Mexico
United Mexican States Estados Unidos Mexicanos | |
|---|---|
| Anthem: "Mexicanos, al grito de guerra" | |
 | |
| Capital and largest city | Mexico City |
| Official languages | None at federal level Spanish (de facto) |
| Government | Federal Republic |
| Independence | |
• Water (%) | 2.5% |
| Population | |
• 2006 estimate | 107,449,525 (11th) |
• 2000 census | 101,879,171 |
| GDP (PPP) | 2006 estimate |
• Total | $1.122 trillion (12th) |
• Per capita | $12,886 (64th) |
| HDI (2003) | 0.814 very high (53rd) |
| Currency | Peso (MXN) |
| Time zone | UTC-8 to -6 |
• Summer (DST) | varies |
| Calling code | 52 |
| ISO 3166 code | MX |
| Internet TLD | .mx |
Mexico (Spanish: México) is a country located in North America, bordered at the north by the United States, and at the south with Guatemala and Belize in Central America. It is the northernmost and westernmost country in Latin America, and also the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
The official name is Estados Unidos Mexicanos, which translates as the United Mexican States. The term State of Mexico (Estado de Mexico) does not refer to the country, but only to one state within Mexico, located near the center of the country adjacent to the Federal District.
History
Prehistoric times
Although there are tantalizing fragments of evidence suggesting human habitation of Mexico more than 20,000 years ago (see Tlapacoya archaeological site), there is no uncontested evidence that humans arrived in Mexico earlier than ~15,000 BP. One of those asserting a date of 28,000 years is archaeologist Michael D. Coe of Yale University (see Mexico: From The Olmecs To The Aztecs, 5th Edition published by Thames and Hudson).
Ancient Mexicans began to selectively breed corn plants around 8,000 B.C. Evidence shows an explosion of pottery works by 2300 B.C. and the beginning of intensive corn farming between 1800 and 1500 B.C.
Pre-Columbian Mexican civilizations
Between 1800 and 300 BC, complex cultures began to form. Many matured into advanced Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the: Olmec, Izapa, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huaxtec, Purepecha,Toltec and Mexica (Aztecs), which flourished for nearly 4,000 years before first contact with Europeans.
Accomplishments
These indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions in: building pyramid-temples, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, writing, highly-accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator (Nepohualtzitzin), a complex theology, and the wheel. Without any draft animals to do labor, however, the wheel had limited applications and was primarily used for art and toys. Metallurgy focused on copper, gold, and silver.
Archaic inscriptions on rocks and rock walls all over northern Mexico (especially in the state of Nuevo León) demonstrate an early propensity for counting in Mexico. These very early and ancient count-markings were associated with astronomical events and underscore the influence that astronomical activities had upon Mexican natives, even before they possessed urbanization.
In fact, many of the later Mexican based civilizations would all carefully build their cities and ceremonial centers according to specific astronomical events. Astronomy and the notion of human observation of celestial events would become central factors in the development of religious systems, writing systems, fine arts, and architecture. Pre-historic Mexican astronomers set in motion a tradition of obsessive observing, recording, and commemorating astronomical events that later become a hallmark of Mexican civilized achievements. Cities would be founded and built on astronomical principles, leaders would be appointed on celestial events, wars would be fought according to solar-calendars, and a complex theology using astronomical metaphors would organize the daily lives of millions of people.
At different points in time, three different Mexican cities were the largest cities in the world: Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan, and Cholula. These cities, among several others, blossomed as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies, and theology. In turn, they radiated influence outwards onto nearby neighboring cultures in central Mexico.
Major Civilizations
While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mexico can be said to have had five major civilizations: The Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Toltec, the Mexica (a.k.a. Aztecs) and the Maya. These civilizations (with the exception of the politically-fragmented Maya) extended their reach across Mexico, and beyond, like no others. They consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology. Other regional power players made economic and political alliances with these five civilizations over the span of nearly 4,000 years. Many made war with them. But almost all found themselves within these five spheres of influence.
The Olmec Civilization
- Main article: Olmec
The earliest known Mexican civilization is the Olmec. This civilization established the cultural blueprint which all succeeding indigenous civilizations would follow in Mexico and Central America. The roots of Olmec civilization began around 2300 B.C. (according to Arquelogia Mexicana, the Mexican archaeology journal) with the production of pottery in abundance, a major sign of urbanization. The first signs of Olmec civilization are in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, near the coast in south-east Veracruz. Widely known today for their colossal heads, the Olmec influence extended across Mexico, into Central America, and along the Gulf of Mexico. They established new forms of government, pyramid-temples, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, trade, and religion. Their achievements would pave the way for the later Maya civilization in the east, and the many civilizations to the west in central Mexico.
The Teotihuacan Civilization
- Main article: Teotihuacan
The decline of the Olmec resulted in a power vacuum in Mexico. Emerging from that vacuum was Teotihuacan, first settled in 300 B.C. By 150 A.D., it had grown to become the first true metropolis of what is now called North America. Teotihuacan established a new economic and political order never before seen in Mexico. Its influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, founding new dynasties in the Mayan cities of Tikal, Copan, and Kaminaljuyú. Teotihuacan's influence over the Maya civilization cannot be understated: it transformed political power, artistic depictions, and the nature of economics. Within the city of Teotihuacan was a diverse and cosmopolitan population. Most of the regional ethnicities of Mexico were represented in the city, such as Zapotecs from the Oaxaca region. They lived in apartment communities where they worked their trades and contributed to the city's economic and cultural prowess. By 500 A.D., Teotihuacan had become the largest city in the world. Teotihuacan's economic pull impacted areas in northern Mexico as well. It was a city whose monumental architecture reflected a new era in Mexican civilization, declining in political power about 650 B.C., but lasting in cultural influence for the better part of a millennium, to around 950 A.D.
