Mexico

Mexico

Mexico has three colours on its flag-green represents hope and victory. White stands for purity. Red brings to mind bloodshed.


• Borders:

Belize 250 km, Guatemala 962 km, US 3,141 km

• Population:

109,955,400

• GDP per capita:

$8,051.92 per capita

• Capital with population:

Mexico City - 8,735,400
Mexico City is the largest city in the world. It was built on the site of the ancient city of Tenochtitlán.
Mexico is the fourteenth largest country in the world, and the fifth largest in the Americas. It is also the most populated Spanish speaking country in the entire world.

• Did you Know?

• Mexico is filled with vibrant culture and breathtaking landscapes and has a vast history. The country is actually divided into 31 states. 
• The capital is Mexico City. 
• The country is mostly Roman Catholic and 90% practise. 
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Mexico is the third-largest country in Latin America after Brazil and Argentina. 
• It has the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world.
• Mexico has the world’s second-highest number of Catholics. 
• Mexican are the largest group of immigrants in the States.


• The average Mexican only finishes grading 6.


• The country gets frequent earthquakes.


• Mexico’s main industries are food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel petroleum, mining and tourism.
• Thier agricultural products are rice, beans, coffee, fruit and tomatoes.
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Maize-corn has been used for thousands of years and is a big part of the culture.


• Hot chocolate is the sacred drink of the Aztecs.


• The name tomato comes from the Aztec language.
• 

The popular Caesar salad is named after Caesar Cardini.


• Mayans chewed gum from the sapodilla tree thousands of years ago.
• 

Mexico introduced chocolate to the world…yum!
• 

If you love Starbucks, you won’t find one in Mexico. 
• They only have one Ben and Jerry’s too.


• Tequila is the national drink.
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Did you know that Mexico City sinks 10 inches each year?
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The currency of Mexico is the Peso.
 
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At the beginning of the 21st century Mexico’s population was over 100 million!


• Mexico is the largest salt producers in the world. Along with that petroleum is their major export.


• The largest bullfighting ring is in Mexico.


• The poinsettia plant is named after Ambassador Poinsett.


• Primary school starts at 5.  Their Secondary school starts at 11 and lasts until 17.


• The Aztecs believed turquoise would protect them so they decorated their battle shields with it.


• There are fifty species of hummingbirds, several types of pelicans and other species of birds in Mexico.



• If you stand by the pyramid Chichen Itza you will hear a bird singing.
 
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There is a tree called the Kapoc that produces cotton like balls.
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The first astronomer’s convention was held in Mexico in 700A.D.
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Did you know Mexico has the world’s smallest volcano? It is 43 feet tall and has a staircase inside.
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The country has the oldest living tree in the world. It is 40 feet tall.
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During the two equinoxes when the sun rises and sets the pyramid “El Castillo” shows a shadow of a serpent moving along its side! That is a mathematical amazement!


• They are actually decorating swine flu masks in Mexico!
• Chichen Itza, a town surrounded by ancient Mayan ruins, is also the home basketball and soccer. The Great Ball court is where the ancient civilization competed in a game that was a mix of soccer and basketball. The teams were organized much like U.S. teams today, men were picked to represent their area as a team.
• Mexico is the world's largest producer of silver. The area known as the Silver Belt is found from Chihuahua down to Guanajuato. It is said that affordable, even cheaply priced, silver jewelry can be found in this area. In addition, most of the towns in the Silver Belt are very old, built in the colonial times when silver mining was first popular in the Americas. In fact, the colonial city of Zaratacas is built on a ravine. Its crooked, narrowed streets boggle the unaccompanied tourist.

• Bullfighting

Mexico is also known for the very controversial sport of bullfighting. There are 35 arenas in the country, including Mexico City's the Mexico City Arena. Although this may not be a form of entertainment to suit all ages, bullfighting is considered a national sport in Mexico. Don't be fooled by the segment called "baby bullfighting." It is just as gory as the main event.

Bottoms Up

Mexico City is sinking at a rate of six to 8 inches each year. The reason is that it is location over an underground river. Each year as the town pumps water out to hydrate the population, it only compounds the problem.
Mexico hosted the Summer Olympics in 1968 and the FIFA World Cup soccer championship in 1970 and 1986.

• Our thanks to the Conquistadores and the Aztecs for Mexican Food!!

When Spanish conquistadores arrived in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (the ancient city on which Mexico City was built), they found that the people's diet consisted largely of corn-based dishes with chiles and herbs, usually complemented with beans and squash. The conquistadores eventually combined their imported diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the indigenous foods of pre-Columbian Mexico, including chocolate, maize, tomato, vanilla, avocado, papaya, pineapple, chile pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut, fish and turkey.
WALA!!!  Genius!!  Today you can travel across the US from California, Denver, Chicago, and New York.  All have their own spin of how they prepare Mexican food, but never forget the basics came from the Conquistadors and Aztecs

• Some Impressive Folks from Mexico

• Octavio Paz Lozano is considered as being one of the most prestigious, prominent and controversial poets of Spanish American literature in the second half of the twentieth century, a literary giant of contemporary Mexico.

• Luis Miramontes Was a brilliant Mexican chemist known as the co-inventor of the progestin used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.

• Guillermo González Camarena was a Mexican engineer and inventor of the color television. Displaying rare ingenuity, Camarena invented and received a patent for color television transmission system known as the Chromoscopic adapter for television equipment.

• Anthony Quinn was a two-time Academy Award-winning Mexican actor, as well as a painter and writer.

• Richard "Pancho" Gonzalez was the World No. 1 tennis player for an unequalled 8 years in the 1950s and early 1960s.

• Diego Rivera considered the greatest Mexican painter of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera had a profound effect on the international art world. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, New York City.

• Mario J. Molina is one of the most prominent precursors to the discovering of the Antarctic ozone hole. He was jointly awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, along with chemists Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland “for his work in atmospheric chemistry concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.

• Salma Hayek Jiménez  is one of Hollywood's most dazzling leading actresses with Mexican origin

If you have one adventureous bone in your body, visit Mexico!! “Sure, Mexico has its problems. Every place does. But the allure of its charms will cause you to ignore its blemishes. There are countless reasons for the attraction…many people are drawn by the low cost of living, but they stay because they fall in love with the colorful setting and the laidback lifestyle—and the Mexican people.