Portal:Mexico

Mexico
Mexico
	Flag Coat of arms
Location	Southern portion of North America

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The Temple of Warriors at Chichen Itza, Mexico

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¡Bienvenido! Welcome to the Mexico portal

Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. Covering 1,972,550 km² (761,610 sq mi), it is the world's 13th largest country by area; with a population of almost 130 million, it is the 10th most populous country and has the most Spanish speakers in the world. Mexico is organized as a federal constitutional republic comprising 31 states and Mexico City, its capital and largest city, which is among the world's most populous metropolitan areas. The country shares land borders with the United States to the north, with Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; as well as maritime borders with the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the southeast, and the Gulf of Mexico to the east.

Human presence in Pre-Columbian Mexico dates back to 8,000 BC, making it one of the world's six cradles of civilization. The Mesoamerican region hosted various intertwined civilizations, including the Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, and Purepecha. The Aztecs came to dominate the area prior to European contact. In 1521, the Spanish Empire, alongside indigenous allies, conquered the Aztec Empire, establishing the colony of New Spain centered in the former capital, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). Over the next three centuries, Spain expanded its territorial control, enforced Christianity, and spread the Spanish language, with the colony's rich silver deposits fueling its empire. The colonial era ended in the early 19th century with the Mexican War of Independence. (Full article...)

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The Olmec colossal heads are stone representations of human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. They range in height from 1.17 to 3.4 metres (3.8 to 11.2 ft). The heads date from at least 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. All portray mature individuals with fleshy cheeks, flat noses, and slightly-crossed eyes; their physical characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of Tabasco and Veracruz. The backs of the monuments often are flat. The boulders were brought from the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz. Given that the extremely large slabs of stone used in their production were transported over large distances (over 150 kilometres (93 mi)), requiring a great deal of human effort and resources, it is thought that the monuments represent portraits of powerful individual Olmec rulers. Each of the known examples has a distinctive headdress. The heads were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres, but the method and logistics used to transport the stone to these sites remain unclear. They all display distinctive headgear and one theory is that these were worn as protective helmets, maybe worn for war or to take part in a ceremonial Mesoamerican ballgame. The discovery of the first colossal head at Tres Zapotes in 1862 by José María Melgar y Serrano was not well documented nor reported outside of Mexico.

The excavation of the same colossal head by Matthew Stirling in 1938 spurred the first archaeological investigations of Olmec culture. Seventeen confirmed examples are known from four sites within the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Most colossal heads were sculpted from spherical boulders but two from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán were re-carved from massive stone thrones. An additional monument, at Takalik Abaj in Guatemala, is a throne that may have been carved from a colossal head. This is the only known example from outside the Olmec heartland. (Full article...)

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Skyline of Mexico City with the Torre Latinoamericana

Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México, locally [sjuˈða(ð) ðe ˈmexiko] ^ⓘ; abbr.: CDMX; Central Nahuatl: Mexihco Hueyaltepetl, Nahuatl pronunciation: [meːˈʃiʔko wejaːlˈtepeːt͡ɬ]; Otomi: 'Monda) is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. Mexico City is one of the most important cultural and financial centers in the world. It is located in the Valley of Mexico within the high Mexican central plateau, at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,350 ft). The city has 16 boroughs or demarcaciones territoriales, which are in turn divided into neighborhoods or colonias.

The 2020 population for the city proper was 9,209,944, with a land area of 1,495 square kilometers (577 sq mi). According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the population of Greater Mexico City is 21,804,515, which makes it the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the world, the second-largest urban agglomeration in the Western Hemisphere (behind São Paulo, Brazil), and the largest Spanish-speaking city (city proper) in the world. Greater Mexico City has a GDP of $411 billion in 2011, which makes it one of the most productive urban areas in the world. The city was responsible for generating 15.8% of Mexico's GDP, and the metropolitan area accounted for about 22% of the country's GDP. If it were an independent country in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America. (Full article...)

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Ex voto [San Sebastián] (English: Votive Offering [Saint Sebastian]) (1912), by Ángel Zárraga, at the Museo Nacional de Arte

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The Maya Codex of Mexico (MCM) is a Maya screenfold codex manuscript of a pre-Columbian type. Long known as the Grolier Codex or Sáenz Codex, in 2018 it was officially renamed the Códice Maya de México (CMM) by the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico. It is one of only four known extant Maya codices, and the only one that still resides in the Americas.