The Maya Civilization
- Main article: Maya
Contemporary with Teotihuacan's greatness was the greatness of the Maya civilization. The period between 250 A.D. and 650 A.D. saw an intense flourishing of Maya civilized accomplishments. While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted a tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico and Central America. The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent, and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and writing that became the pinnacle of Mexico's scientific achievements.
The Toltec Civilization
- Main article: Toltec
Just as Teotihuacan had emerged from a power vacuum, so too did the Toltec civilization, which took the reigns of cultural and political power in Mexico from about 700 A.D. Many of the Toltec peoples were comprised of northern desert peoples, often called Chichimeca in Mexico's Nahuatl language. They fused their proud desert heritage with the mighty civilized culture of Teotihuacan. This new heritage would give rise to a new empire in Mexico. The Toltec empire would reach as far south as Central America, and as far north as the Anasazi corn culture in the Southwestern United States. The Toltec established a prosperous turquoise trade route with the northern civilization of Pueblo Bonito, in modern-day New Mexico. Toltec traders would trade prized bird feathers with Pueblo Bonito, while circulating all the finest wares that Mexico had to offer with their immediate neighbors. In the Mayan area of Chichen Itza, the Toltec civilization spread and the Maya were once again powerfully influenced by central Mexicans. The Toltec political system was so influential, that any serious Maya dynasty would later claim to be of Toltec descent. In fact, it was this prized Toltec lineage that would set the stage for Mexico's last great indigenous civilization.
The Mexica (Aztec) Civilization
- Main article: Aztec
With the decline of the Toltec civilization came political fragmentation in the Valley of Mexico. Into this new game of political contenders to the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the Mexica. They were a proud desert people, one of seven groups who formerly called themselves "Azteca," but changed their name after years of migrating. Newcomers to the Valley of Mexico, they were seen as crude and unrefined in the ways of the prestigious Nahua civilizations, such as the fallen Toltec empire.
Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau, the Mexica (or Aztecs as they were subsequently labeled by European anthropologists) never thought of themselves as heirs to the prestigious civilizations that had preceded them, much as Charlemagne of France did with respect to the fallen Roman Empire.
In 1428, the Mexica-Aztecs led a war of liberation against their rulers from the city of Azcapotzalco, which had subjugated most of the Valley of Mexico's peoples. The revolt was successful, and The Mexica, through cunning political maneuvers and ferocious fighting skills, managed to pull off a true "rags-to-riches" story: they became the rulers of central Mexico as the head of the Triple Alliance.
This Triple Alliance was composed of the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. At their peak, 300,000 Mexica (Aztecs) presided over a wealthy tribute-empire comprising approximately 10 million people, almost half of Mexico's present 24 million population. This empire stretched from ocean to ocean, and extended into Central America.
By 1519, the Mexica (Aztec) capital, Tenochtitlan, was the largest city in the world with a population of around 350,000 (although some estimates range as high as 500,000). By comparison, the population of London in 1519 was 80,000 people. Tenochtitlan is the site of modern-day Mexico City.
Allies of the Mexica (Aztecs)
In the formation of the Triple Alliance empire, the Mexica established several ally states. Among them were Cholula (the site of an early massacre by Spaniards), Texcoco (the site of a major library, subsequently burned by the Spanish), Tlacopan, and Matatlan. Also, many of the kingdoms conquered by the Mexica provided soldiers for further campaigns such as: Culhuacan, Xochimilco, Tepeacac, Amecameca, Coaixtlahuacan, Cuetlachtlan, and Ahuilizipan. Mexica fighting forces would become multi-ethnic, comprising many soldiers from conquered areas, led by a core of Mexica warriors and officers. This same strategy would later be employed by the Spaniards.
Legacy of the Mexica
The Mexica left a deep and durable stamp upon Mexican culture. Much of what is considered Mexican culture today derives from this Mexica civilization: place-names, words, food, art, dress, symbols, and even the name "Mexican". (See also Origin and history of the name "Mexica").
For much of its history, the majority of Mexico's population lived an urban lifestyle: cities, towns, and villages. Only a fraction of the population was tribal and wandering. Most people were permanently-settled, agriculturally-based, and identified with an urban identity, as opposed to a tribal identity. Mexico has long been an urban land, which was graphically reflected in the writings of the Spaniards who encountered them.
Spanish conquest
In 1519, the native civilizations of Mexico were invaded by Spanish troops numbering about 600 soldiers, who brought with them superior weaponry and old world diseases. Two years later in 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) was conquered. It is said that the dead from smallpox filled the streets and canals. Hundreds of thousands of Aztecs died of disease. Francisco Hernández de Córdoba explored the shores of southern Mexico in 1517, followed by Juan de Grijalva in 1518. The most important of the early Conquistadores was Hernán Cortés, who entered the country in 1519 from a native coastal town which he renamed "Puerto de la Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz" (today's Veracruz).
Contrary to popular opinion, Spain did not conquer all of Mexico when Cortés conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521. It would take another two centuries after the Siege of Tenochtitlan before the Conquest of Mexico would be complete, as sporadic and ineffective rebellions, attacks, and wars continued against the Spanish by other native people. Disease ran rampant throughout Mexico, dropping the population from about eight million to two million by 1600.
Colonial period
The Spanish defeat of the Mexica in 1521 marked the beginning of the 300 year-long colonial period of Mexico. About 30 million people died in the war[citation needed]. After the fall of Tenochtitlan Mexico City, it would take decades of sporadic warfare to pacify the rest of Mesoamerica. Particularly fierce were the "Chichimeca wars" in the north of Mexico (1576–1606).
During the colonial period, which lasted from 1521 to 1810, Mexico was known as "Nueva España" or "New Spain", whose territories included today's Mexico, Central America as far south as Costa Rica, and the area comprising today's southwestern United States.
