Mexico (Spanish: México [ˈmexiko] ( listen); Nahuatl languages: Mēxihco), officially

the United Mexican States (UMS; Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos, EUM[10][11][12][13] [es

ˈtaðos uˈniðoz mexiˈkanos] ( listen), lit. Mexican United States), is a country in the southern
portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and
west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea;
and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico.[14] Covering almost 2,000,000 square kilometers
(770,000 sq mi),[13] the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and
the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 129
million people,[15] Mexico is the tenth most populous country and the most populous
Spanish-speaking country in the world, while being the second most populous nation
in Latin America after Brazil.[15] Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states plus Mexico City
(CDMX),[16] which is the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the
country include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, and León.[17]
Pre-Columbian Mexico dates to about 8000 BC and is identified as one of six cradles of
civilization[18] and was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations such as
the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya, and Aztec before first
contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory
from its politically powerful base in Mexico City, which was administered as the viceroyalty
of New Spain. Castiliian Spanish was the language of the rulers, although indigenous
languages continue to be spoken to this day. Roman Catholicism was the only permitted
religion; the Catholic Church played a powerful role in ruling the country as millions of
indigenous inhabitants were converted to the faith. Dense indigenous populations that
could be mobilized to work and the discovery of rich deposits of silver in the north turned
the colony into a major source of wealth for the Spanish Empire. The crown established a
standing military only in the late eighteenth century, due to external threats, not internal
disorder. The institutional military was a path to upward mobility for American-born
Spaniards. The royal army was fought volunteer insurgent forces to a stalemate after a
decade of armed conflict. Only when a royal military officer-turned insurgent, Agustín
Iturbide, joined with insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero was independence achieved.[19] The
territory became a nation state following the crown's recognition in 1821 after the Mexican
War of Independence.[20]
The post-independence period was tumultuous, characterized by a weak Mexican state,
strong, conservative Catholic Church, the intervention of the military in politics, economic
inequality, and political conflicts between Conservatives, supported by the wealthy and the
military, and Liberals. The Mexican military under Antonio López de Santa Anna was
ineffective in the War of Texas Independence in 1836 and the Mexican–American
War (1846–1848), which led to huge territorial loss in Mexico's sparsely populated north,
contiguous to the United States. With the loss of those wars, Mexican Liberals ousted
Santa Anna and the Conservatives, and instituted reforms that curtailed the power the
military, the economic power of the church, and protections of indigenous communities,
seeking to create a path toward a modern nation-state of which were enshrined in
the Constitution of 1857. Conservatives rebelled and for three years (1858–61) the War of
the Reform was fought, with the Conservative army defeated on the battle field.
Conservatives sought external allies and invited the French Emperor Napoleon III to aid the
political cause of Conservatives. The French invaded, and set up Maximilian Hapsburg as
emperor; the head of the Mexican republic, Benito Juárez, kept a government in exile. With
the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865, military aid from the U.S. flowed to the defenders of
the republic; the French withdrew their support of the Mexican monarchy. Conservatives
were defeated and discredited. The Restored Republic (1867–76) was a brief period of
civilian rule, which ended with the coup d'etat of Liberal Army General Porfirio Díaz in 1876.
During the thirty-year Díaz presidency, his authoritarian rule sought "order and progress."
Mexico invited foreign entrepreneurs to invest in modernizing Mexico, building a railway
network, investing in commercial agriculture on vast landed estates, and developing
extractive and manufacturing industries.[20] The Porfiriato ended with the Mexican
Revolution in 1910, which was won by the northern Constitutionalist faction. They drafted a
new 1917 Constitution that built on the 1857 Constitution's anticlerical provisions, and
 empowered the Mexican state to expropriate resources if they were deemed in the national
interest. Revolutionary generals of the winning northern faction dominated the 1920s and
served became presidents of Mexico, but the 1928 assassination of former general and
President-elect Alvaro Obregón led to the formation of the Partido Nacional
Revolucionario in 1929 (now the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI), which
continuously held the presidency until 2000, essentially a one-party state.[21][22][23][24] The PRI
was once described by Mario Vargas Llosa as the "perfect dictatorship",[25][26][27] that ruled for
much of the 20th century. Revolutionary generals who served as presidents of Mexico in
the 1920s and 1930s systematically curtained the power of the military and civilian control
has meant the military is no longer a political factor, in contrast to elsewhere in Latin
America.[28][29] Opposition victories led Mexico to democratic transition in the 1990s.[30][31][32]
[33]
 Since 2006, there is a serious conflict between the Mexican government and various
drug trafficking syndicates that lead to over 120,000 deaths[34]
Mexico has the 15th largest nominal GDP[35] and the 11th largest by purchasing power
parity.[36] The Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its 1994 North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially the United States.[37][38] In 1994, Mexico
became the first Latin American member of the OECD. It is classified as an upper-middle
income country by the World Bank[39] and a newly industrialized country by several analysts.
[40][41][42][43]
 The country is considered both a regional power and a middle power,[44][45][46][47] and is
often identified as an emerging global power.[48] Due to its rich culture and history, Mexico
ranks first in the Americas and seventh in the world for number of UNESCO World Heritage
Sites.[49][50][51] Mexico is an ecologically megadiverse country, ranking fifth in the world for
its biodiversity.[52] Mexico receives a huge number of tourists every year: in 2018, it was the
sixth most-visited country in the world, with 39 million international arrivals.[53] Mexico is a
member of the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the G8+5,
the G20, the Uniting for Consensus group of the UN, and the Pacific Alliance trade bloc.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.1Indigenous civilizations
o 2.2Conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521)
o 2.3Viceroyalty of New Spain (1521–1821)
o 2.4War of Independence (1810–1821)
o 2.5First Empire and First Republic (1821–1846)
o 2.6Second Republic and Second Empire (1846–1867)
o 2.7Porfiriato (1876–1911)
o 2.8Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)
o 2.9Political consolidation and one-party rule (1920–2000)
o 2.10Contemporary Mexico
 3Geography
o 3.1Climate
o 3.2Biodiversity
 4Government and politics
o 4.1Government
o 4.2Politics
o 4.3Law enforcement
o 4.4Crime
o 4.5Foreign relations
o 4.6Military
o 4.7Political divisions
 5Economy
o 5.1Communications
o 5.2Energy
o 5.3Science and technology
o 5.4Tourism
o 5.5Transportation
o 5.6Water supply and sanitation
 6Demographics
o 6.1Ethnicity and race
 6.1.1Official censuses
o 6.2Emigration
o 6.3Languages
o 6.4Urban areas
o 6.5Religion
o 6.6Women
 7Culture
o 7.1Painting
o 7.2Sculpture
o 7.3Architecture
o 7.4Photography
o 7.5Literature
o 7.6Cinema
o 7.7Media
o 7.8Music
o 7.9Mexican cuisine
o 7.10Sports
o 7.11Coat of arms
 8Health
 9Education
 10See also
 11Notes
 12References
 13Bibliography
 14External links

Etymology
Main article: Name of Mexico
Depiction of the founding myth of Mexico-Tenochtitlan from the Codex Mendoza

Mexican coat of arms, variations have been on the flag of Mexico since 1822

Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely the Valley of

Mexico and surrounding territories, with its people being known as the Mexica. The terms
are plainly linked; it is generally believed that the toponym for the valley was the origin of
the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance, but it may have been the other way
around.[54] In the colonial era, when Mexico was called New Spain, this central region
became the Intendency of Mexico, during the eighteenth-century reorganization of the
empire, the Bourbon Reforms. After the colony achieved independence from the Spanish
Empire in 1821, said territory came to be known as the State of Mexico, with the new
country being named after its capital: Mexico City, which itself was founded in 1524 on the
site of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
The official name of the country has changed as the form of government has changed. The
declaration of independence signed on November 6, 1813 by the deputies of the Congress
of Anáhuac called the territory América Septentrional (Northern America) in the Plan of
Iguala (1821). On two occasions (1821–1823 and 1863–1867), the country was known
as Imperio Mexicano (Mexican Empire). All three federal constitutions (1824, 1857 and
1917, the current constitution) used the name Estados Unidos Mexicanos[55]—or the
variant Estados-Unidos Mexicanos,[56] all of which have been translated as "United Mexican
States". The phrase República Mexicana, "Mexican Republic", was used in the
1836 Constitutional Laws.[57]

History
Main article: History of Mexico
See also: History of the Catholic Church in Mexico, Economic history of Mexico, History of
democracy in Mexico, History of Mexico City, and Military history of Mexico

Indigenous civilizations
Main articles: Pre-Columbian Mexico and Mesoamerican chronology

Massive stone sculpture of the early Gulf Coast Olmec civilization, 1200–900 BCE

The earliest human artifacts in Mexico are chips of stone tools found near campfire remains
in the Valley of Mexico and radiocarbon-dated to circa 10,000 years ago.[58] Mexico is the
site of the domestication of maize, tomato, and beans, which produced an agricultural
surplus. This enabled the transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers to sedentary
agricultural villages beginning around 5000 BC.[59] In the subsequent formative eras, maize
cultivation and cultural traits such as a mythological and religious complex, and
a vigesimal (base 20) numeric system, were diffused from the Mexican cultures to the rest
of the Mesoamerican culture area.[60] In this period, villages became more dense in terms of
population, becoming socially stratified with an artisan class, and developing
into chiefdoms. The most powerful rulers had religious and political power, organizing the
construction of large ceremonial centers developed.[61]
The earliest complex civilization in Mexico was the Olmec culture, which flourished on the
Gulf Coast from around 1500 BC. Olmec cultural traits diffused through Mexico into other
formative-era cultures in Chiapas, Oaxaca and the Valley of Mexico. The formative period
saw the spread of distinct religious and symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and
architectural complexes.[62] The formative-era of Mesoamerica is considered one of the six
independent cradles of civilization.[63]
Cultivation of maize, shown in the Florentine Codex (1576) drawn by an indigenous scribe, with text
in Nahuatl on this folio

.
In the subsequent pre-classical period, the Maya and Zapotec civilizations developed
complex centers at Calakmul and Monte Albán, respectively. During this period the first
true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec
cultures. The Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Maya
Hieroglyphic script. The earliest written histories date from this era. The tradition of writing
was important after the Spanish conquest in 1521.[64]
In Central Mexico, the height of the classic period saw the ascendancy of Teotihuacán,
which formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south
into the Maya area as well as north. Teotihuacan, with a population of more than 150,000
people, had some of the largest pyramidal structures in the pre-Columbian Americas.
[65]
 After the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 AD, competition ensued between several
important political centers in central Mexico such as Xochicalco and Cholula. At this time,
during the Epi-Classic, Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoamerica from the
North, and became politically and culturally dominant in central Mexico, as they displaced
speakers of Oto-Manguean languages.

1945 Mural by Diego Rivera depicting the view from the Tlatelolco markets into Mexico-Tenochtitlan,
the largest city in the Americas at the time.

During the early post-classic era (ca. 1000-1519 CE), Central Mexico was dominated by
the Toltec culture, Oaxaca by the Mixtec, and the lowland Maya area had important centers
at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán. Toward the end of the post-Classic period, the Mexica
established dominance, establishing a political and economic empire based in the city of
Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City), extending from central Mexico to the border with
Guatemala.[66] Alexander von Humboldt popularized the modern usage of "Aztec" as a
collective term applied to all the people linked by trade, custom, religion, and language to
the Mexica state and Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, the Triple Alliance.[67] In 1843, with the publication
of the work of William H. Prescott, it was adopted by most of the world, including 19th-
century Mexican scholars who considered it a way to distinguish present-day Mexicans
from pre-conquest Mexicans. This usage has been the subject of debate since the late 20th
century.[68]
The Aztec empire was an informal or hegemonic empire because it did not exert supreme
authority over the conquered territories; it was satisfied with the payment of tributes from
them. It was a discontinuous empire because not all dominated territories were connected;
for example, the southern peripheral zones of Xoconochco were not in direct contact with
the center. The hegemonic nature of the Aztec empire was demonstrated by their
restoration of local rulers to their former position after their city-state was conquered. The
Aztec did not interfere in local affairs, as long as the tributes were paid.[69]
The Aztec of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mexico.[70] The
Aztec were noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale. Along with this practice,
they avoided killing enemies on the battlefield. Their warring casualty rate was far lower
than that of their Spanish counterparts, whose principal objective was immediate slaughter
during battle.[71] This distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition of human sacrifice ended with
the gradually Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Over the next centuries many other
Mexican indigenous cultures were conquered and gradually subjected to Spanish colonial
rule.[72]

Conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521)

Further information: Spanish conquest of Mexico

Depict of Hernán Cortés and his bilingual cultural translator, Doña Marina ("Malinche"),

meeting Moctezuma II from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala. This historical document was created c. 1550 by
the Tlaxcalans to remind the Spanish of their loyalty and the importance of Tlaxcala during the
conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Although the Spanish had established colonies in the Caribbean starting in 1493, it was not
until the second decade of the sixteenth century that they began exploring the coast of
Mexico. The Spanish first learned of Mexico during the Juan de Grijalva expedition of 1518.
The natives kept "repeating: Colua, Colua, and Mexico, Mexico, but we [explorers] did not
know what Colua or Mexico meant", until encountering Montezuma's governor at the mouth
of the Rio de las Banderas.[73]:33–36 The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire began in
February 1519 when Hernán Cortés on the Gulf Coast and founded the Spanish city
of Veracruz. Around 500 conquistadores, along with horses, cannons, swords, and long
guns gave the Spanish some technological advantages over indigenous warriors, but key
to the Spanish victory was making strategic alliances with disgruntled indigenous city-states
(altepetl) who supplied the Spaniards and fought with them against the Aztec Triple
Alliance. Also important to the Spanish victory was Cortés's cultural translator, Malinche, a
Nahua woman enslaved in the Maya area whom the Spanish acquired as a gift. She
quickly learned Spanish and gave strategic advise about how to deal with both indigenous
allies and indigenous foes.[74] The unconquered city-state of Tlaxcala allied with the Spanish
against their enemies, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish gained other indigenous
allies, who also joined in the war for their own reasons.
We know so much about the conquest because it is among the best documented events in
world history from multiple points of view. There are accounts by the Spanish leader
Cortés[75] and multiple other Spanish participants, including Bernal Díaz del Castillo.[76]
[77]
 There are indigenous accounts in Spanish, Nahuatl, and pictorial narratives by allies of
the Spanish, most prominently the Tlaxcalans, as well as Texcocans[78] and Huejotzincans,
and the defeated Mexican themselves, recorded in the last volume of Bernardino de
Sahagún's General History of the Things of New Spain.[79][80][81]
Smallpox depicted by an indigenous artist in the 1556 Florentine Codex in its account of the
conquest of Mexico from the point of view of the defeated Mexica.

