墨西哥

mò xī gē Mexico shǒudōu:mò xī gē chéng guógūdàimǎ: mx

墨西哥

　　mò xī gē hé zhòng guó（ TheUnitedStatesofMexico,LosEstadosUnidosMexicanos）
　　
　　 guó qí： chéng cháng fāng xíng， cháng yǔ kuān zhī bǐ wéi ７ ∶ ４。 cóng zuǒ zhì yòu yóu lǜ、 bái、 hóng sān gè píng xíng xiāng děng de shù cháng fāng xíng zǔ chéng， bái sè bù fēn zhōng jiān huì yòu mò xī gē guó huī。 lǜ sè xiàng zhēng dú lì hé xī wàng， bái sè xiàng zhēng hé píng yǔ zōng jiào xìn yǎng， hóng sè xiàng zhēng guó jiā de tǒng yī。
　　
　　 guó huī： wéi yī zhǐ zhǎn chì de xióng yīng zuǐ lǐ diāo zhe yī tiáo shé， yī zhǐ zhǎo zhuā zhe shé shēn， bié yī zhǐ zhǎo cǎi zài cóng hú zhōng de yán shí shàng shēngzhǎng chū de xiān rén zhǎng shàng。 zhè zǔ tú 'àn miáo huì liǎo mò xī gē rén de zǔ xiān 'ā cí tè kè rén jiàn guó de lì shǐ。 xiāng chuán zài hěn jiǔ yǐ qián， tài yáng shén wèile zhěng jiù sì chù liú làng de mò xī gē rén zǔ xiān 'ā cí tè kè rén， tuō mèng gěi tā men， zhǐ yào jiàn dào yīng diāo zhe shé zhàn zài xiān rén zhǎng shàng， jiù zài nà dì fāng dìng jū xià lái。 jū zhù zài mò xī gē běi bù dì qū de 'ā zī tè kè rén zài tài yáng shén de qǐ shì xià， zhǎo dào tú 'àn zhōng suǒ miáo huì de dì fāng dìng jū xià lái， jiàn lì liǎo mò xī gē chéng。 xiān rén zhǎng shì mò xī gē de guó huā， xiàng zhēng zhuómò xī gē mín zú jí qí wán qiáng de dǒu zhēng jīng shén。 tú 'àn zhōng xià fāng wéi xiàng shù hé yuè guì shù zhī yè， xiàng zhēng lì liàng、 zhōng chéng yǔ hé píng。
　　
　　 mò xī gē shì xiān rén zhǎng de gù xiāng， zài xiān rén zhǎng de 2000 duō gè pǐn zhǒng zhōng， mò xī gē yòu yī bàn yǐ shàng， yīn cǐ xiǎng yòu " xiān rén zhǎng wáng guó " de měi yù。
　　
　　 yǔ yán： xī bān yá yǔ
　　
　　 huò bì： mò xī gē bǐ suǒ（ MexicanPeso)
　　
　　 shí chā： bǐ gé lín ní zhì shí jiān wǎn 6 xiǎo shí； bǐ běi jīng shí jiān wǎn liǎo 14 xiǎo shí。
　　
　　 guó niǎo： xióng yīng。 mò xī gē rén jiāng “ xióng yīng ” shì wéi zǔ guó de xiàng zhēng， mò xī gē de guó huī tú 'àn wéi yī zhǐ zuǐ lǐ diāo zhe shé de xióng yīng zhù lì zài xiān rén zhǎng shàng， tā de guó qí zhōng jiān yòu yī xióng yīng， tā de yìng bì shàng yě shì xióng yīng de biāo zhì。
　　
　　 guó huā： xiān rén zhǎng、 dà lì jú héng héng（ jú kē）
　　
　　 guó shí： hēi yào shí
　　
　　 dú lì rì：９ yuè １６ rì（１８１０ nián）
　　
　　 guó jiā zhèng yào： zǒng tǒng fèi lì pèi · dé hè sū sī · kǎ 'ěr dé lóng · yī nuò huò sà（ FelipedeJesúsCalderónHinojosa），２００６ nián１２ yuè１ rì jiù zhí， rèn qī６ nián。
　　