Mexican war of independence
After Napoleon I invaded Spain and put his brother on the Spanish throne, Mexican Conservatives and rich land-owners who supported Spain's Bourbon royal family objected to the comparatively more liberal Napoleonic policies. Thus an unlikely alliance was formed in Mexico: liberales, or Liberals, who favored a republican Mexico, and conservadores, or Conservatives, who favored Mexico ruled by a Bourbon monarch who would restore the old status quo. These two elements agreed only that Mexico must achieve independence and determine her own destiny.
Taking advantage of the fact that Spain was severely handicapped under the occupation of Napoleon's army, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest of Spanish descent and progressive ideas, declared Mexico's independence from Spain in the small town of Dolores on September 16, 1810. This act started the long war that eventually led to the official recognition of independence from Spain in 1821. As with many early leaders in the movement for Mexican independence, Hidalgo was captured by opposing forces and executed. After no European monarch accepted its throne, the newly independent Mexico was ruled by Agustín de Iturbide. After his coronation as Emperor of Mexico he became known as Agustin I, and ruled until his overthrow by republican forces led by Guadalupe Victoria and Antonio López de Santa Anna.
War with the United States
Many presidents, emperors, and dictators came and went, which brought a long period of instability that lasted most of the 19th century. A dominant figure of the second quarter of that century was the dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna who was president seven different times, many of his terms were unsuccessful.
During this period, many of the mostly unsettled territories in the north were lost to the United States. Santa Anna was Mexico's leader during the conflict with Texas, which declared itself independent from Mexico in 1836 by defeating Santa Anna and the Mexican army. As president, Santa Anna tried to rule during the disastrous Mexican-American War (1846–48). The U.S. government sent troops to Texas in order to secure the territory ignoring Mexican demands for U.S. withdrawal. Mexico saw this as a U.S. intervention in internal affairs by supporting a "rebel" province. In the war that ensued, the United States kept over half of Mexico's territory, including land comprising the present states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. Mexico lost nearly 2,000,000 km² after the war and received $15 million for the lands from the U.S
French intervention and an emperor
In the 1860s, the country again suffered a military occupation, this time by France, seeking to establish the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico, with support from the Roman Catholic clergy and conservative elements of the upper class as well as some indigenous communities. The Second Mexican Empire was then overthrown by President Benito Juárez, with diplomatic and logistical support from the United States and the military expertise of General Porfirio Díaz. General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the largely unsupported French Army in Mexico at the city of Puebla on May 5, 1862, celebrated as Cinco de Mayo ever since. However, after his death, the city was lost in early 1863, following a renewed French attack which penetrated as far as Mexico City, forcing Juárez to organize a new itinerant government.
Order, progress, and the Díaz dictatorship
After the victory, there was resentment by Conservatives against Juárez (who they thought concentrated too much power and desired to be re-elected) that an army general, Porfirio Díaz, rebelled against the government with the proclamation of the Plan de Tuxtepec in 1876.
Díaz became the new president. During a period of more than thirty years (1876–1911) while he was the strong man in Mexico, the country's infrastructure improved greatly thanks to investments from other countries. This period of relative prosperity and peace is known as the Porfiriato. However there was discontentment amongst the people during the Porfiriato due foreign investors paying workers very small wages, which produced a very steep social division: only a small group of investors (domestic and foreign) were getting rich, but the vast majority of the people remained in abject poverty. Democracy was completely suppressed, and dissent was dealt with in repressive, often brutal ways (see, for example, Nogales, Veracruz).
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution, sometimes called the Mexican Revolution of 1910, was a violent social and cultural movement, colored by socialist, nationalist, and anarchist tendencies. It began with the popular rejection of dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori in 1910 and continued even after the promulgation of a new constitution in 1917. The main problem at the beginning was the dictatorship of Diaz since 1884 and the plight of farm workers who had been stripped of their wealth and lands. In 1909, Francisco I. Madero proposed returning the land to the people. When Madero won the elections, he said that the process of returning the lands was going to take time; as a result he was the object of several conspiracies until his assassination in 1913.
Zimmerman telegram
Towards the end of World War I a secret proposal was devised by Germany, articulated in a diplomatic message that became known as the Zimmerman telegram. The proposal, which was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence, asked Mexico to join the German war effort in exchange for German support in reclaiming Mexico's former territories in the southwestern United States. Its discovery became one of the many contributing factors to eventual U.S. involvement in the war. Mexico declined the offer.
Mexican economic miracle
During the next four decades, Mexico experienced impressive economic growth (from a very low base), and historians call this period "El Milagro Mexicano", the Mexican Miracle. This was in spite of falling foreign confidence in investment during the worldwide great depression. The assumption of mineral rights and subsequent nationalization of the oil industry into PEMEX during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was a popular move.
NAFTA
On January 1 1994, Mexico became a full member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, joining the United States of America and Canada in a large and prosperous economic bloc. On March 23 2005, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was signed by the elected leaders of those countries.
The end of the PRI's hegemony
Even though it was frequently accused of corruption, influence peddling and blatant election fraud, the PRI managed to retain a firm grip on political power in Mexico until the end of the 20th century. Almost all public offices were held by members of the PRI.
It was not until the 1980s that the PRI lost the first state governorship, an event that marked the beginning of the party's loss of hegemony. Through the electoral reforms started by president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and consolidated by president Ernesto Zedillo, by the mid 1990s the PRI had lost its majority in Congress. In 2000, after seventy years, the PRI lost a presidential election to a candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), Vicente Fox. He was the 69th president of Mexico. The continued non-PAN majority in the Congress of Mexico prevented him from implementing most of his proposed reforms.
Government and politics
Government and politics of Mexico takes place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Mexico is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Congress of the Union. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. New hopes for economic development were given rise by the overthrow of the long governing political party, PRI, in 2000, by Vicente Fox from the center-right party PAN. The presidential election in 2006 is the most discussed topic in Mexico now, where candidates from the center-right (PAN) and left (PRD) parties are the favorites.
Political divisions
See also: Mexican state name etymologies.
