears of corn, the way God intended her to. In Mexico anyway. I think the Señor is supervising...

—§—

I'm moved to remark on the street sign. First that it is there at all. Mexican cities treat street signs as highly optional, making navigation more a matter of luck than anything.

The sign tells us we're on Barranca (gully) Street. It also tells us the street previously was known as either Reboceros (street of the shawl makers) or maybe as Chorrillo. Chorrillo means either "little spring" or "diarrhea". Something about gushing forth, anyway.

As if that's not already way too much information, we're told we're at the corner of Block 65 of section 6 and that our Zip Code is 37700.

What the street sign doesn't tell us is that over the course of six blocks, this street bears five names. That's right, from north to south they are: Calzada de la Presa, Nuñez, Murillo, Barranca, and El Chorro.

You'd think that by eliminating all that writing about what the street was called in 1760 and 1632, they could use the space to tell us that Barranca is Murillo on the other side of the cross street.

No wonder people get lost in Mexican cities. I usually have at least one meltdown while driving through a new town. Nothing gives me more satisfaction, though, than when a new Lexus with Mexico City plates stops in front of me, and a harried driver asks how to find his way out of town.

Hey. It's your country, buddy. You built it this way. We foreigners are supposed to get lost. You're not.