　　 zì rán dì lǐ： miàn jī１ ,９６４ , ３７５ píng fāng gōng lǐ， shì lā měi dì３ dà guó， wéi zhōng měi zhōu zuì dà de guó jiā。 wèi yú běi měi zhōu nán bù， lā dīng měi zhōu xī běi duān， shì nán měi zhōu、 běi měi zhōu lù lù jiāo tōng de bì jīng zhī dì， sù chēng“ lù shàng qiáo liáng”。 běi lín měi guó， nán jiē wēi dì mǎ lā hé bó lì cí， dōng bīn mò xī gē wān hé jiā lè bǐ hǎi， xī lín tài píng yáng hé jiā lì fú ní yà wān。 hǎi 'àn xiàn cháng１１１２２ gōng lǐ。 qí zhōng tài píng yáng hǎi 'àn７８２８ gōng lǐ， mò xī gē wān、 jiā lè bǐ hǎi 'àn３２９４ gōng lǐ。 yòu３００ wàn píng fāng gōng lǐ jīng jì zhuān shǔ qū hé３５ .８ wàn píng fāng gōng lǐ dà lù jià。 zhù míng de tè wàn tè pèi kè dì xiá jiāng běi měi zhōu hé zhōng měi zhōu lián chéng yī piàn。
　　
　　 quán guó miàn jī５／６ zuǒ yòu wéi gāo yuán hé shān dì。 mò xī gē gāo yuán jū zhōng， liǎng cè wéi dōng xī mǎ dé léi shān， yǐ nán shì xīn huǒ shān shān mài hé nán mǎ dé léi shān mài， dōng nán wéi dì shì píng tǎn de yóu kǎ tǎn bàn dǎo， yán hǎi duō xiá cháng píng yuán。 quán guó zuì gāo fēng 'ào lǐ sà bā huǒ shān， hǎi bá５７００ mǐ。 zhù yào hé liú yòu bù lā wò hé、 bā 'ěr sà sī hé hé yà jī hé。 húpō duō fēn bù zài zhōng bù gāo yuán de shān jiān pén dì zhōng， zuì dà de shì chá pà lā hú， miàn jī１１０９ píng fāng gōng lǐ。 mò xī gē qì hòu fù zá duō yàng。 yán hǎi hé dōng nán bù píng yuán shǔ rè dài qì hòu， nián píng jūn qì wēn wéi２５ héng２７．７ ℃； mò xī gē gāo yuán zhōng nián qì hòu wēn hé， shān jiān pén dì wéi２４℃， dì shì jiào gāo dì qū１７℃ zuǒ yòu； xī běi nèi lù wéi dà lù xìng qì hòu。 dà bù fēn dì qū quán nián fēn hàn、 yǔ liǎng jì， yǔ jì jí zhōng liǎo quán nián７５％ de jiàng shuǐ liàng。 nián píng jūn jiàng shuǐ liàng xī běi bù bù zú２５０ háo mǐ， nèi dì wéi７５０ héng１０００ háo mǐ， mò xī gē wān yán 'àn zhōng bù yǔ tài píng yáng yán 'àn nán bù wéi１０００ héng２０００ háo mǐ。 yīn mò jìng nèi duō wéi gāo yuán dì xíng， dōng wú yán hán， xià wú kù shǔ， sì jì wàn mù cháng qīng， gù xiǎng yòu“ gāo yuán míng zhū” de měi chēng。
　　
　　 rén kǒu：１．０６９ yì（２００６ nián dǐ）， zài lā měi jǐn cì yú bā xī， jū dì 'èr wèi， wèi jū shì jiè dì shí yī wèi。 qí zhōng yìn 'ōu hùn xuè zhǒng rén zhàn９０％， yìn dì 'ān rén zhàn１０％， hái yòu bái zhǒng rén děng。 guān fāng yǔ yán wéi xī bān yá yǔ， yòu８％ de rén jiǎng yìn dì 'ān yǔ。 jū mín zhōng９２．６％ xìn fèng tiān zhù jiào，３．３％ xìn fèng jī dū jiào xīn jiào。
　　
　　 shǒu dū： mò xī gē chéng (MexicoCity， CiudaddeMexico), miàn jī１５２５ píng fāng gōng lǐ， rén kǒu２０００ wàn（ hán wèi xīng chéng）， hǎi bá２２４０ mǐ。５ yuè píng jūn qì wēn１２－２６℃，１ yuè píng jūn qì wēn６－１９℃。
　　
