Mexico City gets the hero we all deserve

March 1, 2013 8:34 AM

You know how it feels when you're trying to cross the street and a driver comes through the intersection as if you’re not even there? Like he’s muscling through with that big box of metal as if to say, “Hey, get out of my way, you little flesh-and-blood weakling!”

Wouldn’t you just love to have a superhero sweep down, stand up to the jerk behind the wheel, and block the car so you could cross safely?

Enter Peatónito, the masked Mexican defender of pedestrians!

posted by Etrigan (22 comments total)

I think I love this guy. He can come and clean up the mean (more self-absorbed, to be fair) streets of my town.

Sadly, drivers may be more dangerous than Aztec mummies or vampire women, and a luchadore can only do so much....
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:42 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]

He has registered Peatónito as Creative Commons, so that anyone who wants can become Peatónito.

Talk about your superhero do-goodery. I really hope this catches on. If for no other reason than to hear some clueless motorist someday utter the words "My god.... he's everywhere!"
posted by .kobayashi. at 8:55 AM on March 1 [11 favorites]

<3 <3 <3
posted by Skwirl at 8:56 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]

Is there anything that's not made better by lucha libre?

This guy should team up with El Físico Nuclear.
posted by jquinby at 8:57 AM on March 1 [2 favorites]

I want video!
posted by atomicmedia at 9:08 AM on March 1

THIS is the masked defender that NYC needs today!
posted by slkinsey at 9:12 AM on March 1

They definitely need this guy in Chicago, but he would probably get his ass shot :(
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:19 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

I like that his name is a cross between "pedestrian" and "astonished."
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:24 AM on March 1 [3 favorites]

I want him to come to my town as well!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 9:26 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

THIS is the masked defender that NYC needs today!

No need to import him. Simply take the dozens of bovine idiots that enjoy blocking subway car doors at rush hour, pull ornamental underwear over their faces, and shove them in the general direction of Broadway. Problem solved!
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:32 AM on March 1 [4 favorites]

I can't help but think that this wouldn't have happened without Mexican wrestling masks. They seem to be the catalyst.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:46 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

and a luchadore can only do so much....

Luchador. Same as tamal. No e at the end.

I agree that the name is great. I'm happily atónita with this post.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 9:57 AM on March 1

Hmm, it makes me think of Antanas Mockus, former mayor of Bogota:

"Famous initiatives included hiring 420 mimes to make fun of traffic violators, because he believed Colombians were more afraid of being ridiculed than fined."
posted by symbioid at 10:00 AM on March 1 [5 favorites]

Sadly, it won't stop the drivers who simply aren't paying attention. What we need at major intersections is retractible traffic bollards, painted like this guy.
posted by davejay at 10:08 AM on March 1

This is pretty awesome. But I can't help but suspect it will have a follow-up FPP saying "Hey remember this guy? Because he got mowed down by a car."
posted by caution live frogs at 10:24 AM on March 1

We may joke about how unsafe our streets are, but Mexico City is probably worse:

Cáñez created Peatónito to be a defender of the rights of the pedestrian in public space. He wears a cape and a mask in the tradition of Lucha Libre, the popular Mexican wrestling style. His mission, he says, is to protect the pedestrian’s much-assaulted right of way on the streets of Mexico City, where on average one pedestrian is killed by a motor vehicle every day and countless others are injured. His mask is black and white, the colors of a crosswalk.

Emphasis mine.

Sure, the number of pedestrians killed in the US rose for the first time in 5 years last year, but no state got close to that rate, even factoring in Mexico City's population of 8,864,370 in 2012.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:46 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

Crazy that the activists had to paint some of their own crosswalks in such a large city.

Estoy caminando por aquí!
posted by orme at 2:39 PM on March 1

Estoy caminando por aquí!

One of the best ad-libs in the movies.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:41 PM on March 1

number of pedestrians killed in the US rose for the first time in 5 years last year, but no state got close to that rate, even factoring in Mexico City's population of 8,864,370 in 2012.

Usually when people talk about Mexico City they're talking about the DF and metro area which has a population of 21 million. That's a few million less than Texas or a few million million more than New York or Florida. It still is pretty bad.

I joke with my friends when traveling in Mexico that stop signs must be optional for taxistas and many drivers. In most cities I've been in you are crazy to cross the street in a crosswalk even with a light saying it is ok. I won't cross unless I see the car stopped and the driver looking at me.
posted by birdherder at 5:36 PM on March 1

I'm not a native speaker, and this guy probably is, but the accent placement in "Peatónito" looks really weird to me. "Peatón", which means pedestrian, has an accent there, but when there's a diminuitive form with -ito, the stress moves to the i, and, being the penultimate syllable, it doesn't need an accent. As it is, it almost looks like a pun on "atónito", which means startled or astounded, but I don't see how that pun makes sense.

Carry on.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:33 PM on March 1

He's probably going for the pun rather than the diminutive--I think it makes sense because he's just shocked at how little respect drivers have for pedestrians, and he stands up for them when they're startled by drivers encroaching on their right of way.
posted by Pfardentrott at 11:01 PM on March 1

The "atónito" could also be a reference to the common descriptive epithets for Western superheroes, i.e. The Amazing Spider-man, The Incredible Hulk, The Astonishing X-Men. Which would make Peatónito translate to "The Astounding Pedestrian."
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:18 AM on March 2 [2 favorites]