In just over five decades, 195 Mexico City Metro stations have been founded, however, the origins of their names are often a mystery. This is the case of the Camarones station on Line 7.
Because perhaps in that region of the Mexican capital there was a body of water where these crustaceans were found? Or perhaps the vocation of the area was to sell these little animals wholesale? Or perhaps, many years ago, a family died intoxicated after ingestion?, the possibilities are many.
Metro Camarones, the origin of its name
To begin to unravel the mystery, we must begin by saying that there is currently, near the aforementioned station, a road for cars called Eje 3 Norte Camarones.
Metro Camarones and the disappearance of bodies of water
Its name is because, before it was a vehicular stream, it was a natural stream, just like the extinct Río Consulado, Canal de la Viga or Río de la Piedad, among many other torrents in the capital that dried up or covered with concrete by government decisions.
Well, precisely that stream that today is Eje 3 Norte, was abuzz with some crustaceans that weren’t exactly shrimp, but they did taste practically the same, these little animals were called cocoils, which by the way continue to exist, being cultivated and consumed in states like Nuevo León, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Morelos, Tlaxcala and the State of Mexico, but that will be the reason for another note.
Acociles, the Mexican shrimp
The fact is that the food of the population of Azcapotzalco that lived in the surroundings of the torrent, depended to a great extent on the acociles, so much so that approximately in 1790, there was a town very close to the body of water, and to the now Metro station in issue, which was called Camarones.
It was located on a royal road that went from San Salvador Xochimanca to the vicinity of Azcapotzalco, crossing through the towns of San José, San Bernabé, Azpeitia and Santa Martha.
Thus, with the construction of Line 7 of the Metro, only that it tried to tell a part of the lake and gastronomic history of this part of the north of the Mexican capital.
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