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Mexico

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Countries; North American
Geography

   SOS Children works in Mexico. For more information see SOS Children in
   Mexico
            Estados Unidos Mexicanos
   United Mexican States

   Flag of Mexico Coat of arms of Mexico
   Flag           Coat of arms
   Anthem: Himno Nacional Mexicano
   Location of Mexico
   Capital
   (and largest city) Mexico City
                      19°03′N 99°22′W
   Official languages None at federal level
                      Spanish ( de facto)
   Government         Federal republic
    - President       Vicente Fox Quesada
      Independence    from Spain
    - Declared        September 16, 1810
    - Recognized      September 27, 1821
                      Area
    - Total           1,972,550 km² ( 15th)
                      758,249 sq mi
    - Water (%)       2.5
                   Population
    - 2006 estimate   107,784,179 ( 11th)
    - 2000 census     100,349,766
    - Density         55/km² ( 142nd)
                      142/sq mi
       GDP ( PPP)     2005 estimate
    - Total           $1.073 trillion ( 13th)
    - Per capita      $10,186 ( 64th)
     GDP (nominal)    2005 estimate
    - Total           $768,437 billion ( 13th)
    - Per capita      $7,298 ( 53rd)
      HDI  (2004)     0.821 (high) ( 53rd)
        Currency      Peso ( MXN)
       Time zone      ( UTC-8 to -6)
      Internet TLD    .mx
      Calling code    +52

   The United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos ),
   generally known as Mexico (Spanish: México ) is a country located in
   North America, bordered at the north by the United States, and at the
   south by 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 site of advanced Mesoamerican or Amerindian civilizations, the land
   that currently makes up Mexico, existed as a Spanish colony for three
   centuries before achieving independence early in the nineteenth
   century. The first century of independence was tumultuous, culminating
   in the decade-long Mexican Revolution, followed by roughly seventy
   years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

   As the only Latin American country member of the OECD since 1994,
   Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
   Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910
   Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the PRI and Vicente Fox
   of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in as President on 1
   December 2000.

   Mexico is a powerful and influential neighbour of the United States, in
   terms of trade, culture, and diplomacy, with a history of emigration of
   Mexicans into the U.S. since the early 1900s.

History

Pre-Columbian Civilizations

   For almost three thousand years, Mexico was the site of several
   advanced Amerindian civilizations – the Mesoamerican cultures – such as
   the Olmec, the Maya and the Aztecs. The arrival of the Spanish
   conquistador Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztecs 1521, marking the
   beginning of the three hundred year-long colonial period of Mexico as
   New Spain.

European colonization

   In 1519, the native civilizations of Mexico were invaded by Spain, this
   was one of the most important conquest campaigns in America. Two years
   later in 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was conquered by an
   alliance between Spanish and Tlaxcaltecs (the main enemies of Aztecs).
   Francisco Hernández de Córdoba explored the shores of South 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).

Independence, war and the Porfiriato

   Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the father of the Mexican independence.
   Enlarge
   Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the father of the Mexican independence.

   On September 16, 1810, the independence from Spain was declared by
   Miguel Hidalgo in the small town of Dolores, causing a long war that
   eventually led to recognized independence in 1821 and the creation of
   the First Mexican Empire with Agustín de Iturbide being the first and
   only emperor. In 1824, the republic was proclaimed Guadalupe Victoria
   as its first President. During the first decades of its independence,
   Antonio López de Santa Anna was the strong man of Mexican politics, and
   on-and-off dictator. After Santa Anna revoked the federal constitution,
   Texas declared its independence, which they managed to obtain in 1836.
   The annexation of Texas by the United States created a border dispute,
   that would cause the Mexican-American War. This war resulted in a
   Mexican defeat. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 Mexico lost
   one third of its area to the United States.

   Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's rule led to the liberal Revolution of
   Ayutla, beginning an era of liberal reforms, known as the Reforma. In
   the 1860s the country again suffered a military occupation, this time
   by France, seeking to establish the Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand
   Maximillian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico, with support from the
   Catholic clergy and conservative Creoles. This Second Mexican Empire
   was fought off by then president of the Republic, the Zapotec Indian
   Benito Juárez, who managed to restore the republic in 1867.

