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New Mexico Military Institute NMMI ("nimmy") |
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Duty, Honor, Achievement
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101 West College Blvd. Roswell, New Mexico, Chaves County, 88201 United States |
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Religious affiliation(s) | Non-Denominational |
Founded | 1891 |
Founder | Joseph C. Lea, Robert S. Goss |
Dean | BG Douglas Murray USAF (RET) |
MSG George Brick USMC (RET) | |
Chaplain | LTC Musgrave USAR (RET) |
Grades | 9-14 |
Gender | Co-educational |
Age range | 13-23 |
Average class size | 15 |
Fight song | N M M I, with our colours flying high! We're all in step, and full of pep, as we go marching by. (RAH RAH RAH!) Cheers for the team, on the field or in the gym! The old bronco is rarin' to go, and the in-sti-tute is out to win! |
Mascot | Bronco (College) Colt (Highschool) |
Nickname | The Old Post |
Accreditation(s) | Higher Learning Commission of North Central Association of Colleges and Schools |
Tuition | $13,000/year (out-of-state) $8,700/year (in-state) |
New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) is a state-supported educational institution located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. It is sometimes referred to as the "West Point of the West", and it is the only state-supported military college located in the western United States. NMMI includes a college preparatory four-year high school and a two-year junior college. Founded in 1891 by Joseph C. Lea, who selected Col. Robert S. Goss as the Superintendent for the Goss Military Institute (which was later renamed NMMI), its architecture and organization is inspired by Virginia Military Institute, and is one of six Military Junior Colleges in the United States.
Students who attend NMMI are referred to as 'Cadets' and are classified as either 'Old Cadets' or 'New Cadets'. It typically has about 980 cadets, 95 percent of whom go on to four-year universities, The school's Army ROTC program commissions approximately 35 cadets per year as US Army 2nd Lieutenants through the US Army two-year Early Commissioning Program (ECP), and about 100 cadets each year go to one of the five major United States Service academies.[1] Many NMMI graduates are currently serving as senior-level officers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
NMMI first admitted women as cadets in 1977 due to a court decision, although some women did attend as non-cadet day students in the early years of the school. It is the only state-supported co-educational college preparatory military boarding high school (grades 9–12) and junior college in the United States and is renowned for its quality leadership programs for female cadets.[1]
The school's motto is "Duty, Honor, and Achievement". The school's teams are the Broncos (junior college) and the Colts (high school) and the school is known for the mandatory attendance of its cadets at football games. The school's colors are scarlet and black.
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New Mexico Military Institute provides a unique environment, where 6th Class (9th Grade High School Equivalent) through 1st Class (college sophomore) cadets are all treated on the basis of earned merit upon completion of their introductory period as a Recruit At Training (RAT) and subsequent year as a New Cadet. The military school structure is provided through all cadets living in the Troop Barracks, with all classes, meals, and military and physical training occurring "On Post" (on campus) in a controlled environment. RATs and Cadre (cadets who train new RATs) perform PT early in the morning followed by a meal, and training in D&C (Drill and Ceremony) and other such activities associated with the military. After the 21/28 RAT days cadets earn even more privileges. After 42 days RATs become New Cadets and have almost full access to the campus. NMMI has a notable status system that was created in 1927. There are three statuses, New Cadet, Yearling, and Old Cadet. A high school cadet who has been at NMMI for a year "turns" into a yearling at the end of the year. Junior College members "turn" into yearlings after a semester. As for becoming an old cadet the system is the same, one year for high school and a semester for college, after their yearling terms, to become an Old Cadet. These statuses determine a cadet's privileges and authority and is one of the greatest social factors of the institute. There are certain rules of interaction that apply, a new cadet cannot socialize with a yearling and or old cadet in a non-professional manner or they may receive a "stick" for fraternization. A stick is the primary mode of punishment at NMMI. When given a stick, a certain amount of "tours" are given and also a certain amount of demerits. A tour is one hour of marching which is fulfilled through "Tour Squad" a group that meets at certain times and does various things to fulfill their tour credit. The standard stick for "Frat" A.K.A. Fraternization is 22/22. In other words, one must fulfill twenty-two hours of tour credit and must receive twenty-two demerits. Cadets with too many demerits may be put on Disciplinary Probation, in which many of their privileges are taken away. Cadets who fail to meet standards of academic performance are put on Academic Probation, in which their privileges are largely revoked. Punishment at the Institute is strict and quickly administered by the "Cadre" or student leaders of NMMI and the staff, when regulations are not followed.
Notable alumni are listed in the section below, and many less well-known alumni continue to "give back" to the Institute in the form of active involvement with the Staff and Corps of Cadets. Each October sees the return of "Homecoming" where alumni from each decade of the corresponding year make the pilgrimage to Roswell, New Mexico and take part in traditions as old as the school itself. Annual Trail Rides and Alumni Musters have also become part of the alumni experience, and NMMI Alumni Association Chapters help to foster life-long friendships through meetings in various locations. Sometimes alumni chapters will sponsor a "Tattoo" or a "Stand To" - both based on nostalgic military functions designed to increase awareness of alumni initiatives. A new cylindrical structure, divided into individual compartments, has been established in the Chapel courtyard. Those Alumni who choose to do so can have their ashes placed in a compartment as a final, peaceful resting place at their "Alma Mater".
The school's Honor Code is "A Cadet will not Lie, Cheat, Steal, nor Tolerate Those Who Do." The honor code was established by a unanimous vote of the Corps of Cadets in 1921, and is modeled after West Point's honor code.
The football team competes in the Western States Football League. Its other sports compete in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference.[2]
President/Superintendent is Major General Jerry W. Grizzle USANG (RET)
Commandant of Cadets is Brigadier General Richard V. Geraci US Army (RET)
Deputy Commandant for Operations is Colonel Richard Megahan US Army (RET)
Deputy Commandant for Support is Lieutenant Colonel Jeffry Cunningham US Army (RET)
Regimental staff
Regimental Commander is c/COL Jeremy Harvard
Regimental Executive Officer is c/LTC Wade Thomas
Regimental Honor Board Chairman is c/LTC Wade Thomas
First Squadron Commander is c/LTC Guillermo Anaya
First Squadron Sergeant Major is c/SGM Alex Barleen
Second Squadron Commander is c/LTC Alexander Lukomski
Second Squadron Sergeant Major is c/SGM Marcos Gil Elias
Third Squadron Commander is c/MAJ Benjamin Jameson
Third Squadron Sergean Major is c/SGM Sara Brown
Regimental Adjutant is c/MAJ Baucke
Regimental Command Sergeant Major is c/SGM Alex Barleen
Regimental Master of Fitness is c/MAJ Pacileo
Regimental Provost Marshall is c/MAJ Juan Baca
Regimental Operations Officer is c/MAJ Bond
Regimental Public Affairs Officer is c/MAJ Echavarri
Regimental Public Affairs NCO is c/MSG Trae Wolfe
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: New Mexico Military Institute |
Coordinates: 33°24′36″N 104°31′29″W / 33.409896°N 104.524698°W / 33.409896; -104.524698
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State of New Mexico | |||||
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Nickname(s): Land of Enchantment | |||||
Motto(s): Crescit eundo (It grows as it goes) | |||||
Official language(s) | (see text) | ||||
Spoken language(s) | English 82% Spanish 29%, Navajo 4%[1][2] |
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Demonym | New Mexican | ||||
Capital | Santa Fe | ||||
Largest city | Albuquerque | ||||
Largest metro area | Albuquerque Metropolitan Area | ||||
Area | Ranked 5th in the U.S. | ||||
- Total | 121,589 sq mi (315,194 km2) |
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- Width | 342 miles (550 km) | ||||
- Length | 370 miles (595 km) | ||||
- % water | 0.2 | ||||
- Latitude | 31° 20′ N to 37° N | ||||
- Longitude | 103° W to 109° 3′ W | ||||
Population | Ranked 36th in the U.S. | ||||
- Total | 2,082,224 (2011 est)[3] | ||||
- Density | 17.2/sq mi (6.62/km2) Ranked 45th in the U.S. |
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Elevation | |||||
- Highest point | Wheeler Peak[4][5][6] 13,167 ft (4013.3 m) |
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- Mean | 5,700 ft (1,740 m) | ||||
- Lowest point | Red Bluff Reservoir on Texas border[5][6] 2,844 ft (867 m) |
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Before statehood | New Mexico Territory | ||||
Admission to Union | January 6, 1912 (47th) | ||||
Governor | Susana Martinez (R) | ||||
Lieutenant Governor | John Sanchez (R) | ||||
Legislature | New Mexico Legislature | ||||
- Upper house | Senate | ||||
- Lower house | House of Representatives | ||||
U.S. Senators | Jeff Bingaman (D) Tom Udall (D) |
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U.S. House delegation | 1: Martin Heinrich (D) 2: Steve Pearce (R) 3: Ben R. Luján (D) (list) |
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Time zone | Mountain: UTC-7/-6 | ||||
Abbreviations | NM US-NM | ||||
Website | www.newmexico.gov |
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The Flag of New Mexico. | |
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Animate insignia | |
Bird(s) | Greater Roadrunner |
Fish | Rio Grande cutthroat trout |
Flower(s) | Yucca |
Grass | Blue grama |
Mammal(s) | American Black Bear |
Reptile | New Mexico whiptail |
Tree | Colorado Pinyon |
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Inanimate insignia | |
Colors | Red & Yellow |
Fossil | Coelophysis |
Gemstone | Turquoise |
Song(s) | "O' Fair New Mexico" |
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New Mexico (i/nuː ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/) is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is the 5th most extensive, the 36th most populous, and the 6th least densely populated of the 50 United States.
Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, New Mexico has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, including descendants of Spanish colonists and recent immigrants from Latin America. It also has the second-highest percentage of Native Americans, after Alaska, and the fourth-highest total number of Native Americans after California, Oklahoma, and Arizona.[7] The tribes in the state consist of mostly Navajo and Pueblo peoples. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Hispanic and Native American influences. The flag of New Mexico is represented by the red and gold colors, which represent Spain, as well as the Zia symbol, an ancient Native American symbol for the sun.[8]
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The state's total area is 121,412 square miles (314,460 km2).[9] The eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and three miles (5 km) west of 103° W longitude with Texas.[9][not in citation given] On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, with Chihuahua making up about 90% of that. The western border with Arizona runs along the 109° 03' W longitude.[9] The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel. The 37° N latitude parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at the Four Corners in the northwestern corner of New Mexico. New Mexico, although a large state, has little water. Its surface water area is about 250 square miles (650 km2).
The New Mexican landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexico's arid image, heavily forested mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state, especially towards the north. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost part of the Rocky Mountains, run roughly north-south along the east side of the Rio Grande in the rugged, pastoral north. The most important of New Mexico's rivers are the Rio Grande, Pecos, Canadian, San Juan, and Gila. The Rio Grande is tied for the fourth longest river in the U.S.[10]
The U.S. government protects millions of acres of New Mexico as national forests including:[11]
Areas managed by the National Park Service include:[12]
Visitors also frequent the surviving native pueblos of New Mexico. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant money to the state. Other areas of geographical and scenic interest include Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The Gila Wilderness lies in the southwest of the state.
