The federation: States of Mexico and the Federal
District
The United Mexican States are a federation of thirty-one free
and sovereign states which form a Union that exercises
jurisdiction over the Federal District and other territories.
Each state has its own constitution and congress, as well as a
judiciary, and its citizens elect by direct voting, a
governor (gobernador)
for a six-year term, as well as representatives (diputados
locales) to their respective state congresses, for
three-year terms. The 31 states and the Federal District are
collectively called "federal entities", and all are equally
represented in the Congress of the Union.
Mexican states are also divided into
municipalities (municipios),
the smallest official political entity in the country, governed
by a
mayor or "municipal president"
(presidente municipal), elected by its residents by
plurality. Municipalities can be further subdivided into
non-autonomous
boroughs or in
semi-autonomous auxiliary presidencies.
Constitutionally,
Mexico City, as the capital
of the federation and seat of the powers of the Union, is the
Federal District, a special political division in Mexico that
belongs to the federation as a whole and not to a particular
state, and as such, has more limited local rule than the
nation's states. Nonetheless, since 1987 it has progressively
gained a greater degree of autonomy, and residents now elect a
head of government (Jefe
de Gobierno) and representatives of a Legislative Assembly
directly. Unlike the states, the Federal District does not have
a constitution but a statute of government.
Geography and climate
Mountain range in south central Mexico.
Mexico is located at about 23° N and 102° W in the southern
portion of
North America. It is also
located in a region known as
Middle America. Almost all
of Mexico lies in the
North American Plate, with
small parts of the
Baja California peninsula
on the
Pacific and
Cocos Plates.
Geophysically, some
geographers include the territory east of the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
(around 12% of the total) within
Central America.
Geopolitically, however,
Mexico is considered part of North America along with Canada and
the United States.
Mexico's total area is 1,972,550 km², making it the
world's 14th largest country by total
area, and includes approximately 6,000 km² of islands
in the
Pacific Ocean (including
the remote
Guadalupe Island and the
Revillagigedo Islands),
Gulf of Mexico,
Caribbean Sea, and
Gulf of California. On its
north,
Mexico shares a 3,141 km border with
the United States. The meandering Río Bravo del Norte
(known as the
Rio Grande in the United
States) defines the border from
Ciudad Juárez east to the
Gulf of Mexico. A series of natural and artificial markers
delineate the United States-Mexican border west from Ciudad
Juárez to the Pacific Ocean. On its south, Mexico shares an 871
km border with Guatemala and a 251 km border with Belize.
Topography
An isolated beach in
Los Cabos,
Baja California Sur.
A field in the state of
Jalisco.
Mexico is crossed from north to south by two mountain ranges
known as
Sierra Madre Oriental and
Sierra Madre Occidental,
which are the extension of the
Rocky Mountains from
northern North America. From east to west at the center, the
country is crossed by the
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt
also known as the Sierra Nevada. A fourth mountain range,
the
Sierra Madre del Sur, runs
from
Michoacán to
Oaxaca. As such, the majority of the Mexican central and
northern territories are located at high altitudes, and the
highest elevations are found at the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt:
Pico de Orizaba (5,700 m),
Popocatépetl (5,462 m) and
Iztaccíhuatl (5,286 m) and
the
Nevado de Toluca (4,577 m).
Three major urban agglomerations are located in the valleys
between these four elevations:
Toluca,
Greater Mexico City and
Puebla.
Climate
Annual snowfall in
Chihuahua,
Chihuahua.
The Altar desert,
Sonora.
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
twenty-fourth parallel, temperatures are fairly constant year
round and vary solely as a function of elevation. This gives
Mexico one of the world's most diverse weather systems in the
world.
Areas south of the twenty-fourth parallel with elevations up to
1,000 meters (the southern parts of both coastal plains as well
as the
Yucatán Peninsula), have a
yearly median temperature between 24 and 28 °C. Temperatures
here remain high throughout the year, with only a 5 °C
difference between winter and summer median temperatures.
Although low-lying areas north of the twentieth-fourth parallel
are hot and humid during the summer, they generally have lower
yearly temperature averages (from 20-24 °C) because of more
moderate conditions during the winter.
Many large cities in Mexico are located in the
Valley of Mexico or in
adjacent valleys with altitudes generally above 2,000 m, this
gives them a year-round temperate climate with yearly
temperature averages (from 16-18 °C) and cool nighttime
temperatures throughout the year.
Many parts of Mexico, particularly the north, have a dry climate
with sporadic rainfall while parts of the tropical lowlands in
the south average more than 200 cm of annual precipitation.
Biodiversity
A "Lepisosteus",
one of the endemic species of Mexico
The
Jaguar, a native mammal of Mexico.
Mexico is one of the 18
megadiverse countries of
the world. With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home
of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity. Mexico ranks first in
biodiversity in
reptiles with 707 known
species, second in mammals with 438 species, fourth in
amphibians with 290
species, and fourth in flora, with 26,000 different species.
Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in
ecosystems and fourth in
overall species. Approximately 2,500 species are protected by
Mexican legislations. The Mexican government created the
National System of Information about Biodiversity, in order to
study and promote the sustainable use of ecosystems.
In Mexico, 170,000 square kilometres are considered "Protected
Natural Areas." These include 34 reserve biospheres (unaltered
ecosystems), 64 national parks, 4 natural monuments (protected
in perpetuity for their aesthetic, scientific or historical
value), 26 areas of protected flora and fauna, 4 areas for
natural resource protection (conservation of soil, hydrological
basins and forests) and 17 sanctuaries (zones rich in diverse
species).
The discovery of the Americas brought to the rest of the world
many widely used ingredients. Some of Mexico's native
ingredients include:
chocolate,
tomato,
maize,
vanilla,
avocado,
guava,
chayote,
epazote,
camote,
jícama,
nopal,
tejocote,
huitlacoche,
sapote,
mamey sapote, many
varieties of
beans, and an even greater
variety of
chiles, such as the
Habanero. Most of these
names are in indigenous languages like
Nahuatl.
Economy
Santa
Fe business district,
Mexico City
Mastretta MXT, Mexico's
first sports car, developed by the Mexican company
Mastretta.
Mexico has a
free market mixed
economy, and is firmly
established as an upper middle-income country. It is the 11th
largest economy in the world as measured in
gross domestic product in
purchasing power parity.[85]
According to the latest information available from the
International Monetary Fund,
Mexico had the second-highest
Gross National Income per
capita in
Latin America in nominal
terms, at $9,716 in 2007, and the highest in
purchasing power parity
(PPP), at $14,119 in 2007. After the
1994 economic debacle,
Mexico has made an impressive recovery, building a modern and
diversified economy.[12]
Recent administrations have also improved infrastructure and
opened competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications,
electricity generation, natural gas distribution and airports.
Oil is Mexico's largest source of foreign income. According to
Goldman Sachs,
BRIMC review of emerging
economies, by 2050 the largest economies in the world will be as
follows:
China, United States,
India,
Brazil, and Mexico. Mexico
is the largest North American auto producing nation, recently
surpassing
Canada and
U.S.
According to the director for Mexico at the
World Bank, the population
in poverty has decreased from 24.2% to 17.6% in the general
population and from 42% to 27.9% in rural areas from 2000-2004.
Nonetheless, income inequality remains a problem, and huge gaps
remain not only between rich and poor but also between the north
and the south, and between urban and rural areas. Sharp
contrasts in income and Human Development are also a grave
problem in Mexico. The 2004
United Nations
Human Development Index
report for Mexico states that
Benito Juárez, a district
of
Mexico City, and
San Pedro Garza García, in
the State of
Nuevo León, would have a
similar level of economic, educational and life expectancy
development to
Germany or
New Zealand. In contrast,
Metlatonoc, in the state of
Guerrero, would have an HDI
similar to that of
Syria.
Many of the positive effects in poverty reduction and the
increase in purchasing power of the middle class are attributed
to the macroeconomic stability pursued by the last two
administrations GDP annual average growth for the
period of 1995–2002 was 5.1%. The economic downturn in the
United States also caused a similar pattern in Mexico, from
which it rapidly recovered to grow 4.1% in 2005 and 3% in 2005.
Inflation has reached a record low of 3.3% in 2005, and interest
rates are low, which have spurred credit-consumption in the
middle class. Mexico has experienced in the last decade monetary
stability: the budget deficit was further reduced and foreign
debt was decreased to less than 20% of GDP. Along with
Chile, Mexico has the
highest rating of long-term sovereign credit in Latin America.
The remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United
States account only for .2% of Mexico's economy which reaches
US$20 billion dollars per year in 2004 and is the seventh
largest source of foreign income after oil, industrial exports,
manufactured good, electronics, automobiles and food exports.
In 2008, US$67.5 billion dollars per year was sent by migrants
in the United States to Mexico. Approximately 90% of Mexican
trade has been put under
free trade agreements with
over 40 countries, of which the
North American Free Trade Agreement
remains the most significant. Almost 90% of Mexican exports go
to the United States and Canada and close to 65% of its imports
come from these two countries. Other major trade agreements have
been signed with the
European Union, Japan,
Israel and many countries
in Central and South America. As such, Mexico has become a major
player in international trade and an export power. Measured in
the dollar value of exports, Mexico was the 15th largest
exporter in the world—tenth if the
European Union is treated
as a single entity. Mexican exports roughly equal the total
exports of all
Mercosur members together,
Venezuela inclusive.
According to the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's 40
largest companies in 2008, Mexico had 16 companies in the list.
Ongoing economic concerns include the commercial and financial
dependence on the US, low real wages,
underemployment for a large
segment of the population, inequitable
income distribution (the
top 20% of income earners account for 55% of income), and few
advancement opportunities for the largely
Amerindian population in
the impoverished southern states. Lack of structural reform is
further exacerbated by an ever increasing outflow of the
population into the United States, decreasing domestic pressure
for reform.
Tourism
Aerial view of
Cancun,
Quintana Roo.