　　 xíng zhèng qū huá： fēn wéi３１ gè zhōu hé１ gè lián bāng qū（ mò xī gē chéng）， zhōu xià shè shì（ zhèn）（２３９４ gè）、 cūn。 gè zhōu míng chēng rú xià： ā guā sī kǎ lián tè sī、 běi xià jiā lì fú ní yà、 nán xià jiā lì fú ní yà、 kǎn pèi qiē、 kē 'ā wéi lā、 kē lì mǎ、 qià pà sī、 qí wǎ wǎ、 dù lán gē、 guā nà huá tuō、 gé léi luó、 yī dá 'ěr gē、 hā lì sī kē、 mò xī gē、 mǐ què kěn、 mò léi luò sī、 nà yà lǐ tè、 xīn lāi 'áng、 wǎ hā kǎ、 pǔ 'āi bù lā、 kè léi tǎ luó、 jīn tǎ nà luó 'ào、 shèng lù yì sī bō tuō xī、 qiāo mén qià ⑺ kuān dào ⑺ dōng gū pí⑺ yì liǎo gěng ⑻ jī gū ɡ ⑽ だ sì chéng gěng ⒂ ráng gěng ⑷ miē gěng ?“ shì jiè yín dū” héng héng mò xī gē tǎ sī kē mò xī gē dì 'èr dà chéng shì guā dá lā hā lā
　　
　　 mò xī gē chéng gǎi gé dà dào shàng de dú lì jì niàn bēi。
　　
　　 lì shǐ
　　 mò xī gē shì měi zhōu dà lù yìn dì 'ān rén gǔ lǎo wén míng zhōng xīn zhī yī， wén míng yú shì de mǎ yǎ wén huà、 tuō 'ěr tè kè wén huà hé 'ā cí tè kè wén huà jūn wéi mò xī gē gǔ yìn dì 'ān rén chuàng zào。 gōng yuán qián xīng jiàn yú mò xī gē chéng běi de tài yáng jīn zì tǎ hé yuè liàng jīn zì tǎ shì zhè yī càn làn gǔ lǎo wén huà de dài biǎo。 tài yáng hé yuè liàng jīn zì tǎ suǒ zài de tè 'ào dì wǎ kǎn gǔ chéng bèi lián hé guó jiào kē wén zǔ zhì xuān bù wéi rén lèi gòng tóng yí chǎn。 mò xī gē gǔ yìn dì 'ān rén péi yù chū liǎo yù mǐ， gù mò xī gē yòu“ yù mǐ de gù xiāng” zhī chēng。 mò xī gē zài bù tóng lì shǐ shí qī hái yíng dé liǎo“ xiān rén zhǎng de guó dù”、“ bái yín wáng guó”、“ fú zài yóu hǎi shàng de guó jiā” děng měi yù。１５１９ nián xī bān yá zhí mín zhě rù qīn mò xī gē，１５２１ nián mò lún wéi xī bān yá zhí mín dì。１５２２ nián zài mò xī gē chéng jiàn lì xīn xī bān yá zǒng dū qū。１８１０ nián９ yuè１６ rì， mǐ gé 'ěr · yī dá 'ěr gē－ kē sī dì lì yà shén fù zài duō luò léi sī chéng fā dòng qǐ yì， kāi shǐ liǎo dú lì zhàn zhēng（１８１１ nián１ yuè zhàn bài， yī dá 'ěr gē bèi hài， wéi jì niàn zhè cì qǐ yì， hòu dìng９ yuè１６ rì wéi mò xī gē dú lì rì）。１８２１ nián８ yuè２４ rì xuān bù dú lì。 yì nián５ yuè yī tú 'ěr bǐ dé jiàn lì“ mò xī gē dì guó”。１８２３ nián１２ yuè２ rì xuān bù chéng lì mò xī gē gòng hé guó。１８２４ nián１０ yuè zhèng shì chéng lì lián bāng gòng hé guó。１８４６ nián měi guó fā dòng qīn mò zhàn zhēng。１８４８ nián２ yuè mò、 měi qiān dìng hé yuē， mò bèi pò jiāng běi bù２３０ wàn píng fāng gōng lǐ de tǔ dì gē ràng gěi měi guó。１８５８ nián huá léi sī rèn zǒng tǒng。１８６７ nián fǎ guó、 yīng guó、 xī bān yá děng rù qīn zhě bèi gǎn chū mò xī gē。１８７６ nián dí yà sī jué qǔ zhèng quán。１９１０ nián zī chǎn jiē jí mín zhù gé mìng bào fā， tóng nián１１ yuè２０ rì fā dòng wǔ zhuāng qǐ yì，１９１１ nián tuī fān dí yà sī zhèng quán。１９１４、１９１６ nián měi guó céng pài jūn rù qīn mò， liǎng guó yī dù duàn jiāo。１９１７ nián bān bù zī chǎn jiē jí mín zhù xiàn fǎ， xuān bù guó míng wéi mò xī gē hé zhòng guó。 gé mìng zhì dù dǎng cóng 1929 nián qǐ lián xù zhí zhèng 71 nián。 2000 nián 7 yuè， guó jiā xíng dòng dǎng yíng dé dà xuǎn， tóng nián 12 yuè shàng tái zhí zhèng。
