New Tricks: Menchaca Road

[livingdeb]

One of the many bizarrely pronounced place names in Austin is being changed. Menchaca Road will be the new name for Manchaca Road.

Apparently no one knows anymore the real origin of the name, but one theory is that it was a misspelling of the name of a Texas soldier, José Antonio Menchaca. I had heard this before. One thing I'd never heard before I read the Austin American Statesman's "It’s official: Manchaca Road is now Menchaca Road" is that "some amateur historians have surmised that the widely accepted mispronunciation of “man-chack” originated with slave owners living in the area. They preferred an anglicized switch to Manchac, the historians say, because of the prejudice against Hispanics that spiked in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War." Okay, that's sickening. And also not how I've heard it pronounced, which has always been "man-shack."

I assume we'll be pronouncing it as spelled now.

Similar road name change from the past: I remember noticing a while back that Arroyo Seca (dry creek) got changed to Arroyo Seco (dry creek, spelled by someone who knows that "arroyo" is masculine).

Comments

Streets are a Drag

[(Anonymous)]

I noticed that too. I have a feeling it originally was misnamed due to white man's reluctance to accept anything linking to the origin of the state (ie stolen from Mexico). It's the same with Guada-LOOP, which has driven Mexican-Americans crazy for a long time. Since I usually only refer to that section of the road near UT, I just defer and call it The Drag. It should be renamed too--Jay

Re: Streets are a Drag

[livingdeb]

Where I grew up, Bouganvilla was pronounced boe-ghan-VILL-a. I just assumed people were ignorant Americans. The idea that names are deliberately mispronounced is just sickening.

Pronouncing Loop 1 "MOE-pack" is probably not sickening. After all, it does parallel the railroad tracks and it's not a loop.