Mexico is divided into 31 states (estados) and a federal district. Each state has its own constitution and its citizens elect a governor as well as representatives to their respective state congresses.
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The Federal District is a special political division in Mexico, where the national capital, Mexico City, is located. It enjoys more limited local rule than the nation's "free and sovereign states": only since 1997 have its citizens been able to elect a Head of Government. Much of the capital city's metropolitan area overflows the limits of the Federal District.
Largest cities
The following is a list of the principal Metropolitan Areas of Mexico in order of population as reported in the 2005 census [1]:
| Rank | City | State | Population | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Mexico City | Distrito Federal and México | 19.23 million | Center South |
| 02 | Guadalajara | Jalisco | 4.10 million | West |
| 03 | Monterrey | Nuevo Leon | 3.66 million | North East |
| 04 | Puebla | Puebla | 2.11 million | East |
| 05 | Toluca | México | 1.61 million | Center South |
| 06 | Tijuana | Baja California | 1.48 million | North West |
| 07 | León | Guanajuato | 1.43 million | Center |
| 08 | Ciudad Juárez | Chihuahua | 1.31 million | North West |
| 09 | Torreón | Coahuila | 1.11 million | North East |
| 10 | San Luis Potosí | San Luis Potosí | 0.96 million | Center |
| 11 | Querétaro | Querétaro | 0.92 million | Center |
| 12 | Mérida | Yucatán | 0.90 million | South East |
| 13 | Mexicali | Baja California | 0.85 million | North West |
| 14 | Aguascalientes | Aguascalientes | 0.81 million | Center |
| 15 | Tampico | Tamaulipas | 0.80 million | Center |
| 16 | Cuernavaca | Morelos | 0.79 million | Center |
| 17 | Acapulco | Guerrero | 0.79 million | South |
| 18 | Chihuahua | Chihuahua | 0.78 million | North East |
| 19 | Culiacán | Sinaloa | 0.76 million | North West |
Geography and climate
Situated in the southwestern part of mainland North America and roughly triangular in shape, Mexico stretches more than 3,000 kilometres (1,875 mi) from northwest to southeast. Its width is varied, from more than 2,000 kilometres (1,250 mi) in the north and less than 220 kilometres (137 mi) at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the south.
Mexico is bordered by the United States to the North, and Belize and Guatemala to the Southeast. Baja California in the West is a 1,250 kilometre (775 mi) peninsula and forms the Gulf of California. In the east are the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche, which is formed by Mexico's other peninsula, the Yucatán. The center of Mexico is a great, high plateau, open to the north, with mountain chains on the east and west and with ocean-front lowlands lying outside of them. (See list of mountains in Mexico). Mexico is about one-fourth the size of the United States.
The terrain and climate vary from rocky deserts in the north to tropical rain forest in the south. Mexico's major rivers include the Río Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande) on the northern border and the Usumacinta on its southern borders, respectively, together with the Grijalva, Balsas, Pánuco, and Yaqui in the interior. The Tropic of Cancer effectively divides the country into temperate and tropical zones. Land north of the twenty-fourth parallel experiences cooler temperatures during the winter months. South of the point, temperatures are fairly constant year round and vary solely as a function of elevation.
On September 19, 1985, an earthquake measuring approximately 8.0 on the Richter scale struck Michoacán and inflicted severe damage on Mexico City. Estimates of the number of dead range from 6,500 with 30,000 injured. (see 1985 Mexico City earthquake). The country also is fairly frequently struck by hurricanes, mainly on the south and east coasts and on the particularly exposed Yucatan Peninsula.
Economy
According to the World Bank, Mexico ranks 12th in the world in regard to GDP and has the fourth largest per capita income in Latin America just after Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica, and it is firmly established as an upper middle-income country. Since the economic crisis of 1994–1995 the country has made an impressive economic recovery. According to the director for Colombia and Mexico of the World Bank, the population below the poverty level has decreased from 24.2% to 17.6% in the general population and from 42% to 27.9% in rural areas from 2000-2004 [2].
Mexico has a mixed economy that recently entered the trillion dollar class. It contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. The number of state-owned enterprises in Mexico has fallen from more than 1,000 in 1982 to fewer than 100 in 2005. Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. Mexico is also the fourth largest oil producer in the world.
A strong export sector helped to cushion the economy's decline in 1995 and led the recovery in 1996–1999. Private consumption became the leading driver of growth, accompanied by increased employment and higher wages.
Mexico has entered a new era of macroeconomic stability. Following a 4.1% growth in 2004, real GDP grew 3% in 2005. According to the Bank of Mexico recent economic developments include a record-low inflation of 3.3% in 2005, low interest rates, a lower External debt to GDP ratio (8.9%) and a strong peso. Trade with the United States and Canada has tripled since NAFTA was implemented in 1994.
Mexico has opened its markets to free trade like few other countries have done, lowering its trade barriers with more than 40 countries in 12 Free Trade Agreements, including Japan and the European Union. However more than 85% of the trade is still done with the United States. Government authorities expect that by putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements with different countries Mexico will lessen its dependence on the United States. The government is seeking to sign an additional agreement with Mercosur.
Mexico still needs to overcome many structural problems as it strives to modernize its economy and raise living standards. Ongoing economic concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution (top 20% of income earners account for 55% of income), and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states. If municipalities of Mexico were classified as countries in the HDI World Ranking,San Pedro Garza Garcia, and Benito Juárez, one of the districts in the Distrito Federal, would have a similar level of development to that of Italy, whereas Metlatonoc, Guerrero, would have an HDI similar to that of Malawi [3].
The country has continued to struggle with such issues as economic control and development, especially with the petroleum sector and the evolution of trade relations with the United States. Corruption at certain levels of the administration and crime continue to be chronic problems.