　　
　　 zhèng zhì
　　１８２４ nián bān bù dú lì hòu dì yī bù xiàn fǎ。１９１７ nián２ yuè５ rì bān bù liǎo qiáng huà guó jiā yǔ zhèng fǔ quán lì de《 mò xī gē hé zhòng guó xiàn fǎ》。 gāi xiàn fǎ yú tóng nián５ yuè１ rì qǐ shēng xiào bìng zhí xíng zhì jīn。 cǐ qī jiān céng jìn xíng guò jìn２００ cì xiū gǎi。 gēn jù xiàn fǎ guī dìng， guó jiā wéi zǒng tǒng zhì de lián bāng gòng hé tǐ zhì， lì fǎ、 xíng zhèng hé sī fǎ sān quán fēn lì； zǒng tǒng yóu zhí jiē pǔ xuǎn chǎn shēng， rèn qī６ nián， zhōng shēn bù dé zài rèn。 zǒng tǒng shì guó jiā yuán shǒu hé zhèng fǔ shǒu nǎo， zhí zhǎng guó jiā zuì gāo xíng zhèng quán。 yóu cān zhòng liǎng yuàn zǔ chéng de lián bāng yì huì shì guó jiā lì fǎ jī gòu， zhù yào zhí quán yòu： pī zhǔn tiáo yuē jí zǒng tǒng guān yú fǎ yuàn、 cái zhèng、 wài jiāo、 jūn duì gāo jí guān yuán rèn mìng； xiū gǎi xiàn fǎ； pī zhǔn zǒng tǒng chū fǎng； bì yào shí rèn mìng lín shí zǒng tǒng děng。 cān yì yuàn１２８ míng yì yuán， yóu３１ gè zhōu hé lián bāng qū gè４ míng zǔ chéng， rèn qī６ nián。 zhòng yì yuàn５００ míng yì yuán， qí zhōng３００ xí tōng guò duō shù piào xuǎn jǔ chǎn shēng，２００ xí 'àn zhèng dǎng bǐ lì dài biǎo zhì chǎn shēng， rèn qī３ nián。 nèi gé shì zhèng fǔ xíng zhèng jī gòu， yóu zǒng tǒng zhí jiē lǐng dǎo。 mò gè zhōu zhì dìng běn zhōu xiàn fǎ， dàn zhōu zhèng fǔ quán lì shòu guó jiā gēn běn fǎ yuē shù。１９９１ nián１２ yuè， yì huì tōng guò duì xiàn fǎ xiū gǎi， xuān bù tíng zhǐ zì xiàn fǎ shēng xiào yǐ lái shí xíng de tǔ dì gǎi gé， shí xíng cūn shè tǔ dì sī yòu huà； chéng rèn jiào huì xiǎng yòu gōng mín tuán tǐ fǎ rén dì wèi。
　　
　　 jīng jì
　　 mò xī gē shì lā měi jīng jì dà guó， guó nèi shēng chǎn zǒng zhí jū lā měi dì yī wèi。 quán guó yuē１９７ wàn píng fāng gōng lǐ de tǔ dì zhōng， liù fēn zhī wǔ shì gāo yuán hé shān dì。 kuàng yè zī yuán fēng fù， dì xià tiān rán qì、 jīn、 yín、 tóng、 qiān、 xīn děng１５ zhǒng kuàng chǎn pǐn de yùn cáng liàng wèi jū shì jiè qián liè， zhù yào yòu shí yóu、 tiān rán qì、 jīn、 yín、 tóng、 qiān、 xīn、 shēn、 bì、 gǒng、 gé、 tī、 lín huī shí、 tiān qīng shí、 shí mò、 liú huáng、 yíng shí、 zhòng jīng shí、 fú shí děng。 qí zhōng bái yín de chǎn liàng duō nián lái jū shì jiè zhī shǒu， sù yòu“ bái yín wáng guó” zhī chēng。 