   Porfirio Díaz, a republican general during the French intervention,
   assumed power in 1876. The period of his rule is known as the
   Porfiriato, which was noted by remarkable economic achievements but
   also by brutal oppression. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in
   1910, initially led by Francisco I. Madero. Madero was overthrown and
   murdered in 1913 by the reactionary general Victoriano Huerta. This
   caused a civil war, with such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. The
   Revolution calmed down when the constitution of 1917 was proclaimed by
   Venustiano Carranza. Carranza was killed in 1920 and succeeded by
   Álvaro Obregón, who in turn was succeeded by Plutarco Elías Calles. In
   1928 Obregón was reelected, but assassinated before he could assume
   power. This led Calles to found the National Revolutionary Party (PNR),
   which was later renamed to Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Modern Mexico

   During the next four decades, Mexico experienced impressive economic
   growth; some 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 that sparked a diplomatic crisis with those countries whose
   citizens had lost businesses expropriated by the Cárdenas government.

   Although the economy flourished, the PRI rule became increasingly more
   oppressive, culminating in the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968, where 250
   protesters were killed by security forces. In the 1970s, discontent
   with the administration of Luis Echeverría brought the country on the
   brink of a civil war. The chronic weakness of Mexico's economy in the
   1970s and 1980s included peso devaluation and price inflation, creating
   a strong need for tens of millions of poor Mexicans to migrate north to
   the United States. In 1982, the Mexican government announced that it
   could no longer pay its debts. The first cracks in the monopoly
   position of PRI began to appear in 1988, when the party had to resort
   to election fraud in order to prevent leftist opposition candidate
   Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas from winning the elections. Carlos Salinas was
   declared victor of the elections and embarked on a program of
   neoliberal reforms, culminating in the North American Free Trade
   Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994. However, the very same day Mexico joined the
   NAFTA, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) began an armed
   rebellion against the federal government. A series of political
   assassination and corruption scandals further damaged Salinas'
   reputation. In December 1994, a month after Salinas was succeeded by
   Ernesto Zedillo, the December Mistake led to a new economical crisis.

   Democratic reforms under Zedillo caused the PRI to lose its majority in
   Congress in 1997. In 2000, after 71 years, the PRI lost a presidential
   election to Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN). In 2006,
   Felipe Calderón (PAN) was declared winner of that year's presidential
   elections with a razor-thin margin over Andrés Manuel López Obrador of
   the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). López Obrador however
   claimed the election was stolen, and pledged to create an alternative
   government.

Government and politics

   Vicente Fox, the current president of Mexico.
   Enlarge
   Vicente Fox, the current president of Mexico.

   The 1917 Constitution provides for a federal republic with powers
   separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial
   branches. Historically, the executive is the dominant branch, with
   power vested in the president, who promulgates and executes the laws of
   the Congress. Congress has played an increasingly important role since
   1997, when opposition parties first formed a majority in the
   legislature.

   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. The President is both the head of state and head of
   government, as well as the commander-in-chief of the military. The
   president is elected directly from eligible votes and serves for six
   years, called a sexenio. Legislative power is vested in both the
   government and the two chambers of the Congress of the Union. The
   powers of the congress include the right to pass laws, impose taxes,
   declare war, approve the national budget, approve or reject treaties
   and conventions made with foreign countries, and ratify diplomatic
   appointments. The Senate addresses all matters concerning foreign
   policy, approves international agreements, and confirms presidential
   appointments. The Chamber of Deputies, addresses all matters pertaining
   to the government's budget and public expenditures.

   The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

   There are three major political parties in Mexico:
     * PAN: the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional). The PAN
       is a liberal conservative party. President Vicente Fox is a member
       of the PAN.
     * PRI: the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario
       Institucional). When it was founded it was somewhat socialist,
       currently it's a liberal party.
     * PRD: the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la
       Revolución Democrática). The PRD is a left wing, somewhat socialist
       party.

