In an attempt to shame local authorities about the state of the Manitoba Commercial Corridor in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, two butchers whose business sits along the stretch of road decided to host a barbecue.
Two young men with Carnes Hildebrand, part of the local Mennonite business community, filled one of the highway’s giant potholes with charcoal, placed a grill on top to cook meat and warm tortillas and proceeded to give away tacos to passersby.
After they uploaded a video of the stunt to their Instagram account, it went viral on the internet.
While not explicitly stated as such in the video’s description on Instagram, the video appears to have been a sarcastic attempt to get the attention of local authorities about the road’s condition. The local Mennonite community that makes up the majority of people in the area says the government has not done its part to maintain the corridor, which is the most visited place in Cuauhtémoc.
The strip of highway is lined on either side with hundreds of warehouse-like stores selling farm equipment, industrial materials, clothing, even local Mennonite cheese, famous in this part of Mexico. There is also a Mennonite museum and several Mennonite suburbs and farms along the roadway.
Despite the road’s popularity, this particular stretch of paved highway is currently little more than a dirt road, as is apparent in the video, where one can see cars passing at highway speed near the young men as they prepare their barbecue.
In May, local officials announced a mobility plan with participation from Mennonite community leaders to rehabilitate and renovate the Manitoba Commercial Corridor after several fatal accidents took the lives of community members. That plan includes creating new crossings, more roundabouts and repaving various kilometers of the highway at a cost of almost 2 billion pesos (US $1.5 million).
With reports from El Sol de Parral and El Heraldo de Chihuahua