The climate of New Mexico is generally semi-arid to arid, though there are areas of continental and alpine climates, and its territory is mostly covered by mountains, high plains, and desert. The Great Plains (High Plains) are located in the eastern portion of the state, similar to the Colorado high plains in eastern Colorado. The two states share plenty of similarities in terrain, with both having plains, mountains, basins, mesas, and desert lands. New Mexico's average precipitation rate is 13.9 inches (350 mm) a year. The average annual temperatures can range from 64 °F (18 °C) in the southeast to less than 40 °F (4 °C) in the northern mountains.[9] During the summer months, daytime temperatures can often exceed 100 °F (38 °C) at elevations below 5,000 feet (1,500 m), the average high temperature in July ranges from 97 °F (36 °C) at the lower elevations to the upper 70s (°F, up to 26 °C) at the higher elevations. Many cities in New Mexico can have temperature lows in the 20's and into the teens as well. The highest temperature recorded in New Mexico was 122 °F (50 °C) at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Loving on June 27, 1994 and the lowest recorded temperature is −50 °F (−46 °C) at Gavilan on February 1, 1951.[13] New Mexico receives a decent amount of snow as well, and a lot of snow in its higher elevations in the mountains.
New Mexico contains extensive habitat for many plants and animals, especially in desert areas and pinon-juniper woodlands. Creosote bush, mesquite, cacti, yucca, and desert grasses, including black grama, purple three-awn, tobosa, and burrograss, cover the broad, semiarid plains that cover the southern portion of the state. The northern portion of the state is home to many tree species such as ponderosa pine, aspen, cottonwood, spruce, fir, and Russian olive, which is an invasive species. Native birds include the greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)[14] and wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).[15] Other fauna present in New Mexico include black bears, cougars, coyotes, porcupines, skunks, Mexican gray wolves, deer, elk, plains bison, collared peccary, bighorn sheep, squirrels, chipmunks, pronghorn, western diamondback, kangaroo rat, jackrabbit and a multitude of other birds, reptiles, and rodents. The black bear native to New Mexico, Ursus americanus amblyceps, was formally adopted as the state's official animal in 1953.[16]
The first known inhabitants of New Mexico were members of the Clovis culture of Paleo-Indians.[17]:19 Later inhabitants include American Indians of the Mogollon and Anasazi cultures.[18]:52 By the time of European contact in the 16th century, the region was settled by the villages of the Pueblo peoples and groups of Navajo, Apache and Ute.[17]:6,48
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado assembled an enormous expedition at Compostela in 1540–1542 to explore and find the mystical Seven Golden Cities of Cibola as described by Fray Marcos de Niza.[18]:19–24 The name Nuevo México was first used by a seeker of gold mines named Francisco de Ibarra who explored far to the north of Mexico in 1563 and reported his findings as being in "a New Mexico".[19] Juan de Oñate officially established the name when he was appointed the first governor of the new Province of New Mexico in 1598.[18]:36–37 The same year he founded the San Juan de los Caballeros colony, the first permanent European settlement in the future state of New Mexico,[20] on the Rio Grande near Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.[18]:37 Oñate extended El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, "Royal Road of the Interior," by 700 miles (1,100 km) from Santa Bárbara, Chihuahua to his remote colony.[21]:49
The settlement of Santa Fe was established at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains, around 1608.[21]:182 The city, along with most of the settled areas of the state, was abandoned by the Spanish for 12 years (1680–1692) as a result of the successful Pueblo Revolt.[22] After the death of the Pueblo leader Popé, Diego de Vargas restored the area to Spanish rule.[18]:68–75 While developing Santa Fe as a trade center, the returning settlers founded Albuquerque in 1706 from existing surrounding communities,[18]:84 naming it for the viceroy of New Spain, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque.[23]
As a part of New Spain, the claims for the province of New Mexico passed to independent Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence.[18]:109 The Republic of Texas claimed the portion east of the Rio Grande when it seceded from Mexico in 1836.[24] Texas was separated from New Mexico by the Comancheria and its only attempt to establish a presence or control in the claimed territory was the failed Texas Santa Fe Expedition. The extreme northeastern part of New Mexico was originally ruled by France, and sold to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.[25] By 1800 the Spanish population had reached 25,000, but Apache and Comanche raids on Hispanic settlers were common until well into the period of U.S. occupation.[26]
Following the Mexican-American War, from 1846–1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the American Southwest and California, to the United States of America.[18]:132 In the Compromise of 1850 Texas ceded its claims to the area lying east of the Rio Grande in exchange for ten million dollars[18]:135 and the US government established the New Mexico Territory on September 9, 1850, including most of the present-day states of Arizona and New Mexico, and part of Colorado.[citation needed] The United States acquired the southwestern boot heel of the state and southern Arizona below the Gila river in the mostly desert Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which was related to the construction by the US of a transcontinental railroad.[18]:136
New Mexico played a role in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. Both Confederate and Union governments claimed ownership and territorial rights over New Mexico Territory. In 1861 the Confederacy claimed the southern tract as its own Arizona Territory and waged the ambitious New Mexico Campaign in an attempt to control the American Southwest and open up access to Union California. Confederate power in the New Mexico Territory was effectively broken after the Battle of Glorieta Pass in 1862. However, the Confederate territorial government continued to operate out of Texas, and Confederate troops marched under the Arizona flag until the end of the war. Additionally, over 8,000 troops from New Mexico Territory served the Union.[27]
Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union on January 6, 1912.[18]:166
During World War II, the first atomic bombs were designed and manufactured at Los Alamos and the first was tested at Trinity site in the desert on the White Sands Proving Grounds between Socorro and Alamogordo.[18]:179–180
Historical populations | |||
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Census | Pop. | %± | |
1850 | 61,547 |
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1860 | 93,516 | 51.9% | |
1870 | 91,874 | −1.8% | |
1880 | 119,565 | 30.1% | |
1890 | 160,282 | 34.1% | |
1900 | 195,310 | 21.9% | |
1910 | 327,301 | 67.6% | |
1920 | 360,350 | 10.1% | |
1930 | 423,317 | 17.5% | |
1940 | 531,818 | 25.6% | |
1950 | 681,187 | 28.1% | |
1960 | 951,023 | 39.6% | |
1970 | 1,017,055 | 6.9% | |
1980 | 1,303,302 | 28.1% | |
1990 | 1,515,069 | 16.2% | |
2000 | 1,819,046 | 20.1% | |
2010 | 2,059,179 | 13.2% | |
Est. 2011 | 2,082,224 | [28] | 1.1% |
Sources: 1850–1990,[29] 2000,[30] 2010[31] |
New Mexico has benefited from federal government spending. It is home to three Air Force bases, White Sands Missile Range, and the federal research laboratories Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. The state's population grew rapidly after World War II, going from 531,818 in 1940 to 1,819,046 in 2000.[29][30] Employment growth areas in New Mexico include microelectronics, call centers, and Indian casinos.[32]
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of New Mexico was 2,082,224 on July 1, 2011, a 1.12% increase since the 2010 United States Census.[3]
As of July 1, 2008, the United States Census Bureau estimated New Mexico's population at 1,984,356,[30] which represents an increase of 165,315, or 9.1%, since the last census in 2000.[33] This includes a natural increase since the last census of 114,583 people (that is 235,551 births minus 120,968 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 59,499 people into the state.[33] Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 34,375 people, and migration within the country produced a net gain of 25,124 people.[33]
The center of population of New Mexico is located in Torrance County, in the town of Manzano.[34]
7.5% of New Mexico's population was reported as under 5 years of age, 25.3% under 18, and 13.1% were 65 or older.[35] Females make up approximately 50.7% of the population.[35]
As of 2000, 8.2% of the residents of the state were foreign-born.[35]
Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, at 46 percent (2010 estimate), including descendants of Spanish colonists and recent immigrants from Latin America.
Rank | City | County | Population |
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1 | Albuquerque | Bernalillo | 545,852 |
2 | Las Cruces | Doña Ana | 97,618 |
3 | Rio Rancho | Sandoval | 87,521 |
4 | Santa Fe | Santa Fe | 75,764 |
5 | Roswell | Chaves | 48,366 |
6 | Farmington | San Juan | 45,877 |
7 | Clovis | Curry | 37,775 |
8 | Hobbs | Lea | 34,112 |
9 | Alamogordo | Otero | 30,403 |
10 | Carlsbad | Eddy | 26,138 |
Rank | County | Population within county limits |
Land Area sq. miles |
Largest city |
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1 | Bernalillo | 662,564 | 1,166 | Albuquerque |
2 | Doña Ana | 209,233 | 3,807 | Las Cruces |
3 | Santa Fe | 147,532 | 1,909 | Santa Fe |
4 | Sandoval | 131,561 | 3,710 | Rio Rancho |
5 | San Juan | 130,004 | 5,514 | Farmington |
6 | Valencia | 76,569 | 1,068 | Los Lunas |
7 | McKinley | 71,492 | 5,449 | Gallup |
8 | Chaves | 63,060 | 6,071 | Roswell |
9 | Otero | 62,776 | 6,627 | Alamogordo |
10 | Lea | 59,155 | 4,393 | Hobbs |
Race/Ethnicity in New Mexico (2010)[38] | |
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White (alone) | 68.4% |
Black/African American | 2.1% |
Asian | 1.4% |
American Indian | 9.4% |
Pacific Islander | 0.1% |
Other | 15.0% |
Two or more races | 3.7% |
Hispanic/Latino (of any race) | 46.3% |
According to the United States Census Bureau, 1.5% of the population is Multiracial/Mixed-Race, a population larger than both the Asian and NHPI population groups.[35] In 2008 New Mexico had the highest percentage (45%) of Hispanics (of any race) of any state,[39] with 83% of these native-born and 17% foreign-born.[40] The majority of Hispanics in New Mexico claim a Spanish ancestry, especially in the northern part of the state. These people are the descendants of Spanish colonists who arrived during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The state also has a large Native American population, second in percentage behind that of Alaska.[35][41]
According to estimates from the United States Census Bureau's 2006–2008 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimate,[42] New Mexico's population was 1,962,226. The number of New Mexicans of different single races were: White, 1,375,334 (70.1%); Black, 43,931 (2.2%); American Indian or Alaskan Native, 182,136 (9.3%); Asian, 26,767 (1.4%), Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 854 (0.1%), and 273,778 (14.0%) of some other race. There were 59,415 (3.0%) of two or more races. There were 873,171 (44.5%) Hispanics or Latino (of any race).