   The Institutional Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario
   Institucional or PRI) is the Mexican political party that wielded
   hegemonic power in the country – under a succession of names – for more
   than seventy years. New hopes for democratic development were raised in
   2000 by Vicente Fox and the centre-right party PAN's electoral victory
   over the long-governing PRI.

   In 2006, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa of the PAN faced Andrés Manuel López
   Obrador of the PRD in a very close election. As of August 2006, the
   results of this election remain disputed and a series of leftist
   protests remain underway despite the calls of President Vicente Fox for
   an end to the protests.

   On September 6th, 2006, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa was declared President
   Elect by the electoral tribunal.

Administrative divisions

   There are only 2 administrative and political subdivisions in Mexico:
   states (estados) and municipalities (municipios). The United Mexican
   States are an union of 31 states and a federal district. Each state has
   its own constitution and congress, and its citizens elect a governor
   (gobernador) as well as representatives (diputados locales) to their
   respective state congresses. Each Mexican state is divided into
   municipalities, the smallest official political entity in the country,
   and governed by a mayor (alcalde).

   The following map presents the 31 Mexican states and highlights the
   typical non-official geographical organization of them:
    1. Aguascalientes
    2. Baja California
    3. Baja California Sur
    4. Campeche
    5. Chiapas
    6. Chihuahua
    7. Coahuila
    8. Colima
    9. Durango
   10. Guanajuato
   11. Guerrero
   12. Hidalgo
   13. Jalisco
   14. México
   15. Michoacán
   16. Morelos

   17. Nayarit
   18. Nuevo León
   19. Oaxaca
   20. Puebla
   21. Querétaro
   22. Quintana Roo
   23. San Luis Potosí
   24. Sinaloa
   25. Sonora
   26. Tabasco
   27. Tamaulipas
   28. Tlaxcala
   29. Veracruz
   30. Yucatán
   31. Zacatecas

   States of Mexico (excluding the islands)

   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 states: only since 1997 have its citizens
   been able to elect a Head of Government. It is divided into boroughs
   (delegaciones), each of them governed by a Borough Chief (jefe
   delegacional).

Major cities

   Mexico City, DF.
   Enlarge
   Mexico City, DF.
   Monterrey, Nuevo León.
   Enlarge
   Monterrey, Nuevo León.
   Guadalajara, Jalisco.
   Enlarge
   Guadalajara, Jalisco.

   The following is a list of the major metropolitan areas of Mexico in
   order of population (as reported in the 2005 census):
   Rank       City            State        Population      Region
    1   Mexico City      Federal District 19.23 million Centre South
    2   Guadalajara      Jalisco           4.10 million     West
    3   Monterrey        Nuevo Leon        3.66 million  North East
    4   Puebla           Puebla            2.11 million     East
    5   Toluca           México            1.61 million Centre South
    6   Tijuana          Baja California   1.48 million  North West
    7   León             Guanajuato        1.43 million    Centre
    8   Ciudad Juárez    Chihuahua         1.31 million  North West
    9   Torreón          Coahuila          1.11 million  North East
    10  San Luis Potosí  San Luis Potosí   0.96 million    Centre
    11  Querétaro        Querétaro         0.92 million    Centre
    12  Mérida           Yucatán           0.90 million  South East
    13  Mexicali         Baja California   0.85 million  North West
    14  Aguascalientes   Aguascalientes    0.81 million    Centre
    15  Tampico          Tamaulipas        0.80 million  North East
    16  Cuernavaca       Morelos           0.79 million    Centre
    17  Acapulco         Guerrero          0.79 million    South
    18  Chihuahua        Chihuahua         0.78 million  North East
    19  Culiacán         Sinaloa           0.76 million  North West

Economy

   Looking along Reforma from Chapultepec Castle.
   Enlarge
   Looking along Reforma from Chapultepec Castle.
   Santa Fe, one of Mexico City's five central business districts.
   Enlarge
   Santa Fe, one of Mexico City's five central business districts.

   According to the World Bank, Mexico ranks thirteenth in the world as
   regards GDP and has the fourth largest per-capita income in Latin
   America, following Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica. 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 .