bì、 gé、 gǒng chǎn liàng zhàn shì jiè dì 'èr wèi， zhòng jīng shí、 tī chǎn liàng jū shì jiè dì sān wèi， diǎn、 shuǐ yín jū dì sì wèi。 jǐ tàn míng de shí yóu chǔ liàng wéi２０５ yì tǒng wèi（ jù２００４ nián３ yuè７ rì xīn huá shè xìn xī）。 tiān rán qì chǔ liàng wéi７００ yì lì fāng mǐ， shì lā měi dì yī dà shí yóu shēng chǎn guó hé chū kǒu guó， jū shì jiè dì１３ wèi， zài mò guó mín jīng jì zhōng zhàn yòu zhòng yào de dì wèi。 sēn lín fù gài miàn jī wéi４５００ wàn gōng qǐng， yuē zhàn lǐng tǔ zǒng miàn jī de１／４。 shuǐ lì zī yuán yuē１０００ wàn qiān wǎ。 hǎi chǎn zhù yào yòu duì xiā、 jīn qiāng yú、 shā dīng yú、 bào yú děng， qí zhōng duì xiā hé bào yú shì chuán tǒng de chū kǒu chǎn pǐn。 mò de gōng kuàng yè mén lèi bǐ jiào qí quán， dàn fā zhǎn bù píng héng。 zhì zào yè zhàn zhòng yào dì wèi， yuán xiān bù jǐng qì de jiàn zhù、 fǎng zhì、 fú zhuāng yè kāi shǐ huī fù， yùn shū shè bèi、 shuǐ ní、 huà gōng chǎn pǐn、 diàn lì gè yè chí xù zēngzhǎng。 shí yóu chǎn liàng jì xù bǎo chí shì jiè dì sì wèi， mò xī gē shì shì jiè zhù yào fēng mì shēng chǎn guó， nián chǎn liàng dá６０００ wàn gōng jīn， jū shì jiè dì sì wèi。 shēng chǎn de fēng mì９０％ yòng yú chū kǒu， měi nián cǐ xiàng wài huì shōu rù yuē dá７０００ wàn měi yuán。
　　
　　 quán guó yòu kě gēng dì３５６０ wàn gōng qǐng， yǐ gēng dì２３００ wàn gōng qǐng。 zhù yào nóng zuò wù yòu yù mǐ、 xiǎo mài、 gāo liáng、 dà dòu， shuǐ dào、 mián huā、 kā fēi、 kě kě děng。 mò xī gē gǔ yìn dì 'ān rén péi yù chū liǎo yù mǐ， suǒ yǐ gāi guó xiǎng yòu“ yù mǐ de gù xiāng” de měi yù。 yòu“ lǜ sè jīn zǐ” bié chēng de jiàn má yě shì mò xī gē lǐng shì jiè fēng sāo de nóng chǎn pǐn， qí chǎn liàng jū shì jiè qián liè。 quán guó mù chǎng zhàn dì７９００ wàn gōng qǐng， zhù yào sì yǎng niú、 zhū、 yáng、 mǎ、 jī děng， bù fēn xùchǎn pǐn chū kǒu。 mò zhù yào chū kǒu shāng pǐn wéi yuán yóu、 qì chē、 qì chē pèi jiàn、 kā fēi dòu、 shū cài、 gāng cái jí huà gōng、 jī xiè chǎn pǐn。 jìn kǒu shāng pǐn wéi qì chē cái liào、 diàn qì、 huà gōng chǎn pǐn、 shí pǐn、 yǐn liào、 zhǐ jiāng、 fǎng zhì、 shí huà chǎn pǐn。 yōu jiǔ de lì shǐ wén huà、 dú tè de gāo yuán fēng qíng hé rén wén jǐng guān yǐ jí màn cháng de hǎi 'àn xiàn wéi mò xī gē fā zhǎn lǚ yóu tí gōng liǎo dé tiān dú hòu de yòu lì tiáo jiàn， jū lā měi dì yī de lǚ yóu yè yǐ chéng wéi mò xī gē zhù yào chuàng huì lái yuán zhī yī。２００１ nián de lǚ yóu shōu rù dá８４ yì měi yuán。 mò xī gē chéng、 ā kǎ pǔ 'ěr kē、 dì huá nà、 kǎn kūn děng jūn wéi zhù míng lǚ yóu shèng dì。
　　
　　 xīn wén chū bǎn