The MCM first appeared in a private collection in the 1960s and was shown at "The Maya Scribe and His World", an exhibition held at the Grolier Club in New York City in 1971, hence its former name. An almanac that charts the movements of the planet Venus, it originally consisted of twenty pages; the first eight and the last two are now missing. Folio 8 has the tallest fragment, measuring 19 centimeters (7.5 in), and its pages are typically 12.5 centimeters (4.9 in) wide. The red frame lines at the bottom of pages four through eight indicates that the dimensions were once substantially taller, and that the scribe prepared a space for text under the figure on each page. Accordingly, the manuscript would once have measured 250 centimeters (98.4 in), roughly the size of the Dresden Codex. (Full article...)

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Official portrait, 2000

Vicente Fox Quesada (Latin American Spanish: [biˈsente ˈfoks keˈsaða]; born 2 July 1942) is a Mexican businessman and politician who served as the 62nd president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. After campaigning as a right-wing populist, Fox was elected president on the National Action Party (PAN) ticket in the 2000 election. He became the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since 1929, and the first elected from an opposition party since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. Fox won the election with 43 percent of the vote.

As president, Fox continued the neoliberal economic policies his predecessors from the PRI had adopted since the 1980s. The first half of his administration saw a further shift of the federal government to the right, strong relations with the United States and George W. Bush, unsuccessful attempts to introduce a value-added tax to medicines and build an airport in Texcoco, and a diplomatic conflict with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The murder of human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa in 2001 called into question the Fox administration's commitment to breaking with the authoritarian past of the PRI era. (Full article...)

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Frida Kahlo Porfirio Díaz Juan Diego Emiliano Zapata Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Cantinflas Pancho Villa Antonio López de Santa Anna Chespirito Agustín de Iturbide Maximilian I of Mexico Benito Juárez Carlos Slim Diego Rivera Francisco I. Madero Juana Inés de la Cruz Carlos Salinas de Gortari Miguel de la Madrid

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In the news

2 July 2024 – Panama–United States relations: Panama and the United States sign a deal to reduce the flow of illegal immigration to the southern United States border through the Darién Gap, with the United States covering the costs of repatriating migrants who enter Panama illegally. (DW)
2 July 2024 –: The United States Department of Homeland Security deports 116 Chinese migrants back to China to deter illegal migration across the Mexico–United States border, representing the nation's first "large charter flight" deportation in the past five years. (AP)
1 July 2024 – Mexican drug war: Mexican authorities discover the bodies of nineteen men who were shot dead in and near a dump truck abandoned in La Concordia, Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border. (AP)
19 June 2024 – 2024 Atlantic hurricane season: Tropical Storm Alberto forms in the Gulf of Mexico, the first storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. (USA Today)
18 June 2024 –: The United States Department of Agriculture announces a temporary suspension on imports of mangoes and avocados from Michoacán, Mexico, after an incident that reportedly caused security concerns for safety inspectors. (ABC News)
18 June 2024 – 2024 New Mexico wildfires: At least one person dies, over 500 structures are damaged or destroyed, and several thousand people are forced to evacuate from Ruidoso, New Mexico, United States, after the South Fork Fire burns over 15,276 acres of land. (AP)

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A Mexican-style burrito served with some limes

A burrito (English: /bəˈriːtoʊ/, Spanish: [buˈrito] ^ⓘ) in Mexico is, historically, a regional name, among others, for what is known as a taco, a tortilla filled with food, in other parts of the country. The term burrito was regional, specifically from Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí and Sinaloa, for what is known as a taco in Mexico City and surrounding areas, and codzito in Yucatán and Quintana Roo. Due to the cultural influence of Mexico City, the term taco became the default, and the meaning of terms like burrito and codzito were forgotten, leading many people to create new meanings and folk histories.

In modern times, it is considered by many as a different dish in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine that took form in Ciudad Juárez, consisting of a flour tortilla wrapped into a sealed cylindrical shape around various ingredients. In Central and Southern Mexico, burritos are still considered tacos, and are known as “tacos de harina” (wheat flour tacos). The tortilla is sometimes lightly grilled or steamed to soften it, make it more pliable, and allow it to adhere to itself. Burritos are often eaten by hand, as their tight wrapping keeps the ingredients together. Burritos can also be served "wet", i.e., covered in a savory and spicy sauce, when they would be eaten with a fork and knife. (Full article...)