   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 over a thousand in
   1982 to fewer than one hundred 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. Its proximity to the world's largest automobile market
   has meant that companies like Volkswagen and others have located
   assembly plants in Northern Mexico to serve that market. In addition
   there is a large television industry providing programming for both
   Mexicans and the large Spanish speaking population (44 million out of
   285 million) in the United States.

   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 forty countries
   in twelve Free Trade Agreements, including Japan and the European
   Union. The United States, however, remains Mexico's single largest
   trading partner, accounting for more than 85% of the country's trade.
   Government authorities anticipate that extending its free trade
   agreements to cover over 90% of its trade will lessen the country's
   dependence on the United States. The government is seeking to sign an
   additional agreement with Mercosur.

   Tourism in Mexico is a very large industry. The most notable tourist
   draws are the ancient Meso-American ruins, and popular beach resorts.
   The nation's temperate climate and unique culture – a fusion of the
   European (particularly Spanish) and the Meso-American – also make
   Mexico a large draw. The peak tourists seasons in Mexico are during
   December and during the mid-Summer, with brief surges during the week
   before Easter and surges during Spring break at many of the beach
   resort sites which are popular with vacationing college students from
   the United States.

   The vast majority of tourists to Mexico come from the United States and
   Canada and, to a lesser degree, from Europe and Asia. There is also a
   burgeoning domestic tourism trade as a growing affluent middle class
   begins to vacation within their own country as well as abroad. A small
   number of tourists also arrive from other Latin American nations.

   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 in the State of Nuevo Leon,
   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 .

   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.

Demographics

   Racial and ethnical diversity in Mexican females.
   Enlarge
   Racial and ethnical diversity in Mexican females.

   With an estimated 2005 population of about 106.5 million, Mexico is the
   most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.

   Racially and ethnically, Mexico is a diverse country. Its three main
   ethnic groups are mestizos (mixed European and Amerindian people; 60%
   of the population); Amerindians (30%); and Europeans (9%; mostly
   German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Polish, Russian, British,
   and Swedish immigrants). Mestizo is a term that can be very ambigous to
   people outside Mexico because the features of a mestizo can
   dramatically vary between those who look almost European and those who
   look more Amerindian. European Mexicans are mostly Spanish; the
   remaining minorities are largely comprised of Afro-Mexican, Middle
   Eastern and East Asian people. A large Chinese community exists in
   Mexicali, Baja California and there has been a small but steady influx
   of Filipinos since the late sixteenth century.

   About 800,000 American expatriates live in Mexico as retirees or
   businessmen. Mexico is also home for many other Latin American
   emigrants, many from Argentina (making Mexico home to the largest
   Argentine population outside of Argentina, an estimated 150,000 in
   2005. ). The PRI governments in power for most of the twentieth century
   followed the policy of granting asylum to fellow Latin Americans
   fleeing political persecution in their home countries. Large numbers of
   Chileans arrived in Mexico and nearby California – especially during
   the 1850s gold rush – although California was then annexed by the
   United States. Since the 1970s, over 100,000 Central American people
   have immigrated to Mexico, while illegal entrants

   According to the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos
   Indígenas (the National Council for the Development of Indigenous
   Peoples), the culturally and linguistically affiliated Amerindian
   population in Mexico numbers approximately 12.7 million. The Mexican
   government, however, does not collect racial information during
   censuses. In 2004, the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and
   Data Processing estimated there were 12,089,094 indigenous people
   (approximately 11.4% of Mexico's population), of whom over one million
   did not speak Spanish and almost five million were 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). The large-scale German settlement period of
   the mid 19th century in Northeast Mexico has blended in with the local
   culture, thus usage of the German language has declined there. The
   German and Northern Mexican cultural bond with Texas remains alive.

   Mexico is also home to the greatest number of U.S. citizens living
   outside U.S. territory. This may be due to the growing economic and
   business interdependence of the two countries under NAFTA and Mexico's
   increasing popularity among retirees. A clear example of the latter is
   seen in San Miguel de Allende and many towns along the Baja California
   peninsula and around Guadalajara, Jalisco. The official figure for
   foreign-born citizens in Mexico is 493,000 (since 2004), with a
   majority (86.9%) of these born in the United States (except Chiapas,
   where the majority of immigrants are from Central America). The five
   states with the most immigrants are Baja California (12.1% of total
   immigrants), Mexico City (the Federal District; 11.4%), Jalisco (9.9%),
   Chihuahua (9%) and Tamaulipas (7.3%). More than 54.6% of the immigrant
   population are fifteen years old or younger, while 9% are fifty or
   older. The large number of children may be because of 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).

   Ironically, because of its reputation as a major source of undocumeted
   immigrants to the United States in el Norte, Mexico itself experiences
   this kind of immigration from Central America because of similar
   differences in wages and poverty between countries of origin and
   Mexico; analogous to the economic differential between the U.S. and
   Mexico. Many undocumented Central American immigrants in Mexico
   ultimately try to enter the United States, though some decide to stay.

   Life expectancy in Mexico increased from 34.7 for men and 33.0 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 per 1000 people; by 2001, the rate
   had dropped to 4.9 men per 1000 men and 3.8 women per 1000 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

   Mexicans tend to be people-oriented, putting friends, family and
   relatives before work or business matters. Starting in the 70's, the
   government supported the use of birth control, despite the country
   being predominantly Roman Catholic.

Social stratification and racism

   Barrels of Tequila "reposado".
   Enlarge
   Barrels of Tequila "reposado".

   Mexico boasts a wealth of regional cultures that is unique in America.
   Every region in the country has a distinct culture, languages, and arts
   that create a huge mosaic as a whole.

   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 regional cultural traits. The north of Mexico,
   because of its historically high proportion of non-Spanish immigrants,
   is the least traditionally Mexican and most cosmopolitan 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. The México City middle
   classes are believed to be arriviste and prone to debt, or crime-prone
   if talking about the poor. The regiomontanos (from Monterrey) are
   thought to be cocky regardless of their social status, due to Northern
   prosperity. Different accents are used in almost every state in Mexico,
   making it fairly easy to distinguish the origin of someone by their
   distinct use of language.

   Pure pre-Hispanic Americans (known as "Native Americans" or "Indians")
   are likely to be perceived as inferior, even though this rarely reaches
   the level of aggressive racism. It's a rarity to see pre-Hispanic
   Americans in high positions. This hidden racism is latent in the use of
   the word "indio" as an insult for the darker skinned, which is even
   used between indigenous people to offend each other. Racism against
   those of African ancestry is said less prevalent than in the U.S., but
   some Mexicans of African descent have protested against negative racial
   stereotypes.

   Mexicans living in the United States, legally or illegally, are looked
   down upon by most middle class and high class Mexicans, since they feel
   they are creating a bad reputation for the rest of the Mexicans. Many
   terms that refer to Mexicans in the U.S.A. exist, but Chicano, (a
   person born in the U.S.A. of Mexican descent) or Pocho ( a person born
   in the U.S.A. with one parent Mexican and the other Anglo-American, and
   those who speak broken Spanish, or "Spanglish") are the most popular.
   In central and southern Mexico, these terms are used as a derogatory
   description. The majority of Mexican men or families that pursue a life
   in the U.S. come from the lowest economic stratus of society in Mexico,
   and have created a culture unique to them.

Standard of living

   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 a
   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 surveillance, 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. 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. The gender roles for women in Mexico are
   generally strict, although this has lessened in the country's
   upper-classes influenced by Anglo cultural trends and some Mexican
   women are challenging patriarchal societal mores where males continue
   to practice " machismo", a major Latin American cultural norm (yet is
   stereotyped) of men are strong, self-reliant and aggressive.

Leisure

   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 mariachi, rancheras, 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 mostly in
   family and friend reunions. Also, a place, such as a restaurant, with
   live music and singing will be a preferred choice for Mexicans to eat.

   Mexicans in places like Guadalajara, Puebla, Monterrey, Mexico City,
   and most middle sized cities, enjoy a great variety of options for
   leisure. World-class 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 renowned clothing
   brands are found too. Mexicans are prone to travel within their own
   country, making short weekend trips to a neighbouring city or town.

Sports

   The favorite sport remains football (soccer), while baseball is also
   popular, especially in the Gulf of Mexico and the border states in the
   NW. The season runs from March to July with playoffs held in August.
   The Mexican professional league is named the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol.

   Professional wrestling (or Lucha libre in Spanish) is a major crowd
   draw with national promotions such as AAA, LLL, CMLL and others.

   American football is practiced at the major universities like UNAM,
   UDLA (University of the Americas), UANL ( Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo
   León) and ITESM ( Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de
   Monterrey), and there's a strong following of the NFL in Mexico with
   the Steelers, Cowboys, Dolphins and Raiders being the most polular
   teams.

   Rugby is played at the amateur level throughout the country with the
   majority of clubs in Mexico City and others in Monterrey, Guadalajara,
   Celaya, Guanajuato and Oaxaca.

   The national sport of Mexico is Charreria. 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.

   Bullfighting is also a popular sport in the country. Almost all large
   cities have bullrings. La Monumental in Mexico city, has the largest
   bullring in the world, which seats 55,000 people.

Languages

   A stucco relief in the Palenque museum, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico.
   Enlarge
   A stucco relief in the Palenque museum, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico.

   Compared with other North American nations, the Mexican Constitution
   does not mention the existence of an " official language". Spanish,
   however, is mentioned in the treaty of Las Tres Garantias, where
   Agustin de Iturbide declares the unity of all Mexicans through Spanish
   as the official language of Mexico. Although Spanish is considered to
   be the "common" language of the country, used officially and spoken by
   the majority of the population, about 7% of the population speak an
   American dialect and the government officially recognizes sixty-two
   American languages. Of these, Nahuatl and Maya are each spoken by 1.5
   million; while others, such as Lacandon, are spoken by fewer than one
   hundred people. The Mexican government has promoted and established
   bilingual education programs in indigenous rural communities. A few
   tribes, such as the Kickapoo and the Cherokee, came to the state of
   Coahuila in the nineteenth century to escape U.S. army raids and are
   said to maintain their language and culture to a certain extent.

   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 border with the USA
   and in big cities and beach resorts. The majority of private schools in
   Mexico offer bilingual education, both in Spanish and English. English
   is the main language spoken in U.S.A. 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 such as 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, Mentideros, and Los Altos, 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 " Barcelonettes" from
   the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département, who migrated specifically to
   Mexico to find jobs and work in merchandising and 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,
   such as 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 ("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 wave of Armenians, Lebanese, Syrians and Greeks came to Mexico in
   the early twentieth century, mainly settled in urban areas and Baja
   California and Sinaloa, especially Greeks in the city of Culiacan, in
   proximity to relatives in California, U.S. is one notable migration.
   The Lebanese have settled in the urban areas such as Mexico City,
   Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Puebla. 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

   Guadalajara Cathedral by night.
   Enlarge
   Guadalajara Cathedral by night.

   Mexico is predominantly Roman Catholic (about 89% of the population).
   It is the nation with the second largest Catholic population, behind
   Brazil. Also, 6% of the population adheres to various Protestant/
   Restoration faiths (e.g. Latter-day Saints, Pentecostal), etc. Mexico
   is the nation with the second largest LDS population, 1,043,718, (a
   little less than 1%),just behind the USA (5,690,672). The remaining 5%
   of the population adhere to other religions or profess 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. Judaism has been practiced in
   Mexico for centuries. Many are descended of Jewish people who were
   converted forcibly to Catholicism in 1492 or earlier, and were forced
   to practice their religion in secret until the Inquisition was
   abolished in Mexico and they were free again to practice their
   ancestral faith openly. There are estimated to be more than
   45,000-50,000 (some estimates say 60,000) Jews in Mexico today. Islam
   has 318,608 adherents, according to official data, and is mostly
   practiced by Mexicans of Arab (mainly Syrian) and Turkish descent,
   though there is a very small percentage of the indigenous population in
   Chiapas state who adhere to Islam. Mexico has a very tiny Sikh
   population in the country of east Indian origin. The small number of
   Asian ethnic groups in Baja California have introduced Hinduism and
   Buddhism, but their members are generally small segments of Mexico's
   religious profile.

