Zócalo

From Freepedia

Image:Catedral Metropolitana.jpg Zócalo is a Mexican Spanish term for a town square or town center where social and business transactions take place. A city's zócalo is often surrounded by shops and often with a flag in the center of the square.

The name originated when a pedestal was the only thing left after the removal, after independence, of a statue of the Spanish King Carlos IV in the square now known as the Plaza de la Constitución (Mexico City's Zócalo) ^[1].

According to some, the term only applies to a square with both a cathedral and government building on the perimeter of the plaza, otherwise it is referred to as a plazuela.

Before this usage came into place, zócalo meant the plinth of a statue, originally from the Italian word for small sock or shoe, socalo. This eventually became synonymous with the entire town square itself. There is now a zócalo not only in Mexico City, but in just about any other town or city in the country.

Uses in Fiction

In the TV series Babylon 5, the eponymous station's primary market concourse is called "Zocalo."

References