According to the 2000 United States Census,[43]:6 the most commonly claimed ancestry groups in New Mexico were: Spanish (18.7%), Mexican (16.3%), American Indian (10.3%), and German (9.8%)
Languages Spoken in New Mexico | |
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English | 82% |
Spanish | 28% |
Navajo | 4% |
According the 2000 U.S. Census, 28.76% of the population aged 5 and older speak Spanish at home, while 4.07% speak Navajo.[44] Speakers of New Mexican Spanish dialect are mainly descendants of Spanish colonists who arrived in New Mexico in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.[45]
The original state constitution of 1912 provided for a bilingual government with laws being published in both English and Spanish;[46] this requirement was renewed twice, in 1931 and 1943.[47] Nonetheless, the constitution does not declare any language as "official."[48] While Spanish was permitted in the legislature until 1935, all state officials are required to have a good knowledge of English. Cobarrubias and Fishman therefore argue that New Mexico cannot be considered a bilingual state as not all laws are published in both languages.[47] Others, such as Juan Perea, claim that the state was officially bilingual until 1953.[49] In either case, Hawaii is the only state that remains officially bilingual in the 21st century.[50]
With regards to the judiciary, witnesses have the right to testify in either of the two languages, and monolingual speakers of Spanish have the same right to be considered for jury-duty as do speakers of English.[48][51] In public education, the state has the constitutional obligation to provide for bilingual education and Spanish-speaking instructors in school districts where the majority of students are hispanophone.[48]
In 1995, the state adopted a State Bilingual Song, New Mexico - Mi Lindo Nuevo México.[52]:75,81 In 1989, New Mexico became the first state to officially adopt the English Plus resolution,[50] and in 2008, the first to officially adopt a Navajo textbook for use in public schools.[53]
Religions in New Mexico | |
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Roman Catholic | 26% |
Protestant | 42% |
* Mainline | 15% |
* Evangelical | 25% |
* Other Protestant | 2% |
LDS (Mormon) | 3% |
Jewish | 2% |
Buddhist | 2% |
Other Religion | 3% |
Unaffiliated | 22% |
According to a report compiled by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, the largest denominations in 2000 were the Catholic Church with 670,511; the Southern Baptist Convention with 132,675; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 42,261 (66,178 year-end 2009);[54] and the United Methodist Church with 41,597 adherents.[55] According to a 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center, the most common self-reported religious affiliation of New Mexico residents are:[56]:100
Within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, New Mexico belongs to the Ecclesiastical Province of Santa Fe. New Mexico has three dioceses, one of which is an archdiocese:[57] Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Diocese of Gallup, Diocese of Las Cruces.
Oil and gas production, tourism, and federal government spending are important drivers of the state economy. State government has an elaborate system of tax credits and technical assistance to promote job growth and business investment, especially in new technologies.
In 2010 New Mexico's Gross Domestic Product was $79.7 billion.[58] In 2007 the per capita personal income was $31,474 (rank 43rd in the nation).[59] In 2005 the percentage of persons below the poverty level was 18.4%.[60] The New Mexico Tourism Department estimates that in Fiscal Year 2006 the travel industry in New Mexico generated expenditures of $6.5 billion.[61] As of April 2012[update], the state's unemployment rate was 7.2%.[62] During the Late 2000's Recession New Mexico's unemployment rate peaked at 8.0% for the period June-October of 2010.As of March 2012[update], the state's unemployment rate was 7.2%.[63]
New Mexico is the third leading crude oil and natural gas producer in the United States. The Permian Basin (part of the Mid-Continent Oil Field) and San Juan Basin lie partly in New Mexico. In 2006 New Mexico accounted for 3.4% of the crude oil, 8.5% of the dry natural gas, and 10.2% of the natural gas liquids produced in the United States.[64] In 2000 the value of oil and gas produced was $8.2 billion.[65]
Federal government spending is a major driver of the New Mexico economy. In 2005 the federal government spent $2.03 on New Mexico for every dollar of tax revenue collected from the state. This rate of return is higher than any other state in the Union.[66]
Many of the federal jobs relate to the military; the state hosts three air force bases (Kirtland Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base, and Cannon Air Force Base); a testing range (White Sands Missile Range); and an army proving ground and maneuver range (Fort Bliss – McGregor Range). A May 2005 estimate by New Mexico State University is that 11.65% of the state's total employment arises directly or indirectly from military spending.[67] Other federal installations include the technology labs of Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
New Mexico provides a number of economic incentives to businesses operating in the state, including various types of tax credits and tax exemptions. Most of the incentives are based on job creation.[68]
New Mexico law allows governments to provide land, buildings, and infrastructure to businesses to promote job creation. Several municipalities have imposed an Economic Development Gross Receipts Tax (a form of Municipal Infrastructure GRT) that is used to pay for these infrastructure improvements and for marketing their areas.[69]
The state provides financial incentives for film production.[70][71] The New Mexico Film Office estimated at the end of 2007 that the incentive program had brought more than 85 film projects to the state since 2003 and had added $1.2 billion to the economy.[72]
Beginning in 2008, personal income tax rates for New Mexico range from 1.7% to 4.9%, within four income brackets.[73] Beginning in 2007, active-duty military salaries are exempt from the state income tax.[74]
New Mexico imposes a Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) on many transactions, which many even include some governmental receipts. This resembles a sales tax but unlike the sales taxes in many states it applies to services as well as tangible goods. Normally, the provider or seller passes the tax on to the purchaser, however legal incidence and burden apply to the business, as an excise tax. GRT is imposed by the state and there may an additional locality component to produce a total tax rate.[75] As of July 1, 2008 the combined tax rate ranged from 5.125% to 8.4375%.[76]
Property tax is imposed on real property by the state, by counties, and by school districts. In general, personal-use personal property is not subject to property taxation. On the other hand, property tax is levied on most business-use personalty. The taxable value of property is 1/3 of the assessed value. A tax rate of about 30 mills is applied to the taxable value, resulting in an effective tax rate of about 1%. In the 2005 tax year the average millage was about 26.47 for residential property and 29.80 for non-residential property. Assessed values of residences cannot be increased by more than 3% per year unless the residence is remodeled or sold. Property tax deductions are available for military veterans and heads of household.[77]
New Mexico has long been an important corridor for trade and migration. The builders of the ruins at Chaco Canyon also created a radiating network of roads from the mysterious settlement.[78] Chaco Canyon's trade function shifted to Casas Grandes in the present-day Mexican state of Chihuahua, however, north-south trade continued. The pre-Columbian trade with Mesoamerican cultures included northbound exotic birds, seashells and copper. Turquoise, pottery, and salt were some of the goods transported south along the Rio Grande. Present-day New Mexico's pre-Columbian trade is especially remarkable for being undertaken on foot. The north-south trade route later became a path for colonists with horses arriving from New Spain as well as trade and communication. The route was called El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.[79]
The Santa Fe Trail was the 19th century US territory's vital commercial and military highway link to the Eastern United States.[80] All with termini in Northern New Mexico, the Camino Real, the Santa Fe Trail and the Old Spanish Trail are all recognized as National Historic Trails. New Mexico's latitude and low passes made it an attractive east-west transportation corridor.[81] As a territory, the Gadsden Purchase increased New Mexico's land area for the purpose of the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad, that of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Another transcontinental railroad was completed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The railroads essentially replaced the earlier trails but brought on a population boom. Early transcontinental auto trails later crossed the state bringing more migrants. Railroads were later supplemented or replaced by a system of highways and airports. Today, New Mexico's Interstate Highways approximate the earlier land routes of the Camino Real, the Santa Fe Trail and the transcontinental railroads.
New Mexico has had a problem with drunk driving, but that has lessened. According to the Los Angeles Times, for years the state was the country's worst in alcohol-related crash rates, but ranked 25th in alcohol-related fatal crash rates, as of July 2009[update].[82]
The automobile changed the character of New Mexico, marking the start of large scale immigration to the state from elsewhere in the United States. Settlers moving West during the Great Depression and post-World War II American culture immortalized the National Old Trails Highway, later U.S. Route 66. Today, the automobile is heavily relied upon in New Mexico for transportation.
New Mexico had 59,927 route miles of highway as of 2000[update], of which 7,037 receive federal-aid.[83] In that same year there were 1,003 miles (1,614 km) of freeways, of which 1000 were the route miles of Interstate Highways 10, 25 and 40.[84] The former number has increased with the upgrading of roads near Pojoaque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces to freeways. The highway traffic fatality rate was 1.9 fatalities per million miles traveled in 2000, the 13th highest rate among U.S. states.[85] Notable bridges include the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge near Taos. As of 2001[update], 703 highway bridges, or one percent, were declared "structurally deficient" or "structurally obsolete".[86]
Rural and intercity public transportation by road is provided by Americanos USA, LLC, Greyhound Lines and several government operators.
The New Mexico Rail Runner Express is a commuter rail system serving the metropolitan area of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It began operation on July 14, 2006.[87] The system runs from Belen to downtown Santa Fe. Larger cities in New Mexico typically have some form of public transportation by road; ABQ RIDE is the largest such system in the state.[88]
There were 2,354 route miles of railroads in the year 2000, this number increased with the opening of the Rail Runner's extension to Santa Fe.[89] In addition to local railroads and other tourist lines, the state jointly owns and operates a heritage narrow-gauge steam railroad, the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway, with the state of Colorado. Narrow gauge railroads once connected many communities in the northern part of the state, from Farmington to Santa Fe.[90]:110 No fewer than 100 railroads of various names and lineage have operated in the jurisdiction at some point.[90]:8 New Mexico's rail transportation system reached its height in terms of length following admission as a state; in 1914 eleven railroads operated 3124 route miles.[90]:10
Railroad surveyors arrived in New Mexico in the 1850s.[91] The first railroads incorporated in 1869.[90]:9 The first operational railroad, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (ATSF), entered the territory by way of the lucrative and contested Raton Pass in 1878. It eventually reached El Paso, Texas in 1881 and with the Southern Pacific Railroad created the nation's second transcontinental railroad with a junction at Deming. The Southern Pacific Railroad entered the territory from the Territory of Arizona in 1880.[90]:9, 18, 58–59[91] The Denver & Rio Grande Railway, who would generally use narrow gauge equipment in New Mexico, entered the territory from Colorado and began service to Espanola on December 31, 1880.[90]:95–96[91] These first railroads were built as long-distance corridors, later railroad construction also targeted resource extraction.[90]:8–11
New Mexico is served by two class I railroads, the BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad. Combined, they operate 2,200 route miles of railway in the state.[89]
A commuter rail operation, the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, connects the state's capital, its largest city and other communities.[92] The privately-operated state owned railroad began operations in July 2006.[87] The BNSF Railway's entire line from Belen to Raton, New Mexico was sold to the state, partially for the construction of phase II of this operation, which opened in December 2008.[93] Phase II of Rail Runner extended the line northward to Santa Fe from the Sandoval County station, the northernmost station under Phase I service. The service now connects Santa Fe, Sandoval, Bernalillo, and Valencia Counties. The trains connect Albuquerque's population base and central business district to downtown Santa Fe with up to eight roundtrips in a day. The section of the line running south to Belen is served less frequently.[94] Rail Runner operates scheduled service seven days per week.[95]
With the rise of rail transportation many settlements grew or were founded and the territory became a tourist destination. As early as 1878, the ATSF promoted tourism in the region with emphasis on Native American imagery.[96]:64 Named trains often reflected the territory they traveled: Super Chief, the streamlined successor to the Chief;[96] Navajo, an early transcontinental tourist train; and Cavern, a through car operation connecting Clovis and Carlsbad (by the early 1950s as train 23–24)[90]:49–50[97]:51, were some of the named passenger trains of the ATSF that connoted New Mexico.