　　 quán guó yuē yòu３００ jiā bào zhǐ hé１００ duō zhǒng quán guó xìng kān wù。 píng jūn měi bǎi rén dìng bào１４ .４ fèn。 zhù yào bào kān yòu１９２９ nián chuàng kān de《 guó mín bào》， xiàn wéi guān fāng bào zhǐ， fā xíng liàng３ .８ wàn yú fèn、１９１７ nián chuàng kān de《 zhì shàng bào》、《 zhì shàng wǎn bào》、《 mò xī gē tài yáng bào》、《 jīn róng bào》、《 hū shēng bào》、《 xīn wén bào》、《 yǔ zhòu bào》、《 xiāo xī bào》、《 rì bào》， zài qīng nián hé dà xué shēng zhōng jiào yòu yǐng xiǎng、《 mò xī gē xiān qū bào》、１９５３ nián chuàng kān de《 yǒng jiǔ》 zhōu kān、《 jìn chéng》 zhōu kān、《 chōng jī》 zhōu kān。 mò xī gē tōng xùn shè wéi guān fāng tōng xùn shè， shǔ yú nèi zhèng bù。 quán guó pī zhǔn jiàn lì guǎng bō diàn tái１３６５ jiā（１９９７ nián） , diàn shì tái５５６ jiā（ bāo kuò yòu xiàn diàn shì tái）， tè lāi wéi sà hé 'ā cí tè kè wéi mò liǎng dà diàn shì jí tuán， yōng yòu quán guó９５％ yǐ shàng de diàn shì guān zhòng。 mò měi nián chū bǎn１ .２ wàn zhǒng shū kān， zǒng fā xíng liàng dá２ .５ yì cè。
　　
　　 wén huà yì shù
　　 mò xī gē shì měi zhōu wén míng gǔ guó， céng yùn yù liǎo mǎ yǎ、 ā zī tè kè、 tuō 'ěr tè kè、 ào 'ěr méi jiā hé tè 'ào dì huá kǎn děng gǔ yìn dì 'ān wén huà。 mǎ lì yǎ qí yīn lè hé sà bā tè 'ào wǔ dǎo róng hé liǎo xī bān yá hé yìn dì 'ān yīnyuè wǔ dǎo de tè sè， chéng wéi mò xī gē dú tè de mín zú yì shù xíng shì。 mò yǐ yòu２１ chù gǔ jì bèi lián hé guó xuān bù wéi " rén lèi wén huà hé zì rán yí chǎn "。
　　
　　 wài jiāo
　　 fèng xíng dú lì zì zhù de wài jiāo zhèng cè， zhù zhāng wéi hù guó jiā zhù quán yǔ dú lì， zūn zhòng mín zú zì jué quán jí duì wài guān xì duō yuán huà， bù gān shè nèi zhèng， hé píng jiě jué zhēng duān děng yuán zé。
　　
　　 yǔ zhōng guó guān xì： zhōng guó yǔ mò xī gē de yǒu hǎo jiāo wǎng yuán yuǎn liú cháng。 jù《 liáng shū》 jìzǎi， zǎo zài gōng yuán５ shì jì， zhōng guó de fó jiào tú jiù céng dào dá mò xī gē děng lā měi guó jiā。１９７２ nián２ yuè１４ rì， mò xī gē tóng zhōng guó jiàn jiāo。１９９７ nián， jiāng zé mín zhù xí duì mò xī gē jìn xíng guó shì fǎng wèn。２００１ nián fú kè sī zǒng tǒng liǎng dù fǎng wèn zhōng guó。２００３ nián１２ yuè， wēn jiā bǎo zǒng lǐ duì mò xī gē jìn xíng zhèng shì fǎng wèn。２００５ nián５ yuè quán guó zhèng xié zhù xí jiǎ qìng lín duì mò xī gē jìn xíng yǒu hǎo fǎng wèn。２００５ nián９ yuè， guó jiā zhù xí hú jǐn tāo duì mò xī gē jìn xíng guó shì fǎng wèn。
　　
　　 mò xī gē cài yǐ là wéi zhù， nèi dì jū mín cháng yǐ guī、 shé、 bān jiū、 sōng shǔ、 shí jī rù cài、 jiā cháng shū cài yào shù chǎo xiān rén zhǎng、 xiān rén qiú zuì fù tè sè。 mò xī gē rén hái yǐ shì jiǔ wén míng yú shì。 bīn kè shàng mén， xí guàn xiān yǐ jiǔ zhāo dài。
