International La Lengua Conspiracy Theory
The good news: La Lengua has gained international recognition! We are now on the map, quite literally, in Japan, Korea and Russia. (I can just imagine the Google maps localization teams saying “You want me to type *what*?”)
All together now!
ラレングア！
ララララレングア！
Unsurprisingly, La Lengua was not translated into any of the Chinese or Arabic Google Maps. No Taco Spring. The revolution will not yet be Sinologized. (This is obviously due to the lack of Mexican food in China, and the clear and present threat posed to wraps and shwarma by burrito supremacy and weaponized tacos.)
The bad news – and this is bad news – is that La Lengua seems to have disappeared from the most recent iteration of the English Google Maps. You may remember the heady glory days of the revolution when La Lengua was practically visible from space:
But as you might have noticed on the first frame of the top gif, La Lengua is missing.
Google giveth, and Google taketh away! The LaLeReCaCo (La Lengua Revolutionary Cartography Council) is maintaining active watch (i.e. hitting refresh and hiding tears) on this disconcerting development.
But regardless of the naming whims of our mapping overlords, La Lengua will live forever as long as taquerias roam free. ¡Viva La Lengua Libre! ¡Continuar La Lucha!
Burrito Justice 
What??? I suspect a Fifth Column with nefarious ties to Google operating within La Lengua.
Viva LaLeReCaCo !!
help me out but why is this La lengua obsession so damn important? It’s the mission, plain and simple.
You get points for your antilenguan consistency, noehiller. But that’s about it. La Lengua chooses you, not the other way around.
And see, I never thought the Mission was plain. Or simple!
WHY Sergey, WHY???
Oh, I’m not so much “anti” lenguan as I’m interested in how and why it garnered that name..and very recently?
I’ve lived here for 32 years, in Noe, and up until recently it was The Mission..and proudly so.
Seems that these new “clever” ‘hood names are the creation of new SF hipster residents and other lay- abouts.
It needed a name. That’s pretty much it.
It’s not Bernal, and it’s not Noe. While I totally agree it’s more part of the Mission, it was too often mislabeled as Outer Mission and I thought SoCha was a dumb name.
I tried to come up with a better one, and it seems that a lot of people agree with me.
More in the La Lengua link at the top of the page.
(p.s. I’d rather have neighborhoods named by hipsters than real estate agents.)
Ok, that’s a fair answer. appreciate your comment. It does seem pretty trivial, however, to give a tiny sliver of urban land its own unique name. People should be proud to call it part of The Mission. I would be.
Creating new and fun names for neighborhoods is just that: fun! I’ve enjoyed this beautiful monster that Burrito Justice has created and I think he fills a need for this unique area. As a linguist, it’s interesting to see how people adopt nomenclature and what catches on and what doesn’t. I was also eternally grateful to reduce the “Outer Mission” appellation use for the area, since I love the actual Outer Mission (Cayuga Park, especially!) and it has its own charm.
What actually bothers me more is people shortening names of ‘hoods: Potrero, for example. Bernal and Noe especially. The first one bothers me less, but you’ll never catch me saying anything but Noe Valley. To me, it’s the equivalent of “San Fran” (shudder). But I don’t judge those that do; I try to be compassionate and open-minded… yet remain a silly snobby San Franciscan (actually born and raised Noe Valleyan) at the same time! :-)
Cheers!
@friscolex Hadn’t thought of the shortening of Noe/Bernal/Potrero along the lines of San Fran (shiver). Interesting.
@noehiller If it helps, think of La Lengua as a bit of Venn diagram. Heavily influenced by the Mission, along with Bernal Heights. Check out this Bernalwood post for color.
OMG, I can’t keep up with the moving graphics.It hurts.
Anyway, I walk by this little sliver of a triangle almost every morning on my walk to Valencia St..and The Summit for a latte…anyway..Do people who live in La Lengua actually call it that? Do they know it’s now called that? What do they think? Were they consulted?
So many questions to ease my pain. btw, I do love The Mission and Bernal Heights. And I would never call Noe Valley just Noe.
fwiw.
@johnnyo: Certainly nothing is as annoying as “San Fran” (which people love to say on Guam for some reason) and maybe the hood shortening thing is really just annoying to me because I like to think of places as Heights and Hills and Valleys! :-)
I love it! Now let’s get DivCo on there!