When the Spaniards arrived, the ruler of the Aztec empire was Moctezuma II, who after a
delay allowed the Spanish to proceed inland to Tenochtitlan. The Spanish captured him,
holding him hostage. He died while in their custody and the Spanish retreated from
Tenochtitlan in great disarray. His successor and brother Cuitláhuac took control of the
Aztec empire, but was among the first to fall from the first smallpox epidemic in the area a
short time later.[82] Unintentionally introduced by Spanish conquerors, among
whom smallpox, measles, and other contagious diseases were endemic, epidemics of Old
World infectious diseases ravaged Mesoamerica starting in the 1520s. The exact number
of deaths is disputed, but unquestionably more than 3 million natives who they had
no immunity.[83] Other sources, however, mentioned that the death toll of the Aztecs might
have reached 15 million (out of a population of less than 30 million) although such a high
number conflicts with the 350,000 Aztecs who ruled an empire of 5 million or 10 million.
[84]
 Severely weakened, the Aztec empire was easily defeated by Cortés and his forces on
his second return with the help of state of Tlaxcala whose population estimate was
300,000.[85] The native population declined 80–90% by 1600 to 1–2.5 million. Any population
estimate of pre-Columbian Mexico is bound to be a guess but 8–12 million is often
suggested for the area encompassed by the modern nation.
The territory became part of the Spanish Empire under the name of New Spain in 1535.
[86]
 Mexico City was systematically rebuilt by Cortés following the Fall of Tenochtitlan in
1521. Much of the identity, traditions and architecture of Mexico developed during the 300-
year colonial period from 1521 to independence in 1821.[87]

Viceroyalty of New Spain (1521–1821)

Main article: New Spain
See also: History of Mexico §  Spanish Rule (1521-1821) ; Economic history of Mexico
§  Economy of New Spain, 1521–1821; and History of Mexico City §  Colonial period, 1521-
1821

The National Palace on the east side of Plaza de la Constitución or Zócalo, the main square of
Mexico City; it was the residence of viceroys and Presidents of Mexico and now the seat of the
Mexican government.
Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico, on the north side of the Zócalo

The 1521 capture Tenochtitlan and immediate founding of the Spanish capital Mexico
City on its ruins was the beginning of a 300-year-long colonial era during which Mexico was
known as Nueva España (New Spain). The Kingdom of New Spain was created from the
remnants of the Aztec empire. The two pillars of Spanish rule were the State and the
Roman Catholic Church, both under the authority of the Spanish crown. In 1493 the pope
had granted sweeping powers to the Spanish crown, with the proviso that the crown spread
Christianity in its new realms. In 1524, King Charles I created the Council of the
Indies based in Spain to oversee State power its overseas territories; in New Spain the
crown established a high court in Mexico City, the Real Audiencia, and then in 1535
created the viceroyalty. The viceroy was highest official of the State. In the religious sphere,
the diocese of Mexico was created in 1530 and elevated to the Archdiocese of Mexico in
1546, with the archbishop as the head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, overseeing Roman
Catholic clergy. Castilian Spanish was the language of rulers. The Catholic faith the only
one permitted, with non-Catholics (Jews and Protestants) and Catholics (excluding Indians)
holding unorthodox views being subject to the Mexican Inquisition, established in 1571.[88]
In the first half-century of Spanish rule, a network of Spanish cities was created, sometimes
on pre-Hispanic sites. The capital Mexico City was and remains the premier city. Cities and
towns were hubs of civil officials, ecclesiastics, business, Spanish elites, and mixed-race
and indigenous artisans and workers. When deposits of silver were discovered in sparsely
populated northern Mexico, far from the dense populations of central Mexico, the Spanish
secured the region against fiercely resistant indigenous Chichimecas. The Viceroyalty at its
greatest extent included the territories of modern Mexico, Central America as far south as
Costa Rica, and the western United States. The Viceregal capital Mexico City also
administrated the Spanish West Indies (the Caribbean), the Spanish East Indies (that is,
the Philippines), and Spanish Florida.[89] In 1819, the Spain signed the Adams-Onís
Treaty with the United States, setting New Spain's northern boundary.[90]

Viceroyalty of New Spain following the signing of the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty

The population of Mexico was overwhelmingly indigenous and rural during the entire
colonial period and beyond, despite the massive decrease in their numbers due to
epidemic diseases. Diseases such as smallpox, measles, and others were introduced by
Europeans and African slaves, especially in the sixteenth century. The indigenous
population stabilized around one to one and a half million individuals in the 17th century
from the most commonly accepted five to thirty million pre-contact population.[91] During the
three hundred years of the colonial era, Mexico received between 400,000 and 500,000
Europeans,[92] between 200,000 and 250,000 African slaves.[93] and between 40,000 and
120,000 Asians.[94] The 18th century saw a great increase in the percentage of mestizos.[95]

Luis de Mena, Virgin of Guadalupe and castas, showing race mixture and hier archy as well as fruits
of the realm.[96], ca. 1750

Colonial law with Spanish roots was introduced and attached to native customs creating a
hierarchy between local jurisdiction (the Cabildos) and the Spanish Crown. Upper
administrative offices were closed to native-born people, even those of pure Spanish blood
(criollos). Administration was based on the racial separation. Society was organized in a
racial hierarchy, with whites on top, mixed-race persons and blacks in the middle, and
indigenous at the bottom. There were formal legal designations of racial categories. The
Republic of Spaniards (República de Españoles) comprised European- and American-born
Spaniards, mixed-race castas, and black Africans. The Republic of Indians (República de
Indios) comprised the indigenous populations, which the Spanish lumped under the term
Indian (indio), a Spanish colonial social construct which indigenous groups and individuals
rejected as a category. Spaniards were exempt from paying tribute, Spanish men had
access to higher education, could hold civil and ecclesiastical offices, were subject to
the Inquisition, and liable for military service when the standing military was established in
the late eighteenth century. Indigenous paid tribute, but were exempt from the Inquisition,
indigenous men were excluded from the priesthood; and exempt from military service.
Although the racial system appears fixed and rigid, there was some fluidity within it, and
racial domination of whites was not complete.[97] Since the indigenous population of New
Spain was so large, there was less labor demand for expensive black slaves than other
parts of Spanish America.[98][99] In the late eighteenth century the crown
instituted reforms that privileged Iberian-born Spaniards (peninsulares) over American-born
(criollos), limiting their access to offices. This discrimination between the two became a
sparking point of discontent for white elites in the colony.[100]
The Marian apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe said to have appeared to the
indigenous Juan Diego in 1531 gave impetus to the evangelization of central Mexico.[101]
[102]
 The Virgin of Guadalupe became a symbol for American-born Spaniards' (criollos)
patriotism, seeking in her a Mexican source of pride, distinct from Spain.[103] The Virgin of
Guadalupe was invoked by the insurgents for independence who followed Father Miguel
Hidalgo during the War of Independence.[102]
Silver peso mined and minted in colonial Mexico, which became a global currency.

New Spain was essential to the Spanish global trading system. White represents the route of the
Spanish Manila Galleons in the Pacific and the Spanish convoys in the Atlantic. (Blue
represents Portuguese routes.)

The rich deposits of silver, particularly in Zacatecas and Guanajuato, resulted in silver

extraction dominating the economy of New Spain. Taxes on silver production became a
major source of income for Spain. Other important industries were the haciendas and
mercantile activities in the main cities and ports.[104] Wealth created during the colonial era
spurred the development of New Spanish Baroque.[citation needed]
As a result of its trade links with Asia, the rest of the Americas, Africa and Europe and
the profound effect of New World silver, central Mexico was one of the first regions to be
incorporated into a globalized economy. Being at the crossroads of trade, people and
cultures, Mexico City has been called the "first world city".[105] The Nao de China (Manila
Galleons) operated for two and a half centuries and connected New Spain with Asia. Silver
and the red dye cochineal were shipped from Veracruz to Atlantic ports in the Americas
and Spain. Veracruz was also the main port of entry in mainland New Spain for European
goods, immigrants from Spain, and African slaves. The Camino Real de Tierra
Adentro connected Mexico City with the interior of New Spain. Mexican silver pesos
became the first globally used currency.

View of the Plaza Mayor of Mexico city (1695) by Cristóbal de Villalpando, showing the damage to
the viceregal palace from the 1692 riot.

Spanish forces, sometimes accompanied by native allies, led expeditions to conquer

territory or quell rebellions through the colonial era. Notable Amerindian revolts in
sporadically populated northern New Spain include the Chichimeca War (1576–1606),
[106]
 Tepehuán Revolt (1616–1620),[107] and the Pueblo Revolt (1680), the Tzeltal Rebellion of
1712 was a regional Maya revolt.[108] Most rebellions were small-scale and local, posing no
major threat to the ruling elites.[109] To protect Mexico from the attacks of English, French,
and Dutch pirates and protect the Crown's monopoly of revenue, only two ports were open
to foreign trade—Veracruz on the Atlantic and Acapulco on the Pacific. Among the best-
known pirate attacks are the 1663 Sack of Campeche[110] and 1683 Attack on Veracruz.
[111]
 Of greater concern to the crown was of foreign invasion, especially after Britain seized in
1762 the Spanish ports of Havana, Cuba and Manila, the Philippines in the Seven Years'
War. It created a standing military, increased coastal fortifications, and expanded the
northern presidios and missions into Alta California. The volatility of the urban poor in
Mexico City was evident in the 1692 riot in the Zócalo. The riot over the price of maize
escalated to a full-scale attack on the seats of power, with the viceregal palace and the
archbishop's residence attacked by the mob.[112]
Due to the importance of New Spain administrative base, Mexico was the location of
the first printing shop (1539),[113] first university (1551),[114] first public park (1592),[115] and first
public library (1640) in the Americas,[116] among other institutions. Important artists of the
colonial period, include the writers Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora,
and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, painters Cristóbal de Villalpando and Miguel Cabrera, and
architect Manuel Tolsá. The Academy of San Carlos (1781) was the first major school and
museum of art in the Americas.[117] German scientist Alexander von Humboldt spent a year
in Mexico, finding the scientific community in the capital active and learned. He met
Mexican scientist Andrés Manuel del Río Fernández, who discovered the
element vanadium in 1801.[118] Many Mexican cultural features including tequila,[119] first
distilled in the 16th century, charreria (17th),[120] mariachi (18th) and Mexican cuisine, a
fusion of American and European (particularly Spanish) cuisine, arose during the colonial
era.

War of Independence (1810–1821)

Main article: Mexican War of Independence

Father Miguel Hidalgo with the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Antonio Fabrés, 1905

On September 16, 1810, a "loyalist revolt" against the ruling junta was declared by

priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato.[121] This event,
known as the Cry of Dolores (Spanish: Grito de Dolores) is commemorated each year, on
September 16, as Mexico's independence day.[122] The first insurgent group was formed by
Hidalgo, the Spanish viceregal army captain Ignacio Allende, the militia captain Juan
Aldama and La Corregidora (English: "The Magistrate") Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez.
Hidalgo and some of his soldiers were captured and executed by firing
squad in Chihuahua, on July 31, 1811.[123]:17–27
Following Hidalgo's death, the leadership was assumed by Ignacio López Rayón and then
by the priest José María Morelos, who occupied key southern cities with the support
of Mariano Matamoros and Nicolás Bravo.[123]:35–37 In one notable incident, Nicolas Bravo
captured 200 royalist soldiers, whom Morelos ordered should be executed in revenge of the
murder of Bravo's father. In an act of mercy, Bravo instead pardoned the prisoners, most of
whom then joined the insurgent cause.[123]:40–41 In 1813 the Congress of Chilpancingo was
convened and, on November 6, signed the "Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence
of Northern America". This Act also abolished slavery and the caste system.[123]:44–50 Morelos
was captured and executed on December 22, 1815.[123]:46

Depiction of the Abrazo de Acatempan between Agustín de Iturbide, left, and Vicente Guerrero

In subsequent years, the insurgency was near collapse, but in 1820 Viceroy Juan Ruiz de
Apodaca sent an army under the criollo general Agustín de Iturbide against the troops
of Vicente Guerrero. Instead, Iturbide approached Guerrero to join forces, and on August
24, 1821 representatives of the Spanish Crown and Iturbide signed the "Treaty of Córdoba"
and the "Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire", which recognized
the independence of Mexico under the terms of the "Plan of Iguala".[123]:53–80
Mexico's short recovery after the War of Independence was soon cut short again by the
civil wars, foreign invasion and occupation, and institutional instability of the mid-19th
century, which lasted until the government of Porfirio Díaz reestablished conditions that
paved the way for economic growth. The conflicts that arose from the mid-1850s had a
profound effect because they were widespread and made themselves perceptible in the
vast rural areas of the countries, involved clashes between castes, different ethnic groups,
and haciendas, and entailed a deepening of the political and ideological divisions between
republicans and monarchists.[124]

First Empire and First Republic (1821–1846)

Main articles: First Mexican Empire, First Mexican Republic, and Centralist Republic of
Mexico
The territorial evolution of Mexico after independence, noting the secession of Central
America (purple), Chiapas annexed from Guatemala (blue), losses to the U.S. (red, white and
orange) and the reannexation of the Republic of Yucatán (red)

The first twenty-five years after Mexico's independence were marked by political instability,
coups d'etat, foreign invasion, ideological conflict between Conservatives and Liberals,
and economic stagnation. Catholicism remained the only permitted religious faith and the
Catholic Church as an institution retained its special privileges, prestige, and property. The
army also retained special privileges, and was stronger than the Mexican State. The
Mexican State went from being a Regency under former Royal Army General Agustín de
Iturbide, as it sought a constitutional monarch from Europe. No member of a European
royal house desired the position and Iturbide himself was declared Emperor, ruling 1822-
23, when he was overthrown.[123]:87–88 A revolt against him in 1823 established the United
Mexican States. In 1824, a constitution of a federated republic was promulgated. Former
insurgent general Guadalupe Victoria became the first president of the newly born republic.
[123]:94–95
 Central America, including Chiapas, left the union. In 1829, former insurgent general
and a Liberal Vicente Guerrero, a signatory of the Plan de Iguala that achieved
independence, became president of the republic in a disputed election. During his short
term in office, April to December 1829, he abolished slavery. As a visibly mixed-race man
of modest origins, Guerrero was seen by white political elites as an interloper.[125] His
Conservative vice president, former Royalist General Anastasio Bustamante, led a coup
against him and Guerrero was judicially murdered.[126] There was constant strife between
Liberals, supporters of a federal form of government and often called Federalists and their
political rivals, the Conservatives, who proposed a [[Unitary state|hierarchical form of
government, and termed Centralists.[123]:101–115, 125–127
The United States was the first country to recognize Mexico's independence, sending an
ambassador to the court of the emperor. Spain, however, attempted to reconquer its former
colony during the 1820s, but eventually recognized its independence. France attempted to
recoup losses it claimed for its citizens during Mexico's unrest and blockaded the Gulf
Coast during the so-called Pastry War of 1838-39.[127] There were on-going conflicts in
northern Mexico with the Comanche, who controlled a huge territory in the sparsely
populated region of central and northern Texas. Wanting to stabilize and develop the
frontier, the Mexican government encouraged Anglo-American immigration into present-day
Texas. The region bordered the United States, and was territory controlled by Comanches.
There were few settlers from central Mexico moving to this remote and hostile territory.
Mexico by law was a Catholic country; the Anglo Americans were primarily Protestant
English speakers from the southern United States. Some brought their black slaves, which
after 1829 was contrary to Mexican law. Within several years, the Anglos far outnumbered
the Spanish-speaking Tejanos in the area. Itinerant traders traveled through the area,
working by free-market principles. The Tejano grew more separate from the government
and due to its neglect, many supported the idea of independence and joined movements to
that end, collaborating with the English-speaking Americans.[128]
During this period, the frontier borderlands from north to south,
including Jalisco and Yucatan, became quite isolated from the government in Mexico City,
and its lack of an industrial base and monopolistic economic policies caused suffering.[123]:88–
89
 With limited trade, the people had difficulty meeting tax payments and resented the
central government's actions in collecting customs. Resentment built up from California to
Texas. Both the mission system and the presidios had collapsed after the Spanish
withdrew from the colony, causing great disruption especially in Alta California and New
Mexico. The people in the borderlands had to raise local militias to protect themselves from
hostile Native Americans who considered the colonists interlopers in their territory.[123]:128–
129
 These areas developed in different directions from the center of the country.[128]
General Antonio López de Santa Anna, a Conservative and who held the presidency
multiple times during the period, approved the Siete Leyes (Seven Laws) in 1836, a radical
amendment that institutionalized the centralized form of government. When he suspended
the 1824 Constitution, civil war spread across the country. Three new governments
declared independence: the Republic of Texas, the Republic of the Rio Grande and
the Republic of Yucatán.[123]:129–137

Second Republic and Second Empire (1846–1867)

Main articles: Second Mexican Republic and Second Mexican Empire

Benito Juárez, 26th President of Mexico and implanter of La Reforma

The 1846 United States annexation of the Republic of Texas and subsequent American

military incursion into territory that was part of Coahuila (also claimed by Texas) instigated
the Mexican–American War. 26,922 regular U.S. soldiers and 73,260 volunteers served at
some time during the war;[129] including those killed and wounded in action and killed by
disease, total U.S. have been over 27,000.[123]:156 The Mexican army was comparable in size,
although its soldiers were poorly equipped, poorly trained, and poorly organized. Major
battles were fought in Monterrey, Buena Vista, Veracruz, Cerro Gordo, Padierna, and the
military academy at Chapultepec. Hundreds of civilians were killed during the three-day
bombardment of Veracruz[130] Six teenage cadets were killed during the final defense of
Mexico City at Chapultepec. The war was settled in 1848 via the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo.[123]:154 Mexico was forced to give up more than one-third of its land
(2,378,000 km2 (918,000 sq mi)) to the U.S., including Alta California, Santa Fe de Nuevo
México and the territory claimed by Texas.[123]:156 A much smaller transfer of territory in what
is today southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico—known as the Gadsden
Purchase—occurred in 1854.[131]
The Caste War of Yucatán, the Maya uprising that began in 1847, was one of the most
successful modern Native American revolts.[132][133] Maya rebels, or Cruzob, maintained
relatively independent enclaves in the peninsula until the 1930s.[134]
Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's return to power led to the liberal "Plan of Ayutla", initiating
an era known as La Reforma ("The Reform"). The new Constitution drafted in
1857 established a secular state, federalism as the form of government, civil marriage,
freedom of the press, and educational freedom (lay education).[135][123]:191 As the
Conservatives refused to recognize it, the Reform War began in 1858, during which both
groups had their own governments. The war ended in 1861 with victory by the Liberals, led
by president Benito Juárez,[123]:195 who was an ethnic Zapotec.
By 1861, 91% of the government's income was destined for payment of the foreign debt or
maintenance of the army, leaving only 9% for everything else. Juarez decided to suspend
debt payments for two years, prompting England, France, and Spain to agree to military
intervention. Juarez negotiated with representatives of the three countries after they
occupied the port of Veracruz until a French warship arrived and the captain announced
they intended to overthrow the elected president and install conservative Juan Almonte as
president. Upon learning this the French and English ships withdrew, but the French
decided to advance on the city of Puebla.[123]:203–206 General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the
invaders at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862,[123]:207 which is widely celebrated as
the Cinco de Mayo holiday in both Mexico and the United States.[136] Following this French
defeat, emperor Napoleon III sent 50,000 reinforcements and on March 16, 1863 fought a
second battle in Puebla, easily defeating the Mexican army led by Jesús González Ortega.
[123]:208

Juarez was forced to retreat north, and the conservatives offered a throne to
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria. Maximilian established the Second Mexican
Empire in 1864, quickly surrounding himself with liberals and adopting many of the policies
of the Reforma. Meanwhile, Napoleon III feared a European war and withdrew his troops in
1866. The Republicans were able to defeat the empire, and Maximilian was captured and
executed in Querétaro on June 19, 1867.[123]:208–217

Porfiriato (1876–1911)
Main articles: Porfirio Díaz and Porfiriato

The Metlac railway bridge, an example of engineering achievement that overcame geographical
barriers and allowed efficient movement of goods and people. Photo by Guillermo Kahlo

Angel of Independence in Mexico City was built in 1910; shortly after its inauguration, the Mexican
Revolution erupted.

The extended presidency of former Liberal Army General Porfirio Díaz (r.1876-1911) was a

period of rapid modernization in Mexico, made possible by foreign investment, calmed by
Díaz's creation of "order and progress" in Mexico. The period, known as the Porfiriato, was
characterized by economic stability and growth, significant foreign investment and
influence, investments in the arts and sciences and an expansion of the railroad
network and telecommunications.[137] The period, concurrent with the Gilded Age in the U.S.
and Belle Époque in France, was also marked by economic inequality, and political
repression. The government encouraged British and U.S. investment. Commercial
agriculture developed in northern Mexico, with many investors from the U.S. acquiring vast
ranching estates and expanding irrigated cultivation of crops. The Mexican government
ordered a survey of land with the aim of selling it for development. In this period,, many
indigenous communities lost their lands and the men became landless wage earners on
large landed enterprises (haciendas).[138] British and U.S. investors developed extractive
mining of copper, lead, and other minerals, as well as petroleum on the Gulf Coast.
Changes in Mexican law allowed for private enterprises to own the subsoil rights of land,
rather than continuing the colonial law that gave all subsoil rights to the State. An industrial
manufacturing sector also developed, particularly in textiles. At the same time, new
enterprises gave rise to an industrial work force, which began organizing to gain labor
rights and protections.
Díaz ruled with a group of advisors that became known as the científicos ("scientists").
[139]
 The most influential cientifco was Secretary of Finance José Yves Limantour.[140] The
Porfirian regime was influenced by positivism.[141] They rejected theology and idealism in
favor of scientific methods being applied towards national development.[141] Various iconic
buildings and monuments were initiated by Díaz, including the Palacio de Bellas
Artes, Palacio de Correos de Mexico, Monumento a la Independencia and the Palacio
Legislativo (which became the Monumento a la Revolución).

Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)

Further information: Mexican Revolution

Revolutionaries, 1911[142]

Candidate Francisco I. Madero with peasant leader Emiliano Zapata in Cuernavaca during

the Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a decade-long transformational conflict in Mexico, with

consequences to this day. It saw uprisings against President Díaz, his resignation, an
interim presidency, and the democratic election of a rich landowner, Francisco I. Madero in
1911. In February 1913, a military coup d'etat overthrew Madero's government, with the
support of the U.S., resulted in Madero's murder by agents of Federal
Army General Victoriano Huerta. A coalition of anti-Huerta forces in the North,
the Constitutionalist Army overseen by Venustiano Carranza, and a peasant army in the
South under Emiliano Zapata, defeated the Federal Army. In 1914 that army was dissolved
as an institution. Following the revolutionaries' victory against Huerta, revolutionary armies
sought to broker a peaceful political solution, but the coalition splintered, plunging Mexico
into civil war again. Constitutionalist general Pancho Villa, commander of the Division of the
North, broke with Carranza and allied with Zapata. Carranza's best general, Alvaro
Obregón, defeated Villa, his former comrade-in-arms in the battle of Celaya in 1915, and
Villa's forces melted away. Carranza became the defacto head of Mexico, and the U.S.
recognized his government. In 1916, the winners met at a constitutional convention to draft
the Constitution of 1917, which was ratified in February 1917. With amendments, it remains
the governing document of Mexico. It is estimated that the war killed 900,000 of the 1910
population of 15 million.[143][144]
The U.S. has had a history of inference and intervention in Mexico, most notably the
Mexican-American War. During the Revolution, the Taft administration supported the
Huerta coup against Madero, but when Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated as president in
March 1913, it refused to recognize Huerta's regime and allowed arms sales to the
Constitutionalists. Wilson ordered troops to occupy the strategic port of Veracruz in 1914,
which was lifted.[145] After Pancho Villa was defeated by revolutionary forces in 1915, he led
a raid into Columbus, New Mexico incursion, prompting the U.S. to send 10,000 troops led
by General John J. Pershing in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Villa. Carranza pushed
back against U.S. troops being in northern Mexico. The expeditionary forces withdrew as
the U.S. entered World War I.[146] Germany attempted to get Mexico to side with it, sending a
coded telegram in 1917 to incite war between the U.S. and Mexico, with Mexico to regain
the territory it lost in the Mexican-American War.[147] Mexico remained neutral in the conflict.
Consolidating power, President Carranza had peasant-leader Emiliano Zapata
assassinated in 1919.[123]:312 Carranza had gained support of the peasantry during the
Revolution, but once in power he did little to distribute land, and, in fact, returned some
confiscated land to their original owners. President Carranza's best general, Obregón,
served briefly in Carranza's administration, but returned to his home state of Sonora to
position himself to run in the 1920 presidential election. Carranza chose a political and
revolutionary no-body to succeed him. Obregón and two other Sonoran revolutionary
generals drew up the Plan of Agua Prieta, overthrowing Carranza, who died fleeing Mexico
City in 1920. General Adolfo de la Huerta became interim president, followed the election of
General Álvaro Obregón.

Political consolidation and one-party rule (1920–2000)

Further information: Institutional Revolutionary Party
As President (1920-24), Obregón instituted land redistribution and pushed public education.
General Plutarco Elías Calles was elected president in 1924; his goal was to improve the
finances of the country by establishing the Banco de Mexico (Bank of Mexico) and
the Banco de Credito Ágricola (Agricultural Credit Bank). Calles wanted to enforce the anti-
clerical aspects of the 1917 Constitution, sparking the bloody Cristero War, particularly in
the western part of the country.[123]:327–330
Obregón was elected a second time in 1928, only to be assassinated two weeks before
taking office. This was the period known as the Maximato, when Calles dominated Mexican
politics as its "Maximum Leader". Calles declared that the Revolution had moved
from caudillismo (strongmen) to the era institucional (institutional era). To this end, he
founded the "National Revolutionary Party" (PRN), precursor to the Institutional
Revolutionary Party that ruled the country as a one-party state for 70 years.[148] In 1929,
revolutionary general and former president of Mexico Plutarco Elías Calles founded the
National Revolutionary Party (PNR), later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI). Despite not holding the presidency, Calles remained the key political figure
during the period known as the Maximato (1929-1934). The Maximato ended during the
presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, who expelled Calles from the country and implemented
many economic and social reforms. This included the Mexican oil expropriation in March
1938, which nationalized the U.S. and Anglo-Dutch oil company known as the Mexican
Eagle Petroleum Company. This movement would result in the creation of the state-owned
Mexican oil company Pemex. This sparked a diplomatic crisis with the countries whose
citizens had lost businesses by Cárdenas's radical measure, but since then the company
has played an important role in the economic development of Mexico. Cárdenas's
successor, Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940-1946) was more moderate, and relations
between the U.S. and Mexico vastly improved during World War II, when Mexico was a
significant ally, providing manpower and materiel to aid the war effort. In 1946 with the
election of Miguel Alemán, the first civilian president in the post-revolutionary period,
Mexico embarked on an aggressive program of economic development, known as
the Mexican miracle, which was characterized by industrialization, urbanization, and the
increase of inequality in Mexico between urban and rural areas.[149]

Students in a burned bus during the protests of 1968

Although the economy continued to flourish for some, social inequality remained a factor of

discontent. Moreover, the PRI rule became increasingly authoritarian and at times
oppressive in what is now referred to as 'Mexico's dirty war'[150] (see the 1968 Tlatelolco
massacre,[151] which claimed the life of around 300 protesters based on conservative
estimates and as many as 800 by the protesters).[152]
Electoral reforms and high oil prices followed the administration of Luis Echeverría,[153]
[154]
 mismanagement of these revenues led to inflation and exacerbated the 1982 Crisis.
That year, oil prices plunged, interest rates soared, and the government defaulted on
its debt. President Miguel de la Madrid resorted to currency devaluations which in turn
sparked inflation.
In the 1980s the first cracks emerged in PRI's dominance. In Baja California, Ernesto Ruffo
Appel was elected as governor. In 1988, alleged electoral fraud prevented the leftist
candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas from winning the national presidential elections,
giving Carlos Salinas de Gortari the presidency and leading to massive protests in Mexico
City.[155]

NAFTA signing ceremony, October 1992. From left to right: (standing) President Carlos Salinas de
Gortari (Mexico), President George H. W. Bush (U.S.), and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Canada);
(seated) Jaime Serra Puche (Mexico), Carla Hills (U.S.), and Michael Wilson (Canada)

Salinas embarked on a program of neoliberal reforms which fixed the exchange rate,

controlled inflation, and culminated with the signing of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), which came into effect on January 1, 1994. The same day,
the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) started a two-week-long armed rebellion
against the federal government, and has continued as a non-violent opposition movement
against neoliberalism and globalization.
In 1994, Salinas was succeeded by Ernesto Zedillo, followed by the Mexican peso
crisis and a $50 billion IMF bailout. Major macroeconomic reforms were started by
President Zedillo, and the economy rapidly recovered and growth peaked at almost 7% by
the end of 1999.[156]

Contemporary Mexico
In 2000, after 71 years, the PRI lost a presidential election to Vicente Fox of the
opposition National Action Party (PAN). In the 2006 presidential election, Felipe
Calderón from the PAN was declared the winner, with a very narrow margin (0.58%) over
leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic
Revolution (PRD).[157] López Obrador, however, contested the election and pledged to
create an "alternative government".[158]
After twelve years, in 2012, the PRI won the presidency again with the election of Enrique
Peña Nieto, the governor of the State of Mexico from 2005 to 2011. However, he won with
a plurality of about 38%, and did not have a legislative majority.[159]
In his third presidential run, former mayor of Mexico City Andrés Manuel López Obrador
won the 2018 presidential election with over 50% of the vote. His political coalition, led by
the left-wing party MORENA, which was founded after the 2012 elections by Andres,
includes parties and politicians from all over the political spectrum and also obtained a
majority in both the upper and lower congress chambers. AMLO's (one of his many
nicknames) success is attributed to the country's other strong political alternatives
exhausting their chances as well as the politician adopting a moderate discourse with focus
in conciliation.[160]

Geography
Main article: Geography of Mexico

Topographic map of Mexico

Mexico is located between latitudes 14° and 33°N, and longitudes 86° and 119°W in the

southern portion of North 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.[161] Geopolitically, however,
Mexico is entirely considered part of North America, along with Canada and the United
States.[162]
Location in the Yucatán peninsula of the Chicxulub crater. The scientific consensus is that
the Chicxulub impactor was responsible for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Mexico's total area is 1,972,550 km2 (761,606 sq mi), making it the world's 13th largest

country by total area. It has coastlines on the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California, as well
as the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, the latter two forming part of the Atlantic Ocean.
[163]
 Within these seas are about 6,000 km2 (2,317 sq mi) of islands (including the remote
Pacific Guadalupe Island and the Revillagigedo Islands). From its farthest land points,
Mexico is a little over 2,000 mi (3,219 km) in length.
On its north, Mexico shares a 3,141 km (1,952 mi) 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. Donald Trump made the construction of a border wall (on the U.S. side) an element
of his 2016 presidential campaign. On its south, Mexico shares an 871 km (541 mi) border
with Guatemala and a 251 km (156 mi) border with Belize.
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.[164]
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 or 18,701 ft), Popocatépetl (5,462 m or 17,920 ft)
and Iztaccihuatl (5,286 m or 17,343 ft) and the Nevado de Toluca (4,577 m or 15,016 ft).
Three major urban agglomerations are located in the valleys between these four
elevations: Toluca, Greater Mexico City and Puebla.[164]

Climate
Main article: Climate of Mexico
Mexico map of Köppen climate classification

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.
Areas south of the 24th parallel with elevations up to 1,000 m (3,281 ft) (the southern parts
of both coastal plains as well as the Yucatán Peninsula), have a yearly median temperature
between 24 to 28 °C (75.2 to 82.4 °F). Temperatures here remain high throughout the year,
with only a 5 °C (9 °F) difference between winter and summer median temperatures. Both
Mexican coasts, except for the south coast of the Bay of Campeche and northern Baja, are
also vulnerable to serious hurricanes during the summer and fall. Although low-lying areas
north of the 24th parallel are hot and humid during the summer, they generally have lower
yearly temperature averages (from 20 to 24 °C or 68.0 to 75.2 °F) 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 (6,562 ft). This gives them a year-round temperate
climate with yearly temperature averages (from 16 to 18 °C or 60.8 to 64.4 °F) 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 2,000 mm (78.7 in) of annual
precipitation. For example, many cities in the north like Monterrey, Hermosillo,
and Mexicali experience temperatures of 40 °C (104 °F) or more in summer. In
the Sonoran Desert temperatures reach 50 °C (122 °F) or more.
In 2012, Mexico passed a comprehensive climate change bill, a first in the developing
world, that has set a goal for the country to generate 35% of its energy from clean energy
sources by 2024, and to cut emissions by 50% by 2050, from the level found in 2000.[165]
[166]
 During the 2016 North American Leaders' Summit, the target of 50% of electricity
generated from renewable sources by 2025 was announced.[167]

Biodiversity
A jaguar at the Chapultepec Zoo. The zoo is known for its success in breeding programs
of threatened species.

Mexican wolf.

Axolotl, endemic to Valle de México.

Mexico ranks fourth[168] in the world in biodiversity and is one of the 17 megadiverse
countries. With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's
biodiversity.[169] 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.[170] Mexico is also considered the second country in the world
in ecosystems and fourth in overall species.[171] About 2,500 species are protected by
Mexican legislations.[171]
In 2002, Mexico had the second fastest rate of deforestation in the world, second only to
Brazil.[172] The government has taken another initiative in the late 1990s to broaden the
people's knowledge, interest and use of the country's esteemed biodiversity, through
the Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad.
In Mexico, 170,000 square kilometres (65,637 sq mi) are considered "Protected Natural
Areas". These include 34 biosphere reserves (unaltered ecosystems), 67 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).
[169]

The discovery of the Americas brought to the rest of the world many widely used food
crops and edible plants. Some of Mexico's native culinary ingredients include:
chocolate, avocado, tomato,
maize, vanilla, guava, chayote, epazote, camote, jícama, nopal, zucchini, tejocote, huitlaco
che, sapote, mamey sapote, many varieties of beans, and an even greater variety of chiles,
such as the habanero and the jalapeño. Most of these names come from indigenous
languages like Nahuatl.
Because of its high biodiversity Mexico has also been a frequent site of bioprospecting by
international research bodies.[173] The first highly successful instance being the discovery in
1947 of the tuber "Barbasco" (Dioscorea composita) which has a high content of diosgenin,
revolutionizing the production of synthetic hormones in the 1950s and 1960s and eventually
leading to the invention of combined oral contraceptive pills.[174]

Government and politics

Government
Main article: Federal government of Mexico

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, assumed office on December 1, 2018

The United Mexican States are a federation whose government is representative,

democratic and republican based on a presidential system according to the 1917
Constitution. The constitution establishes three levels of government: the federal Union, the
state governments and the municipal governments. According to the constitution, all
constituent states of the federation must have a republican form of government composed
of three branches: the executive, represented by a governor and an appointed cabinet, the
legislative branch constituted by a unicameral congress[175][original research?] and the judiciary, which
will include a state Supreme Court of Justice. They also have their own civil and judicial
codes.
The federal legislature is the bicameral Congress of the Union, composed of the Senate of
the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies. The Congress makes federal law, declares
war, imposes taxes, approves the national budget and international treaties, and ratifies
diplomatic appointments.[176]
The federal Congress, as well as the state legislatures, are elected by a system of parallel
voting that includes plurality and proportional representation.[177] The Chamber of Deputies
has 500 deputies. Of these, 300 are elected by plurality vote in single-member
districts (the federal electoral districts) and 200 are elected by proportional representation
with closed party lists[178] for which the country is divided into five electoral constituencies.
[179]
 The Senate is made up of 128 senators. Of these, 64 senators (two for each state and
two for Mexico City) are elected by plurality vote in pairs; 32 senators are the first minority
or first-runner up (one for each state and one for Mexico City), and 32 are elected by
proportional representation from national closed party lists.[178]
The executive is the President of the United Mexican States, who is the head of
state and government, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Mexican military forces.
The President also appoints the Cabinet and other officers. The President is responsible for
executing and enforcing the law, and has the power to veto bills.[180]
Site of the Supreme Court of Justice

The highest organ of the judicial branch of government is the Supreme Court of Justice, the
national supreme court, which has eleven judges appointed by the President and approved
by the Senate. The Supreme Court of Justice interprets laws and judges cases of federal
competency. Other institutions of the judiciary are the Federal Electoral Tribunal, collegiate,
unitary and district tribunals, and the Council of the Federal Judiciary.[181]

Politics
Main article: Politics of Mexico
Three parties have historically been the dominant parties in Mexican politics:
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), a center-left party and member of Socialist
International[182] that was founded in 1929 to unite all the factions of the Mexican
Revolution and held an almost hegemonic power in Mexican politics since then;
the National Action Party (PAN), a conservative party founded in 1939 and belonging to
the Christian Democrat Organization of America;[183] and the Party of the Democratic
Revolution (PRD) a left-wing party,[184] founded in 1989 as the successor of the coalition of
socialists and liberal parties. PRD emerged after what has now been proven was a stolen
election in 1988,[185] and has won numerous state and local elections since then. PAN won
its first governorship in 1989, and won the presidency in 2000 and 2006.[186]
A new political party, National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), a leftist-populist party,
emerged after the 2012 election and dominated the 2018 Mexican general election.[187]
Unlike many Latin American countries, the military in Mexico does not participate in politics
and is under civilian control.[188]

Law enforcement
Main article: Law enforcement in Mexico
Federal Police headquarters in Mexico City

Public security is enacted at the three levels of government, each of which has different
prerogatives and responsibilities. Local and state police departments are primarily in
charge of law enforcement, whereas the Mexican Federal Police are in charge of
specialized duties. All levels report to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretary of
Public Security). The General Attorney's Office (Fiscalía General de la República, FGR) is
a constitutional autonomous organism in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes at
the federal level, mainly those related to drug and arms trafficking,[189] espionage, and bank
robberies.[190] The FGR operates the Federal Ministerial Police (Policia Federal Ministerial,
PMF) an investigative and preventive agency.[191]
While the government generally respects the human rights of its citizens, serious abuses of
power have been reported in security operations in the southern part of the country and in
indigenous communities and poor urban neighborhoods.[192] The National Human Rights
Commission has had little impact in reversing this trend, engaging mostly in documentation
but failing to use its powers to issue public condemnations to the officials who ignore its
recommendations.[193] By law, all defendants have the rights that assure them fair trials and
humane treatment; however, the system is overburdened and overwhelmed with several
problems.[192]
Despite the efforts of the authorities to fight crime and fraud, most Mexicans have low
confidence in the police or the judicial system, and therefore, few crimes are actually
reported by the citizens.[192] The Global Integrity Index which measures the existence and
effectiveness of national anti-corruption mechanisms rated Mexico 31st behind Kenya,
Thailand, and Russia.[194] In 2008, president Calderón proposed a major reform of the
judicial system, which was approved by the Congress of the Union, which included oral
trials, the presumption of innocence for defendants, the authority of local police to
investigate crime—until then a prerogative of special police units—and several other
changes intended to speed up trials.[195]

Crime
Main articles: Crime in Mexico, Mexican Drug War, and Human trafficking in Mexico
Drug cartels are a major concern in Mexico.[196] Mexico's drug war, ongoing since 2006, has
left over 120,000 dead and perhaps another 37,000 missing.[34] The Mexican drug
cartels have as many as 100,000 members.[197] Mexico's National Geography and Statistics
Institute estimated that in 2014, one-fifth of Mexicans were victims of some sort of crime.
[198]
 The U.S. Department of State warns its citizens to exercise increased caution when
traveling in Mexico, issuing travel advisories on its website.[199]

Demonstration on September 26, 2015, in the first anniversary of the disappearance of the 43

students in the Mexican town of Iguala

President Felipe Calderón (2006-12) made eradicating organized crime one of the top

priorities of his administration by deploying military personnel to cities where drug cartels
operate. This move was criticized by the opposition parties and the National Human Rights
Commission for escalating the violence,[200] but its effects have been positively evaluated by
the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement
Affairs as having obtained "unprecedented results" with "many important successes".[201]
Since President Felipe Calderón launched a crackdown against cartels in 2006, more than
28,000 alleged criminals have been successfully killed.[202][203] Of the total drug-related
violence 4% are innocent people,[204] mostly by-passers and people trapped in between
shootings; 90% accounts for criminals and 6% for military personnel and police officers.
[204]
 In October 2007, President Calderón and US president George W. Bush announced
the Mérida Initiative, a plan of law enforcement cooperation between the two countries.[205]
More than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed or disappeared since 2000,
and most of these crimes remained unsolved, improperly investigated, and with few
perpetrators arrested and convicted.[206][207]
The mass kidnapping of the 43 students in Iguala on September 26, 2014 triggered
nationwide protests against the government's weak response to the disappearances and
widespread corruption that gives free rein to criminal organizations.[208]

Foreign relations

Former President Enrique Peña Nieto with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and

President Barack Obama of the United States at the 2016 North American Leaders' Summit

Main article: Foreign relations of Mexico

The foreign relations of Mexico are directed by the President of Mexico[209] and managed
through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[210] The principles of the foreign policy are
constitutionally recognized in the Article 89, Section 10, which include: respect
for international law and legal equality of states, their sovereignty and independence, trend
to non-interventionism in the domestic affairs of other countries, peaceful resolution of
conflicts, and promotion of collective security through active participation in international
organizations.[209] Since the 1930s, the Estrada Doctrine has served as a crucial
complement to these principles.[211]
Mexico is founding member of several international organizations, most notably the United
Nations,[212] the Organization of American States,[213] the Organization of Ibero-American
States,[214] the OPANAL[215] and the Rio Group.[216] In 2008, Mexico contributed over 40
million dollars to the United Nations regular budget.[217] In addition, it was the only Latin
American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since
it joined in 1994 until Chile gained full membership in 2010.[218][219]
Mexico is considered a regional power[220][221] hence its presence in major economic groups
such as the G8+5 and the G-20. In addition, since the 1990s Mexico has sought a reform of
the United Nations Security Council and its working methods[222] with the support of Canada,
Italy, Pakistan and other nine countries, which form a group informally called the Coffee
Club.[223]
After the War of Independence, the relations of Mexico were focused primarily on the
United States, its northern neighbor, largest trading partner,[224] and the most powerful actor
in hemispheric and world affairs.[225] Mexico supported the Cuban government since its
establishment in the early 1960s,[226] the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua during the late
1970s,[227] and leftist revolutionary groups in El Salvador during the 1980s.[228] Felipe
Calderón's administration (2006-2012) put a greater emphasis on relations with Latin
America and the Caribbean.[229] Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) emphasized economic
issues and foreign investment, particularly the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership.
[230]
 Andrés Manuel López Obrador has taken a cautious approach, unwilling to challenge
U.S. President Donald Trump on either trade or migration, while maintaining neutrality
on Venezuela and welcoming Chinese money.[231]

Military
Main article: Mexican Armed Forces
See also: Military history of Mexico
The Mexican military "provides a unique example of a military leadership's transforming
itself into a civilian political elite, simultaneously transferring the basis of power from the
army to a civilian state."[232] The transformation was brought about by revolutionary generals
in the 1920s and 1930s, following the demise of the Federal Army following its complete
defeat during the decade-long Mexican Revolution.[233]

A Mexican Navy Eurocopter

The Mexican Armed Forces have two branches: the Mexican Army (which includes
the Mexican Air Force), and the Mexican Navy. The Mexican Armed Forces maintain
significant infrastructure, including facilities for design, research, and testing of weapons,
vehicles, aircraft, naval vessels, defense systems and electronics;[234][235] military industry
manufacturing centers for building such systems, and advanced naval dockyards that build
heavy military vessels and advanced missile technologies.[236]

Mexican built Sierra-class corvettes

In recent years, Mexico has improved its training techniques, military command and
information structures and has taken steps to becoming more self-reliant in supplying its
military by designing as well as manufacturing its own arms,[237] missiles,[235] aircraft,
[238]
 vehicles, heavy weaponry, electronics,[234] defense systems,[234] armor, heavy military
industrial equipment and heavy naval vessels.[239] Since the 1990s, when the military
escalated its role in the war on drugs, increasing importance has been placed on acquiring
airborne surveillance platforms, aircraft, helicopters, digital war-fighting technologies,
[234]
 urban warfare equipment and rapid troop transport.[240]
Mexico has the capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons, but abandoned this possibility
with the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1968 and pledged to only use its nuclear technology for
peaceful purposes.[241] In 1970, Mexico's national institute for nuclear research successfully
refined weapons grade uranium[242][failed verification] which is used in the manufacture of nuclear
weapons but in April 2010, Mexico agreed to turn over its weapons grade uranium to the
United States.[243][244]
Historically, Mexico has remained neutral in international conflicts,[245] with the exception of
World War II. However, in recent years some political parties have proposed an
amendment of the Constitution to allow the Mexican Army, Air Force or Navy to collaborate
with the United Nations in peacekeeping missions, or to provide military help to countries
that officially ask for it.[246] Mexico signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons.[247]

Political divisions
Main articles: Administrative divisions of Mexico, States of Mexico, Municipalities of
Mexico, and List of Mexican state legislatures
The United Mexican States are a federation of 31 free and sovereign states, which form a
union that exercises a degree of jurisdiction over Mexico City.[248]
Each state has its own constitution, congress, and a judiciary, and its citizens elect
by direct voting a governor for a six-year term, and representatives to their respective
unicameral state congresses for three-year terms.[249]
Mexico City is a special political division that belongs to the federation as a whole and not
to a particular state.[248] Formerly known as the Federal District, its autonomy was previously
limited relative to that of the states.[250] It dropped this designation in 2016 and is in the
process of achieving greater political autonomy by becoming a federal entity with its own
constitution and congress.[251]
The states are divided into municipalities, the smallest administrative political entity in the
country, governed by a mayor or municipal president (presidente municipal), elected by its
residents by plurality.[252]
 Gulf of
Mexico
Pacific
Ocean
Central
America
United States of America
Mexico City
AG
Baja
California
Baja
California
Sur
Campeche
Chiapas
Chihuahua
Coahuila
Colima
Durango
Guanajuato
Guerrero
HD
Jalisco
EM
Michoacán
MO
Nayarit
Nuevo
León
Oaxaca
Puebla
QU
Quintana
Roo
San Luis
Potosí
Sinaloa
Sonora
Tabasco
Tamaulipas
TL
Veracruz
Yucatán
Zacatecas

Entity/Abbreviation Capital Entity/Ab

 Aguascalientes (AGS) Aguascalientes  Morelos (MOR)

 Baja California (BC) Mexicali  Nayarit (NAY)

 Baja California Sur (BCS) La Paz  Nuevo León (NL)

 Campeche (CAM) Campeche  Oaxaca (OAX)

  Chiapas (CHIS) Tuxtla Gutiérrez  Puebla (PUE)

 Chihuahua (CHIHU) Chihuahua  Querétaro (QRO)

 Coahuila (COAH) Saltillo  Quintana Roo (QR

 Colima (COL) Colima  San Luis Potosí (S

 Durango (DUR) Durango  Sinaloa (SNL)

 Guanajuato (GTO) Guanajuato  Sonora (SON)

 Guerrero (GRO) Chilpancingo  Tabasco (TAB)

 Hidalgo (HGO) Pachuca  Tamaulipas (TAMP

 Jalisco (JAL) Guadalajara  Tlaxcala (TLAX)

 State of Mexico (EM) Toluca  Veracruz (VER)

 Mexico City (CDMX) Mexico City  Yucatán (YUC)

 Michoacán (MICH) Morelia  Zacatecas (ZAC)

Economy
Main article: Economy of Mexico
See also: Economic history of Mexico

Share of world GDP (PPP)[253]

Year Share
 1980 3.06%

1990 2.68%

2000 2.53%

2010 2.02%

2017 1.94%

A proportional representation of Mexico's exports. The country has the most complex economy in
Latin America.

As of April 2018, Mexico has the 15th largest nominal GDP (US$1.15 trillion)[254] and

the 11th largest by purchasing power parity (US$2.45 trillion). GDP annual average growth
was 2.9% in 2016 and 2% in 2017.[254] Agriculture has comprised 4% of the economy over
the last two decades, while industry contributes 33% (mostly automotive, oil, and
electronics) and services (notably financial services and tourism) contribute 63%.
[254]
 Mexico's GDP in PPP per capita was US$18,714.05. The World Bank reported in 2009
that the country's Gross National Income in market exchange rates was the second highest
in Latin America, after Brazil at US$1,830.392 billion,[255] which led to the highest income per
capita in the region at $15,311.[256][257] Mexico is now firmly established as an upper middle-
income country. After the slowdown of 2001 the country has recovered and has grown 4.2,
3.0 and 4.8 percent in 2004, 2005 and 2006,[258] even though it is considered to be well
below Mexico's potential growth.[259] The International Monetary Fund predicts growth rates
of 2.3% and 2.7% for 2018 and 2019, respectively.[254]
Although multiple international organizations coincide and classify Mexico as an upper
middle income country, or a middle class country[260][261] Mexico's National Council for the
Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), which is the organization in charge
to measure the country's poverty reports that a huge percentage of Mexico's population
lives in poverty. According to said council, from 2006 to 2010 (year on which the CONEVAL
published its first nationwide report of poverty) the portion of Mexicans who live in poverty
rose from 18%-19%[262] to 46% (52 million people).[263] However, rather than Mexico's
economy crashing, international economists attribute the huge increase in the percentage
of population living below the country's poverty line to the CONEVAL using new standards
to define it, as now besides people who lives below the economic welfare line, people who
lacks at least one "social need" such as complete education, access to healthcare, access
to regular food, housing services and goods, social security etc. were considered to be
living in poverty (several countries do collect information regarding the persistence of said
vulnerabilities on their population, but Mexico is the only one that classifies people lacking
one or more of those needs as living below its national poverty line). Said economists do
point out that the percentage of people living in poverty according to Mexico's national
poverty line is around 40 times higher than the one reported by the World
Bank's international poverty line (with said difference being the biggest in the world) and
ponder if it would not be better for countries in the situation of Mexico to adopt
internationalized standards to measure poverty so the numbers obtained could be used to
make accurate international comparisons.[264] According to the OECD's own poverty line
(defined as the percentage of a country's population who earns 60%[265] or less of the
national median income) 20% of Mexico's population lives in a situation of poverty.[266]
Among the OECD countries, Mexico has the second-highest degree of economic disparity
between the extremely poor and extremely rich, after Chile – although it has been falling
over the last decade, being one of few countries in which this is the case.[267] The bottom ten
percent in the income hierarchy disposes of 1.36% of the country's resources, whereas the
upper ten percent dispose of almost 36%. The OECD also notes that Mexico's budgeted
expenses for poverty alleviation and social development is only about a third of the OECD
average.[268] This is also reflected by the fact that infant mortality in Mexico is three times
higher than the average among OECD nations whereas its literacy levels are in the median
range of OECD nations. Nevertheless, according to Goldman Sachs, by 2050 Mexico will
have the 5th largest economy in the world.[269]
According to a 2008 UN report the average income in a typical urbanized area of Mexico
was $26,654, while the average income in rural areas just miles away was only $8,403.
[270]
 Daily minimum wages are set annually being set at $102.68 Mexican pesos (US$5.40)
in 2019.[271]
The electronics industry of Mexico has grown enormously within the last decade. Mexico
has the sixth largest electronics industry in the world after China, United
States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Mexico is the second-largest exporter of
electronics to the United States where it exported $71.4 billion worth of electronics in 2011.
[272]
 The Mexican electronics industry is dominated by the manufacture and OEM design of
televisions, displays, computers, mobile phones, circuit boards, semiconductors, electronic
appliances, communications equipment and LCD modules. The Mexican electronics
industry grew 20% between 2010 and 2011, up from its constant growth rate of 17%
between 2003 and 2009.[272] Currently electronics represent 30% of Mexico's exports.[272]
Mexico produces the most automobiles of any North American nation.[273] The industry
produces technologically complex components and engages in some research and
development activities.[274] The "Big Three" (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) have been
operating in Mexico since the 1930s, while Volkswagen and Nissan built their plants in the
1960s.[275] In Puebla alone, 70 industrial part-makers cluster around Volkswagen.[274] In the
2010s expansion of the sector was surging. In 2014 alone, more than $10 billion in
investment was committed. In September 2016 Kia motors opened a $1 billion factory
in Nuevo León,[276] with Audi also opening an assembling plant in Puebla the same year.
[277]
 BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan currently have plants in constructuion.[278]
The domestic car industry is represented by DINA S.A., which has built buses and trucks
since 1962,[279] and the new Mastretta company that builds the high-performance Mastretta
MXT sports car.[280] In 2006, trade with the United States and Canada accounted for almost
50% of Mexico's exports and 45% of its imports.[13] During the first three quarters of 2010,
the United States had a $46.0 billion trade deficit with Mexico.[281] In August 2010 Mexico
surpassed France to become the 9th largest holder of US debt.[282] The commercial and
financial dependence on the US is a cause for concern.[283]
The remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United States account for 0.2% of
Mexico's GDP[284] which was equal to US$20 billion per year in 2004 and is the tenth largest
source of foreign income after oil, industrial exports, manufactured goods, electronics,
heavy industry, automobiles, construction, food, banking and financial services.
[285]
 According to Mexico's central bank, remittances in 2008 amounted to $25bn.[286]
By 2050, Mexico could potentially become the world's fifth or seventh largest economy.[287]
[288]

Communications
Main article: Telecommunications in Mexico
The telecommunications industry is mostly dominated by Telmex (Teléfonos de México),
privatized in 1990. By 2006, Telmex had expanded its operations to Colombia, Peru, Chile,
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and the United States. Other players in the domestic industry
are Axtel, Maxcom, Alestra, Marcatel, AT&T Mexico.[289] Because of Mexican orography,
providing a 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
40 percent; however, 82% of Mexicans over the age of 14 own a mobile phone. Mobile
telephony has the advantage of reaching all areas at a lower cost, and the total number of
mobile lines is almost two times that of landlines, with an estimation of 63 million lines.
[290]
 The telecommunication industry is regulated by the government
through Cofetel (Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones).
The Mexican satellite system is domestic and operates 120 earth stations. There is also
extensive microwave radio relay network and considerable use of fiber-optic and coaxial
cable.[290] Mexican satellites are operated by Satélites Mexicanos (Satmex), a private
company, leader in Latin America and servicing both North and South America.[291] It offers
broadcast, telephone and telecommunication services to 37 countries in the Americas, from
Canada to Argentina. Through business partnerships Satmex provides high-speed
connectivity to ISPs and Digital Broadcast Services.[292] Satmex maintains its own satellite
fleet with most of the fleet being designed and built in Mexico.
Major players in the broadcasting industry are Televisa, the largest Mexican media
company in the Spanish-speaking world,[293] TV Azteca and Imagen Televisión.

Energy
See also: Electricity sector in Mexico

The Central Eólica Sureste I, Fase II in Oaxaca. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is the region of Mexico
with the highest capacity for wind energy. (see Tehuantepecer, a strong wind that affects the region)
The Central Geotermoeléctrica Azufres III in Michoacán. 100% of the electricity produced in
Michoacán comes from renewable sources.[294] 90% comes from hydroelectric plants, and 10% from
the Azufres Geothermal Field.[294]

Energy production in Mexico is managed by the state-owned companies Federal

Commission of Electricity and Pemex.
Pemex, the public company in charge of exploration, extraction, transportation and
marketing of crude oil and natural gas, as well as the refining and distribution of petroleum
products and petrochemicals, is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue,
making US$86 billion in sales a year.[295][296][297] Mexico is the sixth-largest oil producer in the
world, with 3.7 million barrels per day.[298] In 1980 oil exports accounted for 61.6% of total
exports; by 2000 it was only 7.3%.[274]
The largest hydro plant in Mexico is the 2,400 MW Manuel Moreno Torres Dam in
Chicoasén, Chiapas, in the Grijalva River. This is the world's fourth most productive
hydroelectric plant.[299]
Mexico is the country with the world's third largest solar potential.[300] The country's gross
solar potential is estimated at 5kWh/m2 daily, which corresponds to 50 times national
electricity generation.[301] Currently, there is over 1 million square meters of solar
thermal panels[302] installed in Mexico, while in 2005, there were 115,000 square meters
of solar PV (photo-voltaic). It is expected that in 2012 there will be 1,8 million square
meters of installed solar thermal panels.[302]
The project named SEGH-CFE 1, located in Puerto Libertad, Sonora, Northwest of Mexico,
will have capacity of 46.8 MW from an array of 187,200 solar panels when complete in
2013.[303] All of the electricity will be sold directly to the CFE and absorbed into the utility's
transmission system for distribution throughout their existing network. At an installed
capacity of 46.8 MWp, when complete in 2013, the project will be the first utility scale
project of its kind in Mexico and the largest solar project of any kind in Latin America.

Science and technology

Main article: History of science and technology in Mexico
The National Autonomous University of Mexico was officially established in 1910,[304] and
the university became one of the most important institutes of higher learning in Mexico.
[305]
 UNAM provides world class education in science, medicine, and engineering.[306] Many
scientific institutes and new institutes of higher learning, such as National Polytechnic
Institute (founded in 1936),[307] were established during the first half of the 20th century.
Most of the new research institutes were created within UNAM. Twelve institutes were
integrated into UNAM from 1929 to 1973.[308] In 1959, the Mexican Academy of
Sciences was created to coordinate scientific efforts between academics.
In 1995, the Mexican chemist Mario J. Molina shared the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland for their work in atmospheric
chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.[309] Molina, an
alumnus of UNAM, became the first Mexican citizen to win the Nobel Prize in science.[310]
In recent years, the largest 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.[311] It was
designed to observe regions of space obscured by stellar dust.

Tourism
Main article: Tourism in Mexico
Day of the Dead (2 November) decorations, giant marigolds, skeletons, and papel picado (cut paper)
used to decorate an altar honoring the dear departed. Foreign awareness of the holiday was raised
by the 2017 Pixar film Coco

As of 2017, Mexico was the 6th most visited country in the world and had the 15th highest
income from tourism in the world which is also the highest in Latin America.[312] The vast
majority of tourists come to Mexico from the United States and Canada followed by Europe
and Asia. A smaller number also come from other Latin American countries.[313] In the
2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, Mexico was ranked 22nd in the world,
which was 3rd in the Americas.[314]
The coastlines of Mexico harbor many stretches of beaches that are frequented by
sunbathers and other visitors. According to national law, the entirety of the coastlines are
under federal ownership, that is, all beaches in the country are public. On the Yucatán
peninsula, one of the most popular beach destinations is the resort town of Cancún,
especially among university students during spring break. Just offshore is the beach island
of Isla Mujeres, and to the east is the Isla Holbox. To the south of Cancun is the coastal
strip called Riviera Maya which includes the beach town of Playa del Carmen and the
ecological parks of Xcaret and Xel-Há. A day trip to the south of Cancún is the historic port
of Tulum. In addition to its beaches, the town of Tulum is notable for its cliff-
side Mayan ruins.
On the Pacific coast is the notable tourist destination of Acapulco. Once the destination for
the rich and famous, the beaches have become crowded and the shores are now home to
many multi-story hotels and vendors. Acapulco is home to renowned cliff divers: trained
divers who leap from the side of a vertical cliff into the surf below.
At the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula is the resort town of Cabo San Lucas, a
town noted for its beaches and marlin fishing.[315] Further north along the Sea of Cortés is
the Bahía de La Concepción, another beach town known for its sports fishing. Closer to
the United States border is the weekend draw of San Felipe, Baja California.

Transportation
Main article: Transportation in Mexico
The Baluarte Bridge is the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world, the fifth-highest bridge overall
and the highest bridge in the Americas.

The roadway network in Mexico is extensive and all areas in the country are covered by it.
[316]
 The roadway network in Mexico has an extent of 366,095 km (227,481 mi),[317] of which
116,802 km (72,577 mi) are paved,[318] making it the largest paved-roadway network in Latin
America.[319] Of these, 10,474 km (6,508 mi) are multi-lane expressways: 9,544 km
(5,930 mi) are four-lane highways and the rest have 6 or more lanes.[318]
Starting in the late nineteenth century, Mexico was one of the first Latin American countries
to promote railway development,[192] and the network covers 30,952 km (19,233 mi).
[320]
 The Secretary of Communications and Transport of Mexico proposed a high-speed rail
link that will transport its passengers from Mexico City to Guadalajara, Jalisco.[321][322] The
train, which will travel at 300 kilometres per hour (190 miles per hour),[323] will allow
passengers to travel from Mexico City to Guadalajara in just 2 hours.[323] The whole project
was projected to cost 240 billion pesos, or about 25 billion US$[321] and is being paid for
jointly by the Mexican government and the local private sector including the wealthiest man
in the world, Mexico's billionaire business tycoon Carlos Slim.[324] The government of the
state of Yucatán is also funding the construction of a high speed line connecting the cities
of Cozumel to Mérida and Chichen Itza and Cancún.[325]
Mexico has 233 airports with paved runways; of these, 35 carry 97% of the passenger
traffic.[320] The Mexico City International Airport remains the busiest in Latin America and the
36th busiest in the world[326] transporting 45 million passengers a year.[327]

Water supply and sanitation

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Mexico
Among the achievements is a significant increase in access to piped water supply in urban
areas (88% to 93%) as well as in rural areas (50% to 74%) between 1990 and 2010.
Additionally, a strong nationwide increase in access to improved sanitation (64% to 85%)
was observed in the same period. Other achievements include the existence of a
functioning national system to finance water and sanitation infrastructure with a National
Water Commission as its apex institution; and the existence of a few well-performing
utilities such as Aguas y Drenaje de Monterrey.
The challenges include water scarcity in the northern and central parts of the country;
inadequate water service quality (drinking water quality; 11% of Mexicans receiving water
only intermittently as of 2014);[328] poor technical and commercial efficiency of most utilities
(with an average level of non-revenue water of 43.2% in 2010);[329] an insufficient share of
wastewater receiving treatment (36% in 2006); and still inadequate access in rural areas. In
addition to on-going investments to expand access, the government has embarked on a
large investment program to improve wastewater treatment.

Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Mexico

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a.

1895 12,700,294 —    

1900 13,607,272 +1.39%

1910 15,160,369 +1.09%

1921 14,334,780 −0.51%

1930 16,552,722 +1.61%

1940 19,653,552 +1.73%

1950 25,791,017 +2.75%

1960 34,923,129 +3.08%

1970 48,225,238 +3.28%

1980 66,846,833 +3.32%

1990 81,249,645 +1.97%

2000 97,483,412 +1.84%

2010 112,336,538 +1.43%

2015 121,005,816 +1.50%

Source: INEGI

Throughout the 19th century, the population of Mexico had barely doubled. This trend
continued during the first two decades of the 20th century, and even in the 1920 census
there was a loss of about 2 million inhabitants. The phenomenon can be explained because
during the decade from 1910 to 1920 the Mexican Revolution took place.

Population pyramid, 2017

The growth rate increased dramatically between the 1930s and the 1980s, when the
country registered growth rates of over 3% (1950–1980). The Mexican population doubled
in twenty years, and at that rate it was expected that by the year 2000 there would be 120
million Mexicans. Life expectancy went from 36 years (in 1895) to 72 years (in the year
2000).
According to estimations made by Mexico's National Geography and Statistics Institute, as
of 2017 Mexico has 123.5 million inhabitants[330] making it the most populous Spanish-
speaking country in the world.[331] Between 2005 and 2010, the Mexican population grew at
an average of 1.70% per year, up from 1.16% per year between 2000 and 2005.
Even though Mexico is a very ethnically diverse country, research about ethnicity has
largely been a forgotten field, in consequence of the post-revolutionary efforts of Mexico's
government to unify all non-indigenous Mexicans under a single ethnic identity (that of the
"Mestizo"). As a result, since 1930 the only explicit ethnic classification that has been
included in Mexican censuses has been that of "Indigenous peoples".[332] Even then, across
the years the government has used different criteria to count Indigenous peoples, with each
of them returning considerably different numbers. It is not until very recently that the
Mexican government begun conducting surveys that considered the Afro-
Mexican and Euro-Mexican population that lives in the country.
As of 2017, it is estimated that 1.2 million foreigners have settled in the country,[333] up from
nearly 1 million in 2010.[334] The vast majority of migrants come from the United
States (900,000), making Mexico the top destination for U.S. citizens abroad.[335] The
second largest group comes from neighboring Guatemala (54,500), followed
by Spain (27,600).[333] Other major sources of migration are fellow Latin American countries,
which include Colombia (20,600), Argentina (19,200) and Cuba (18,100).[333] Historically,
the Lebanese diaspora and the German-born Mennonite migration have left a notorious
impact in the country's culture, particularly in its cuisine and traditional music.[336][337] At the
turn of the 21st century, several trends have increased the number of foreigners residing in
the country such as the 2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis,[338] increasing gang-related
violence in the Northern Triangle of Central America,[339] the ongoing political and economic
crisis in Venezuela,[340][341] and the automotive industry boom led by Japanese and South
Korean investment.[342][343]

Ethnicity and race

Depiction of the casta system in Mexico. Painting of 1777.

Despite being a notoriously diverse country; the big majority of Mexicans are united under
the same national identity.[344] This being the product of an ideology strongly promoted by
Mexican academics and politicians such as Manuel Gamio and José Vasconcelos known
as mestizaje, whose goal was that of Mexico becoming
a racially and culturally homogeneous country,[345][344][346] which in practice was reflected in
Mexico's national censuses of 1921 and 1930: According to the former, approximately 60%
of Mexico's population identified as Mestizos,[192][347] and in the later, Mexico's government
declared that all Mexicans were now Mestizos, for which racial classifications would be
dropped in favor of language-based ones in future censuses.[332] Nowadays, historians and
academics consider that a good number of people were classified under the "mestizo
identity" by the government regardless of whether they were of mixed ancestry or not,[348]
[349]
 as the population trends reported in those censuses are incongruent with those
exhibited in earlier censuses[350] and modern research has observed that when asked
directly about their ethno-racial identification, many Mexicans do not identify as Mestizos,
[351]
 being also noted that ethnoracial labels such as "White" or "Indian" are far more
prominent in everyday Mexican society than the "Mestizo" one is, whose use is mostly
limited to intellectual circles.[352]
The total percentage of Mexico's indigenous peoples tends to vary depending of the criteria
used by the government on its censuses: it is 5.4% if the ability to speak an indigenous
language is used as the criteria to define a person as indigenous,[353] if racial self-
identification is used it is 14.9%[354][a] and if people who consider themselves part indigenous
are also included it amounts to 23%.[357] Nonetheless, all the censuses conclude that the
majority of Mexico's indigenous population is concentrated in rural areas of the southern
and south-eastern Mexican states such as[358] Yucatán at 59%, Quintana Roo 39% and
Campeche 27%, who are chiefly Maya; Oaxaca with 48% of the population, the most
numerous groups being the Mixtec and Zapotec peoples; Chiapas at 28%, the majority
being Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya; Hidalgo 24%, the majority being Otomi; Puebla 19%, and
Guerrero 17%, mostly Nahua peoples and the states of San Luis Potosí and Veracruz are
both home to a population that is 15% indigenous, mostly from the Totonac, Nahua
and Teenek (Huastec) groups.[359][360] All of the indices of social development for the
indigenous population are considerably lower than the national average which is motive of
concern for Mexico's government.[359]
Similarly to Mestizo and indigenous peoples, estimates of the percentage of European-
descended Mexicans vary considerably: according to the Encyclopædia Britannica which
uses as reference the 1921 census, their numbers range from around 10%–20% (the
results of the 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and
deemed inaccurate).[361] Recent nationwide field surveys that account for different
phenotypical traits (hair color, skin color etc.) on the other hand, report rather higher
percentages, with it being between 18%[362]-23%[363] if the criteria is the presence of blond
hair, and of 47% if the criteria is skin color, with the later surveys having been conducted by
Mexico's government.[364][365][366][367][368]
While during the colonial era, most of the European migration into Mexico was Spanish, in
the 19th and 20th centuries a substantial number of non-Spanish Europeans immigrated to
the country,[369] with Europeans often being the most numerous ethnic group in colonial
Mexican cities.[370][371] Nowadays Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest
percentages of European populations, with the majority of the people not having native
admixture or being of predominantly European ancestry.[372]

Puebla de Zaragoza is the most populated city of Puebla

The Afro-Mexican population (1,381,853 individuals as of 2015)[373] is an ethnic group made

up of descendants of Colonial-era slaves and recent immigrants of sub-Saharan African
descent. Mexico had an active slave trade during the colonial period, and some 200,000
Africans were taken there, primarily in the 17th century. The creation of a national Mexican
identity, especially after the Mexican Revolution, emphasized Mexico's indigenous and
European past; it passively eliminated the African ancestors and contributions. Most of the
African-descended population was absorbed into the surrounding Mestizo (mixed
European/indigenous) and indigenous populations through unions among the groups.
Evidence of this long history of intermarriage with Mestizo and indigenous Mexicans is also
expressed in the fact that in the 2015 inter-census, 64.9% (896,829) of Afro-Mexicans also
identified as indigenous. It was also reported that 9.3% of Afro-Mexicans speak an
indigenous language.[374] The states with the highest self-report of Afro-Mexicans were
Guerrero (6.5% of the population), Oaxaca (4.95%) and Veracruz (3.28%).[375] Afro-Mexican
culture is strongest in the communities of the Costa Chica of Oaxaca and Costa Chica of
Guerrero.
During the early 20th century, a substantial number of Arabs (mostly Christians)[376] began
arriving from the crumbling Ottoman Empire. The largest group were the Lebanese and an
estimated 400,000 Mexicans have some Lebanese ancestry.[377] Smaller ethnic groups in
Mexico include South and East Asians, present since the colonial era. During the colonial
era Asians were termed Chino (regardless of ethnicity), and arrived as merchants, artisans
and slaves.[378] A study by Juan Esteban Rodríguez, a graduate student at the National
Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity, indicated that up to one third of people sampled
from Guerrero state had significantly more Asian ancestry than most Mexicans,
primarily Filipino or Indonesian.[379][380] Modern Asian immigration began in the late 19th
century, and at one point in the early 20th century the Chinese were the second largest
immigrant group.[381]
Official censuses
The first census in Mexico (then known as New Spain) that included an ethnic classification
was the 1793 census. Also known as the Revillagigedo census. Most of its original datasets
have reportedly been lost, thus most of what is known about it nowadays comes from
essays and field investigations made by academics who had access to the census data
and used it as reference for their works such as Prussian geographer Alexander von
Humboldt. According to said works Europeans ranged from 18% to 22% of New Spain's
population, Mestizos from 21% to 25%, Indians from 51% to 61% and Africans were
between 6,000 and 10,000. The total population ranged from 3,799,561 to 6,122,354. It is
concluded that the population growth trends of whites and mestizos were even, while the
percentage of the indigenous population decreased at a rate of 13%–17% per century
mostly due the later having higher mortality rates for living in remote locations and being in
constant war with the colonists.[382] Anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán goes beyond
said numbers and splits the Mestizo group into "Euromestizos", "Indomestizos" and
"Afromestizos" calculating their numbers at more than one million, 700,000 and 600,000
respectively.[383] Independent-era Mexico eliminated the legal basis of the Colonial caste
system which led to exclusion of racial classification in the censuses to come.
According to Mexico's second census ever that considered race, made right after the
Mexican revolution in 1921,[384] 59% of Mexico's population was Mestizo, 29% was
Indigenous and only 9% was European, with Mestizos being the most numerous ethno-
racial group in almost all the states.[384] For a long time this census' results were taken as
fact, with extraofficial international publications such as The World
Factbook and Encyclopædia Britannica using them as a reference to estimate Mexico's
racial composition up to this day.[385] In recent time nonetheless, Mexican academics have
subjected the census' results to scrutiny, claiming that such a drastic alteration in
demographic trends in regards to the 1793 census is not possible and cite, among other
statistics the relatively low frequency of marriages between people of different continental
ancestries in colonial and early independent Mexico.[386][361] Said authors claim that the
Mexican society went through a "more cultural than biological mestizaje process"
sponsored by the state in its efforts to unify the Mexican population which resulted in the
inflation of the percentage of the Mestizo Mexican group at the expense of the identity of
the other races that exist in Mexico.[387]
In recent times the Mexican government has decided to conduct new ethnic surveys and
censuses, also widening the criteria to classify the ethnicities who were already considered
such as the Indigenous Mexican one, which was previously reserved to people who lived in
indigenous communities or spoke an indigenous language. According to these recent
surveys, Indigenous peoples amount to 23% of Mexico's population (including people who
declared to be partially indigenous),[357] Afro-Mexicans are 2% of Mexico's population.
(including people who declared to be partially African)[357] and White or European
Mexicans[388][389] amount to 47% of Mexico's population (based on appearance rather than on
self-declared of ancestry).[364][365][366][390][367] Less numerous groups in Mexico such as Asians
and Middle Easterners are also accounted for. Out of all the ethnic groups that have
recently been surveyed, that of Mestizos is notably absent, which may be consequence of
the ethnic label's fluid and subjective definition, which complicates a precise calculation as
well the tendency that Mexicans have to identify people with "static" ethnic labels rather
than "fluid" ones.[352]

Emigration
Main article: Emigration from Mexico
In the early 1960s, around 600,000 Mexicans lived abroad, which increased sevenfold by
the 1990s to 4.4 million.[391] At the turn of the 21st century, this figure more than doubled to
9.5 million.[391] As of 2017, it is estimated that 12.9 million Mexicans live abroad, primarily in
the United States, which concentrates nearly 98% of the expatriate population.[391] The
majority of Mexicans have settled in states such as California, Texas and Illinois,
particularly around the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Dallas-
Fort Worth.[392] As a result of these major migration flows in recent decades, around 36
million U.S. residents, or 11.2% of the country's population, identified as being of full or
partial Mexican ancestry.[393] The remaining 2% of expatriates have settled
in Canada (86,000), primarily in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec,[394] followed
by Spain (49,000) and Germany (18,000), both European destinations represent almost
two-thirds of the Mexican population living in the continent.[391] As for Latin America, it is
estimated that 69,000 Mexicans live in the region, Guatemala (18,000) being the top
destination for expatriates, followed by Bolivia (10,000) and Panama (5,000).[391]

Languages
Main article: Languages of Mexico
Spanish is the de facto national language spoken by the vast majority of the population,
making Mexico the world's most populous Hispanophone country.[395][331] Mexican Spanish is
the set of varieties of the language spoken in the country, which differs from one region to
another in sound, structure, and vocabulary.[396] In general, Mexican Spanish does not make
any phonetic distinction among the letters  s  and  z, as well as c when preceding the
vowels e and i, as opposed to Peninsular Spanish. The letters b and v have the same
pronunciation as well.[396] Furthermore, the usage of vos, the second
person singular pronoun, found in several Latin American varieties, is replaced by tú;
whereas vosotros, the second person plural pronoun, fell out of use and was effectively
replaced by ustedes.[396] In written form, the Spanish Royal Academy serves as the primary
guideline for spelling, except for words of Amerindian origin that retain their original
phonology such as cenzontle instead of sinzontle and México  not  Méjico. Words of foreign
origin also maintain their original spelling such as whisky and film, as opposed
to güisqui and filme as the Royal Academy suggests.[396] The letter x is distinctly used in
Mexican Spanish, which may be pronounced as [ks] (as in oxígeno or taxi),
as [ʃ] particularly in Amerindian words (e.g. mixiote, Xola and uxmal) and as the voiceless
velar fricative [x] (such as Texas and Oaxaca).[396]
The federal government officially recognizes sixty-eight linguistic groups and 364 varieties
of indigenous languages.[397] It is estimated that around 8.3 million citizens speak these
languages,[398] with Nahuatl being the most widely spoken by more than 1.7 million, followed
by Yucatec Maya used daily by nearly 850,000 people, Tzeltal and Tzotzil, two variants of
the Mayan languages, are spoken by around half a million people each, primarily in the
southern state of Chiapas.[398] Mixtec and Zapotec, both with estimated 500,000 native
speakers each, are two other well-known language groups.[398] Since its creation in March
2003, the National Indigenous Languages Institute has been in charge of promoting and
protecting the use of the country's indigenous languages, through the General Law of
Indigenous Peoples' Linguistic Rights, which recognizes them de jure as "national
languages" with status equal to that of Spanish.[399] Notwithstanding, in practice, indigenous
peoples often face discrimination and are unable to have proper access to public services
such as education and healthcare, as well as the justice system, as Spanish is the
prominent language.[400]
Aside from indigenous languages, there are several minority languages spoken in Mexico
due to international migration such as Low German by the 80,000-strong Menonite
population, primarily settled in the northern states, fuelled by the tolerance of the federal
government towards this community by allowing them to set their own educational system
compatible with their customs and traditions.[401] The Chipilo dialect, a variance of
the Venetian language, is spoken in the town of Chipilo, located in the central state
of Puebla, by around 2,500 people, mainly descendants of Venetians that migrated to the
area in the late 19th century.[402] Furthermore, English is the most commonly taught foreign
 language in Mexico. It is estimated that nearly 24 million, or around a fifth of the population,
study the language through public schools, private institutions or self-access channels.
[403]
 However, a high level of English proficiency is limited to only 5% of the population.
[404]
 Moreover, French is the second most widely taught foreign language, as every year
between 200,000 and 250,000 Mexican students enroll in language courses.[405][406][407]

Urban areas
Main articles: Metropolitan areas of Mexico and List of cities in Mexico
The 20 largest cities in Mexico as of the 2010 census. Ecatepec and Nezahualcóyotl are
part of Metropolitan Mexico City; Juárez is northern border city, directly across from El
Paso, Texas; Tijuana is across from San Diego, California; and Mexicali is across
from Calexico, California.

 
 v

 t

 e
Largest cities or towns in Mexico
2010 Census
Rank Name State Pop. Rank Name
1 Mexico City Mexico City 8,851,080 11 Culiacán S
2 Ecatepec Mexico 1,655,015 12 Chihuahua C
3 Guadalajara Jalisco 1,495,182 13 Naucalpan M
4 Puebla Puebla 1,434,062 14 Mérida Y
5 Juárez Chihuahua 1,321,004 15 San Luis Potosí S
Mexico City 6 Tijuana Baja California 1,300,983 16 Aguascalientes A
7 León Guanajuato 1,238,962 17 Hermosillo S
8 Monterrey Nuevo León 1,168,709 18 Saltillo C
9 Zapopan Jalisco 1,142,483 19 Mexicali B

10 Nezahualcóyotl Mexico 1,104,585 20 Guadalupe N

Ecatepec

Religion
See also: Religion in Mexico
Religion in Mexico (2010 census)[1]
Roman Catholicism   83%
Other Christian   10%
Other Religion   0.2%
No religion   5%
Unspecified   3%

The 2010 census by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (National Institute of

Statistics and Geography) gave Roman Catholicism as the main religion, with 83% of the
population, while 10% (10,924,103) belong to other Christian denominations,
including Evangelicals (5%); Pentecostals (1.6%); other Protestant or Reformed
(0.7%); Jehovah's Witnesses (1.4%); Seventh-day Adventists (0.6%); and members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (0.3%).[1] 172,891 (or less than 0.2% of the
total) belonged to other, non-Christian religions; 4.7% declared having no religion; 2.7%
were unspecified.[1]
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico. This painting of her at the Basilica of Guadalupe is
among her most notable depictions; scientists still debate if it should be dated 1531, the year of the
first apparition,[408] or the 1550s.[409]

The 92,924,489[1] Catholics of Mexico constitute in absolute terms the second largest

Catholic community in the world, after Brazil's.[410] 47% percent of them attend church
services weekly.[411] The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, is
celebrated on December 12 and is regarded by many Mexicans as the most important
religious holiday of their country.[412] In spite of this, the Mexican State is officially lay
secularist since the separation between religious institutions and the political administration
of the nation was enshrined in the 1857, and was ratified in the current Constitution of
1917. Catholic priest and insurgent for independence, José María Morelos, called for
Roman Catholicism to be the exclusive faith in Mexico. A provision of the Plan of
Iguala of Agustín de Iturbide bringing about Mexican independence in 1821, also included
Catholic exclusivity in the religious sphere. The Constitution of 1824 declared that the
official religion of the Republic would be Catholic. Mexican liberals took power in the mid-
nineteenth-century, determined to curtail the power of the Roman Catholic Church, and
embedded anticlericalism in the Constitution of 1857, touching off the civil war, the War of
the Reform (1858-61), largely over religion. Conservatives were defeated on the battlefield
and then sought a foreign ally for their cause of religion, aligning with the French, who
placed Maximilian Hapsburg as monarch in the Second Mexican Empire (1862-67). The
Mexican republic defeated the Conservatives and executed Maximilian and two prominent
Mexican generals, definitively ending the Conservative attempt to reassert the power of the
Catholic Church. Liberal general and President Porfirio Díaz (r. 1876-80; 1880-1911) did
not provoke the Catholic Church, coming to a modus vivendi with it; but he did not remove
the anticlerical articles from the 1857 Constitution. From the late nineteenth
century Porfiriato, Protestants began to make inroads in Mexico. The Mexican
Revolution had a large number of Protestants participating in northern Mexico.
The Constitution of 1917 strengthened the anticlerical provisions that were carried over
from the 1857 Constitution.
The late 1920s was marked by a religious conflict known as the Cristero War (1926-29),
when former revolutionary general, President Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-28), began
stringently enforcing the anticlerical provisions of the Constitution of 1917, it provoked a
massive uprising in many parts of Mexico and resistance by the Roman Catholic Church.
The war ended with an agreement between the parties in conflict (Catholic Church and
State), by means of which the respective fields of action were defined. When
President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sought Mexico's inclusion in the North American Free
Trade Agreement, the constitution was changed in 1992 to eliminate the anticlerical articles
long opposed by the Catholic Church and other religious institutions; the anticlerical articles
were considered a violation of freedom of religion.[413][414] Mexico reestablished of diplomatic
relations with the Holy See, to which the Mexican State did not recognize as a political
entity.

Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan in Zapopan, Jalisco

According to the figures of INEGI, most Mexicans declare themselves Christian and

most Catholics (almost 93 million adherents according to the census of 2010).[1] The second
Christian group is the Jehovah's Witnesses, which totals more than 1 million adherents,
making the Mexican congregation of this Christian branch the second worldwide.[citation
needed]
 Thirdly find The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are
known as Mormons, 2010 census reported 314,932 members of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints,[1] though the church in 2009 claimed to have over one million
registered members;[415] followed by Church of the La Luz del Mundo, which has its center in
"La Hermosa Provincia", a colony of Guadalajara. The denominations Pentecostal also
have an important presence, especially in the cities of the border and in the indigenous
communities. In fact, Pentecostal churches together have more than 1.3 million adherents,
which in net numbers place them as the second Christian creed in Mexico. The situation
changes when the different Pentecostal denominations are considered as separate entities.
Other groups are growing, such as Iglesia apostólica de la Fe en Cristo
Jesús, Mennonites and Seventh-day Adventist Church. Migratory phenomena have led to
the spread of different aspects of Christianity, including branches Protestants, Eastern
Catholic Churches and Eastern Orthodox Church.
According to Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum (in texts edited by the National Autonomous
University of Mexico), it is remarkable the survival of magic-religious rituals of the
old indigenous groups, not only in the current indigenous people but in
the mestizos and whites that make up the Mexican rural and urban society. There is often
a syncretism between shamanism and the Catholic tradition. Another religion of popular
syncretism in Mexico (especially in recent years) is the Santería. This is mainly due to the
large number of Cubans who settled in the territory after the Cuban Revolution (mainly in
states such as Veracruz and Yucatán). Although Mexico was also a recipient of black
slaves from Africa in the 16th century, the apogee of these cults is relatively new.[416]
In certain regions, the profession of a creed other than the Catholic is seen as a threat to
community unity. It is argued that the Catholic religion is part of the ethnic identity, and that
the Protestants are not willing to participate in the traditional customs and practices
(the tequio or community work, participation in the festivities and similar issues). The
refusal of the Protestants is because their religious beliefs do not allow them to participate
in the cult of images. In extreme cases, tension between Catholics and Protestants has led
to the expulsion or even murder of Protestants in several villages. The best known cases
are those of San Juan Chamula,[417][418] in Chiapas, and San Nicolás, in Ixmiquilpan,
[419]
 Hidalgo.
Detail of the 1947 Rivera mural, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central. The mural
includes a depiction of La Catrina, a popular satirical character that has become associated with Día
de Muertos.

A similar argument was presented by a committee of anthropologists to request the

government of the Republic to expel the Summer Linguistic Institute (SIL), in the year 1979,
which was accused of promoting the division of indigenous peoples by translating
the Bible into vernacular languages and evangelizing in a Protestant creed that threatened
the integrity of popular cultures. The Mexican government paid attention to the call of the
anthropologists and canceled the agreement that had held with the SIL. Conflicts have also
occurred in other areas of social life. For example, given that Jehovah's Witnesses are
prohibited from surrendering honors to national symbols (something that is done every
Monday in Mexican public schools), children who have been educated in that religion were
expelled from public schools. This type of problem can only be solved with the intervention
of the National Commission of Human Rights, and not always with favorable results for
children.
The impact of the Catholic religion in Mexico has also caused a fusion of elements. Beyond
churches and religious denominations, a phenomenon persists in Mexico that some
anthropologists and sociologists call "popular religion", that is, religion as the practice and
understanding of the people. In Mexico, the main component is the Catholic religion, to
which elements of other beliefs have been added, already of pre-Hispanic, African or Asian
origin. In general, popular religiosity is viewed with bad eyes by institutionally structured
religions. One of the most exemplary cases of popular religiosity is the cult of Holy
Dead (Santa Muerte). The Catholic hierarchy insists on describing it as a satanic cult.
However, most of the people who profess this cult declare themselves to be Catholic
believers, and consider that there is no contradiction between the tributes they offer to
the Christ Child and the adoration of God. Other examples are the representations of
the Passion of Christ and the celebration of Day of the Dead, which take place within the
framework of the Catholic Christian imaginary, but under a very particular reinterpretation of
its protagonists.
The presence of Jews in Mexico dates back to 1521, when Hernán Cortés conquered the
Aztecs, accompanied by several Conversos.[420] According to the 2010 census, there are
67,476 Jews in Mexico.[1] Islam in Mexico is practiced mostly by Arab Mexicans. In the 2010
census 18,185 Mexicans reported belonging to an Eastern religion,[1] a category which
includes a tiny Buddhist population.

Women
Main article: Women in Mexico
Olga Sánchez Cordero, Minister of the Interior (Gobernacion) in President López Obrador's cabinet

Until the twentieth century, Mexico was an overwhelmingly rural country, with rural women's
status defined within the context of the family and local community. With urbanization
beginning in the sixteenth century, following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire,
cities have provided economic and social opportunities not possible within rural villages.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, women including middle class women began
working outside the home in offices and factories, and the gained access to education.[421]
[422]
 Women were granted suffrage in 1953.[423] In the 21st century, Mexican women are
prominent in politics, academia, journalism, literature, and visual arts among other fields. In
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's first cabinet following his 2018 election, he
appointed women in equal numbers as men.[424] However, a wave of feminism in 2020 has
criticized the president for his tone-deaf response to murders of women in Mexico.[425]
Mexico is among the countries that treat particular murders of women as femicide.[426] In
2014, Mexico had the 16th highest rate of homicides committed against women in the
world.[427]. The remains of the victims were frequently mutilated.[428] According to a 1997
study, domestic abuse in Mexican culture "is embedded in gender and marital relations
fostered in Mexican women's dependence on their spouses for subsistence and for self-
esteem, sustained by ideologies of romantic love, by family structure and residential
arrangements".[429] The perpetrators are often the boyfriend, father-in-law, ex-husbands or
husbands but only 1.6% of the murder cases led to an arrest and sentencing in 2015.
[428]
 After a particularly well-publicized gruesome femicide followed by that of a kidnapped
little girl, women began protesting more vociferously, falling on deaf ears, including those of
President López Obrador. This is the first new and major movement with which his
presidency has had to deal. On International Women's Day (8 March) in 2020, women
staged a massive demonstration in Mexico City with some 80,000 participants. On Monday,
9 March 2020, the second day of action was marked by the absence of women at work, in
class, shopping and other public activities. The "Day Without Women" (Día Sin Nosotras)
was reported in the international press along with the previous day's demonstrations.[430][431]

Culture
Main article: Culture of Mexico
Talavera pottery

Mexican culture reflects the complexity of the country's history through the blending of

indigenous cultures and the culture of Spain, imparted during Spain's 300-year colonial rule
of Mexico. Exogenous cultural elements have been incorporated into Mexican culture as
time has passed.
The Porfirian era (el Porfiriato), in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade
of the 20th 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, as accentuated during the Mexican Revolution,
cultural identity has had its foundation in the mestizaje, of which the indigenous (i.e.
Amerindian) element is the core. In light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican
people, José Vasconcelos in 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.[432] Other Mexican intellectuals grappled with the idea of Lo
Mexicano, which seeks "to discover the national ethos of Mexican culture."[433] Nobel
laureate Octavio Paz explores the notion of a Mexican national character in The Labyrinth
of Solitude.

Painting
Main article: Mexican art
Painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, including scenes of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Juan
Diego by Josefus De Ribera Argomanis. (1778)

Mexican Muralism. A cultural expression starting in the 1920s created by a group of Mexican painters
after the Mexican Revolution.[434]

Painting is one of the oldest arts in Mexico. Cave painting in Mexican territory is about 7500
years old and has been found in the caves of the Baja California Peninsula. Pre-Hispanic
Mexico is present in buildings and caves, in Aztec codices, in ceramics, in garments, etc. .;
examples of this are the Maya mural paintings of Bonampak, or those of Teotihuacán,
those of Cacaxtla and those of Monte Albán.
Mural painting with religious themes had an important flowering during the 16th century; the
same in religious constructions as in houses of lineage; such is the case of the convents
of Acolman, Actopan, Huejotzingo, Tecamachalco and Zinacantepec. These were also
manifested in illustrated manuscripts such as the 1576 Florentine codex overseen by
Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún. Most art in the colonial era was religious, but starting
in the late seventeenth century and most prominently in the eighteenth century, secular
portraits and casta painting appeared. Important painters of the late colonial period
were Juan Correa, Cristóbal de Villalpando and Miguel Cabrera.
Nineteenth-century painting had a marked romantic influence; landscapes and portraits
were the greatest expressions of this era. Hermenegildo Bustos is one of the most
appreciated painters of the historiography of Mexican art. Other painters include Santiago
Rebull, Félix Parra, Eugenio Landesio, and his noted pupil, the landscape artist José María
Velasco.[435]
Mexican painting of the 20th century has achieved world renown with figures such as David
Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Joaquín Clausell, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera,
a generation of idealists who marked the image of modern Mexico in the face of strong
social and economic criticism. The Oaxacan School quickly gained fame and prestige,
diffusion of ancestral and modern culture. Freedom of design is observed in relation to the
color and texture of the canvases and murals as a period of transition between the 20th
century and the 21st century. Federico Cantú Garza, Juan O'Gorman, and Rufino
Tamayo are also important artists. 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 by the Rockefellers the next year because of the inclusion
of a portrait of Russian communist leader Lenin.[436] Some of Rivera's murals are displayed
at the Mexican National Palace and the Palace of Fine Arts.
Some of the most outstanding painters in the late 20th century and early 21st
century: Francisco Toledo was a Mexican Zapotec painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. In a
career that spanned seven decades, Toledo produced thousands of works of art and
became widely regarded as one of Mexico's most important contemporary artists. Verónica
Ruiz de Velasco is a neofigurative painter and muralist. Both Verónica Ruiz de
Velasco and Francisco Toledo were students of Rufino Tamayo. Gilberto Aceves
Navarro is also considered an important contemporary artist.
Throughout history several prominent painters of different nationalities have expressed in
their works the face of Mexico. Among the most outstanding we can mention are Claudio
Linati, Daniel Thomas Egerton, Carl Nebel, Thomas Moran, and Leonora Carrington.

Many codices were made both during Pre-Hispanic and colonial eras. 1576 Florentine

Codex of Bernardino de Sahagún
 

From Spaniard and Indian woman, Mestiza. Miguel Cabrera, 1763

Sculpture
Main article: Sculpture in Mexico
Sculpture was an integral part of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican civilizations,
(Mayans, Olmecs, Toltecs, Mixtecs, Aztecs), and others, usually religious in nature. From
the Spanish conquest in 1521, civil and religious sculpture was created by indigenous
artists, with guidance from Spaniards, so some pre-Hispanic features are evident. Since the
17th century, white and mestizo sculptors have created works with a marked influence of
European classicism. After independence in 1821, sculpture was influenced by
Romanticism, which tended to break the strict norms and models of classicism, while it
pursued ideas influenced by realism and nationalism. Religious sculpture was reduced to a
sporadic imagery, while the secular sculpture continued in portraits and monumental art of
a civic nature. Between 1820 and 1880 the predominant themes were, successively:
religious images, biblical scenes, allegories to the symbols of the independence
insurgency, scenes and personages of pre-Hispanic history, and busts of the old
aristocracy, of the nascent bourgeoisie and commanders of the pre-revolution. During the
20th century, some important exponents of Mexican sculpture are Juan Soriano, José Luis
Cuevas, and Enrique Carbajal (also known as Sebastián).

Architecture
Main article: Architecture of Mexico
Teotihuacán, State of Mexico

Cathedral Basilica of Zacatecas

Satelite Towers by Luis Barragán and Mathias Goeritz

The presence of the humans in the Mexican territory has left important archaeological
findings of great importance for the explanation of the habitat of primitive man and
contemporary man. The Mesoamerican civilizations managed to have great stylistic
development and proportion on the human and urban scale, the form was evolving from
simplicity to aesthetic complexity; in the north of the country the adobe and stone
architecture is manifested, the multifamily housing as we can see in Casas Grandes; and
the troglodyte dwelling in caves of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Urbanism had a great
development in pre-Hispanic cultures, where we can see the magnitude of the cities
of Teotihuacán, Tollan-Xicocotitlan and México-Tenochtitlan, within the environmentalist
urbanism highlight the Mayan cities to be incorporated into the monumentality of its
buildings with the thickness of the jungle and complex networks of roads
called sakbés. Mesoamerican architecture is noted for its pyramids which are the largest
such structures outside of Ancient Egypt.
Spanish Colonial architecture is marked by the contrast between the simple, solid
construction demanded by the new environment and the Baroque ornamentation exported
from Spain. Mexico, as the center of New Spain has some of the most renowned buildings
built in this style. With the arrival of the Spaniards, architectural theories of the Greco-
Roman order with Arab influences were introduced. Due to the process of evangelization,
when the first monastic temples and monasteries were built, their own models were
projected, such as the mendicant monasteries, unique in their type in architecture. The
interaction between Spaniards and natives gave rise to artistic styles such as the so-
called tequitqui (from Nahuatl: worker). Years later the baroque and mannerism were
imposed in large cathedrals and civil buildings, while rural areas are built haciendas or
stately farms with Mozarabic tendencies.
In the 19th century the neoclassical movement arose as a response to the objectives of the
republican nation, one of its examples are the Hospicio Cabañas where the strict plastic of
the classical orders are represented in their architectural elements, new religious buildings
also arise, civilian and military that demonstrate the presence of neoclassicism.
Romanticists from a past seen through archeology show images of medieval Europe,
Islamic and pre-Hispanic Mexico in the form of architectural elements in the construction of
international exhibition pavilions looking for an identity typical of the national culture.
The art nouveau, and the art deco were styles introduced into the design of the Palacio de
Bellas Artes to mark the identity of the Mexican nation with Greek-Roman and pre-Hispanic
symbols.
Modern architecture in Mexico has an important development in the plasticity of form and
space, José Villagrán García develops a theory of form that sets the pattern of teaching in
many schools of architecture in the country within functionalism. The emergence of the
new Mexican architecture was born as a formal order of the policies of a nationalist state
that sought modernity and the differentiation of other nations. Juan O'Gorman was one of
the first environmental architects in Mexico, developing the "organic" theory, trying to
integrate the building with the landscape within the same approaches of Frank Lloyd
Wright.[437] In the search for a new architecture that does not resemble the styles of the past,
it achieves a joint manifestation with the mural painting and the landscaping.
The Jalisco School was a proposal of those socio-political movements that the country
demanded. Luis Barragán combined the shape of the space with forms of rural vernacular
architecture of Mexico and Mediterranean countries (Spain-Morocco), integrating an
impressive color that handles light and shade in different tones and opens a look at the
international minimalism. He won the 1980 Pritzker Prize, the highest award in architecture.
Mexican architecture is a cultural phenomenon born of the ideology of nationalist
governments of the 20th century, which was shaping the identity image by its colorful and
variegated ornamental elements inherited from ancestral cultures, classical and
monumental forms and, subsequently, the incorporation of modernism and cutting-edge
international trends.

Photography
Further information: Mexican art §  Photography in Mexico

David Alfaro Siqueiros by Héctor García Cobo at Lecumberri prison, Mexico City, 1960.

Mexico has been photographed since the nineteenth century, when the technology was first
developed. During the Porfiriato, Díaz realized the importance of photography in shaping
the understanding of his regime and its accomplishments. The government hired Guillermo
Kahlo (father of painter Frida Kahlo) to create photographic images of Mexico's new
industrial structures as well as its pre-Hispanic and colonial past. Photographer Hugo
Brehme specialized in images of "picturesque" Mexico, with images of Mexican places and
often rural people. During the Mexican Revolution, photographers chronicled the conflict,
usually in the aftermath of a battle, since large and heavy equipment did not permit action
shots. Agustín Victor Casasola is the most famous of photographer of the revolutionary era,
and he collected other photographers' images in the Casasola Archive; his vast collection
was purchased by the Mexican government and is now part of the government
photographic repository, the Fototeca.[438][439] After the revolution, Mexican photographers
created photographs as art images.[440] Among others, notable Mexican photographers
include Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Héctor García Cobo, and Graciela Iturbide.

Literature
Main articles: Mexican literature and Mesoamerican literature

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, "The Tenth Muse." Posthmous portrait Juan Cabrera

Mexican literature has its antecedents in the literature of the indigenous settlements of
Mesoamerica. Poetry had a rich cultural tradition in prehispanic Mexico, being divided into
two broad categories—secular and religious. Aztec poetry was sung, chanted, or spoken,
often to the accompanyment of a drum or a harp. While Tenochtitlan was the political
capital, Texcoco was the cultural center; the Texcocan language was considered the most
melodious and refined. The best well-known prehispanic poet is Nezahualcoyotl.[441]
Literature during the 16th century consisted largely of histories of Spanish conquests, and
most of the writers at this time were from Spain. Bernal Díaz del Castillo's True History of
the Conquest of Mexico is still widely read today. Spanish-born poet Bernardo de
Balbuena extolled the virtues of Mexico in Grandeza mexicana (Mexican grandeur)
(1604); Francisco de Terrazas was the first Mexican-born poet to attain renown.[442] Baroque
literature flourished in the 17th century; the most notable writers of this period were Juan
Ruiz de Alarcón and Juana Inés de la Cruz. Sor Juana was famous in her own time, called
the "Ten Muse."[442] The 18th and early 19th centuries gave us José Joaquín Fernández de
Lizardi, whose The Mangy Parrot ("El Periquillo Sarniento"), is said to be the first Latin
American novel. Several Jesuit humanists wrote at this time, and they were among the first
to call for independence from Spain.[442]
Other writers include Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Octavio Paz (Nobel Laureate), Carlos
Fuentes, Alfonso Reyes, Renato Leduc, Carlos Monsiváis, Elena Poniatowska, Mariano
Azuela (Los de abajo) and Juan Rulfo (Pedro Páramo). Bruno Traven wroteCanasta de
cuentos mexicano (A basket of Mexican tales) and El tesoro de la Sierra Madre (Treasure
of the Sierra Madre), Luis Spota, Jaime Sabines, Martín Luis Guzmán, Nellie Campobello,
(Cartucho), and Valeria Luiselli (Faces in the Crowd) are also noteworthy.[443]

Cinema
Main article: Cinema of Mexico

Actress Dolores del Río, Hollywood star in the 1920s and 1930s and prominent figure of the Golden
Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s

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 (1943) 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. The
famous Spanish-born director Luis Buñuel realized in Mexico between 1947 and 1965
some of his masterpieces like Los Olvidados (1949) and Viridiana (1961). 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), Y tu mamá
también (2001), and Pan's Labyrinth (2006) have been successful in creating universal
stories about contemporary subjects, and were internationally recognized, as in the
prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Mexican directors Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores
perros, Babel, Birdman, The Revenant), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Gravity), Guillermo del Toro, Carlos Carrera (The Crime of
Father Amaro), screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga and photographer Emmanuel Lubezki are
some of the most known present-day film makers. Numerous Mexican actors have
achieved recognition as Hollywood stars.[444]

Media
Further information: Mexican television and List of newspapers in Mexico
There are three major television companies in Mexico that own the primary networks and
broadcast covering all nation, Televisa, TV Azteca and Imagen Television. Televisa is also
the largest producer of Spanish-language content in the world and also the world's largest
Spanish-language media network.[445] Media company Grupo Imagen is another national
coverage television broadcaster in Mexico, that also owns the newspaper Excélsior. Grupo
Multimedios is another media conglomerate with Spanish-language broadcasting in
Mexico, Spain, and the United States. The telenovelas are very traditional in Mexico and
are translated to many languages and seen all over the world with renowned names
like Verónica Castro, Lucía Méndez and Thalía.

Music
Main article: Music of Mexico
Mariachi group playing at the 10th anniversary celebration of Wikipedia in Guadalajara. Mariachi is a
musical expression inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2011.

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
everyday 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.

Mexican cuisine
Main article: Mexican cuisine
See also: Mexican wine

The first chocolate version (liquid) was made by indigenous people in present-day Mexico, and was
exported from Mexico to Europe after the Spanish conquest.[446]

Mole sauce, which has dozens of varieties across the Republic, is seen as a symbol
of Mexicanidad[447] and is considered Mexico's national dish.[447]

In 2005, Mexico presented the candidature of its gastronomy for World Heritage Site of
UNESCO, being the first occasion in which a country had presented its gastronomic
tradition for this purpose.[448] However, in a first instance the result was negative, because
the committee did not place the proper emphasis on the importance of corn in Mexican
cuisine.[449] Finally, on November 16, 2010 Mexican gastronomy was recognized
as Intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.[450] In addition, Daniela Soto-Innes was named
the best female chef in the world by The World's Best 50 Restaurants in April 2019.[451]
The origin of the current Mexican cuisine is established during the Spanish colonial era, a
mixture of the foods of Spain with native indigenous ingredients.[452] Of foods originated in
Mexico is the corn, the pepper vegetables (together with Central and South
America), calabazas (together with the Americas), avocados, sweet potato (together with
Central and South America), the turkey (together with the Americas) and other fruits and
spices. Other Indigenous products are many beans. Similarly, some cooking techniques
used today are inherited from pre-Hispanic peoples, such as the nixtamalization of corn,
the cooking of food in ovens at ground level, grinding in molcajete and metate. With the
Spaniards came the pork, beef and chicken meats; peppercorn, sugar, milk and all its
derivatives, wheat and rice, citrus fruits and another constellation of ingredients that are
part of the daily diet of Mexicans.
From this meeting of millennia old two culinary traditions, were born pozole, mole
sauce, barbacoa and tamale is in its current forms, the chocolate, a large range
of breads, tacos, and the broad repertoire of Mexican street foods. Beverages such
as atole, champurrado, milk chocolate and aguas frescas were born; desserts such
as acitrón and the full range of crystallized sweets, rompope, cajeta, jericaya and the wide
repertoire of delights created in the convents of nuns in all parts of the country.

Sports
Main article: Sport in Mexico

The Estadio Azteca, regarded as one of the iconic football stadiums in the world, hosted the 1970
and 1986 World Cup finals

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 five-
team league had emerged with a strong British influence.[453][454] Mexico's top clubs
are América with 12 championships, Guadalajara with 11, and Toluca with 10.[455] Antonio
Carbajal was the first player to appear in five World Cups,[456] and Hugo Sánchez was
named best CONCACAF player of the 20th century by IFFHS.[457] Rafael Márquez is the
only Mexican to have won the Champions League.[458]

Game at the Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey. Baseball is most popular in the North (particularly
Northwest) and Southeast of Mexico.

The Mexican professional baseball league is named the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol. While
usually not as strong as the United States, the Caribbean countries and Japan, Mexico has
nonetheless achieved several international baseball titles.[459][460] Mexican teams have won
the Caribbean Series nine times. Mexico has had several players signed by Major League
teams, the most famous of them being Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.[458]
Mexico City hosted the XIX Olympic Games in 1968, making it the first Latin American city
to do so.[461] The country has also hosted the FIFA World Cup twice, in 1970 and 1986.[462]
In 2013, Mexico's basketball team won the Americas Basketball Championship and
qualified for the 2014 Basketball World Cup where it reached the playoffs. Because of
these achievements the country earned the hosting rights for the 2015 FIBA Americas
Championship.[463]
Bullfighting (Spanish: corrida de toros) came to Mexico 500 years ago with the arrival of the
Spanish. Despite efforts by animal rights activists to outlaw it, bullfighting remains a popular
sport in the country, and almost all large cities have bullrings. Plaza México in Mexico City,
which seats 45,000 people, is the largest bullring in the world.[464]

Mesoamerican ballgame and Charrería are sports that were originated in Prehispanic and Colonial

Mexico respectively, this last is considered a national sport.[465]

Mexico is an international power in professional boxing.[458] Thirteen Olympic boxing

medals have been won by Mexico.[466]
Professional wrestling (or Lucha libre in Spanish) is a major crowd draw with national
promotions such as AAA, CMLL and others.[458]

Coat of arms
Main article: Coat of arms of Mexico
The current coat of arms of Mexico (Spanish: Escudo Nacional de México, literally "national
shield of Mexico") has been an important symbol of politics and culture of Mexico for
centuries. It depicts a Mexican golden eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring
a rattlesnake.[467] The design is rooted in the legend that the Aztec people would know
where to build their city once they saw an eagle eating a snake on top of a lake.[467] To the
people of Tenochtitlan, this symbol had strong religious connotations, and to the
Europeans, it came to symbolize the triumph of good over evil (with the snake sometimes
representative of the serpent in the Garden of Eden).[citation needed]

Health
Main article: Healthcare in Mexico
Since the early 1990s, Mexico entered a transitional stage in the health of its population
and some indicators such as mortality patterns are identical to those found in highly
developed countries like Germany or Japan.[468] Mexico's medical infrastructure is highly
rated for the most part and is usually excellent in major cities,[469][470] but rural communities
still lack equipment for advanced medical procedures, forcing patients in those locations to
travel to the closest urban areas to get specialized medical care.[192] Social determinants of
health can be used to evaluate the state of health in Mexico.
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.[471]
Medical training is done mostly at public universities with much specializations done in
vocational or internship settings. 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.[469]

Education

Central Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Rectorate (left) and the
CETEC towers at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education

Main article: Education in Mexico

In 2004, the literacy rate was at 97%[472] for youth under the age of 14 and 91% for people
over 15,[473] placing Mexico at the 24th place in the world rank according to UNESCO.[474]
The National Autonomous University of Mexico ranks 103th in the QS World University
Rankings, making it the best university in Mexico, after it comes the Monterrey Institute of
Technology and Higher Education as the best private school in Mexico and 158th
worldwide in 2019.[475] Private business schools also stand out in international
rankings. IPADE and EGADE, the business schools of Universidad Panamericana and
of Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education respectively, were ranked in the
top 10 in a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal among recruiters outside the
United States.[476]