Education

   UNAM, Universitary City.
   UNAM, Universitary City.

   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 constitutional 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 1970s, 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 largest and most prestigious university in Mexico, today numbering
   over 269,000 students, is the National Autonomous University of Mexico
   ( Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) founded in 1551. Three Nobel
   laureates and most of Mexico's modern-day presidents are among its
   former students. UNAM conducts 50% of Mexico's scientific research and
   has presence all across the country with satellite campuses and
   research centres. The National Autonomous University of Mexico occupies
   the 74th place in the Top 200 World University Ranking published by The
   Times Higher Education Supplement in 2006 , making it the highest
   ranked Spanish-speaking university in the world as well as the first
   Latin American university. The second largest university is the
   National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). These institutions are public,
   and there are at least a couple of public universities per state.

   There are also private universities like the Monterrey's Technological
   and Higher Education Institute (ITESM), which is ranked by the Wall
   Street Journal as the 7th top International Business School worldwide
   (it has thirty-two secondary campuses, apart from the Monterrey
   Campus), Mexico's Autonomous Technological Institute (ITAM),
   Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP), the Ibero-American
   University ( Universidad Iberoamericana).

Crime

   There are high crime rates in localized parts of the country. Mexican
   drug cartels deliver more than half of the methamphetamine supply into
   the United States. The persistence of corruption at certain levels of
   the government and the police has prevented effective crime control
   efforts.

   Police corruption remain as a problem in Mexico, and are mostly fuelled
   by the lucrative drug trade and migrant smuggling. Between January and
   June 2006, drug wars between cartels claimed 1,003 victims. The problem
   is especially dangerous in the border city of Tijuana and in the
   coastal city of Acapulco, which is a key link to the United States and
   México City.

   Mexico City continues to experience crime problems, particularly with
   street crime and kidnappings, and also a new type of kidnapping called
   "Express kidnapping" usually in which the victim is carjacked and
   beaten. It is estimated that there are between 2000 and 3000 crimes
   committed on the streets of Mexico City 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. 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.

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
   may have been derived from Mexitli, a tribal war god whose name may
   have been derived from the words metztli (the moon) and xictli (navel)
   and may mean "navel (possibly implying 'child') of the moon", or from
   Mectli, a goddess known to the early wandering pre-Aztecs peoples and
   whose name can be translated as "navel of the maguey" or "maguey
   grandmother" (in several sources, it was she who first sent the
   ancestors of the Mexica on their trek southwards into empire and
   history). Mexico is the home of the people of Mexitli or Mectli (the
   Mexicas), co meaning "place" and ca meaning "people". Mexico can also
   be translated as "the place of Mectli's people near the nopal cactus."
   The symbol in myth of Tenochtitlan's founding, an eagle perched on a
   nopal cactus which arose from the lake on which the city was built, is
   still found on Mexico's national flag today.

   When the Spaniards conquered Mexico and imposed their own language
   (Spanish), 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 was not yet in common usage) 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, Catalan 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 /ks/ consonant cluster in words derived from Latin or Greek.

   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 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 Spaniard rules, 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). X is also used in the local placenames " Oaxaca" and "
   Xalapa" or former territories like " Texas"; in places like "
   Xochimilco", however, the x represents a /ʃ/.

   A cultural side-effect of the fact that Mexicans use México /'mexiko/
   and Spaniards sometimes use Méjico to represent the same pronunciation
   is that the mere act of using the j spelling is interpreted by some as
   a form of colonial aggression, even though a wide majority of Spaniards
   is not aware of the controversy at all. 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-native students of Spanish to mispronounce México as
   /'meksiko/.

   In the Nahuatl language, from which the name originally derived, the
   name for Mexico is Mexihco ( International Phonetic Alphabet
   /meː.ɕiʔ.ko/).
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico"
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