Aerial view of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.
Coastal Skyline of
Acapulco,
Guerrero.
According to the
World Tourism Organization,
Mexico has one of the largest tourism industries in the world.
In 2005 it was the seventh most popular tourist destination
worldwide, receiving over 20 million tourists per year; it is
the only country in
Latin America to be within
the top 25. Tourism is also the third largest sector in the
country's industrial GDP. The most notable tourist draws are the
ancient Meso-American ruins, and popular beach resorts. The
coastal climate and unique culture – a fusion of European
(particularly Spanish) and Meso-American cultures; also make
Mexico attractive. The peak tourist seasons in Mexico are during
December and during July and August, with brief surges during
the week before Easter and during spring break at many of the
beach resort sites which are popular among vacationing college
students from the United States.
Mexico's
middle/lower class
typically take their vacations within Mexico in
contrast to the
middle/higher class who
travel worldwide, especially to Europe and the United States,
and in lesser numbers to Asia and South America. Mexico is the
twenty-third highest tourism spender in the world, and the
highest in Latin America.
Infrastructure
Energy
Laguna Verde nuclear power plant
located in
Veracruz.
Energy production in Mexico is managed by State-owned companies:
the
Federal Commission of Electricity
(Comisión Federal de Electricidad, CFE) and
Pemex (Petróleos
Mexicanos). The CFE is in charge of the operation of
electricity-generating plants and its distribution all across
the territory, with the exception of the states of
Morelos,
México,
Hidalgo and
Mexico City, whose
distribution of electricity is in charge of the State-owned
Luz y Fuerza del Centro. Most of the electricity is
generated in
thermoelectrical plants,
even though CFE operates several
hydroelectrical plants, as
well as wind power, geothermal and
nuclear generators.
Pemex is in charge of the
exploration, extraction, transportation and marketing of crude
oil and natural gas, as well as the refining and distribution of
petroleum products and petrochemicals. Pemex is the largest
company in
Latin America, and the
ninth-largest company in the world. In terms of total output, in
2007 it was the sixth-larger producer in the world—in 2003 it
was the third-largest— producing 3.1 million of barrels a day,
well above the production of
Kuwait or
Venezuela.
Transportation
Monterrey Subway (Metrorrey),
third largest metro system of the country.
An Aeromexico plane landing at
Mexico City International Airport.
The paved-roadway network in Mexico is the most extensive in
Latin America at 116,802 km in 2005; 10,474 km were multi-lane
freeways or
expressways, most of which
were
tollways. Nonetheless,
Mexico's diverse orography—most of the territory is crossed by
high-altitude ranges of mountains—as well as economic challenges
have led to difficulties in creating an integrated
transportation network and even though the network has improved,
it still cannot meet national needs adequately.
Being one of the first Latin American countries to promote
railway development, the network, though extensive at 30,952 km,
is still inefficient to meet the economic demands of
transportation. Most of the rail network is mainly used for
merchandise or industrial freight and was mostly operated by
National Railway of Mexico
(Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, FNM), privatized in
1997.
In 1999, Mexico had 1,806 airports, of which 233 had paved
runways; of these, 35 carry 97% of the passenger traffic.[107]
The
Mexico City International Airport
remains the largest in Latin America and the 44th largest in the
world transporting 21 million passengers a year. There are more
than 30 domestic airline companies of which only two are known
internationally:
Aeroméxico and
Mexicana.
Mass transit in Mexico is modest. Most of the domestic passenger
transport needs are served by an extensive bus network with
several dozen companies operating by regions. Train passenger
transportation between cities is limited. Inner-city rail mass
transit is available at
Mexico City—with the
operation of the
metro, elevated and ground
train, as well as a
Suburban Train connecting
the adjacent municipalities of
Greater Mexico City—as well
as at
Guadalajara and
Monterrey, the first served
by a
commuter rail and the
second by an
underground and elevated metro.
Communications
A
Telmex retail store in
Puerto
Vallarta,
Jalisco.
The telecommunications industry is mostly dominated by
Telmex (Teléfonos de
México), privatized in 1990. As of 2006, Telmex had expanded
its operations to Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and
Uruguay and the United States. Other players in the domestic
industry are
Axtel and
Maxcom. Due to Mexican
orography, providing
landline telephone service at remote mountainous areas is
expensive, and the penetration of line-phones per capita is low
compared to other Latin American countries, at twenty-percent.
Mobile telephony has the advantage of reaching all areas at a
lower cost, and the total number of mobile lines is almost three
times that of landlines, with an estimation of 57 million lines.
The telecommunication industry is regulated by the government
through
Cofetel (Comisión
Federal de Telecomunicaciones).
Usage of radio, television, and Internet in Mexico is prevalent.
There are approximately 1,410 radio broadcast stations and 236
television stations (excluding repeaters). Major players in the
broadcasting industry are
Televisa—the largest
Spanish media company in the Spanish-speaking world—and
TV Azteca.
