NO8DO

Every major city has more than a few quintessential features. Often it’s the sights that are some of the more memorable ones, perhaps because they stick in the mind better than the taste of a good glass of wine or the sound of a street band. To my mind, it’s the unexceptional sights that really help to mark a place; things so commonplace as to seem unpictureworthy, but which in the end help to shape our memory. In most cases, these serve as a point of pride for locals and as a reminder to visitors that they are in a foreign place. From Chicago, I can recall the checkered bands of police hats. From San Diego, it’s the sight of wetsuits drying in the sun. In Seville, the most pervasive facet of this sort is the ubiquitous impression of “NO8DO” on every street, street corner, monument, gate, lamp post, staircase, police car, manhole cover…the list goes on.

The use of the phrase supposedly dates to the 13^th century, when King Alfonso X “el Sabio” (the Wise), responding to the city’s decision to offer him safe refuge against a rebellious army of nobles led by his son and eventual successor Sancho IV, declared no me ha dejado” – literally “It has not left me.” If you think this strange, consider the motto of the English Knights of the Garter: honi soit qui mal y pense - “Shame on him who thinks it bad taste” – uttered in Old French by Edward III after making the chivalrous and somewhat bold move of picking up the fallen garter of a lady of the Royal Court.

Proud of its distinction and royal favor, the city government (ayuntamiento) of Sevilla has made use of the phrase for centuries, adapting the original spelling into a rather simple abbreviation. The middle syllables were substituted for a crude depiction of a bundle of yarn, or madeja in Spanish; what most people now mistakenly recognize as either the infinity symbol or the number 8. In fact, NO8DO reads “no-madeja-do.”

In short, NO8DO is one of the more conspicuous reminders of where I now live. To offer an idea of how extremely pervasive its use of has become, I have include a sampling of some of the more curious places I have found the motto in the pictures attached to this post. All were taken at various sites around the city.