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Mexican cuisine Cuisine of Chiapas Cuisine of Veracruz Crema (dairy product) Aztec cuisine Oaxacan cuisine Mole sauce Guacamole Enchilada Mexican breads Nachos Mexican street food Pozole Cheeses of Mexico Taco Pan dulce Mexican wine Sopa de fideo Tostilocos Beer in Mexico Calavera Champurrado Mexican Coke Menudo (soup)

General images

The following are images from various Mexico-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Battle of Centla, the first time a horse was used in battle in a war in the Americas. Mural in the Palacio Municipal of Paraíso, Tabasco (from History of Mexico)
Image 2Ignacio Comonfort significant role during the tumultuous period of the mid-19th century, including the Reform War and early stages of the Mexican Republic's transition. (from History of Mexico)
Image 3President Felipe Calderón with President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (from History of Mexico)
Image 4General Santa Anna known for his leadership during the Texas Revolution, Mexican-American War, and turbulent periods of Mexican history marked by political instability and territorial losses. (from History of Mexico)
Image 5Three world leaders: (background, left to right) Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, observe the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. (from History of Mexico)
Image 6President Vicente Fox with Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh (from History of Mexico)
Image 7Comanchería, territory controlled by the Comanches, prior to 1850 (from History of Mexico)
Image 8Colossal atlantids, pyramid B, Toltec, Tula, Mexico, ca. 900–1180 AD (from History of Mexico)
Image 9Club América vs Cruz Azul at the Estadio Azteca. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 10Gilberto Bosques Saldívar took the initiative to rescue tens of thousands of Jews and Spanish Republican exiles from being deported to Nazi Germany or Spain. (from History of Mexico)
Image 11A statue of a Chichimeca Warrior in the city of Querétaro (from History of Mexico)
Image 12Liberación (Liberation). Jorge González Camarena. 1908. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 13President Carranza in La Cañada, Querétaro, January 22, 1916. (from History of Mexico)
Image 14Porfirio Díaz dominant Mexican political and military figure who served as President for much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized by his long rule and the modernization efforts known as the Porfiriato. (from History of Mexico)
Image 15Making cigarettes in the El Buen Tono factory, Mexico City (from History of Mexico)
Image 16Portrait and book by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Baroque poet and writer. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 17The Execution of Emperor Maximilian, 19 June 1867. Gen. Tomás Mejía, left, Maximilian, center, Gen. Miguel Miramón, right. Painting by Édouard Manet 1868. (from History of Mexico)
Image 18Cabinet Officers of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (left) and of Enrique Peña Nieto (right). (from History of Mexico)
Image 19Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (from History of Mexico)
Image 20Buffalo Soldiers of the American 10th Cavalry Regiment taken prisoner during the Battle of Carrizal, Mexico in 1916. (from History of Mexico)
Image 21El Chapo in US custody after his extradition from Mexico. (from History of Mexico)
Image 22Chacmool, Maya, from the Platform of the Eagles, Chichen Itza, Mexico, ca. 800–90 CE (from History of Mexico)
Image 23Viceroy José de Iturrigaray (from History of Mexico)
Image 24A unit of Cristeros preparing for battle. (from History of Mexico)
Image 25Victoriano Huerta, ruler of Mexico from 1913 to 1914 (from History of Mexico)
Image 26Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, Maya, lintel 24 of temple 23, Yaxchilan, Mexico, ca. 725 ce. (from History of Mexico)
Image 27Equestrian statue of Charles IV in Mexico City (from History of Mexico)
Image 28Plutarco Elías Calles politician and revolutionary general who served as President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, known for his role in shaping modern Mexico through reforms and the consolidation of state power. (from History of Mexico)
Image 29Surrender of Santa Anna by William Henry Huddle shows the Mexican president and general surrendering to a wounded Sam Houston in 1836. (from History of Mexico)
Image 30President Obregón. Note that he lost his right arm in the Battle of Celaya (1915), earning him the nickname of Manco de Celaya ("the one-armed man of Celaya"). (from History of Mexico)
Image 31Exconvento (Ex-convent), by José María Velasco. 1860. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 32La huida a Egipto (The Flight into Egypt). Miguel Cabrera, around 1700. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 331985 Mexico City earthquake (from History of Mexico)