Demographics
According to the latest official census, which reported a
population of 103 million, Mexico is the most populous
Spanish-speaking country in
the world. Mexican annual population growth has drastically
decreased from a peak of 3.5% in 1965 to 0.99% in 2005. Life
expectancy in 2006 was estimated to be at 75.4 years (72.6 male
and 78.3 female). 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). 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).
Mexican population is increasingly urban, with close to 75%
living in cities. The five largest
urban areas in Mexico (Greater
Mexico City,
Greater Guadalajara,
Greater Monterrey,
Greater Puebla and
Greater Toluca) are home to
30% of the country's population. Migration patterns within the
country show positive migration to north-western and
south-eastern states, and a negative rate of migration for the
Federal District. While the annual population growth is still
positive, the national net migration rate is negative
(-4.7/1000), attributable to the emigration phenomenon of people
from rural communities to the United States.
Metropolitan areas of Mexico
Mexico City,
Federal District.
Guadalajara,
Jalisco.
Metropolitan areas in Mexico have been traditionally defined as
the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each
other, usually around a core city.[113]
In 2004, a joint effort between CONAPO,
INEGI and the Ministry of
Social Development (SEDESOL) agreed to define metropolitan areas
as either:
-
the group of two or more municipalities in which a city with
a population of at least 50,000 is located whose urban area
extends over the limit of the municipality that originally
contained the core city incorporating either physically or
under its area of direct influence other adjacent
predominantly urban municipalities all of which have a high
degree of social and economic integration or are relevant
for urban politics and administration; or
-
a single municipality in which a city of a population of at
least one million is located and fully contained, (that is,
it does not transcend the limits of a single municipality);
or
-
a city with a population of at least 250,000 which forms a
conurbation with other cities in the United States.
It should be noted, however, that northwestern and southeastern
states are divided into a small number of large municipalities
whereas central states are divided into a large number of
smaller municipalities. As such, metropolitan areas in the
northwest usually do not extend over more than one municipality
(and figures usually report population for the entire
municipality) whereas metropolitan areas in the center extend
over many municipalities.
Few metropolitan areas extend beyond the limits of one state,
namely:
Greater Mexico City
(Federal District, Mexico and Hidalgo),
Puebla-Tlaxcala (Puebla and
Tlaxcala, but excludes the city of
Tlaxcala),
Comarca Lagunera (Coahuila
and Durango), and Tampico (Tamaulipas and Veracruz).
The following is a list of the major metropolitan areas of
Mexico, as reported in the 2005 census.
|
Metropolitan areas by population |
|
Rank |
City proper |
State |
Pop. |
Rank |
City proper |
State |
Pop. |
Mexico City
Monterrey |
|
1 |
Mexico City |
Federal
District |
19,231,829 |
11 |
Querétaro |
Querétaro |
918,100 |
|
2 |
Guadalajara |
Jalisco |
4,095,853 |
12 |
Mérida |
Yucatán |
897,740 |
|
3 |
Monterrey |
Nuevo León |
3,664,331 |
13 |
Mexicali |
Baja California |
855,962 |
|
4 |
Puebla |
Puebla |
2,109,049 |
14 |
Aguascalientes |
Aguascalientes |
805,666 |
|
|
5 |
Toluca |
Mexico State |
1,610,786 |
15 |
Tampico |
Tamaulipas |
803,196 |
|
|
6 |
Tijuana |
Baja California |
1,483,992 |
16 |
Culiacán |
Sinaloa |
793,730 |
|
|
7 |
León |
Guanajuato |
1,425,210 |
17 |
Cuernavaca |
Morelos |
787,556 |
|
|
8 |
Ciudad Juárez |
Chihuahua |
1,313,338 |
18 |
Acapulco |
Guerrero |
786,830 |
|
|
9 |
Torreón |
Coahuila |
1,110,890 |
19 |
Chihuahua |
Chihuahua |
784,882 |
|
|
10 |
San Luis Potosi |
San Luis Potosí |
957,753 |
20 |
Morelia |
Michoacán |
735,624 |
|
|
2005 Census |
Immigration
Mexico is home to the largest number of U.S. citizens abroad
(estimated at one million as of 1999), which represents 1% of
the Mexican population and 25% of all U.S. citizens abroad.
Other significant communities of foreigners are those of
Central and
South America, most notably
from
Argentina,
Brazil,
Chile,
Colombia,
Peru,
Cuba,
Venezuela,
Guatemala, and
Belize. Though estimations vary, the Argentine community is
considered to be the second largest foreign community in the
country (estimated somewhere between 30,000 and 150,000).
Throughout the 20th century, the country followed a policy of
granting asylum to fellow Latin Americans and Europeans (mostly
Spaniards in the 1940s) fleeing political persecution in their
home countries.
Discrepancies between the figures for official legal aliens and
those of all foreign-born residents regardless of their
immigration status are quite large. The official figure for
foreign-born legal residents 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.
Ethnography
School children, from
Monterrey,
Nuevo León.
Mexico is ethnically diverse, and the constitution defines the
country to be a pluricultural nation.
-
Mestizos (those of
mixed European and Amerindian ancestry) form the largest
group, comprising up to 60-75% of the total population.
