MEXICAN President Felipe Calderon has one last job to do in the dying days of his presidency - he wants to change his country’s name.
Calderon has sent a bill to Congress to alter the constitution in order to tweak his nation’s official name from Estados Unidos Mexicanos, or United Mexican States to plain old Mexico - as the country is already known the world over.
Mexico was given the name of Estados Unidos Mexicanos in the19th century, when the country’s post-revolutionary founders harked to the United States of America as an example of democracy and freedom to follow. “The name of our country no longer needs to emulate that of other nations,” Calderon said. “Forgive me for the expression, but Mexico’s name is Mexico.”
The country’s name is derived from the nomadic Mexica tribe that in 1325 settled present-day Mexico City, which later grew into the imperial Aztec capital before succumbing to Spanish conquerors two centuries later.
Calderon leaves office in a matter of days, raising the question of whether his proposal is a largely symbolic gesture.
His idea was widely mocked on Twitter as a ridiculous parting shot from a largely unsuccessful president. Calderon staked his presidency on the much larger issue of fighting the country’s drug cartels, and about 60,000 people have died in drug violence during his term.
He hands over power to president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party on December 1. SN