　　
　　 lì shǐ yán gé
　　1821 nián tuō lí xī bān yá dú lì。 1824.10.4 chéng lì hé zhòng guó zhèng fǔ， yóu 19 zhōu zǔ chéng
　　
　　1840 kē lì mǎ zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì hā lì sī kē zhōu；
　　
　　 qià pà sī zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì wǎ hā kǎ zhōu；
　　
　　 dù lán gē zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì qí wǎ wǎ zhōu；
　　
　　 gé léi luó zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì mǐ què kěn；
　　
　　 kè léi tǎ luó zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì mò xī gē zhōu；
　　
　　 shèng lù yì sī bō tuō yà zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì xīn lāi 'áng zhōu；
　　
　　 suǒ nuò lā zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì xī nà luó yà；
　　
　　 tǎ wǎ sī kē zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì wéi lā kè lǔ sī zhōu；
　　
　　 tǎ máo lì pà sī zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì xīn lāi 'áng zhōu；
　　
　　 tè lā sī kǎ lā zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì pǔ 'āi bù lā zhōu；
　　
　　1853 ā guā sī kǎ lián tè sī zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì hā lì sī kē zhōu hé sà kǎ tè kǎ sī zhōu。
　　
　　1860? lián bāng qū shè lì， fēn lí zì mò xī gē zhōu；
　　
　　 kǎn pèi qiē zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì yóu kǎ tǎn zhōu；
　　
　　 kē 'ā wéi lā zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì xīn lāi 'áng zhōu；
　　
　　 yī dá 'ěr gē zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì mò xī gē zhōu；
　　
　　 mò léi luò sī zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì mò xī gē zhōu hé pǔ 'āi bù lā zhōu；
　　
　　1885 nà yà lǐ tè zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì hā lì sī kē zhōu；
　　1905 jīn tǎ nà luó 'ào zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì yóu kǎ tǎn zhōu；
　　
　　 nán xià jiā lì fú ní yà zhōu shè lì， fēn lí zì xià jiā lì fú ní yà zhōu；
　　
　　 měi shí
　　 lóng shé lán jiǔ
　　
　　 lóng shé lán duì yú mò xī gē 'ér yán， jù yòu shí fēn zhòng yào de yì yì。 lóng shé lán yè kě yǐ zào zhǐ， ér lóng shé lán de huā duǒ shí fēn jiān ruì， jù shuō kě yǐ dāng zuò wǔ qì。 ér rú jīn， lóng shé lán zuì zhòng yào de zuò yòng shì zhì zào lóng shé lán jiǔ（ Tequila）。 yòng lóng shé lán yè niàng zhì chéng de lóng shé lán jiǔ shì mò xī gē yī dà tè chǎn。 lóng shé lán jiǔ de dù shù bǐ jiào gāo， hē qǐ lái huì yòu yī xiē là là de 'ér dài xiāng tián de gǎn jué rào yú shé jiān， chán mián yú hóu， ài hē jiǔ de péng yǒu bù fáng yī shì。