-
Amerindians called
indigenous peoples (indígenas)
are estimated to be between 12% (pure Amerindian)[119]
and 30% (predominantly Amerindian). Indigenous peoples are
considered the foundation of the Mexican pluricultural
nation and therefore enjoy self-determination in certain
areas.
Indigenous languages
are also considered "national languages" and are protected
by law.
-
Whites make up 9%-17%
of the population, mostly descendants of the first
Spanish settlers;
although there are Mexicans of
French,
Italian,
Portuguese,
Basque,
German,
Irish,
Polish,
Romanian,
Russian and
British descents from
contemporary migration after the waves of immigration that
brought many Europeans at the end of the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, along with some Canadians and
European Americans from
the United States and Argentina. Most are found in major
cities.
Mexico also received a large number of
Lebanese,
Turkish,[122]
Chinese,
Japanese,
Korean, and
Filipino immigrants.
Afro-Mexicans, mostly of
mixed ancestry, live in the coastal areas of
Veracruz,
Tabasco and
Guerrero.
Language
A page of the
Florentine Codex written in
romanized Nahuatl, an indigeonus language of central Mexico
There is no de jure constitutional
official language at the
federal level in Mexico.
Spanish, spoken by 97% of
the population, is considered a national language by The General
Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, which also
grants all indigenous minority languages spoken in Mexico,
regardless of the number of speakers, the same validity as
Spanish in all territories in which they are spoken, and
indigenous peoples are entitled to request some public services
and documents in their native languages. Along with Spanish, the
law has granted them the status of "national languages". The law
includes all Amerindian languages regardless of origin; that is,
it includes the Amerindian languages of ethnic groups non-native
to the territory. As such the
National Commission for the
Development of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the
language of the
Kickapoo, who immigrated
from the United States, and recognizes the languages of the
Guatemalan Amerindian
refugees. The Mexican government has promoted and established
bilingual primary and secondary education in some indigenous
rural communities. Approximately 7.1% of the population speaks
an indigenous language and 1.2% do not speak Spanish.
Mexico has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world
with more than twice as many as the second largest
Spanish-speaking country. Almost a third of all Spanish native
speakers in the world live in Mexico. Nahuatl
is spoken by 1.5 million people and
Yucatec Maya by 800,000.
Some of the national languages are in danger of extinction;
Lacandon is spoken by fewer
than one hundred people.
English is widely used in
business at the border cities, as well as by the one million
U.S. citizens that live in Mexico, mostly retirees in small
towns in
Baja California,
Guanajuato and
Chiapas. Other European
languages spoken by sizable communities in Mexico are
Venetian,
Plautdietsch,
German,
French and
Romani.
Religion
Metropolitan Cathedral of
Guadalajara, Jalisco.
Unlike some other Latin American countries, Mexico has no
official religion, and the Constitution of 1917 and the
anti-clerical laws imposed limitations on the church and
sometimes codified state intrusion into church matters. The
government does not provide any financial contributions to the
church, and the church does not participate in public education.
The last census reported, by self-ascription, that 95% of the
population is
Christian.
Roman Catholics are 89%[130]
of the total population, 47% percent of whom attend church
services weekly. In absolute terms, Mexico has the world's
second largest number of Catholics after
Brazil.
About 6% of the population (more than 4.4 million people) is
Protestant, of whom
Pentecostals and
Charismatics (called
Neo-Pentecostals in the census), are the largest group (1.37
million people). There are also a sizeable number of
Seventh-day Adventists (0.6
million people). The 2000 national census counted more than one
million
Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims one
million registered members as of 2006, about 250,000 of whom are
active, though this is disputed.
Islam in Mexico is
practiced by a small
Muslim population in the city of Torreon, Coahuila, and there
are an estimated 300 Muslims in the San Cristobal de las Casas
area in Chiapas.
The presence of
Jews in Mexico dates back
to 1521, when
Hernán Cortés conquered the
Aztecs, accompanied by several
Conversos. According to the
last national census by the INEGI, there are now more than
45,000 Mexican Jews. Almost three million people in the 2000
National Census reported having no religion.
Mexico’s
Buddhist population
currently makes up a tiny minority, some 108,000 according to
latest accounts. Some of its members are of Asian descent,
others people of various other walks of life that have turned
toward
Buddhism in the recent
past.
In 1992, Mexico lifted almost all restrictions on the Catholic
Church and other religions, including granting all religious
groups legal status, conceding them limited property rights, and
lifting restrictions on the number of priests in the country.[139]
Until recently, priests did not have the right to vote, and even
now they cannot be elected to public office.
Culture
A type of traditional Mexican dance and costumes.
Mexican culture reflects the complexity of the
country's history through
the blending of pre-Hispanic
civilizations and the
culture of Spain, imparted
during Spain's 300-year colonization of Mexico. Exogenous
cultural elements mainly from the United States have been
incorporated into Mexican culture. As was the case in most
Latin American countries,
when Mexico became an independent nation, it had to slowly
create a national identity, being an ethnically diverse country
in which, for the most part, the only connecting element amongst
the newly independent inhabitants was Catholicism.