Passenger train service once connected nine of New Mexico's present ten most populous cities (the exception is Rio Rancho), while today passenger train service connects two: Albuquerque and Santa Fe.[92] With the decline of most intercity rail service in the United States in the late 1960s, New Mexico was left with minimal services. No less than six daily long-distance roundtrip trains supplemented by many branch line and local trains served New Mexico in the early 1960s. Declines in passenger revenue, but not necessarily ridership, prompted many railroads to turn over their passenger services in truncated form to Amtrak, a state owned enterprise. Amtrak, also known as the National Passenger Railroad Corporation, began operating the two extant long-distance routes in May 1971.[90][96][97] Resurrection of passenger rail service from Denver to El Paso, a route once plied in part by the ATSF's El Pasoan[97]:37, has been proposed over the years. As early as the 1980s former Governor Toney Anaya proposed building a high-speed rail line connecting the two cities with New Mexico's major cities.[98] Front Range Commuter Rail is a project to connect Wyoming and New Mexico with high-speed rail.[99]
Amtrak's Southwest Chief passes through daily at stations in Gallup, Albuquerque, Lamy, Las Vegas, and Raton, offering connections to Los Angeles, Chicago and intermediate points.[100] The Southwest Chief is a fast Amtrak long distance train, being permitted a maximum speed of 90 mph (140 km/h) in various places on the tracks of the BNSF Railway.[101] It also operates on New Mexico Rail Runner Express trackage. The Southwest Chief is the successor to the Super Chief and El Capitan.[97]:115 The streamliner Super Chief, a favorite of early Hollywood stars, was one of the most famous named trains in the United States and one of the most esteemed for its luxury and exoticness—train cars were named for regional Native American tribes and outfitted with the artwork of many local artists—but also for its speed: as few as 39 hours 45 minutes westbound.[96]
The Sunset Limited makes stops three times a week in both directions at Lordsburg, and Deming, serving Los Angeles, New Orleans and intermediate points.[102] The Sunset Limited is the successor to the Southern Pacific Railroad's train of the same name and operates exclusively on Union Pacific trackage in New Mexico.
The Albuquerque International Sunport is the state's primary port of entry for air transportation.
Upham, near Truth or Consequences is the location of the world's first operational and purpose-built commercial spaceport, Spaceport America.[103][104][105] Rocket launches began in April 2007.[105] It is undeveloped and has one tenant, UP Aerospace, launching small payloads.[106] Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company, plans to make this their primary operating base.[104][107]
State of New Mexico Elected Officials | |
Governor | Susana Martinez (R) |
Lieutenant Governor | John Sanchez (R) |
Secretary of State | Dianna Duran (R) |
Attorney General | Gary King (D) |
State Auditor | Hector Balderas (D) |
State Treasurer | James B. Lewis (D) |
State Land Commissioner | Ray Powell (D) |
Public Regulation Commission |
|
The Constitution of 1912, as amended, dictates the form of government in the state.
On March 18, 2009, then Governor William Blaine Richardson signed the law abolishing the death penalty (although the repeal is not retroactive to capital crimes committed before it took effect) in New Mexico following the assembly and senate vote the week before, thus becoming the 15th U.S. state to abolish the penalty.[108]
Current Governor Susana Martinez and Lieutenant Governor John Sanchez, both Republicans, were elected in 2010. Their terms expire in January 2015. Governors serve a term of four years and may seek re-election for one additional term (limit of two terms). New Mexico has had more governors than any other state in the United States. Juan de Oñate was appointed by the Spanish crown as the first governor of New Mexico in 1598. Since then, New Mexico has had Spanish, Mexican, and American governors. For a list of past governors, see List of New Mexico Governors.
Other constitutional officers, all of whose terms also expire in January 2015, include Secretary of State Dianna Duran,[109] Attorney General Gary King,[110] State Auditor Hector Balderas,[111] State Land Commissioner Ray Powell,[112] and State Treasurer James B. Lewis.[113] King, Balderas, Lewis, and Powell are Democrats. Duran is a Republican.
The New Mexico State Legislature consists of a 70-seat House of Representatives and a 42-seat Senate. Currently, both houses of the Legislature have Democratic majorities (27 Democrats and 15 Republicans in the Senate. 36 Democrats, 33 Republicans, and 1 independent caucusing with Democrats in the House of Representatives).
New Mexico's members of the United States Senate are Democrats Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall. Democrats Martin Heinrich, and Ben R. Luján represent the first and third congressional districts, respectively, and Republican Steve Pearce represents the second congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. See New Mexico congressional map.
Voter Registration and Party Enrollment as of January 31, 2012 (2012 -01-31)[update][114][115] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Number of Voters | Percentage | |||
Democratic | 574,748 | 48% | |||
Republican | 379,537 | 32% | |||
Other | 238,266 | 20% | |||
Total | 1,192,551 | 100% |
Year | Republican | Democratic |
---|---|---|
2008 | 41.78% 346,832 | 56.91% 472,422 |
2004 | 49.8% 376,930 | 49.1% 370,942 |
2000 | 47.85% 286,417 | 47.91% 286,783 |
1996 | 42% 232,751 | 49% 273,495 |
1992 | 43% 212,617 | 51% 261,617 |
New Mexico is considered a swing state, whose population has favored both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in the past. The current governor is Susana Martinez (R), who succeeded Bill Richardson (D) on January 1, 2011 after he served two terms as governor from 2003 to 2011. Prior to Richardson, Gary Johnson (R) served as governor from 1995 to 2003. Governors in New Mexico are limited to two terms. In previous presidential elections, Al Gore carried the state (by 366 votes) in 2000; George W. Bush won New Mexico's five electoral votes in 2004, and the state's electoral votes were won by Barack Obama in 2008.
Democratic strongholds in the state include the Santa Fe Area, the west and south sides of the Albuquerque Metro Area, Northern and West Central New Mexico, and most of the Native American reservations, particularly the Navajo Nation. Republicans have traditionally had their strongholds in the eastern and southern parts of the state (Little Texas), Rio Rancho, and Albuquerque's Northeast Heights. While registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 200,000, New Mexico voters have historically favored moderate to conservative candidates at both the state and federal levels.
On major political issues, New Mexico abolished its death penalty statute, though not retroactively, effective July 1, 2009. This means individuals currently on New Mexico's Death Row can still be executed, and those convicted of capital crimes prior to July 1, 2009 may still be sentenced to capital punishment under the pre-existing death penalty statute.
On gun control, New Mexico law pre-empts all local gun control ordinances. Unlike states with strong gun control laws, a New Mexico resident may purchase any firearm deemed legal under federal law. There are no waiting periods under state law for picking up a firearm after it has been purchased, and there are no restrictions on magazine capacity. Additionally, New Mexico allows open carry of a loaded firearm without a permit, and is "shall-issue" for concealed carry permits.
Due to the state's various research facilities, New Mexico had the highest concentration of PhD holders of any state in 2000.[116]
The New Mexico Public Education Department oversees the operation of primary and secondary schools.
With a Native American population of 134,000 in 1990, New Mexico still ranks as an important center of Native American culture. Both the Navajo and Apache share Athabaskan origin. The Apache and some Ute live on federal reservations within the state. With 16 million acres (6,500,000 ha), mostly in neighboring Arizona, the reservation of the Navajo Nation ranks as the largest in the United States. The prehistorically agricultural Pueblo Indians live in pueblos scattered throughout the state.
More than one-third of New Mexicans claim Hispanic origin, many are descendants of colonial settlers. They settled in the northern portion of the state. Most of the Mexican immigrants reside in the southern part of the state. Also 10-15% of the population, mainly in the north, may contain Hispanic Jewish ancestry.
There are many New Mexicans who also speak a unique dialect of Spanish. New Mexican Spanish has vocabulary often unknown to other Spanish speakers. Because of the historical isolation of New Mexico from other speakers of the Spanish language, the local dialect preserves some late medieval Castilian vocabulary considered archaic elsewhere, adopts numerous Native American words for local features, and contains much Anglicized vocabulary for American concepts and modern inventions.
Albuquerque has the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, as well as hosts the famed annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta every fall.
This section requires expansion. |
A large artistic community thrives in Santa Fe, and has included such people as Bruce Nauman, Richard Tuttle, John Connell and Steina Vasulka. The capital city has museums of Spanish colonial, international folk, Navajo ceremonial, modern Native American, and other modern art. Another museum honors late resident Georgia O'Keeffe. Colonies for artists and writers thrive, and the small city teems with art galleries. In August, the city hosts the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, which is the oldest and largest juried Native American art showcase in the world. Performing arts include the renowned Santa Fe Opera which presents five operas in repertory each July to August, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival held each summer, and the restored Lensic Theater a principal venue for many kinds of performances. The weekend after Labor Day boasts the burning of Zozobra, a 50 ft (15 m) marionette, during Fiestas de Santa Fe.
Art is also a frequent theme in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city. The National Hispanic Cultural Center has held hundreds of performing arts events, art showcases, and other events related to Spanish culture in New Mexico and worldwide in the centerpiece Roy E Disney Center for the Performing Arts or in other venues at the 53 acre facility. New Mexico residents and visitors alike can enjoy performing art from around the world at Popejoy Hall on the campus of the University of New Mexico. Popejoy Hall hosts singers, dancers, Broadway shows, other types of acts, and Shakespeare. [117] Albuquerque also has the unique and memorable KiMo Theater built in 1927 in the Pueblo Revival Style architecture. The KiMo presents live theater and concerts as well as movies and simulcast operas. [118] In addition to other general interest theaters, Albuquerque also has the African American Performing Arts Center and Exhibit Hall which showcases achievements by people of African descent [119] and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which highlights the cultural heritage of the First Nations people of New Mexico.[120]
New Mexico still holds strong to its Spanish heritage. Old Spanish traditions such zarzuelas and flamenco are very popular in New Mexico.[121][122] World renowned flamenco dancer and native New Mexican María Benítez founded the Maria Benítez Institute for Spanish Arts "to present programs of the highest quality of the rich artistic heritage of Spain as expressed through music, dance, visual arts and other art forms." There is also the Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque held each year in which both native Spanish and New Mexican flamenco dancers perform at the University of New Mexico.
In the mid-20th century there was a thriving Hispano school of literature and scholarship being produced in both English and Spanish. Among the more notable authors were: Angélico Chávez, Nina Otero-Warren, Fabiola Cabeza de Baca, Aurelio Espinosa, Cleofas Jaramillo, Juan Bautista Rael, and Aurora Lucero-White Lea. As well, writer D. H. Lawrence lived near Taos in the 1920s at the D. H. Lawrence Ranch where there is a shrine said to contain his ashes.
New Mexico’s strong Spanish, Native American, and Wild West frontier motifs have provided material for many authors in the state including internationally recognized Tony Hillerman. [123]
Silver City, in the southwestern mountains of the state, was originally a mining town, and at least one nearby mine still operates. It is perhaps better known now as the home of and/or exhibition center for large numbers of artists, visual and otherwise. [124] Another former mining town turned art haven is Madrid, New Mexico. [125] It was brought to national fame as the filming location for the movie Wild Hogs in 2007. The City of Las Cruces, in southern New Mexico, has a museum system that is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution Affiliations Program. [126] Las Cruces also has a variety of cultural and artistic opportunities for residents and visitors alike. [127]
This section requires expansion with: discussion and possibly more teams. |
Notable professional sports teams based in New Mexico include the professional teams Albuquerque Isotopes, Triple A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers (baseball), New Mexico Thunderbirds, NBA D-League (basketball), New Mexico Mustangs, North American Hockey League (ice hockey), and the New Mexico Renegades, Western States Hockey League (ice hockey. In May 2012 Santa Fe will be home to the Santa Fe Fuego, of the Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs. The state universities field teams in many sports; teams include the University of New Mexico Lobos and the New Mexico State Aggies.
