Mexico is a country rich in culture, tradition and history. Mexico constitutes of 31 states and one federal district. Its current population is 122. 3 million, making it the largest Spanish peaking country in the world. Also, Mexico is the third largest county in Latin America along with Brazil and Argentina. The main boarders are the United States on the north, on the south and west the Pacific Ocean, by the southeast Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea.
Early history of Mexico began some way back around 900 B.C. The first Mexico known society were called The Olmecs, they settled in Gulf Coast close to what is now Veracruz. They are remembered for carving native stones and making sculptures with huge heads.
Fast forward, The Mayans are “widely considered to be pre-Columbian America’s most brilliant civilization, thrived between approximately 250 and 900 A.D.” They created the writing system and the calendar. They built cities and pyramids. Religious was a big part in Mayas life, they carve in the altar the most important dates.
Another civilization appeared around 10th century. They were The Toltec civilization that settle in central Mexico. There they built a city called Tula. Its population was as estimated of 30,000 to 40, 000 people. It is said that they are a big influence to Mexico’s cultural history in many aspect, one of them is that they took religious very seriously. They made “human sacrifices to appease the gods.”
The third most known early civilization were the Aztecs. They were the “great native people” that took over from the east to west. But they did it by partnering with Mayas and Toltec, together they become so powerful and conquered small cultures. They were the Aztecs Empire. By 1427 they ruled about 5 million people and the territories from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf Coast was theirs. They had their own army, schools and government.
However, in 1519 was when the Aztecs and the entire Mexico history changed forever with the arrival of Hernan Cortes. Cartes arrived in Veracruz from Spain. The leader of the Aztec empire invited him not knowing what Cortes intentions were. There Cortes influenced a lot of leaders within the Aztec empire. In May 1521 Cortes and his followers attracted the Aztecs and conquered them. Cortes maned the colonized island The New Spain. It said that by the 1574 Spain controlled most of the Aztecs and enslaved most of the indigenous populations. They killed an estimated of 24 million people between 1521 and 1605 both in the battle field and the diseases they brought with them.
As many events happened, the Spaniards colonist who have been born in Mexico and the ones who came from Spain started to have conflicts. They wanted equal power, most of all equally political power. Then, there was a revolution led by Miguel Hidalgo that eventually led Mexico to become independent from Spain in 1821.
Mexico today, the current president is Enrique Peña Nieto. The president is chosen by the people and he or she can only serve one term of six years, there is no reelection for second term.
Mexico’s economy depends mostly on exports. Its currency is the Mexico pesos. Mexico is the 12th largest exporters in the world. In 1994 they signed an agreement with United States and Canada what is called North America Free Trade Agreement. (NAFTA) The other big trade partners are China, Japan, European Union, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. These trades make makes Mexico’s economy strong.
Furthermore, tourism is the major contributor to Mexico economy. They most popular places for tourist are: Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mazatlán, Cancún and Puerto Escondido.
Mexico has about 132 popular newspapers that circulates around the county. The ten top read by all Mexicans and the ones that cover all the local and the international issues and events are: Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, Las Cruces Sun-News, The Gallup Independent, The Daily Times, Roswell Daily Record, Silver City Daily Press & Independent, Hobbs News-Sun, Alamogordo Daily News and Carlsbad Current-Argus. All of these newspapers have been serving the large Mexican population for years. In addition, because of the internet they can reach to more people not only Mexican but all Spanish speakers’ countries. Also, TV and radio programs play an important role in bringing news to where they are. They can be compared to Fox news, CNN and National Public Radio or the Public Radio International.
Mexicans who live in U.S listen to the radio or watch the news from Mexico from the Mexican channels and the Spanish channel such as El Telemudo, El Primer Impacto. Howeverl, they can also buy newspapers from Mexico on most newsstands. The most popular are El Conquistador, Mexico Independent Mirror, La Voz Hispana along with Nueva York and El Diario.
The neighborhoods where most Mexican population resides is said to be in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, Crown Heights and Bushwick, Queens’ Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Corona and Kew Gardens, Manhattan’s Spanish Harlem.