Image 34April 2, 1867. Entry of General Porfirio Díaz into Puebla. (from History of Mexico)
Image 35Mexican Army troops in the Zócalo in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. (from History of Mexico)
Image 36Murals of Bonampak (between 580 and 800 AD) (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 37Agustín de Iturbide the first Emperor of Mexico in 1822 after leading the Mexican War of Independence against Spain, but his reign was short-lived, lasting only until 1823 when he abdicated, and Mexico transitioned to a republic. (from History of Mexico)
Image 38Sawdust carpet made during "The night no one sleeps" in Huamantla, Tlaxcala (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 39"The Torture of Cuauhtémoc", a 19th-century painting by Leandro Izaguirre (from History of Mexico)
Image 40Dining table, painted between 1857 y 1859, oleo sobre tela (oil on canvas) by Agustín Arrieta (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 41Mexico City street market (from History of Mexico)
Image 42José Pablo Moncayo known for his orchestral works, particularly "Huapango" (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 43Pear, Quince and Psidium cajeta. In 2010 declared the Bicentennial Dessert of Mexico. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 44A map of Mexico 1845 after Texas annexation by the U.S. (from History of Mexico)
Image 45Olmec colossal (from History of Mexico)
Image 46Toltec carving representing the Aztec Eagle, found in Veracruz, 10th–13th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (from History of Mexico)
Image 47The first Braceros arrive in Los Angeles by train in 1942. Photograph by Dorothea Lange. (from History of Mexico)
Image 48U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto during their meet at the White House following Peña Nieto's election victory. (from History of Mexico)
Image 49Spanish and Portuguese empires in 1790 (from History of Mexico)
Image 50Subcomandante Marcos (from History of Mexico)
Image 51Singer and actor Pedro Infante, one of the leading figures of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 52Battle of Tampico (1829) a conflict between Mexican forces led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna and Spanish loyalists attempting to reconquer Mexico, resulting in a decisive Mexican victory that further solidified Mexico's independence from Spain. (from History of Mexico)
Image 53Plaza de las Tres Culturas (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 54The Castillo, Chichen Itza, Mexico, ca. 800–900 CE (from History of Mexico)
Image 55Battle of Miahuatlán took place on 3 October 1866. The liberal victory at Miahuatlán was significant because it allowed them to consolidate their control over southern Mexico and advance their agenda of liberal reforms (from History of Mexico)
Image 56Distribution of linguistic groups around 1500. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 57Fireworks in Mexico City for New Year's Day. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 58La leyenda de los volcanes (The legend of the volcanoes). Saturnino Herrán. 1910-1912. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 59Mexican Central Railway train at station, Mexico (from History of Mexico)
Image 60Cerro del Cubilete ("Dice Cup Hill"). At the top of the hill is the Cristo Rey (Christ the King) statue. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 61General Pancho Villa at the entrance of Ojinaga (from History of Mexico)
Image 62Logo of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, with the colors of the Mexican flag (from History of Mexico)
Image 63Teotihuacan view of the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun, from the Pyramid of the Moon (from History of Mexico)
Image 64Entry into Mexico City by the Mexican army (from History of Mexico)
Image 65Chihuahua Cathedral and a monument to the city's founder, Antonio Deza y Ulloa (from History of Mexico)
Image 66Variegated maize ears (from History of Mexico)
Image 67"The Fall of the Alamo" by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (from History of Mexico)
Image 68Logo of Nacional Financiera (NAFIN), the state development bank. (from History of Mexico)
Image 69Modern group monument of Cortés, Doña Marina, and their mestizo son Martín (from History of Mexico)
Image 70Goddess, mural painting from the Tetitla apartment complex at Teotihuacan, Mexico, 650–750 CE (from History of Mexico)
Image 71The Zócalo (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 72Panel 3 from Cancuen, Guatemala, representing king T'ah 'ak' Cha'an (from History of Mexico)
Image 73Lázaro Cárdenas mural (from History of Mexico)

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