The Porfirian era (el
Porfiriato), in the
last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of
the twentieth century, was marked by economic progress and
peace. After four decades of civil unrest and war, Mexico saw
the development of philosophy and the arts, promoted by
President Díaz himself. Since that time, though accentuated
during the
Mexican Revolution,
cultural identity had its foundation in the mestizaje, of
which the indigenous (i.e. Amerindian) element was the core. In
light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican people,
José Vasconcelos in his
publication La Raza Cósmica (The Cosmic Race) (1925)
defined Mexico to be the melting pot of all races (thus
extending the definition of the mestizo) not only
biologically but culturally as well.[140]
This exalting of mestizaje was a revolutionary idea that
sharply contrasted with the idea of a superior pure race
prevalent in Europe at the time.
Cinema
Famous actors
Pedro Infante and
Jorge Negrete in the 1952
film Dos Tipos de Cuidado
Mexican films from the
Golden Age in the 1940s and
1950s are the greatest examples of Latin American cinema, with a
huge industry comparable to the
Hollywood of those years.
Mexican films were exported and exhibited in all of Latin
America and Europe. Maria Candelaria (1944) by
Emilio Fernández, was one
of the first films awarded a
Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival in
1946, the first time the event was held after World War II.
Famous actors and actresses from this period include
María Félix,
Pedro Infante,
Dolores del Río,
Jorge Negrete and the
comedian
Cantinflas.
More recently, films such as
Como agua para chocolate
(1992),
Cronos (1993),
Amores perros (2000),
Y tu mamá también
(2001),
El Crimen del
Padre Amaro (2002),
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
and
Babel (2006) have been
successful in creating universal stories about contemporary
subjects, and were internationally recognised, as in the
prestigious
Cannes Film Festival.
Mexican directors
Alejandro González Iñárritu
(Amores
perros,
Babel),
Alfonso Cuarón (Children
of Men,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban),
Guillermo del Toro,
Carlos Carrera (The
Crime of Father Amaro), and screenwriter
Guillermo Arriaga are some
of the most known present-day film makers.
Music
Jalisco Symphony Orchestra.
Mexican society enjoys a vast array of music genres, showing the
diversity of Mexican culture. Traditional music includes
Mariachi,
Banda,
Norteño,
Ranchera and
Corridos; on an every-day
basis most Mexicans listen to contemporary music such as
pop,
rock, etc. in both
English and
Spanish. Mexico has the
largest media industry in
Latin America, producing
Mexican artists who are famous in
Central and
South America and parts of
Europe, especially Spain. Some well-known Mexican singers are
Thalía,
Luis Miguel and
Paulina Rubio. Popular
groups are
Café Tacuba,
Molotov,
RBD and
Maná, among others.
Most states, through their Ministry of Culture or of Education,
sponsor an Orquesta Sinfónica or Orquesta Filarmónica
(Symphony
Orchestra or Philharmonica Orchestra) so people can
enjoy
classical music.
Fine arts
Palace of Fine Arts in
Mexico City.
Post-revolutionary art in Mexico had its expression in the works
of renowned artists such as
Frida Kahlo,
Diego Rivera,
José Clemente Orozco,
Rufino Tamayo,
David Alfaro Siqueiros and
Juan O'Gorman. Diego
Rivera, the most well-known figure of
Mexican Muralism, painted
the
Man at the Crossroads
at the
Rockefeller Center in New
York City, a huge mural that was destroyed the next year due to
the inclusion of a portrait of Russian communist leader
Lenin. Some of Rivera's
murals are displayed at the Mexican
National Palace and the
Palace of Fine Arts.
Academic music composers of Mexico include
Manuel María Ponce,
José Pablo Moncayo,
Julián Carrillo,
Mario Lavista,
Carlos Chávez,
Silvestre Revueltas,
Arturo Márquez, and
Juventino Rosas, many of
whom incorporated traditional elements into their music.
Nobel Prize winner
Octavio Paz,
Carlos Fuentes,
Juan Rulfo,
Elena Poniatowska, and
José Emilio Pacheco, are
some of the most recognized authors of Mexican literature.
Broadcast media
Two of the major television networks based in Mexico are
Televisa and
TV Azteca. Televisa is also
the largest producer of Spanish-language content in the world
and also the world's largest Spanish-language media network.[142]
Grupo Multimedios is
another media conglomerate with Spanish-language broadcasting in
Mexico, Spain, and the United States.
Soap operas (telenovelas)
are translated to many languages and seen all over the world
with renowned 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 have appeared
in some of them. Some of their TV shows are modeled after
counterparts from the U.S. like
Family Feud (100
Mexicanos Dijeron or "A hundred Mexicans said" in Spanish)
and
¿Qué dice la gente?,
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 counterparts from the U.S. like the
Eyewitness News and
Action News formats.
Border cities receive television and radio stations from the
U.S., while
satellite and
cable subscription is
common for the middle-classes in major cities, and they often
watch movies and TV shows from the U.S.
