The United States of Mexico 379

THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO 379 CHAPTER XII THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO Among all the great lands of the New World, upon which Spain set the seal of her language and institutions, none stands out more markedly, or with a more intensive indi- viduality, than Mexico. The name of Mexico carries with it interesting traditions of history and romance, and certain attributes of topographical environment no less chequered and attractive ; characteristics such as even the modern age seems as yet incapable of dispersing or overcoming. Whilst the rest of the North American continent, under the hand of the prosaic Anglo-Saxon, keeps its great shops and minds its factories and fields, and is overrun by a democratic people, buying, selling, and creating, the picturesque and quixotic dweller of New Spain fights for his ideals, and asserts the strong and turbulent individualism of his race, whose mastership commerce has not yet been able to subdue. Mexico is the dividing line between the two civilisations of America, the Anglo-American and the Latin American, and forms a frontier of language, institutions, and ideals. Between these two peoples a small river—the Rio Grande del Norte—dry in summer, is the only boundary; and against it the two civilisations roll together but scarcely mingle. The people of the United States and Canada, and those of Latin America, are as greatly separated in their, character and social life as are England and France. The one is prosiac, commercial, solid, mediocre ; the other idealistic, autocratic, ephemeral, sentimental; they are, to a certain extent, a foil to each other: neither can dominate the other, but both can teach; and yet where mingling does take place it is the Latin race whose impress is the 380 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA stronger, and not the Saxon, as might have been supposed. If the United States and its commercial forces teach their southern neighbours the mechanical arts, these in return tend to force upon the northerners the amenities of commercial and social intercourse, whenever they come into contact. The conversion of the brusque American business man who goes from New York or Chicago to Mexico, to the suavity of the man of the Latin race is one of the most marked social phenomena of the New World. Perhaps in no part of the world are racial frontiers more strongly defined than on the Mexican and United States border; but it is to be recollected that the Anglo-American is, in a sense, an exotic or alien, and the Mexican largely autochthonous or indigenous. The republic of Mexico, and the lesser republics grouped together and known as Central America, described in the following chapter, enjoy a peculiarly advantageous geographical situation, facing upon both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; and the latter group forms the geographical link between the two American continents. To the west lies Asia; to the east Europe. The Central American group includes the British colony of Honduras, and forms the western side of the American Mediterranean, which now has its outlet to the Pacific in the Panama canal. Mexico and Central America together cover a very extensive territory: measured upon the Pacific coast, from the boundary of the United States to the mainland of South America below the isthmus of Panama and Darien, this territory is roughly 3,000 miles long, and the total area covered 15 975,000 square miles, approximately. The area of the republic of Mexico alone is 767,000 square miles; it is as large as Great Britain, Germany, France, and Austria-Hungary combined. The total population of the country is estimated at 17,000,000 inhabitants, of which 45 per cent. are mestizos, 40 per cent. Indians, and 15 per cent, are classed as white. As in the case of the other South American republics, the proportion of people of pure white descent cannot be exactly stated, and is subject to exaggeration : but the mestizos tend to increase THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO 3$' and the Indians and whites to be absorbed in the formation of the typical Mexican race, the basis of the normal population, and the nationality understood as "Mexican," which is that of the mixed race. The census of 'goo included 57,000 foreigners, of which 16,000 were Spaniards, 15,000 Americans, and from 4,000 to z,000 French, English, Germans, Chinese, and Italians. To-day conditions differ. The surface of Mexico is largely composed of an immense plateau, whose edges on the east and west appear as forming mountain chains when viewed from the coast, either on the Atlantic or Pacific side. This plateau may be regarded as a vast inclined plane sloping upwards from north to south, from an elevation of about 4,000 feet above sea level on the United States border to 8,000 feet at the valley of Mexico. The general form of the country, neglecting the portion south of the Tehuantepec isthmus, is that of a cornucopia fl the mountains running approximately parallel with the coast and ap- proaching each other towards the south, and are known as the Eastern and Western Sierra Madre. Below the Great Plateau of Mexico lie the lowlands of the Mexican gulf on the one side, and of the Pacific littoral on the other. South of the isthmus of Tehuantepec lies the singular peninsula of Yucatan, a flat limestone plain, forest-covered and the state of Chiapas, bordering upon Guatemala and the neighbouring Central American republics. The remaining topographical division of Mexico is the long, narrow peninsula of Lower California, paralleling the Pacific coast in the north. Mexico is crossed about midway by the tropic of Cancer, and stretching over seventeen parallels of latitude —a territory upon its greatest axis more than 2,000 miles long—is subject to variations of tropical and sub-tropical conditions of climate. The great elevation of the more southerly part of the plateau endows it with a comparatively cool climate, the mornings and evenings in the city of Mexico, in latitude 19° N , being frequently very cool. There is a very mai Iced diurnal range of temperature on the Mexican plateau, due to the altitude, the heat of the mid-day sun being replaced at 382 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA night by the cold, rarefied air; and an Arctic touch is experienced in the mountains, some few of whose peaks pass the perpetual snow line, but apart from this condition the heat upon the plateau is considerable, and the lowlands are often hot and humid. In Mexico, as in Central America and the Andean countries of South America, the conditions of climate and temperature are governed by altitude; and the Spaniards on first arriving in this part of the New World distinguished three zones of territory, which they named Tierra Caliente, or hot lands, Tierra Templada, or temperate lands, and Tierra Fria, or cold lands. The first-named lies upon the coasts on both sides of the country; the second embraces the slopes of the great tableland and a portion of the plateau itself; and the third the higher part of the uplands and the mountain ridges which bound or intersect it. All these climatic changes may be experienced within a day's journey in ascending from the coast by the railway from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, or that from Tampico. Coffee groves and banana plantations mark the first of the climatic zones, giving place to oak, pine, and wheat as typical products of the higher zone. Mexico, as regards certain of its attributes, possesses a foremost place among the Latin American nations. It is true that the area of the republic is much less than that of Brazil and Argentina, and that the republic possesses no commercial area of such importance as that embodied by Buenos Ayres and the River Plate, with its vast output of food products, and more modem conditions of life; nor yet any great export trade such as the coffee of Brazil or the nitrate of Chile afford to those countries. But on the other hand, the civilisation of Mexico is an older one, more firmly established and more widely disseminated. The state capitals are more or less populous centres, most of them cities of importance, and well distributed throughout the republic. The city of Mexico has a population of 400,000 people, and following upon the capital are such important cities as Guadalajara on the Pacific slope, with 125,000 people; Puebla on the Mexican gulf slope, with ioo,000; Monterey in the north-east, with THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO 383 64,000 ; San Luis Potosi with 62,000; Merida, the capital of Yucatan, with 45,000; Guanajuato, the famous old mining centre, with 42,000; Pachuca, another famous mining town, and Morelia, each with about 38,000; Oaxaca, in the south, and Aguascalientes, in the middle region, each with about 36,000; Queretaro, the deathplace of Maximilian; Zacatecas, a famous and handsome mining centre, with Durango and Chihuahua, in the order named, with populations ranging from 34,000 to i,000; Toluca, Saltillo, Colima, Jalapa, ranging from 27,000 to 21,000; with eight other state capitals of more than io,000 inhabitants each. Most of the large cities are situated upon the great plateau or its slopes, but good-sized towns are found in the tropic lowlands. The climate of these cities, with small exception, is healthy and in many cases the environment is invigorating and delightful, often hot at mid-day, with cool early mornings and evenings. Nearly all the Mexican towns are on the typical Spanish-colonial town-plan of cross streets, geomet- rically laid out with central plaza and characteristic style of domestic and church architecture.

Load more