Olympic gold medalist Tom Jager, who is an advocate of controversial high-altitude training for swimming, has conducted training camps in Albuquerque (elevation 5,312 ft (1,619.1 m)) and Los Alamos (7,320 ft (2,231 m)).[128]
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Utah | Colorado | Kansas | ||
Arizona | Oklahoma Texas |
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New Mexico: Outline • Index East | ||||
Sonora | Chihuahua Mexico |
Preceded by Oklahoma |
List of U.S. states by date of statehood Admitted on January 6, 1912 (47th) |
Succeeded by Arizona |
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United Mexican States | ||||||
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Anthem: "Himno Nacional Mexicano" Mexican National Anthem |
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National seal: Seal of the United Mexican States |
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Capital (and largest city) |
Mexico City 19°03′N 99°22′W / 19.05°N 99.367°W / 19.05; -99.367 |
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Ethnic groups (2010) | Amerindian (14.86%)[3] | |||||
Demonym | Mexican | |||||
Government | Federal presidential constitutional republic[4] |
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- | President | Felipe Calderón (PAN) | ||||
- | Secretary of the Interior | Alejandro Poiré | ||||
- | Supreme Court President | Juan Silva Meza | ||||
Legislature | Congress | |||||
- | Upper house | Senate | ||||
- | Lower house | Chamber of Deputies | ||||
Independence | from Spain | |||||
- | Declared | September 16, 1810 | ||||
- | Recognized | September 27, 1821 | ||||
Area | ||||||
- | Total | 1,972,550 km2 (14th) 761,606 sq mi |
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- | Water (%) | 2.5 | ||||
Population | ||||||
- | 2010 census | 112,336,538[5] (11th) | ||||
- | Density | 57/km2 (142nd) 142/sq mi |
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GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
- | Total | $1,661 trillion[6] | ||||
- | Per capita | $14,609[6] | ||||
GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
- | Total | $1.154 trillion[6] | ||||
- | Per capita | $10,153[6] | ||||
Gini (2008) | 48.3[7] (high) | |||||
HDI (2011) | 0.770[8] (high) (57th) | |||||
Currency | Peso (MXN ) |
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Time zone | Official Mexican Timezones (UTC−8 to −6) | |||||
- | Summer (DST) | varies (UTC−7 to −5) | ||||
Drives on the | right | |||||
ISO 3166 code | MX | |||||
Internet TLD | .mx | |||||
Calling code | +52 |
Mexico (i/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)),[9] officially the United Mexican States[10] (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico.[11] Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi),[2] Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million,[12] it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Mexico has one of the world's largest economies, and is considered both a regional power and middle power.[13][14][15][16] In addition, Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD (since 1994), and considered an upper-middle income country by the World Bank.[17] Mexico is considered a newly industrialized country[18][19][20][21] and an emerging power.[22] It has the thirteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially the United States.[23][24] Mexico ranks fifth in the world and first in the Americas by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with 31,[25][26][27] and in 2007 was the tenth most visited country in the world with 21.4 million international arrivals per year.[28]
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After New Spain won independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital, Mexico City, which was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Aztec capital of México-Tenochtitlan. The name comes from the Nahuatl language, but its meaning is not well known.
Mēxihco was the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica, and surrounding territories which became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence (compare Latium). It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley which became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result, or vice versa.
The suffix -co is the Nahuatl locative, making the word a place name. Beyond that, the etymology is uncertain. It has been suggested that it is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means "Place where Huitzilopochtli lives".[29] Another hypothesis[30] suggests that Mēxihco derives from a portmanteau of the Nahuatl words for "moon" (mētztli) and navel (xīctli). This meaning ("Place at the Center of the Moon") might then refer to Tenochtitlan's position in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans pareidolically associated with the moon. Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mēctli, the goddess of maguey.[30]
The name of the city-state was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the letter <x> in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ]. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative [ʒ], represented by a <j>, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative [x] during the 16th century. This led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most other Spanish–speaking countries México was the preferred spelling. In recent years the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish language, determined that both variants are acceptable in Spanish but that the normative recommended spelling is México.[31] The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used.[citation needed] In English, the <x> in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster [ks].
The official name of the country has changed as the form of government has changed. 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[32]—or the variants Estados Unidos mexicanos[33] and Estados-Unidos Mexicanos,[34] all of which have been translated as "United Mexican States". The term República Mexicana, "Mexican Republic" was used in the 1836 Constitutional Laws.[35]
The earliest human remains in Mexico are chips of stone tools found near campfire remains in the Valley of Mexico and radiocarbon-dated to c. 23,000 years ago.[36] Mexico is the site of the domestication of maize and beans which caused a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers to sedentary agricultural villages beginning around 7000 BCE.
In the subsequent formative areas maize cultivation and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious complex, a vigesimal numeric system, were diffused from the Mexican cultures to the rest of the Mesoamerican culture area.[37] In this period villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms, and the development of large ceremonial centers.[38]
Among the earliest complex civilizations in Mexico was the Olmec culture which flourish on the gulf coast from around 1500 BCE. 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.[39] In the subsequent pre-classical period, complex centers began to develop among the Maya with centers at Calakmul and the Zapotec at Monte Albán. During this period the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec cultures, and the Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic script.[40]
In Central Mexico, the height of the classic period saw the ascendancy of Teotihuacan which formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area and north. At its peak, Teotihuacan, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas, had a population of more than 150,000 people.[41] At the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 CE, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico such as Xochicalco and Cholula ensued. 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.
During the early post-classic 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. Towards the end of the post-Classic period the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mexico.[42] The Aztecs were noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale.[43] The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, and over the next centuries Mexican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule.[44]
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire began in February 1519 when Hernán Cortés arrived on the coast of Veracruz with ca. 500 conquistadores. Following a strategy of allying with Indigenous city states that were subject to the Aztec empire and supporting them in a rebellion against the Aztecs, Cortés and his men were able to defeat the Aztecs after two years of campaigning on August 13, 1521.
In 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived at the port in Veracruz, and later moved on to the Aztec capital. On his search for gold and other riches, Cortés decided to invade and conquer the Aztec empire.[45]
The ruler of the Aztec empire upon the arrival of the Spaniards was Moctezuma II, who was later killed; his successor and brother Cuitláhuac took control of the Aztec empire, but was among the first to fall from the smallpox epidemic a short time later.[46] Unintentionally introduced by Spanish conquerors, smallpox ravaged Mesoamerica in the 1520s, killing more than 3 million Aztecs.[47] Other sources, however, mentioned that the death toll of the Aztecs might have reached up to 15 million (out of a population of less than 30 million).[48] Severely weakened, the Aztec empire was easily defeated by Hernán Cortés and his forces on his second return.[49] Smallpox was a devastatingly selective disease—it generally only killed the Aztecs, while the Spaniards were immune to the disease.[50] The deaths caused by smallpox are believe to have triggered a rapid growth of Christianity in Mexico and the Americas. At first, the Aztecs believed the epidemic was a punishment from an angry god, but they later accepted their fate and no longer resisted the Spanish rule.[51] Many of the surviving Aztecs blamed the cause of smallpox to the superiority of the Christian god, which resulted in the acceptance of Catholicism and yielding to the Spanish rule throughout Mexico.[52]
The territory became part of the Spanish Empire under the name of New Spain. Mexico City was systematically rebuilt by Cortés following the Fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Much of the identity, traditions and architecture of Mexico were created during the colonial period.[53]
On September 16, 1810, independence from Spain was declared by priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato.[54] The first insurgent group was formed by Hidalgo, the Spanish viceregal army captain Ignacio Allende, the militia captain Juan Aldama and "La Corregidora" Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez. Hidalgo and some of his soldiers were captured and executed by firing squad in Chihuahua, on July 31, 1811. Following his death, the leadership was assumed by priest José María Morelos, who occupied key southern cities.
In 1813 the Congress of Chilpancingo was convened and, on November 6, signed the "Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America". Morelos was captured and executed on December 22, 1815. 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 in 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".
Agustín de Iturbide immediately proclaimed himself emperor of the First Mexican Empire. A revolt against him in 1823 established the United Mexican States. In 1824, a Republican Constitution was drafted and Guadalupe Victoria became the first president of the newly born country. The first decades of the post-independence period were marked by economic instability, which led to the Pastry War in 1836, and a constant strife between liberales, supporters of a federal form of government, and conservadores, proposals of a hierarchical form of government.[citation needed]
General Antonio López de Santa Anna, a centralist and two-time dictator, approved the Siete Leyes in 1836, a radical amendment that institutionalized the centralized form of government. When he suspended the 1824 Constitution, civil war spread across the country, and three new governments declared independence: the Republic of Texas, the Republic of the Rio Grande and the Republic of Yucatán.
Texas successfully achieved independence and was annexed by the United States. A border dispute led to the Mexican-American War, which began in 1846 and lasted for two years; the War was settled via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which forced Mexico to give up over half of its land to the U.S., including Alta California, New Mexico, and the disputed parts of Texas. A much smaller transfer of territory in what is today southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico — the Gadsden Purchase — occurred in 1854. The Caste War of Yucatán, the Mayan uprising that began in 1847,[55] was one of the most successful modern Native American revolts.[56] Maya rebels, or Cruzob,[57] maintained relatively independent enclaves until the 1930s.[citation needed]
Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's return to power led to the liberal "Plan of Ayutla", initiating an era known as La Reforma, after which a new Constitution was drafted in 1857 that established a secular state, federalism as the form of government, and several freedoms. As the conservadores 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 Amerindian President Benito Juárez. In the 1860s Mexico underwent a military occupation by France, which established the Second Mexican Empire under the rule of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria with support from the Roman Catholic clergy and the conservadores, who later switched sides and joined the liberales. Maximilian surrendered, was tried on June 14 and was executed on June 19, 1867.
Porfirio Díaz, a republican general during the French intervention, ruled Mexico from 1876 to 1880 and then from 1884 to 1911 in five consecutive reelections, period known as the Porfiriato, characterized by remarkable economic achievements, investments in the arts and sciences, but also of economic inequality and political repression.[citation needed]
A likely electoral fraud that led to Diaz's fifth reelection sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution, initially led by Francisco I. Madero. Díaz resigned in 1911 and Madero was elected president but overthrown and murdered in a coup d'état two years later directed by conservative general Victoriano Huerta. That event re-ignited the civil war, involving figures such as Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who formed their own forces. A third force, the constitutional army led by Venustiano Carranza, managed to bring an end to the war, and radically amended the 1857 Constitution to include many of the social premises and demands of the revolutionaries into what was eventually called the 1917 Constitution. It is estimated that the war killed 900,000 of the 1910 population of 15 million.[58][59] Assassinated in 1920, Carranza was succeeded by another revolutionary hero, Álvaro Obregón, who in turn was succeeded by Plutarco Elías Calles. Obregón was reelected in 1928 but assassinated before he could assume power.
In 1929, Calles founded the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and started a period known as the Maximato, which ended with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas, who implemented many economic and social reforms, and most significantly expropriated the oil industry into Pemex on March 18, 1938, but sparked a diplomatic crisis with the countries whose citizens had lost businesses by Cárdenas' radical measure.
Between 1940 and 1980, Mexico experienced a substantial economic growth that some historians call the "Mexican miracle".[60] Although the economy continued to flourish, social inequality remained a factor of discontent. Moreover, the PRI rule became increasingly authoritarian and at times oppressive[61] (see the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre,[62] which claimed the life of around 30–800 protesters).[63]
Electoral reforms and high oil prices followed the administration of Luis Echeverría,[64][65] 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 monopolistic position. In Baja California, Ernesto Ruffo Appel was elected as governor. In 1988, electoral fraud prevented 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.[66]
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 December 1994, a month after Salinas was succeeded by Ernesto Zedillo, the Mexican economy collapsed, with a rapid rescue packaged authorized by U.S. President Bill Clinton and major macroeconomic reforms started by president Zedillo, the economy rapidly recovered and growth peaked at almost 7% by the end of 1999.[67]
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 elections, Felipe Calderón from the PAN was declared the winner, with a very narrow margin over leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). López Obrador, however, contested the election and pledged to create an "alternative government".[68]
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 and the judiciary, which will include called state Supreme Court of Justice. They also have their own civil and judicial codes.