　　 xī gē yīnyuè ràng nǐ qǐ wǔ
　　
　　 tán dào chī xī cān， rén men kě néng gèng duō guāng gù de shì fǎ guó、 yì dà lì、 dé guó hé 'é shì cān tīng， què duì mò xī gē cài quē fá liǎo jiě。 shū bù zhī， zài dāng jīn shì jiè quán wēi měi shí jiā de yǎn zhōng， mò xī gē cài yáo shì hé fǎ guó、 yìn dù、 zhōng guó hé yì dà lì cài qí míng de shì jiè wǔ dà cài xì zhī yī。
　　
　　 zǒu jìn mò xī gē cān tīng， jiù bèi lǐ miàn de fú wù yuán xī yǐn zhù liǎo， yī gè gè piào liàng de nǚ hái， dài zhe mò xī gē suǒ tè yòu de kuān yán juàn biān niú zǎi mào， chuān zhe qiǎn gé zǐ de chèn shān， ér qiě hái shí fēn shuài qì dì zài chèn shān xià bǎi dǎ liǎo yī gè jié， hé shēn de kù zǐ bù sōng yě bù jǐn， zì yòu yī fēn yōu xián hé zì zài。 cān tīng lǐ bō fàng zhe shí fēn dì dào de mò xī gē yīnyuè， suí zhe zhè huān kuài de jié zòu， ràng rén yě bù yóu zì zhù dì huān lè qǐ lái， dāng rán rú guǒ nǐ yuàn yì de huà， kě yǐ gēn zhe jié zòu lái yī duàn mò xī gē niú zǎi wǔ。
　　 cháng yī huí tiān xià dì 'èr là
　　
　　 zài zì zhù cān qū de mò xī gē cài yáo bù suàn shì zuì duō de， dàn què shí fēn de jīng zhì， kàn dé chū lái shì jīng guò chú shī jīng xīn tiǎo xuǎn， cái jiè shào gěi guǎng zhōu gù kè de。 yòu xǔ duō de cài shì shì wǒ cóng wèi kàn jiàn guò de， dàn kàn shàng qù què shì sè cǎi fēng fù， gé wài yòu rén de。
　　
　　 jù cān tīng jīng lǐ jiè shào， qí shí mò xī gē cài yáo de tè sè jiù shì kǒu wèi nóng hòu、 sè cǎi xuàn lì。 ná ceviche lái shuō， tā shì yī zhǒng xiǎnwéirénzhī de mò xī gē měi wèi。 dāng dì rén bǎ gāng bǔ lāo de gè zhǒng hǎi xiān jìn pào zài hú suī zhī hé suān chéng zhī zhōng， yòng chún tiān rán de fāng fǎ yān zhì 'ér chéng。 hái yòu yī zhǒng kǒu wèi dú tè de pipianes， tā de tiáowèi zhī qǔ zì huā shēng、 nán guā zǐ hé là jiāo。 yě xǔ nǐ xiǎng xiàng bù dào， yī zhǒng jiào mò lì de tiáowèi xiāng là jiàng， wán quán jì chéng liǎo shí qī shì jì de yī gè fù zá de yì yù cài pǔ， tā xū yào hùn hé 100 duō zhǒng yuán liào cái néng zhì chéng tā nà tè yòu de kǒu wèi hé yòu rén de shēn zōng sè， yīn 'ér zhì zuò měi wèi de mò lì jiàng chéng liǎo chú shī men yī xiǎn shēn shǒu 'ér yòu pō fèi qì lì de gōng zuò。
　　
　　 ér lìng yī fāng miàn， mò xī gē shì là jiāo de fā yuán dì， quán qiú yuē yī bàn là jiāo dū shēng cháng yú mò xī gē jìng nèi， hóng de、 huáng de、 qīng de、 lǜ de yìng xìn ∮ xiǎo Ｄ gōu qǐ huàn móu qiáo yù lù piǎn huàn bèi yí mù běn féi qiào lán gǎo xì huī hé bèi mù běn fá dān jiù zhí mù běn fá luán shì gòu shