Mexico (United Mexican States)

CultureGramsTM World Edition 2017 Mexico (United Mexican States) widespread. Spaniards brought Christianity to the land and BACKGROUND ruled until the 19th century. Independence Land and Climate Mexico was one of the first countries to revolt against Spain. Mexico is a little smaller than Saudi Arabia, or about three Led by a priest named Miguel Hidalgo, the drive for times the size of Texas. It shares its northern border with the independence began in September 1810 and ended in 1821. A United States and its southern border with Guatemala and constitution was adopted in 1824 and a republic was Belize. Mexico is rich in natural resources, including oil, established. However, Antonio López de Santa Ana took natural gas, gold, silver, and coal. Temperatures and rainfall power in 1833 and ruled as a dictator. During his regime, vary with elevation and region. The north is generally dry and Mexico diminished in size as it lost territory comprising hot, and there is a large desert region. Humidity is higher in Texas and much of the current western United States. the southeast, where tropical jungles are found, and along Political Transitions and Revolution coastal areas. Rain falls mainly in the summer. The high and Santa Ana resigned in 1855, and after a series of interim cooler central plateau, where Mexico City is located, is presidents, Benito Juárez became president. In 1861, French bounded by two mountain ranges: the Sierra Madre Oriental troops invaded Mexico City and named the Austrian archduke and Sierra Madre Occidental. Mountains, including some Maximilian the emperor of Mexico. Forces under Juárez volcanoes, cover two-thirds of the country. overthrew Maximilian in 1867. Dictator Porfirio Díaz came to power in 1877 and was overthrown in 1910, when Mexico History entered a period of internal political unrest and violence. That Indigenous Peoples and Colonization period of social change, which ended in the 1920s and Mexico's history boasts a long line of advanced indigenous produced a new constitution, became known as the Mexican civilizations whose accomplishments rival those of the Revolution. Egyptians and early Europeans. They built huge empires, The Rise and Fall of the PRI were skilled artisans, and created accurate calendars. The Political unrest continued in the 1930s, but the situation Olmecs were among the first inhabitants of the area. Around stabilized in the 1940s. The Institutional Revolutionary Party 2000 BC, the Mayan Empire built incredible cities throughout (PRI) emerged as the national leader in 1929; it ruled the North and Central America, but the empire began to decline country as a single party and restricted political dissent for in the 10th century AD and eventually fell. The Aztecs were many years. Many changes did take place, but none the last great empire, conquered by the Spanish in 1521. challenged the PRI's domination. Elected in 1988 amid While the Spanish assimilated some aspects of the native allegations of fraud, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari cultures, the destruction of these civilizations was signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 1 TM CultureGrams Mexico with the United States and Canada. After his term he fled the president Donald Trump, who upon taking office ordered the country because of allegations of corruption. construction of a wall between the two countries and has Events in the mid-1990s helped weaken the PRI's power: long maintained that Mexico will pay for it. The Mexican The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) staged a government opposes the wall and refuses to pay for it. The 1994 rebellion in the state of Chiapas to protest government Trump administration also threatened a 20 percent tax on policy toward indigenous peoples and the implementation of Mexican imports to raise money for the wall, setting off fears NAFTA. Charges of corruption against high-level of a trade war. The diplomatic spat threatened to reverse over government officials and the 1994 assassination of a PRI two decades of improved diplomatic and economic relations presidential candidate shocked the ruling party. The PRI between the neighboring countries. replacement candidate took office in 1994 but immediately •Crackdown on corruption: In April 2017, former Mexican encountered an economic and currency crisis. In 1997, the governors Javier Duarte of Veracruz and Tomás Yarrington PRI lost control of the lower house in Congress for the first of Tamaulipas were arrested on charges of political time since the party's founding. corruption, which is widespread in Mexico. According to the In July 2000, Vicente Fox of the National Action Party activist group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, 42 (PAN) was elected president, ending more than 70 years of governors have been suspected of corruption since 2000, but PRI control of the government. In July 2006, Felipe Calderón only 17 have been investigated. In July 2016, Mexico enacted (of the PAN) was declared the winner of presidential the National Anti-Corruption System to strengthen elections marked by street protests and legal battles. He anticorruption laws and enforcement; however, rooting out defeated opposing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador corruption continues to be a major challenge. by the smallest electoral margin in Mexican history. • Obesity: In April 2017, a United Nations report found that The Drug War over two-thirds of all Mexicans are overweight or obese, Calderón cracked down on the drug trade while attempting to which could cost Mexico an estimated US$13 billion a year. curb rising drug-related violence. His strategy was to rely on Increased consumption of processed foods, along with the military, rather than Mexico’s underpaid and highly inactive lifestyles, has caused the number of Mexicans corrupt police force, to increase security and target cartel categorized as overweight or obese to triple over the last four leaders. During Calderón’s six-year term, the military arrested decades. Heart disease and type 2 diabetes, both of which are two-thirds of the country’s most-wanted drug kingpins. chronic health conditions linked to obesity, are the two However, these arrests often created power vacuums that bred leading causes of death in Mexico. violence, as those in the cartels’ middle ranks vied for leadership positions and organizations splintered into rival groups. In all, more than 60,000 people were killed in THE PEOPLE drug-related violence between 2006 and 2013 and tens of thousands disappeared. Politicians and journalists have often Population been targeted. Toward the end of Calderón’s time in office, Roughly 62 percent of Mexico's population is of mixed vigilante groups began emerging in an attempt to provide the Spanish and indigenous heritage. Roughly 28 percent belongs security for citizens that the government could not. to various indigenous groups. Most of these are descendants When PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto became president of the Mayans and Aztecs. About 10 percent is of European in 2013, he shifted the focus of Mexico’s war on drugs away ancestry. Most Mexicans tend to identify with their from the top-down strategies of the past toward a greater indigenous and Spanish heritage. emphasis on social programs meant to prevent young people The majority of the population lives in urban areas. from joining criminal organizations, which is part of Peña Mexico City, the capital, is one of the largest cities in the Nieto’s larger goal to develop the economy and attract foreign world; its metropolitan area has a population of almost 21 investment. The drug trade remains an enormous problem, million. Guadalajara and Monterrey are also major population however. There are several major cartels, the largest of which centers. Though many Mexicans continue to immigrate to the are the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel, which employ hundreds United States in search of work and an increased standard of of thousands of people and continue to be largely responsible living, the cooling of the U.S. economy since 2008 and for Mexico's high rate of violence. Mexico's corrupt law improving opportunities in Mexico have slowed migration enforcement system also poses a major challenge. rates and caused a growing number of Mexicans to return Hopes for the Future home. Despite the violence that plagues its society, Mexico has cause for hope thanks to a large and growing middle class, an Language open and increasingly competitive economy, and Spanish is the official language. The Spanish spoken in strengthened democratic institutions. President Peña Nieto Mexico is somewhat unique in pronunciation and idiom uses. aims to capitalize on these strengths as he pushes for reforms One characteristic is the abundant use of diminutives to in politics, education, telecommunications, and the economy. express small size, endearment, or politeness: chico (small) Recent Events and Trends becomes chiquito,abuelo (grandfather) becomes abuelito, • Relations with the United States: In January 2017, in a etc. As many as one hundred indigenous languages, including sign of worsening relations between the United States and Tzotzil and Tzeltal (Mayan dialects), Nahuatl (Aztec), Otomi, Mexico, President Peña Nieto cancelled a meeting with U.S. Zapotec, and Mixtec, are still spoken in parts of Mexico. 2 TM CultureGrams Mexico Most people who speak an indigenous language also speak bottom. some Spanish. Indigenous languages and Spanish are often Mexicans may call people from the United States used jointly in rural schools that serve large indigenous americanosor norteamericanos but may sometimes remind populations, such as those located in the states of Chiapas, U.S. citizens that Mexico is also part of North America. The Guerrero, and Oaxaca. English is taught at secondary schools, term for English speakers from the United States is gringo, a but competence in English is rare in most areas. Spanish word meaning foreigner. Machismo, the ideal of a strong, forceful man, is still Religion prevalent.

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