The bicameral Congress of the Union, composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, makes federal law, declares war, imposes taxes, approves the national budget and international treaties, and ratifies diplomatic appointments.[69] Seats to federal and state legislatures are elected by a system of parallel voting that includes plurality and proportional representation.[70] The Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union is conformed by 300 deputies elected by plurality and 200 deputies by proportional representation with closed party lists[71] for which the country is divided into 5 electoral constituencies or circumscriptions.[72] The Senate is conformed by a total of 128 senators: 64 senators, two for each state and two for the Federal District, elected by plurality in pairs; 32 senators assigned to the first minority or first-runner up (one for each state and one for the Federal District), and 32 are assigned by proportional representation with closed party lists for which the country conforms a single electoral constituency.[71]
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 authority of vetoing bills.[73]
The Judiciary branch of government is the Supreme Court of Justice, comprised by eleven judges appointed by the President with Senate approval, who interpret laws and judge cases of federal competency. Other institutions of the judiciary are the Electoral Tribunal, collegiate, unitary and district tribunals, and the Council of the Federal Judiciary.[74]
Three parties have historically been the dominant parties in Mexican politics: the National Action Party: a right-wing conservative party founded in 1939 and belonging to the Christian Democrat Organization of America;[75] the Institutional Revolutionary Party, a center-left party and member of Socialist International[76] 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 Party of the Democratic Revolution: a left-wing party,[77] founded in 1989 as the successor of the coalition of socialists and liberal parties.
The foreign relations of Mexico are directed by the President of Mexico[78] and managed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[79] 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, non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and promotion of collective security through active participation in international organizations.[78] Since the 1930s, the Estrada Doctrine has served as a crucial complement to these principles.[80]
Mexico is one of the founding members of several international organizations, most notably the United Nations,[81] the Organization of American States,[82] the Organization of Ibero-American States,[83] the OPANAL[84] and the Rio Group.[85] In 2008, Mexico contributed over 40 million dollars to the United Nations regular budget.[86] In addition, it has been the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since it joined in 1994 though Chile is in the process of gaining full membership.[87][88] Mexico is considered as a regional power[89][90] 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[91] with the support of Canada, Italy, Pakistan and other nine countries, which form a group informally called the Coffee Club.[92]
After the War of Independence, the relations of Mexico were focused primarily on the United States, its northern neighbor, largest trading partner,[93] and the most powerful actor in hemispheric and world affairs.[94] Mexico supported the Cuban government since its establishment in the early 1960s,[95] the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua during the late 1970s,[96] and leftist revolutionary groups in El Salvador during the 1980s.[97] A greater priority to Latin America and the Caribbean has been given in the administration of President Felipe Calderón.[98]
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;[99][100] military industry manufacturing centers for building such systems, and advanced naval dockyards that build heavy military vessels and advanced missile technologies.[101]
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,[102] missiles,[100] aircraft,[103] vehicles, heavy weaponry, electronics,[99] defense systems,[99] armor, heavy military industrial equipment and heavy naval vessels.[104] 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,[99] urban warfare equipment and rapid troop transport.[105]
Mexico has the capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons, but forwent this possibility with the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1968 and pledged to only use its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.[106] In 1970 Mexico's national institute for nuclear research successfully refined weapons grade uranium[107][not in citation given] 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.[108][109]
Historically, Mexico has remained neutral in international conflicts[110] with the exception of World War II. However, in recent years some political parties have proposed an amendment of the Constitution in order 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.[111]
The United Mexican States are a federation of thirty-one free and sovereign states, which form a union that exercises a degree of jurisdiction over the Federal District and other territories.
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.[112]
The Federal District is a special political division that belongs to the federation as a whole and not to a particular state, and as such, has more limited local rule than the nation's states.[113]
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.[114]
Mexico is located between latitudes 14° and 33°N, and longitudes 86° and 119°W in the southern portion of North America.[citation needed] 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.[115] Geopolitically, however, Mexico is entirely considered part of North America, along with Canada and the United States.[116]
Mexico's total area is 1,972,550 km2 (761,606 sq mi), making it the world's 14th largest country by total area, and includes approximately 6,000 km2 (2,317 sq mi) of islands in the Pacific Ocean (including the remote Guadalupe Island and the Revillagigedo Islands), Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Gulf of California. 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. 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.[117]
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, 18,701 ft), Popocatepetl (5,462 m, 17,920 ft) and Iztaccihuatl (5,286 m, 17,343 ft) and the Nevado de Toluca (4,577 m, 15,016 ft). Three major urban agglomerations are located in the valleys between these four elevations: Toluca, Greater Mexico City and Puebla.[117]
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 twenty-fourth 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 twentieth-fourth parallel are hot and humid during the summer, they generally have lower yearly temperature averages (from 20 to 24 °C or 68 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.
Mexico is one of the 18 megadiverse countries of the world. With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity.[118] 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.[119] Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in ecosystems and fourth in overall species.[120] Approximately 2,500 species are protected by Mexican legislations.[120]
As of 2002, Mexico had the second fastest rate of deforestation in the world, second only to Brazil.[121] The government has taken another initiative in the late 1990s to expand 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).[118]
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, huitlacoche, 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.
Due to its high biodiversity Mexico has also been a frequent site of bioprospecting by international research bodies.[122] 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 1950es and 1960es and eventually leading to the invention of combined oral contraceptive pills.[123]
Mexico has the 13th largest nominal GDP and the 11th largest by purchasing power parity. GDP annual average growth for the period of 1995–2002 was 5.1%.[65] Foreign debt decreased to less than 20% of GDP.[65] 17% of the population lives below Mexico's own poverty line, ranking behind Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Thailand. The overall poverty rate however is 44.2%, while a full 70% lack one of the 8 economic indicators used to define poverty by the Mexican government.[124] From the late 1990s, the majority of the population has been part of the growing middle class.[125] But from 2004 to 2008 the portion of the population who received less than half of the median income has risen from 17% to 21% and the absolute levels of poverty have risen considerably from 2006 to 2010, with a rise in persons living in extreme or moderate poverty rising from 35 to 46% (52 million persons).[126][127] This is also reflected by the fact that infant mortality in Mexico is three times higher than the average among OECD nations, and the literacy levels are in the median range of OECD nations. The Mexican economy is expected to nearly triple by 2020.[128] According to Goldman Sachs, by 2050 Mexico will have the 5th largest economy in the world.[129]
According to the OECD, Mexico is the country in the world with 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. The bottom ten percent in the income hierarchy disposes of 1,36% of the country's resources, whereas the upper 10% dispose of almost 36%. OECD also notes that Mexico's budgeted expenses for poverty alleviation and social development is only about a third of the OECD average – both in absolute and relative numbers.[126]
According to a 2008 UN report the average income in a typical urbanized area of Mexico was $26,654, a rate higher than advanced nations like South Korea or Taiwan, while the average income in rural areas just miles away was only $8,403, a rate comparable to developing countries such as Russia or Turkey.[130] Daily minimum wages are set annually by law and determined by zone; $57.46 Mexican pesos ($5.75 US$) in Zona A (Baja California, Federal District, State of Mexico, and large cities), $55.84 Mexican pesos ($5.59 USD) in Zone B (Sonora, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Jalisco), and $54.47 Mexican pesos ($5.45 USD) in Zone C (all other states)[131]
In 2006, trade with the United States and Canada accounted for almost 50% of its exports and 45% of its imports.[2] During the first three quarters of 2010, the United States had a $46.0 billion trade deficit with Mexico.[132] In August 2010 Mexico surpassed France to became the 9th largest holder of US debt.[133] The commercial and financial dependence on the US is a cause for concern.[134] The remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United States account for 0.2% of Mexico's GDP[135] which was equal to US$20 billion dollars 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.[136] According to Mexico's central bank, remittances in 2008 amounted to $25bn.[137]
Mexico is the largest North American auto-producing nation, recently surpassing Canada and the U.S.[138] The industry produces technologically complex components and engages in some research and development activities.[139] 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.[140] In Puebla alone, 70 industrial part-makers cluster around Volkswagen.[139] The relatively small domestic car industry is represented by DINA S.A., which has built buses and trucks for almost half a century,[141] and the new Mastretta company that builds the high performance Mastretta MXT sports car.[142]
Major players in the broadcasting industry are Televisa, the largest Spanish media company in the Spanish-speaking world,[143] and TV Azteca.
Mexico reports the twenty-third highest tourism-based income in the world, and the highest in Latin America.[144] 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.[145] In the 2008 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, fifth among Latin American countries, and the ninth in the Americas.[146]
Energy production in Mexico is managed by state-owned companies: the 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 $86 billion in sales a year.[147][148][149] Mexico is the sixth-largest oil producer in the world, with 3.7 million barrels per day.[150] In 1980 oil exports accounted for 61.6% of total exports; by 2000 it was only 7.3%.[139]
The largest hydro plant in Mexico is the 2,400 MW Manuel Moreno Torres Dam in Chicoasén, Chiapas, in the Grijalva River. This is the world's fourth most productive hydroelectric plant.[151]
The paved-roadway network extended for 116,802 km (72,577 mi) in 2005; 10,474 km (6,508 mi) were multi-lane freeways or expressways,[152] most of which were tollways. Nonetheless, it still cannot meet national needs adequately.[153] Most of the domestic passenger transport needs are served by an extensive bus network.[154]
Mexico was one of the first Latin American countries to promote railway development,[153] and the network covers 30,952 km (19,233 mi).[154] The Secretary of Communications and Transport of Mexico proposed a high-speed rail link that will transport its passengers from Mexico City to Guadalajara, Jalisco.[155][156] The train, which travels at 300 kilometers per hour,[157] allows passengers to travel from Mexico City to Guadalajara in just 2 hours.[157] The whole project was projected to cost 240 billion pesos, or about 25 billion US$[155] 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.[158] 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.[159]
In 1999, Mexico had 233 airports with paved runways; of these, 35 carry 97% of the passenger traffic.[154] The Mexico City International Airport remains the largest in Latin America and the 44th largest in the world[160] transporting 21 million passengers a year.[161]
The telecommunications industry is mostly dominated by Telmex (Teléfonos de México), privatized in 1990. As of 2006, Telmex had expanded its operations to Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and the United States. Other players in the domestic industry are Axtel and Maxcom. Due to Mexican orography, providing 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 forty-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.[162] 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.[162] Mexican satellites are operated by Satélites Mexicanos (Satmex), a private company, leader in Latin America and servicing both North and South America.[163] 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.[164] Satmex maintains its own satellite fleet with most of the fleet being Mexican designed and built.
Usage of radio, television, and Internet in Mexico is prevalent.[154] There are approximately 1,410 radio broadcast stations and 236 television stations (excluding repeaters).[162] Major players in the broadcasting industry are Televisa—the largest Spanish media company in the Spanish-speaking world[143]—and TV Azteca.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico was officially established in 1910,[166] and the university become one of the most important institutes of higher learning in Mexico.[167] UNAM provides world class education in science, medicine, and engineering.[168] Many scientific institutes and new institutes of higher learning, such as National Polytechnic Institute (founded in 1936),[169] 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.[170] In 1959, the Mexican Academy of Sciences was created to coordinate scientific efforts between academics.