Cuisine
Enchiladas, a traditional
Mexican dish
Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors,
colorful decoration, and variety of spices. Most of today's
Mexican food is based on pre-hispanic traditions, including the
Aztecs and Maya, combined with culinary trends introduced by
Spanish colonists. The
conquistadores
eventually combined their imported diet of rice, beef, pork,
chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the native
pre-Columbian food,
including
maize,
tomato,
vanilla,
avocado,
papaya,
pineapple,
chili pepper,
beans,
squash,
limes (limón in
Mexican Spanish),
sweet potato,
peanut and
turkey.
The most internationally recognized dishes include
chocolate,
tacos,
quesadillas,
enchiladas,
burritos,
tamales and
mole among others. Regional
dishes include
mole poblano,
chiles en nogada and
chalupas from
Puebla;
cabrito and
machaca from
Monterrey,
cochinita pibil from
Yucatán,
Tlayudas from
Oaxaca, as well as
barbacoa,
chilaquiles,
milanesas, and many others.
Sports
The Estadio Azteca (Aztec Stadium) is the official home stadium
of the
Mexico national football team.
Baseball stadium in Monterrey, home to Monterrey Sultans.
Mexico City hosted the
XIX Olympic Games in 1968,
making it the only Latin American city to do so. The country has
also hosted the
FIFA World Cup twice, in
1970 and
1986. It has held the
panamerican games twice in Mexico City. It will do so a third
time in 2011 in the cosmopolitan city of Guadalajara.
Mexico’s most popular sport is
association football. It is
commonly believed that Football was introduced in Mexico by
Cornish miners at the end
of the 19th century. By 1902 a 5 team league emerged still with
a strong English influence. Football became a professional sport
in 1943. Since the “Era Professional” started, Mexico’s top
clubs have been
Guadalajara with 11
championships,
América with 10 and
Toluca with 9.[147]
In Mexican Football many players have been raised to the level
of legend, but two of them have received international
recognition above others.
Antonio Carbajal was the
first player to appear in 5 World Cups, and
Hugo Sánchez was named best
CONCACAF player of the 20th
century by IFFHS.
Mexican’s biggest stadiums are
Estadio Azteca,
Estadio Olímpico
Universitario
and
Estadio Jalisco.
The national sport of Mexico is
Charreada.[148]
Bullfighting is also a
popular sport in the country, and almost all large cities have
bullrings.
Plaza México in
Mexico City, is the largest
bullring in the world, which seats 55,000 people. Professional
wrestling (or
Lucha libre in Spanish)
is a major crowd draw with national promotions such as
AAA, LLL,
CMLL and others.
Baseball, is also popular,
especially in the Gulf of Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula and the
Northern States. The season runs from March to July with
playoffs held in August. The Mexican professional league is
named the
Liga Mexicana de Beisbol.
Current champions (2007) are Sultanes de Monterrey who defeated
in a tight series Leones de Yucatán. However, the best level of
baseball is played in
Liga Mexicana del Pacífico,
played in Sinaloa, Sonora and Baja California. Given that it is
played during the MLB off-season, some of its players are signed
to play with the league 8 teams. Current champions (2007) are
Yaquis de Obregon. The
league champion participates in the
Caribbean Series, a
tournament between the Champions of Winter Leagues of Mexico,
Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic; the
2009 Caribbean Series
edition will be held in
Mexicali.
Lorena Ochoa, world's
number one woman golfer according to the
LPGA.
The most important professional
basketball league is the
Liga Nacional de Baloncesto
Profesional and covers the whole Mexican territory,
where the
Soles de Mexicali are the
current champions. In 2007 three Mexican teams will be competing
in the
American Basketball Association.
In the northwestern states is the CIBACOPA Competition, with
professional basketball players from Mexico and the U.S.
Universities and some teams from the NBA.
American football
is played at the major universities like
ITESM
(Instituto
Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey),
UANL (Universidad
Autónoma de Nuevo León),
UDLA
(University of the Americas),
IPN (Instituto
Politécnico Nacional) and
UNAM.
The college league in Mexico is called
ONEFA.
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.
Auto racing is very popular
in Mexico. Throughout the years, Mexico has hosted races for
some of the most important international championships such as
Formula One,
NASCAR,
Champ Car,
A1 Grand Prix, among
others. Mexico also has its own
NASCAR-sanctioned stock car
series, the
NASCAR Corona Series, which
runs 14 events in different cities, drawing large crowds. Other
forms of racing include
Formula Renault,
Formula Vee, touring cars,
Pick-up trucks, endurance racing, rallying, and off-road.
Ice hockey is played in
larger cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara, Villahermosa,
Culiacan and of course Mexico City, with teams like: Galerias
Pumas, Gran Sur Wolves, Lomas Verdes Falcons, Metepec Tigres,
Monterrey Toros, San Jeronimo Bears, Villahermosa Garrobos and
as independent teams: Bosques, Cuatitlan Izcally, Jalapa,
Jalisco, Leon, Merida, Puebla, Jurasicos. The IIHF or Federación
Deportiva de Mexico de Hockey Sobre Hielo A.C. is the Official
Mexico National Ice Hockey Federation and regulates all
tournaments in Mexico.
