Viva+Mexico+Page+2

media type="custom" key="12303270"Viva Mexico 2

=**Your Quick Reference to Encyclopedia Britanica's Popular Topics on Mexico!**= http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/379167/Mexico/27408/Cultural-life

Mexico is a "country of [|North America] and the **third** **largest country** in [|Latin America], after [|Brazil] and [|Argentina]. Sharing a common border throughout its northern extent with the [|United States], Mexico is bounded to the west and south by the [|Pacific Ocean], to the east by the [|Gulf of Mexico] and the [|Caribbean Sea], and to the southeast by [|Guatemala] and [|Belize]. Mexico also administers such islands and archipelagoes as the Tres Marías in the Pacific and [|Cozumel] and Mujeres off the coast of the [|Yucatán Peninsula]. Including these insular territories, the roughly triangular country covers an area about three times the size of Texas. While it is more than 1,850 miles (3,000 km) across from northwest to southeast, its width varies from less than 135 miles (217 km) at the [|Isthmus of Tehuantepec] to more than 1,200 miles (1,900 km) in the north."

International Relations
The country has "stronger ties with the [|United States] and [|Canada] through the **[|North American Free Trade Agreement] (NAFTA)."**

Climate
Because of its vast size and topographic diversity, Mexico has a wide array of climatic conditions. More than half of the country lies south of the [|Tropic of Cancer]. In those areas, tropical [|maritime air masses] from the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, are attracted by the relatively low pressures that occur over land. The maritime air masses are the main sources of precipitation, which is heaviest from May through August. Tropical hurricanes, spawned in oceans on both sides of the country, are common in the coastal lowland areas from August through October. Northern Mexico is dominated by the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, and arid and semiarid conditions predominate over much of the Mexican Plateau.

Languages
Spanish, which is the official national language and the language of instruction in schools is spoken by the vast majority of the population. Fewer than one-tenth of American Indians speak an indigenous language. There are, however, more than 50 indigenous languages spoken by more than 100,000 people, including Maya in the Yucatán; [|Huastec] in northern Veracruz; Nahua, Tarascan, [|Totonac], [|Otomí], and Mazahua mainly on the Mesa Central; [|Zapotec], [|Mixtec], and [|Mazatec] in Oaxaca; and [|Tzeltal] and [|Tzotzil] in Chiapas. Many public and private schools offer instruction in English as a second language.

Religion
There is no official religion in Mexico, as the constitution guarantees separation of [|church and state]. However, more than nine-tenths of the population are at least nominally affiliated with [|Roman Catholicism]. The [|Basilica of Guadalupe], the shrine of [|Our Lady of Guadalupe], Mexico’s [|patron saint], is located in Mexico City and is the site of annual pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands of people, many of them peasants. Throughout Mexico are thousands of Catholic churches, convents, pilgrimage sites, and shrines. Protestants account for a tiny but rapidly growing segment of the population, and their missionaries have been especially successful in converting the urban poor. A significant proportion of indigenous peoples practice syncretic religions—that is, they retain traditional [|religious beliefs] and practices in addition to adhering to Roman Catholicism. This syncretism is particularly visible in many village fiestas where ancestors, mountain spirits, and other spiritual forces may be honoured alongside Catholic saints. Moreover, the identities of many saints and spirits have been blended together since the early colonial period. At times, however, belief systems still come into conflict. Among the Huichol (Wirraritari) and other Indian groups, for example, a hallucinogenic cactus fruit called [|peyote] is employed in spiritual ceremonies; however, governmental authorities consider peyote to be an illegal narcotic.

**Holidays and festivals**
Most of Mexico’s holidays are associated with Christian [|feast days], including the pre-Lenten Carnaval, [|Easter], and the [|Christmas] holidays ([|Las Posadas]—lasting from December 16 to Christmas Eve, December 24), as well as festivals for [|patron saints]. December 12 is the [|fiesta] of the country’s patron saint, [|Our Lady of Guadalupe]. For several weeks in January, the city of [|Morelia] celebrates its fiesta of the [|Immaculate Conception], and on January 17 pets and livestock in many areas are festooned with flowers and ribbons for the fiesta of [|San Antonio] Abad. Around the world Mexico is known for its celebration of the [|Day of the Dead] (Día de los Muertos) on November 1, which is also known as [|All Saints’ Day]. [|Halloween] (October 31) and [|All Souls’ Day] (November 2) are also locally important. During this period and in the preceding weeks, families celebrate the spirits of departed loved ones in various ways, including erecting //ofrendas// (small altars) in their houses, decorating tombs, and eating skull-shaped candies and sweet breads. It is both a celebration of one’s ancestors, with whom many believe they can communicate during these events, and an acceptance of death as natural and inevitable rather than as something to be feared. [|Columbus Day] (October 12) is celebrated as the Día de la Raza (“Race Day”) in recognition of the mixed indigenous and European heritage of Mexico—the mestizo character of its population—and because many Mexicans object to paying homage to the controversial explorer and conqueror [|Christopher Columbus]. Labour Day (May 1) in Mexico is part of an international holiday. The more widely celebrated patriotic events are Independence Day (September 16) and [|Cinco de Mayo] (May 5), which commemorates a victory over French invaders in 1862. At 11 pm on the evening before Independence Day, crowds gather in plazas throughout the country to join political leaders in the clamorous //grito// (battle cry of independence), a reenactment of the[| Grito de Dolores] uttered by [|Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla], parish priest of Dolores, in 1810.

The arts
Mexican writers and artists have received worldwide acclaim for their creativity and originality. Within their work both a folk and a classical tradition have been strong. he country’s best-known writers have gained their reputations by dealing with questions of universal significance, as did Samuel Ramos, whose philosophical speculations on humanity and culture in Mexico influenced post-1945 writers in several genres. The prolific critic and cultural analyst [|Octavio Paz] is considered by many to be the foremost poet of [|Latin America]. The novels of [|Carlos Fuentes] are honoured throughout the world, and [|Juan José Arreola]’s fantasies are widely admired. Among dramatists, Rodolfo Usigli, Luisa Josefina Hernández, and Emilio Carballido have made important contributions. Perhaps the most widely recognized Mexican art form is the [|mural], which is heavily influenced by the extant art and architecture of the Aztec, Maya, and other pre-Columbian civilizations. The [|Mexican Muralist school] counted among its members the most powerful figures of the genre. The murals created by [|Diego Rivera], [|José Clemente Orozco], and [|David Alfaro Siqueiros], depicting aspects of the [|Mexican Revolution], the country’s modernization, and [|class struggle], have become legendary. Orozco is also perhaps the most popular of Mexico’s folk artists. His animated plaster-of-paris skeleton characters are both satirical and lifelike. Other notable artists include Nicolás Enríquez, [|Rufino Tamayo], [|Juan Soriano], and [|Frida Kahlo].

Conquest of Mexico
[|Diego Velázquez], governor of [|Cuba], laid the foundation for the conquest of Mexico. In 1517 and 1518 Velázquez sent out expeditions headed by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and [|Juan de Grijalba] that explored the coasts of Yucatán and the [|Gulf of Mexico]. Velázquez commissioned [|Hernán Cortés] to outfit an expedition to investigate their tales of great wealth in the area. Spending his own fortune and a goodly portion of Velázquez’s, Cortés left Havana in November 1518, following a break in relations with Velázquez. Cortés landed in Mexico and then freed himself from Velázquez’s overlordship by founding the city of [|Veracruz] and establishing a town council (//cabildo//) that in turn empowered him to conquer Mexico in the name of [|Charles I] of [|Spain]. Meanwhile, rumours of ships as large as houses reached Tenochtitlán, and to them were added prophecies of the imminent return of the deity Quetzalcóatl. Divining that Mexico was a fabulously wealthy realm held together by sheer force and that the Aztec ruler Montezuma held him in superstitious awe, Cortés pushed into central Mexico with only about 500 European soldiers. Although the Aztecs soon learned that the Spaniards were not gods—and that the invaders and their horses could be decapitated in battle—their arrival spelled disaster for them and their god Huitzilopochtli. By Aug. 13, 1521, Cortés had taken the capital city of Tenochtitlán, the climax of a brutal two-year campaign. His success was the result of a combination of factors: Montezuma’s initial suspicion that Cortés was a returning god; Cortés’s abilities as a leader and diplomat; European arms—crossbows, muskets, steel swords, and [|body armour]—and horses and dogs (which were all trained for battle); deadly European diseases against which the [|indigenous Americans] had no immunity; and the aid of Cortés’s interpreter-mistress, [|Marina] (La Malinche). Another, especially important factor in the Spaniards’ success was the hatred of conquered tribes for the Aztec overlords and Cortés’s ability to attract these tribes as allies, meaning that thousands of Indian warriors joined the Spanish invasion. Without them the Spanish conquest would not have succeeded, at least not at that time. Moreover, Cortés’s capture of Montezuma threw the Aztecs into disarray, at least until the king’s violent death. Despite a heroic defense and the efforts of the last two Aztec kings, [|Cuitláhuac] and [|Cuauhtémoc], Tenochtitlán was besieged and utterly destroyed. Over the island-city’s still-smoldering ruins, the Spaniards began building a new capital with the erection of a Christian cathedral on the stones of Huitzilopochtli’s temple. (//See also// [|Aztec]; [|history of Latin America: Early Latin America].)