Zurich Public Transport: 0, Mariachis: 2

For those of you following the Zurich trams vs. mariachis story with baited breath, here's your long-awaited update. According to this morning's 20 Minuten (which, in addition to The Daily Show, is the source of all my daily news intake), the VBZ has finally relented and pulled the commercial featuring mariachis busking on a tram. The capitulation occurred after complaints from the Mexican embassy. How often do foreign embassies in your country have to complain to the local public transportation authorities?

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In other news (also brought to us, naturally, by 20 Minuten), a local woman was kicked out of a Zurich restaurant for breastfeeding. And here I was thinking that this sort of thing only happened in boobie-fearing America. Alas, even the Swiss are now getting offended by mothers feeding their children.

If you take away one message from today's post, please make it this: breasts cannot hurt you. Even when they're in your extended visual field, the chances of you catching cooties from them is virtually zero. (OK, so I don't have any scientific studies to back this claim up. Any scienticians out there looking for a new research study topic?)

Trams vs. Mariachis, round two

This commercial has started playing before movies in theaters around Zurich:



A little background, for those who are not up-to-date on the Zurich Public Transport (VBZ) vs. Mariachis saga: Back in early 2006, Zurich officially banned mariachis from trams with this sign. After numerous protests from individuals and the Mexican consulate, the signs were replaced a few months later. VBZ was out a little money, and had looked a little foolish. And it appeared that the issue was dead.

But apparently someone at the VBZ loves ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans sooooo much that they just couldn't resist revisiting the topic with this brand new commercial (which, despite how it may seem, is not inviting mariachis to start performing on trams. The VBZ is still firmly against buskers of all ethnicities.) The Mexican consulate is investigating.

What do you think: offensive stereotyping or good clean mariachi fun?

A giant leap forward in the realm of Mariachi rights

In a shocking twist of events, the city of Zurich has reversed its no-mariachis-on-trams policy! The pictures were quietly replaced over the past few days. A little internet research revealed that the Mexican consulate complained to the city about the signs after having received many angry calls from the community. The replacement of the signs is reportedly costing the city CHF 20,000.

The replacement signs simply forbid all guitar players, regardless of nationality. Especially if they are singing.

Mariachi bands may or may not be allowed on the tram

The powers that be recently got together and decided that the signs inside Zurich public transportation were unacceptably lacking in humor, stereotypes, and surrealism. Much to my delight, they fixed all three problems at once, making my daily tram rides a lot more entertaining.

Care to guess what the following diagrams are trying to tell us?






Before you go out and buy a sombrero and a hand saw to bring on your next trip to Zurich, It may help if I explain that in the German-speaking world, a red circle around something means "no". Yes, it would be clearer if they went a step further and put the slash that the rest of the world understands to mean something is forbidden, but then it wouldn't be nearly as fun to guess at the meanings of these things.

PS - People look at you funny when you take pictures of signs on a crowded tram.

[See updates to this story under the tag mariachis.]