Other notable Mexican athletes include
golfer
Lorena Ochoa, who is
currently ranked first in the
LPGA world rankings,
Ana Guevara, former world
champion of the 400 metres and Olympic subchampion in Athens
2004, and
Fernando Platas, a numerous
Olympic medal winning diver.
Sport fishing is popular in Baja California and the big Pacific
coast resorts, while freshwater bass fishing is growing in
popularity too. The gentler arts of diving and snorkeling are
big around the Caribbean, with famous dive sites at Cozumel and
on the reefs further south. The Pacific coast is becoming
something of a center for surfing, with few facilities as yet;
all these sports attract tourists to Mexico.
Health Care and Education
Biotechnology center, ITESM.
An average private hospital in
Villahermosa,
Tabasco.
Since the early 1990s, Mexico entered a transitional stage in
the health of its population and some indicators such as
mortality patterns are similar to those found in developed
societies. Although all Mexicans are entitled to receive medical
care by the state, 50.3 million Mexicans had no medical
insurance as of 2002[151].
Efforts to increase the number of people are being made, and the
current administration intends to achieve
universal health care by
2011.
Mexico's medical infrastructure is very good for the most part
and can be excellent in major cities, but rural areas and
indigenous communities still have poor medical coverage, forcing
them to travel to the closest urban area to get specialized
medical care.
State-funded institutions such as
Mexican Social Security Institute
(IMSS) and the
Institute for Social Security and
Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) play a major role
in health and social security. Private health services are also
very important and account for 13% of all medical units in the
country.
Medical training is done mostly at public universities with some
specializations done abroad. Some public universities in Mexico,
such as the
University of Guadalajara,
have signed agreements with the U.S. to receive and train
American students in
Medicine. Health care costs
in private institutions and prescription drugs in Mexico are on
average lower than that of its North American economic partners.
In 2004, the literacy rate was at 97% for youth under the age of
14 and 91% for people over 15, placing Mexico at the 24th place
in the world rank accordingly to
UNESCO. 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 established a system of "distance-learning"
through satellite communications to reach otherwise inaccessible
small rural and indigenous communities. 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. There are
approximately 30,000 telesecundarias and approximately a
million telesecundaria students in the country.
The largest and most prestigious public university in Mexico,
today numbering over 269,000 students, is the
National Autonomous University of
Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
UNAM) founded in 1910. 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 centers. The National Autonomous University of Mexico
ranks 150th place in the Top 200 World University Ranking
published by The Times Higher Education Supplement in 2008,
making it the highest ranked Spanish-speaking university in the
world and the highest ranked in Latin America. 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.
One of the most prestigious private universities is
Monterrey Institute of Technology and
Higher Education (ITESM). It was ranked by the
Wall Street Journal as the 7th top International Business
School worldwide[164]
and 74th among the world's top arts and humanities universities
ranking of The Times Higher Education Supplement,
published in 2005. ITESM has thirty-two secondary campuses,
apart from its Monterrey Campus. Other important private
universities include
Mexico's Autonomous Technological
Institute (ITAM), ranked as the best economics school
in Latin America,
Fundación Universidad de las Américas,
Puebla (UDLAP) and the Ibero-American University (Universidad
Iberoamericana).
Science and technology
A photograph of the
Large Millimeter Telescope
in
Puebla.
Rodolfo Neri Vela, the
first Mexican in space.
Notable Mexican technologists include
Luis E. Miramontes, the
inventor of the
contraceptive pill, Manuel
Mondragon, inventor of the first automatic rifle,
Guillermo González Camarena,
who invented the "Chromoscopic adapter for television equipment"
and the "Tricolor System", both early color television
transmission systems, and
Mario J. Molina, who won
the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Rodolfo Neri Vela, an
UNAM graduate, was the
first Mexican to enter space (as part of the
STS-61-B mission in 1985.)
In recent years, the biggest scientific project being developed
in Mexico was the construction of the
Large Millimeter Telescope
(Gran Telescopio Milimétrico, GMT), the world's largest and most
sensitive single-aperture telescope in its frequency range. It
was designed to observe regions of space obscured by stellar
dust.
Nonetheless, the government currently spends only 0.31% of GDP
in science and technology, a low percentage in comparison with
other countries. Mexico has a low number of researchers compared
to other OECD countries, with only 6 researchers per 10,000
inhabitants. Mexico trains 3 PhDs per million inhabitants per
year. Moreover, there is a regional disparity in the allocation
of scientific resources; 75% of all doctorate degrees are
awarded from institutions in Mexico City area.
In 1962, the National Commission of Outer Space (Comisión
Nacional del Espacio Exterior, CONNE) was established, but
was dismantled in 1977. In 2007, a project was presented to
re-open a new
Mexican Space Agency (AEXA)
and it was approved at the end of 2008 with the headquarters set
to be located in the state of
Hidalgo.
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