In 1995 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.[171] Molina, an alumnus of UNAM, became the first Mexican citizen to win the Nobel Prize in science.[172]
In recent years, the biggest 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.[173] It was designed to observe regions of space obscured by stellar dust.
The electronics industry of Mexico has grown enormously within the last decade. In 2007 Mexico surpassed South Korea as the second largest manufacturer of televisions, and in 2008 Mexico surpassed China, South Korea and Taiwan to become the largest producer of smartphones in the world. There are almost half a million (451,000) students enrolled in electronics engineering programs.[174]
Historical populations | ||
---|---|---|
Year | Pop. | ±% |
1895 | 12,632,427 | — |
1900 | 13,607,272 | +7.7% |
1910 | 15,160,369 | +11.4% |
1921 | 14,334,780 | −5.4% |
1930 | 16,552,722 | +15.5% |
1940 | 19,653,552 | +18.7% |
1950 | 25,791,017 | +31.2% |
1960 | 34,923,129 | +35.4% |
1970 | 48,225,238 | +38.1% |
1980 | 66,846,833 | +38.6% |
1990 | 81,249,645 | +21.5% |
1995 | 91,158,290 | +12.2% |
2000 | 97,483,412 | +6.9% |
2005 | 103,263,388 | +5.9% |
2010 | 112,336,538 | +8.8% |
Source: INEGI |
The recently conducted 2010 Census[175] showed a population of 112,336,538, making it the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.[176]
Mexico is ethnically diverse, the various indigenous peoples and European immigrants are united under a single national identity.[177] The core part of Mexican national identity is formed on the basis of a synthesis of European culture with Indigenous cultures in a process known as mestizaje, alluding to the mixed biological origins of the majority of Mexicans.[177][178] Mexican politicians and reformers such as José Vasconcelos and Manuel Gamio were instrumental in building a Mexican national identity on the concept of mestizaje.[179][180] The term mestizo often used in literature about Mexican social identities carries a variety of meanings containing both socio-cultural, economic, racial and biological components and for this reason it has been deemed too imprecise to be used for ethnic classification, for which reason it has been abandoned in Mexican censuses.[153][181]
The category of "indígena" (indigenous) can be defined narrowly according to linguistic criteria including only persons that speak one of Mexicos 62 indigenous languages or self-identify as having an indigenous cultural background. According with the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples as of 2005, there are 10.1 million Mexicans who speak an indigenous language and claim indigenous heritage, representing 9.8% of the total population.[182]
The word "mestizo" is sometimes used with the meaning of a person with mixed Indigenous and European blood. This usage does not conform to the Mexican social reality where a person of pure indigenous genetic heritage would be considered Mestizo either by rejecting his indigenous culture or by not speaking an indigenous language,[183] and a person with a very low percentage of indigenous genetic heritage would be considered fully indigenous either by speaking an indigenous language or by identifying with a particular indigenous cultural heritage.[184]
Mexico represents the largest source of immigration to the United States. About 9% of the population born in Mexico is now living in the United States.[185] 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006.[186] Per the 2000 U.S. Census, a plurality of 47.3% of Mexican Americans self identify as White, closely followed by Mexican Americans who self identify as "Some other race", usually Mestizo (European/Indian) with 45.5%.[187]
Mexico is home to the largest number of U.S. citizens abroad (estimated at one million as of 1999).[188] The Argentine community is considered to be the second largest foreign community in the country (estimated somewhere between 30,000 and 150,000).[189][190] Mexico also has a large Lebanese community, now numbering around 400,000.[191] In October 2008, Mexico agreed to deport Cubans using the country as an entry point to the US.[192] Large numbers of Central American migrants who have crossed Guatemala's western border into Mexico are deported every year.[193] Small numbers of illegal immigrants come from Ecuador, Cuba, China, South Africa, and Pakistan.[194]
According to the National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples (CDI) there are 9,854,301 indigenous people reported in Mexico in 2000, which constitute 9.54% of the population in the country. The absolute indigenous population is growing, but at a slower rate than the rest of the population so that the percentage of indigenous peoples is nonetheless falling.[195][196][197] The majority of the indigenous population is concentrated in the central and southern states, that are generally the least developed, and the majority of the indigenous population live in rural areas. Some indigenous communities have a degree of autonomy under the legislation of "usos y costumbres", which allows them to regulate some internal issues under customary law. According to the CDI, the states with the greatest percentage of indigenous population are:[198] Yucatán, with 59%, Quintana Roo with 39% and Campeche with 27% of the population being indigenous, most of them Maya; Oaxaca with 48% of the population, the most numerous groups being the Mixtec and Zapotec peoples; Chiapas has 28%, the majority being Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya; Hidalgo with 24%, the majority being Otomi; Puebla with 19%, and Guerrero with 17%, mostly Nahua people and the states of San Luis Potosí and Veracruz both home to a population of 15% indigenous people, mostly from the Totonac, Nahua and Teenek (Huastec) groups.[199]
All of the indices of social development for the indigenous population are considerably lower than the national average. In all states indigenous people have higher infant mortality, in some states almost double of the non-indigenous populations. Literacy rates are also much lower, with 27% of indigenous children between 6 and 14 being illiterate compared to a national average of 12%. The indigenous population participate in the workforce longer than the national average, starting earlier and continuing longer. However, 55% of the indigenous population receive less than a minimum salary, compared to 20% for the national average. Many practice subsistence agriculture and receive no salaries. Indigenous people also have less access to health care and a lower quality of housing.[199]
A study by the American Society of Human Genetics reported that Mestizo Mexicans are 58.96% European, 35.05% "Asian" (Amerindian), and 5.03% African. Sonora shows the highest European contribution (70.63%) and Guerrero the lowest (51.98%) where we also observe the highest Asian contribution (37.17%). African contribution ranges from 2.8% in Sonora to 11.13% in Veracruz. 80% of the Mexican population was classed as mestizo (defined as "being racially mixed in some degree").[200][year needed][volume & issue needed][citation needed]
In May 2009, Mexico's National Institute of Genomic Medicine issued a report on a genomic study of 300 mestizos from the states of Guerrero, Sonora, Veracruz, Yucatán, Zacatecas, and Guanajuato. The study found that the Mestizo population of these Mexican states were on average 55% of indigenous ancestry followed by 41.8 % of European, 1.8% of African, and 1.2% of East Asian ancestry. The study also noted that whereas Mestizo individuals from the southern state of Guerrero showed on average 66% of indigenous ancestry, those from the northern state of Sonora displayed about 61.6% European ancestry. The study found that there was an increase in indigenous ancestry as one traveled towards to the Southern states in Mexico, while the indigenous ancestry declined as one traveled to the Northern states in the country, such as Sonora.[201]
The country has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world with almost a third of all Spanish native speakers.[176][202]
Mexico is home to a large number of indigenous languages, spoken by some 5.4% of the population – 1.2% of the population are monolingual speakers of an indigenous language.[203] The indigenous languages with most speakers are Nahuatl, spoken by approximately 1,45 million people,[204] Yukatek Maya spoken by some 750,000 people and the Mixtec[205] and Zapotec languages[206] each spoken by more than 400,000 people. The National Institute of Indigenous Languages INALI recognizes 68 linguistic groups and some 364 different specific varieties of indigenous languages.[207] Since the promulgation of the Law of Indigenous Linguistic Rights in 2003, these languages have had status as national languages, with equal validity with Spanish in all the areas and contexts in which they are spoken.[208]
In addition to the indigenous languages other minority languages are spoken by immigrant populations such as the 80,000 German-speaking Mennonites in Mexico.[209] And 5,000 the Chipilo dialect of the Venetian language spoken in Chipilo, Puebla.
Religion in Mexico (2010 census)[210] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Roman Catholicism |
|
82.7% | ||
Other Christian |
|
9.7% | ||
Other Religion |
|
0.2% | ||
No religion |
|
4.7% | ||
Unspecified |
|
2.7% |
The 2010 census by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía gave Roman Catholicism as the main religion, with 82.7% of the population, while 9.7% (10,924,103) belong to other Christian denominations, including Evangelicals (5.2%); 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%).[210] 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.[210]
The 92,924,489[210] Catholics of Mexico constitute in absolute terms the second largest Catholic community in the world, after Brazil's.[211] 47% percent of them attend church services weekly.[212] Most Mexican cities, towns and villages hold a yearly feast day to commemorate their local patron saints.[citation needed] 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.[213]
The 2010 census reported 314,932 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[210] though the church in 2009 claimed to have over one million registered members.[214] About 25% of registered members attend a weekly sacrament service although this can fluctuate up and down.[215]
The presence of Jews in Mexico dates back to 1521, when Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs, accompanied by several Conversos.[216] According to the 2010 census, there are 67,476 Jews in Mexico.[210] Islam in Mexico is practiced by a small population in the city of Torreón, Coahuila, and there are an estimated 300 Muslims in the San Cristóbal de las Casas area in Chiapas.[217][218] In the 2010 census 18,185 Mexicans reported belonging to an Eastern religion,[210] a category which includes a tiny Buddhist population.
The World Economic Forum 2011 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Mexico 89th out of 135 countries for gender parity, making it one of the least gender balanced countries in the North American region, particularly to the disadvantage of women, who have a below average degree of political participation and labor equality. Education and health indicators for Mexican women were however better than the average in the study.[219]
Metropolitan areas in Mexico have been traditionally defined as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city.[220] In 2004, a joint effort between CONAPO, INEGI and the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL) agreed to define metropolitan areas as either:[220]
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 colonization of Mexico. Exogenous cultural elements mainly from the United States have been incorporated into Mexican culture.[citation needed]
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 his publication 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.[221] This exalting of mestizaje was a revolutionary idea that sharply contrasted with the idea of a superior pure race prevalent in Europe at the time.[citation needed]
The literature of Mexico has its antecedents in the literatures of the indigenous settlements of Mesoamerica. The most well known prehispanic poet is Nezahualcoyotl. Modern Mexican literature was influenced by the concepts of the Spanish colonialization of Mesoamerica. Outstanding colonial writers and poets include Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Juana Inés de la Cruz.
In light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican people, José Vasconcelos in his publication La Raza Cósmica (The Cosmic Race) (1925) defined Mexico to be the melting pot of all races, biologically as well as culturally.[221]
Other writers include Alfonso Reyes, José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz (Nobel Laureate), Renato Leduc, Carlos Monsiváis, Elena Poniatowska, Mariano Azuela ("Los de abajo") and Juan Rulfo ("Pedro Páramo"). Bruno Traven wrote "Canasta de cuentos mexicanos", "El tesoro de la Sierra Madre."
Post-revolutionary art in Mexico had its expression in the works of renowned artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Federico Cantú Garza, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Juan O'Gorman. 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 the next year due to the inclusion of a portrait of Russian communist leader Lenin.[222] Some of Rivera's murals are displayed at the Mexican National Palace and the Palace of Fine Arts.
Mesoamerican architecture is mostly noted for its pyramids which are the largest such structures outside of Ancient Egypt.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] Mexico, as the center of New Spain has some of the most renowned buildings built in this style.
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 (1944) 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 to 1965 some of him master pieces like Los Olvidados (1949), Viridiana (1961) and El angel exterminador (1963). 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), Amores perros (2000), Y tu mamá también (2001), El crimen del Padre Amaro (The Crime of Father Amaro) (2002), Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Babel (2006) have been successful in creating universal stories about contemporary subjects, and were internationally recognised, as in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Mexican directors Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores perros, Babel), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Guillermo del Toro, Carlos Carrera (The Crime of Father Amaro), and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are some of the most known present-day film makers.