Crime and poverty
Although normally regarded as a third world country, Mexico is in fact a developing nation. It is the 12th largest economy in the world, according to the World Bank, and the fourth largest oil producer worldwide. There is a great economic polarization between the rich and the poor which has greatly contributed to the high crime rates in Mexico. Mexican drug cartels deliver more than half of the methamphetamine supply into the United States.[4] The persistence of corruption at certain levels of the administration and the police has prevented effective crime control efforts. Most Mexican officers, nevertheless, are honest people.
Both police and military corruption remain large problems in Mexico. And are mostly fueled by the lucritive drug, and migrant smuggling.
A major detraction of Mexico City is its perceived crime rate. In reference specifically to the City, street crime and kidnappings fill the inhabitants with fear on a daily basis. It is estimated that there are between 2000-3000 crimes committed on the street every day. Approximately 600 are reported (2000 average). Most of these are muggings, although the breakdown of the figures runs the gamut of criminal activity. Curiously for such a violent atmosphere, murders are not a significant part of the problem. These average around 2.5 per day which, given the size of the population is relatively few. To put it in context, Washington, D.C. has a murder rate per capita around 5 times higher.
Demographics
With an estimated 2005 population of about 106.5 million, Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
Mexico is a racially and ethnically diverse country. Its three main ethnic groups are mestizos (mixed European and Amerindian), Amerindians, and Europeans. According to the CIA World Factbook, mestizos account for 60%, Amerindians for 30%, whites for 9%, and others 1%. [5] Whites are mostly Spanish descendants, though there are those descended from past or recent immigration of Germans, Italians, French, Portuguese, British, Swedish, Irish, and also white Americans. The "others" is largely comprised of Afro-Mexicans, Middle Easterner, and East Asian.
Mexico is also home for many other Latin American emigrants, including most numerously Argentines — Mexico being home to the largest Argentine population outside of Argentina [6] — Cubans, Brazilians, and other South and Central Americans. The PRI governments in power for most of the 20th century had a policy of granting asylum to fellow Latin Americans fleeing political persecution in their home countries.
According to the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas ("National Council for the Development of Indigenous Peoples"), the culturally and linguistically affiliated Amerindian population in Mexico is approximately 12.7 million. However, the Mexican government does not collect racial information during censuses. In 2004, the National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Data Processing had estimated this figure to be 12,089,094 (~11.4% of Mexico's population) of indigenous people of which, more than one million do not speak Spanish and almost five million are bilingual (INEGI, 2004).
Judging by the proportion of people speaking indigenous languages, the states with the highest proportion of indigenous people are Yucatán (37.3%), Oaxaca (37.1%), Chiapas (24.6%) and Quintana Roo (23%). The states of Aguascalientes (0.2%), Coahuila (0.2%), Zacatecas (0.2%) and Nuevo León (0.5%) have the lowest proportion of speakers of indigenous languages (INEGI, 2004).
Mexico is the country where the greatest number of U.S citizens live outside the United States. This may be due to the growing economic and business interdependence of the two countries under NAFTA, and also that Mexico is considered an excellent choice for retirees. A clear example of the latter phenomenon is provided by San Miguel de Allende and many towns along the Baja California peninsula and around Guadalajara, Jalisco. The official figures for foreign-born citizens in Mexico are 493,000 (since 2004), with a majority (86.9%) of these born in the United States (with the exception of Chiapas, where the majority of immigrants are from Central America). The five states with more immigrants are Baja California (12.1% of total immigrants), Federal District (11.4%), Jalisco (9.9%), Chihuahua (9%) and Tamaulipas (7.3%). More than 54.6% of the immigrant population are 15 years old or younger, while 9% are 50 or older. The large number of children may be due to the Central American population, or the American population consisting largely of Hispanics, or Americans taking advantage of lower costs of living to raise larger families. 4.2% of male immigrants and 3.8% of female immigrants did not have formal education while 20.2% of male immigrants and 17.7% of female immigrants had a college degree (INEGI, 2004).
Despite its reputation as a major source of illegal immigrants to the United States, Mexico itself experiences illegal immigration from Central America due to similar differences in wages and poverty between there and Mexico as between Mexico and the United States. Many if not most of the Central American illegals are trying to ultimately get to the United States.
Life expectancy in Mexico increased from 34.7 for men and 33 years for women in 1930 to 72.1 for men and 77.1 years for women in 2002. The states with the highest life expectancy are Baja California (75.9 years) and Nuevo Leon (75.6 years). The Federal District has a life expectancy of the same level as Baja California. The lowest levels are found in Chiapas (72.9), Oaxaca (73.2) and Guerrero (73.2 years), although the first two have had the highest increase (19.9 and 22.3% respectively).
The mortality rate in 1970 was 9.7/1000 people and by 2001 the rate had dropped to 4.9/1000 for men and 3.8/1000 for women. The most common reasons for death in 2001 were heart problems (14.6% for men 17.6% for women) and Cancer (11% for men and 15.8% for women).
Culture, media, and sports
Mexico boasts a wealth of regional cultures that is unique in the Americas. Every region in the country has a distinct culture, languages and arts that create a huge mosaic as a whole.
Dancing and singing are commonly part of family gatherings, bringing the old and young together, no matter what kind of music is being played, like cumbia, salsa, merengue or the more Mexican banda. Dancing is a strong part of the culture, and visitors will find that even people who were thought to be unlikely to dance, do so. Singing enjoys the same popularity and mexicans will sing when they are depressed, in a cantina to a mariachi song, or when they are very happy.
Mexicans in places like Guadalajara, Puebla, Monterrey, Mexico City, and most middle sized cities, enjoy a great variety of options for leisure. Shopping centers are a favorite among families, since there has been an increasing number of new malls that cater to people of all ages and interests. A large number of them, have multiplex cinemas, international and local restaurants, food courts, cafes, bars, bookstores and most of the international reknowned clothing brands are found too. Mexicans are prone to travel within their own country, making short weekend trips to a neighbouring city or town.
The standard of living in Mexico is higher than most of other countries in Latin America drawing people from places like Argentina, Brazil or Cuba to the country in search for better opportunities. With the recent economic growth, most middle and high income families live in single houses, commonly found within a walled village, called "fraccionamiento". The reason these places are the most popular among the middle and upper classes is that they offer a sense of security, since most of them are within walls and have survelliance, and living in one also provides social status, due to the infrastructure of most of these villages. Swimming pools or golf clubs, and/or some other commodities are found in these fraccionamientos. Houses inside them tend to be of higher quality, and larger than other homes, most of them with at least three or four bedrooms and even maid quarters and laundry. However, the poorer mexicans live a harsh life, although they share with the other the importance they grant to family, friends and cultural habits. Poverty is specially poignant in the countryside.
In the larger towns, hiring housekeepers or maids is not as common as in the past, but there are still many families that are willing to pay a person, generally a middle aged woman, to come help with the house chores once or twice a week. "Muchacha" or "chacha" are the words used to call them.
Mexicans are people oriented, and they will put friends, family and relatives before work or business matters. They are not estoic when it comes to passion for the honour of their mothers, sisters, wives or daughters.
Traditionally, Mexicans have struggled with the creation of a united identity. The issue is the main topic of "Labyrinth of Solitude" by Mexican nobel prize winner Octavio Paz. Mexico is a large country, therefore having many cultural traits found only in some parts of the country. The north of Mexico is the least culturally diverse and more americanized of them all, making it a less exciting destination for foreign travelers. Central and southern Mexico is where many well-known traditions find their origin, therefore the people from this area are in a way the most traditional, but their collective personality can´t be generalized. People from Puebla, for instance, are thought to be conservative and reserved, and just a few kilometers away, the people from Veracruz have the fame of being very outgoing and liberal. Chilangos (Mexico City natives) are believed to be poshy or preppy, or dirty and crime-prone if talking about the poor. The regiomontanos (from Monterrey) are thought to be stingy and cocky regardless of their social status. Different accents are used in almost every state in Mexico, making it fairly easy to distinguish the origin of someone by the distinct use of language in every of them.
Indigenous people are likely to be perceived as inferior, even though this rarely reaches the level of aggressive racism. It´s a rarity to see native Mexicans in high positions anywhere. This hidden racism is latent in the use of the word "indio" as an insult for the darker skinned, which is even used between indigeneous people to offend each other.
Two of the major television networks based in Mexico are Televisa and TV Azteca. Soap operas (telenovelas) are translated to many languages and seen all over the world with renown names like Verónica Castro, Lucía Méndez, Lucero, and Thalía. Even Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna from Y tu mamá también and current Zegna model act in some of them. Some of their TV shows are modeled after American counterparts like Family Feud (100 Mexicanos Dijeron or "A hundred Mexicans said" in Spanish), Big Brother, American Idol, Saturday Night Live and others. Nationwide news shows like Las Noticias por Adela on Televisa resemble a hybrid between Donahue and Nightline. Local news shows are modeled after American counterparts like the Eyewitness News and Action News formats.
The favorite sport remains world football (soccer) while baseball is also popular especially in the Gulf of Mexico and bordering states. Exhibitions like bull fighting are still practiced and professional wrestling as shown on shows like Lucha Libre. American football is practiced at the major universities like UNAM.
The national sport of Mexico is Charreria and Bullfighting. Ancient Mexicans played a ball game which still exists in Northwest Mexico (Sinaloa, the game is called Ulama), though it is not a popular sport any more. Most Mexicans enjoy watching bullfights. Almost all large cities have bullrings. Mexico city has the largest bullring in the world, which seats 55,000 people.
Although Mexico has low prices for food and accomodation for tourists, prices are somewhat higher than most other countries in Latin America.
Languages
The Mexican Constitution does not mention the existence of an "official language", although Spanish is considered to be the "common" language of the country, used in all sorts of documents and spoken by the majority of the population. About 7% of the population speak an Amerindian language. The government officially recognizes 62 Amerindian languages. Of these, Nahuatl and Maya are each spoken by 1.5 million, while others, such as Lacandon, are spoken by fewer than 100. The Mexican government has promoted and established bilingual education programs in indigenous rural communities.
Although Spanish is the common language of Mexico, English is widely used in business. As a result, English language skills are much in demand and can lead to an increase in the salary offered by a company. It is also spoken along the U.S. border, in big cities, and in beach resorts. Also, the majority of private schools in Mexico offer bilingual education, both in Spanish and English. English is the main language spoken in U.S. expatriate communities such as those along the coast of Baja California, Jalisco and the town of San Miguel de Allende.
With respect to other European languages brought by immigrants, the case of Chipilo, in the state of Puebla, is unique, and has been documented by several linguists like Carolyn McKay. The immigrants that founded the city of Chipilo in 1882 came from the Veneto region in northern Italy, and thus spoke a northern variant of the Venetian dialect. While other European immigrants assimilated into the Mexican culture, the people of Chipilo retained their language. Nowadays, most of the people who live in the city of Chipilo (and many of those who have migrated to other cities) still speak the unaltered Veneto dialect spoken by their great-grandparents making the Veneto dialect an unrecognized minority language in the city of Puebla. In Huatusco and Colonia Gonzalez, Veracruz, Veneto is still heard too. A similar case is that of the Plautdietsch language, spoken by the descendants of German and Dutch Mennonite immigrants in the states of Chihuahua and Durango. Other German communities lie in Puebla, Mexico City, Sinaloa and Chiapas, with the largest German school outside of Germany being in Mexico City (Alexander von Humboldt school), these represent the large German populations where they still try to preserve the German culture and language. Other strong German communities lie in Sinaloa (Mazatlan), Nuevo Leon, Chiapas (Tapachula) and other parts of Puebla (Nueva Necaxa) where the German culture and language have been preserved to different extents. French is also heard in the state of Veracruz in the cities of Jicaltepec, San Rafael and Mentideros, where the architecture and food is also very French. These French immigrants came from Haute-Saône département in France, especially from Champlitte and Borgonge. Another important French group were the "Barcelonette's" from the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département, whom interestingly the whole town and surrounding towns immigrated specifically to Mexico to find jobs and work in merchandising, they are well known in Mexico City, Puebla, and Veracruz. Another important French village in Mexico is Santa Rosalía in Baja California Sur, where French language and culture/architecture are still found. Scandinavian languages and traditions can also be heard in Chihuahua, like Swedish and Norwegian in Nueva Escandinavia and other Scandinavian colonies in the north of the country. Russian is heard in the Baja California region of Valle de Guadalupe, thanks to the immigrants from southern Russia who settled these areas. They are the Molokans or "milk eaters", and they preserve their culture in Baja California, with the architecture in their houses and museums, they produce fine wine (Along with the large Italian community that lives near them) and their language and traditions, as well as dresses and festivities. Other Russians belong to a more recent wave of immigration from mainly Russia and Poland and the Ukraine along other Eastern Europeans, who settle mainly in Mexico City and Guadalajara. The Cornish dialect of Cornwall, England disappeared from Mexico in the state of Hidalgo in the early 20th century, especially in the cities of Pachuca and Real del Monte, but the Cornish culture still survives in the architecture, sports, food and many aspects of these cities in central Mexico.
Religion
Mexico is predominantly Roman Catholic (about 89% of the population). It is the nation with the second largest Catholic population, behind Brazil and before the United States. Also, 6% of the population adheres to various Protestant/Restoration faiths (e.g. Latter-day Saints, Pentecostal), and the remaining 5% of the population adhering to other religions or professing no religion. Some of the country's Catholics (notably those of indigenous background) syncretize Catholicism with various elements of Aztec or Mayan religions. The Virgin of Guadalupe has long been a symbol enshrining the major aspirations of Mexican society. According to anthropologist Eric R. Wolf, the Guadalupe symbol links family, politics, and religion; the colonial past and the independent present; and the indigenous and the Mexican. [7]
Judaism has been practiced in Mexico for centuries, and there are estimated to be more than 45,000-50,000 (some estimates say 60,000) Jews in Mexico today. [1] Islam is mainly practiced by members of the Arab, Turkish, and other expatriate communities, though there very small percentage of the indigenous population in Chiapas state practices Islam. Mexico has a very tiny Sikh population in the country.
Education
Mexico has made impressive improvements in education in the last two decades. In 2004, the literacy rate was at 92.2%, and the youth literacy rate (ages 15-24) was 96%. Primary and secondary education (9 years) is free and mandatory. Even though different bilingual education programs have existed since the 1960s for the indigenous communities, after a constitution reform in the late 1990s, these programs have had a new thrust, and free text books are produced in more than a dozen indigenous languages.
In the 1970's, Mexico became the first country to establish a system of "distance-learning" . Schools that use this system are known as telesecundarias in Mexico. The Mexican distance learning secondary education is also transmitted to some Central American countries and to Colombia, and it is used in some southern regions of the United States as a method of bilingual education.
The two most widely known universities in Mexico are in Mexico City National Autonomous University of Mexico(Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), founded in 1551 and National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), both renowned in Latin American education. However, private universities have enjoyed a better reputation for some time now, because students have given a bad name to the public universities through such events as the student strikes at the UNAM in the 90s. (UNAM has various private campuses around Mexico which were not affected by student disturbances on the Mexico City campuses). The most important private universities are Mexico's Autonomous Technological Institute (ITAM), Monterrey's Technological and Higher Education Institute (ITESM), the Ibero-American University (Universidad Iberoamericana) and recently the Mexico Valley University (Universidad del Valle de Mexico UVM) had shown a very important growing, expanding its contact with other universities around the world.
Chiapas conflict
In the twentieth century some people in Chiapas felt that their poor and largely agricultural area had been ignored by the government since enactment of the constitution of 1917. One of the chief complaints was that many Indian farmers were required to pay absentee landlords, despite the fact that since the 1920s the Mexican government had been promising the peasants ownership of the land they had farmed and lived on for generations. Article 27 of the 1917 constitution guaranteed indigenous peoples the right to an "ejido" or communal land. As Mexico restructured its economy after the 1982 financial crisis the state sector shrank due to privatizations and reorganization while land reform became less of a priority (it had long since been completed in most of the country, with Chiapas as a notable exception). The Mexican government under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sought to modernize the traditionally closed and state dominated economy and increase its openness to trade. As part of this process Mexico repealed the constitutional guarantee of communally owned ejidos for rural communities. As the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect on January 1, 1994, the indigenous peoples of Chiapas - struggling to make a living with few resources - felt increasingly left behind.
Such dissatisfaction led to the rise of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Zapatistas, or Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), which began an armed rebellion against the federal government on January 1, 1994 as a response to the negative impact NAFTA had for the indigenous population especially in Southern Mexico. In that year, thousands of supporters of the anti-globalization movement gathered in Chiapas, and it was from this meeting that the modern movement was born.
The Zapatistas were in principle a peaceful movement that was pushed to use the force of arms to guarantee the indigenous right to ejidos. Subcomandante Marcos, the face of the Zapatistas, succeeded in attracting international attention, with the innovative use of modern information and communication technologies for the struggle of the indigenous peoples in Chiapas.
In August 2003, the EZLN declared all Zapatista territory an autonomous government independent of Mexico. Since then, the armed EZLN has been laying low to some extent working on the government level to implement health care and educational institutions in poor rural indigenous communities.
Origin and history of the name
Mexico is named after its capital city, whose name comes from the Aztec city Mexico-Tenochtitlan that preceded it. The Mexi part of the name is from Mexitli, the war god, whose name was derived from metztli (the moon) and xictli (navel) and thus meant "navel (probably implying 'child') of the moon". So, Mexico is the home of the people of Mexitli (the Mexicas), co meaning "place" and ca meaning "people".
When the Spaniards encountered this people and transcribed their language, they naturally did so according to the spelling rules of the Castilian language of the time. The Nahuatl language had a /ʃ/ sound (like English "shop"), and this sound was written x in Spanish (e.g. Ximénez); consequently, the letter x was used to write down words like Mexitli. Meanwhile, the letter j (or, rather, the letter i when used as a consonant, since j had not been invented yet) was used for the /ʒ/ sound (as in "vision"), as was g before e or i. These old pronunciations of j and x are still found in Portuguese and Ladino.
Over the centuries, the pronunciation of Spanish changed. Words like Ximénez, exercicio, xabón and perplexo started to be pronounced with a /x/ (this phonetic symbol represents the sound in the word "loch"). The /ʒ/ sound also started to be pronounced this way. The coalescence of the two phonemes into a single new one encouraged scholars to use the same letter for the sound, regardless of its origin (Spanish scholars have always tried to keep the orthography of their language faithful to the spoken tongue). It was j/g that was chosen. So, modern Spanish has ejercicio, ejército, jabón, perplejo, etc. (Another example is the old spelling of Don Quixote which is now Don Quijote. The old pronunciation is maintained in Portuguese "Quixote" and in French "Quichotte", and the English word "quixotic" maintains the spelling while pronouncing it with its English value.) In modern Spanish, x is used to represent the /k?s/ affricate of Latin or Greek, in words derived from those languages. The standard pronunciation, however, in Spanish is /?s/. For example, sexenio /s??'se?njo/, "six-year", from Latin sexénnium /s?'k?s?n????m/.
Proper nouns and their derivatives are optionally allowed to break this rule. Thus, although xabón is now incorrect and archaic, alongside many millions of people called "Jiménez", there also are plenty called "Giménez" or "Ximénez" — a matter of personal choice and tradition.
In Mexico, it has become almost a matter of national pride to maintain the otherwise archaic x spelling in the name of the country. It is regarded as more authentic and less jarring to the reader's eye. Mexicans have tended to demand that other Spanish-speakers use this spelling, rather than following the general rule, and the demand has largely been respected. The Real Academia Española states that both spellings are correct, and most dictionaries and guides recommend México first, and present Méjico as a variant. Today, even outside of the country, México is preferred over Méjico by ratios ranging from 15-to-1 (in Spain) to about 280-to-1 (in Costa Rica). Also, in the local placenames "Oaxaca" and "Xalapa" or former territories like "Texas", the x is pronounced as /x/; in "Xochimilco", however, it sounds as a /ʃ/.
A cultural side-effect of the fact that Mexicans use México /'mexiko/ and Spaniards sometimes use Méjico is the occasional boiling-over of negative sentiment towards the old colonial oppressor. The mere act of using the j spelling is interpreted by some as a form of colonial aggression. On the other hand, some Peninsular scholars (such as Ramón Menéndez Pidal) preferred to apply the general spelling rule, arguing that the spelling with an x could encourage non-Mexicans to mispronounce México as /'meksiko/ (as is generally the case in the English-speaking world). Méjico on the other hand could easily be mispronounced as well, because the letter j stands for /ʒ/, /dʒ/ or /j/ in other languages.
In the Nahuatl language, from which the name originally derived, the name for Mexico is Mexihco (International Phonetic Alphabet /meː.ɕiʔ.ko/).
Further reading
- James D. Cockcroft, Mexico's Hope: An Encounter with Politics and History, 320 pages, Monthly Review Press 1999, ISBN 0853459258 – leftist view of Mexican history
- Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power. A history of Modern Mexico 1810-1996, 896 pages – Perennial 1998, ISBN 0060929170 - standard work by a renowned Mexican author.
- Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon, Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2004, hardcover, 608 pages, ISBN 0374226687 – recent history since the Tlatelolco massacre of 1968 told by two journalists
- Joanne Hershfield, David R. Maciel, Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers, SR Books 1999, ISBN 0842026827 – comprehensive survey
- Michael C. Meyer, William H. Beezley, editors, The Oxford History of Mexico, 736 pages, Oxford University Press 2000, ISBN 0195112288 – 20 essays, also covers cultural history
- Kernecker, Herbert. "When in Mexico, Do as the Mexicans Do." In depth information about life in Mexico, including culture, history, economy, language and more in 176 comprehensive pages..ISBN 0844227838.
- San Cristobal : The Political climate - A brief description of the situation in the town of San Cristobal.
- Mexico - A description of Mexico's geographical situation by Ekaterina Zhdanova-Redman.
- The Zimmerman Telegram - A translation to English of the Zimmerman Telegram.
See also
Geography, History and Politics
- Foreign affairs of Mexico
- List of international trade topics
- List of cities in Mexico
- Military of Mexico
- U.S.-Mexico border
- Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico
Culture and Education
- Culture of Mexico
- List of Mexican Universities
- List of Mexicans
- Music of Mexico
- List of Latin American artists
- Sport in Mexico
- Postage stamps and postal history of Mexico
Communications, Technology and Transportation
- Automóvil Panamericano
- Excélsior
- El Universal
- Reforma
- Universal Stereo
- Cars in Mexico
- Salón Internacional del Automóvil México
- Transportation in Mexico
References
- ^ Template:Es icon "Advierten una reducción en el número de mexicanos que profesan la religión católica", El Informador, 11 August 2002. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
External links
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
- Template:Wikitravel
- AXJ: Political Information about Mexico
- [8]: Un Mexico Sin Pejendejadas
- [9]: Encyclopaedia Britannica free article on Mexico, its history and its people
- Mexico main cities satellite views
Government
- Presidencia: Presidency of the Republic
- Template:Es icon Gob.mx: Governmental portal (in Spanish)
- Template:Es icon Directorio.gob.mx: Official web directory of the Mexican Presidency (in Spanish)
- Template:Es icon Cámara de Diputados: Chamber of Deputies (in Spanish)
- Template:Es icon Cámara de Senadores: Senate
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