Two of the major television networks based in Mexico are Televisa and TV Azteca. Televisa is also the largest producer of Spanish-language content in the world and also the world's largest Spanish-language media network.[223] Grupo Multimedios is another media conglomerate with Spanish-language broadcasting in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. Soap operas (telenovelas) are translated to many languages and seen all over the world with renowned names like Verónica Castro, Lucía Méndez, Lucero, and Thalía.
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 every-day 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. Some well-known Mexican singers are Thalía, Luis Miguel, Alejandro Fernández, Julieta Venegas and Paulina Rubio. Mexican singers of traditional music are: Lila Downs, Susana Harp, Jaramar, GEO Meneses and Alejandra Robles. Popular groups are Café Tacuba, Molotov and Maná, among others. Since the early years of 2000s (decade), Mexican rock has seen widespread growth both domesticly and internationally.[citation needed]
According to the Sistema Nacional de Fomento Musical, there are between 120 and 140 youth orchestras affiliated to this federal agency from all federal states.[citation needed] Some states, through their state agencies in charge of culture and the arts—Ministry or Secretary or Institute or Council of Culture, in some cases Secretary of Education or the State University—sponsor the activities of a professional Symphony Orchestra or Philharmonic Orchestra so all citizens can have access to this artistic expression from the field of classical music$3. Mexico City is the most intense hub of this activity hosting 12 professional orchestras sponsored by different agencies such as the National Institute of Fine Arts, the Secretary of Culture of the Federal District, The National University, the National Polytechnic Institute, a Delegación Política (Coyoacán) and very few are a kind of private ventures.[citation needed]
Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices. Most of today's Mexican food is based on pre-Columbian traditions, including the Aztecs and Maya, combined with culinary trends introduced by Spanish colonists.
The conquistadores eventually combined their imported diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the native pre-Columbian food, including maize, tomato, vanilla, avocado, guava, papaya, pineapple, chili pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut, and turkey.
Mexican food varies by region, because of local climate and geography and ethnic differences among the indigenous inhabitants and because these different populations were influenced by the Spaniards in varying degrees. The north of Mexico is known for its beef, goat and ostrich production and meat dishes, in particular the well-known Arrachera cut.
Central Mexico's cuisine is largely made up of influences from the rest of the country, but also has its authentics, such as barbacoa, pozole, menudo, tamales, and carnitas.
Southeastern Mexico, on the other hand, is known for its spicy vegetable and chicken-based dishes. The cuisine of Southeastern Mexico also has quite a bit of Caribbean influence, given its geographical location. Veal is common in the Yucatan. Seafood is commonly prepared in the states that border the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, the latter having a famous reputation for its fish dishes, in particular à la veracruzana.
In modern times, other cuisines of the world have become very popular in Mexico, thus adopting a Mexican fusion. For example, sushi in Mexico is often made with a variety of sauces based on mango or tamarind, and very often served with serrano-chili-blended soy sauce, or complemented with vinegar, habanero and chipotle peppers
The most internationally recognized dishes include chocolate, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, tamales and mole among others. Regional dishes include mole poblano, chiles en nogada and chalupas from Puebla; cabrito and machaca from Monterrey, cochinita pibil from Yucatán, Tlayudas from Oaxaca, as well as barbacoa, chilaquiles, milanesas, and many others.
Mexico City hosted the XIX Olympic Games in 1968, making it the first Latin American city to do so.[224] The country has also hosted the FIFA World Cup twice, in 1970 and 1986.[225]
Mexico's most popular sport is association football (soccer). 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.[226][227] Mexico's top clubs are Guadalajara with 11 championships, América with 10 and Toluca with 10.[228] Antonio Carbajal was the first player to appear in five World Cups,[citation needed] and Hugo Sánchez was named best CONCACAF player of the 20th century by IFFHS.[citation needed]
Baseball has traditionally been more popular than soccer in some regions.[citation needed] The Mexican professional 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.[citation needed] Mexico has had several players signed by Major League teams, the most famous of them being Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.[citation needed]
Bullfighting is a popular sport in the country, and almost all large cities have bullrings. Plaza México in Mexico City, is the largest bullring in the world, which seats 55,000 people. Professional wrestling (or Lucha libre in Spanish) is a major crowd draw with national promotions such as AAA, LLL, CMLL and others.
Mexico is an international power in professional boxing (at the amateur level, several Olympic boxing medals have also been won by Mexico).[citation needed] Vicente Saldivar, Rubén Olivares, Salvador Sánchez, Julio César Chávez, Ricardo Lopez and Erik Morales are but a few Mexican fighters who have been ranked among the best of all time.[citation needed]
Notable Mexican athletes include golfer Lorena Ochoa, who was ranked first in the LPGA world rankings prior to her retirement,[229] Ana Guevara, former world champion of the 400 metres (1,300 ft) and Olympic subchampion in Athens 2004, and Fernando Platas, a numerous Olympic medal winning diver.
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.[230] Although all Mexicans are entitled to receive medical care by the state, 50.3 million Mexicans had no medical insurance as of 2002.[231] Efforts to increase the number of people are being made, and the current administration intends to achieve universal health care by 2011.[232][233]
Mexico's medical infrastructure is highly rated for the most part and is usually excellent in major cities,[234][235] 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.[153]
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.[236]
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.[234]
In 2004, the literacy rate was at 97%[237] for youth under the age of 14 and 91% for people over 15,[238] placing Mexico at the 24th place in the world rank accordingly to UNESCO.[239]
The National Autonomous University of Mexico ranks 190th place in the Top 200 World University Ranking published by The Times Higher Education Supplement in 2009.[240] 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 Joutnal among recruiters outside the United States.[241]
Public security is enacted at the three levels of government, each of which has different prerogatives and responsibilities. Local and state police department are primarily in charge of law enforcement, whereas the Mexican Federal Police is in charge of specialized duties. All levels report to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretary of Public Security). The General Attorney's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) is the executive power's agency in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes at the federal level, mainly those related to drug and arms trafficking,[242] espionage, and bank robberies.[243] The PGR operates the Federal Investigations Agency (Agencia Federal de Investigación, AFI) an investigative and preventive agency.[244]
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.[153] 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.[245] By law, all defendants have the rights that assure them fair trials and human treatment; however, the system is overburdened and overwhelmed with several problems.[153]
Despite the efforts of the authorities to fight crime and fraud, few Mexicans have strong confidence in the police or the judicial system, and therefore, few crimes are actually reported by the citizens.[153] The Global Integrity Index which measures the existence and effectiveness of national anti-corruption mechanisms rated Mexico 31st behind Kenya, Thailand, and Russia.[246] 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.[247]
According to a 2012 OECD study 15% of Mexicans report having been a victim of crime in the past year, a figure which among OECD countries is only higher in South Africa.[126] As of 2009 Mexico's homicide rate varied from 10~14 per 100,000 inhabitants; the world average is 10.9 per 100,000 inhabitants.[248] Drug-traffic and narco-related activities are a major concern in Mexico.[249] Mexico's drug war has claimed nearly 50,000 lives.[250] The Mexican drug cartels have as many as 100,000 members.[251]
Current president Felipe Calderón made abating drug-trafficking one of the top priorities of his administration deploying military personnel to cities where drug cartels operate. This move has been criticized by the opposition parties and the National Human Rights Commission for escalating the violence, but its effects have been positively evaluated by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs as having obtained "unprecedented results..." with "many important successes".[252] Since President Felipe Calderón launched a crackdown against cartels in 2006 more than 28,000 alleged criminals have been killed.[253][254] Of the total drug-related violence 4% are innocent people,[255] mostly by-passers and people trapped in between shootings; 90% accounts for criminals and 6% for military personnel and police officers.[255] In October 2007, the president Calderón and US president George W. Bush announced the Mérida Initiative a plan of law enforcement cooperation between the two countries.[256]
Si bien la pobreza había venido disminuyendo a lo largo de los últimos decenios, en fechas recientes ha vuelto a aumentar. Entre 2004 y 2008 la proporción de personas que vivían con menos del 50% del ingreso medio aumentó del 18.4% al 21%. También se registró un crecimiento considerable en las últimas estadísticas oficiales sobre la pobreza absoluta, que tienen en cuenta el acceso a alimentos, salud, educación, vivienda y otros factores. De acuerdo con datos recientes del Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social (CONEVAL), entre 2006 y 2010, la proporción de personas que vivían en la pobreza (extrema y moderada) aumentó del 35% al 46% (lo que equivale a 52 millones de personas). El alto nivel de pobreza absoluta se refleja también en otros indicadores relativos a las condiciones de vida: por ejemplo, la mortalidad infantil, que es tres veces superior al promedio de la OCDE, y la tasa de analfabetismo, que supera a la media del conjunto de la Organización. México es el segundo país con las desigualdades más grandes entre los países de la OCDE, después de Chile, si bien la tendencia ha sido descendente en la última década. Las estadísticas más recientes de la OCDE, que figuran en el informe Divided We Stand (diciembre de 2011), señalan que el 10% más pobre de la población de México percibe alrededor del 1.3% del ingreso total disponible, mientras que el 10% más rico recibe casi el 36%. Aunque México es uno de los pocos países de la OCDE donde las desigualdades han disminuido en las últimas décadas, éstas siguen siendo altas y se han convertido en un obstáculo para el crecimiento y el desarrollo.
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Personal information | |||
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Full name | Davíd Alejandro Vega | ||
Date of birth | (1980-11-17) November 17, 1980 (age 31) | ||
Place of birth | Guiñazu, Argentina | ||
Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in) | ||
Playing position | Midfielder | ||
Club information | |||
Current club | Olimpo | ||
Number | 7 | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
1997–1998 | General Paz Juniors | ||
1998–2004 | Talleres de Córdoba | 33 | (0) |
2004–2005 | Alumni de Villa María | ||
2005–2009 | Defensa y Justicia | ||
2009– | Olimpo | 53 | (5) |
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:27, 29 July 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). |
Davíd Alejandro Vega (born 17 November 1980) is an Argentine football midfielder who plays for Olimpo de Bahía Blanca.
Contents |
Vega began his playing career in the regionalised third division of Argentine football with General Paz Juniors in 1997. He then joined Talleres de Córdoba in 1998 where he played in the Argentine Primera División and in the Copa Mercosur. He was not a regular player for the side making only 23 league appearances for the club in six years.
Following Talleres' relegation at the end of the 2003-04 season he joined minnows Alumni de Villa María in the regionalised 4th division for a season.
In 2005 Vega returned to professional football joining Buenos Aires based side Defensa y Justicia where he became an icon of the club where he played until 2009.
In 2009 he joined Olimpo de Bahía Blanca and became a key player in the side that won the Primera B Nacional and promotion to the Primera División. Vega survived the inevitable team rebuilding for the Primera División and made his return to the Argentine top flight after a six year absence in a 2-1 away defeat to Banfield on 8 August 2010. On 12 February 2010 he scored a famous goal against Banfield in Olimpo's first fixture of the Clausura tournament, hitting a long range volley to equalise the game[1] before Carlos Salom hit an agonising last minute winner for the home team.
Olimpo Primera B Nacional (1): 2009-10
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Persondata | |
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Name | Vega, David Alejandro |
Alternative names | |
Short description | Argentine footballer |
Date of birth | 17 November 1980 |
Place of birth | Guiñazu, Argentina |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
This biographical article related to an Argentine association football midfielder is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |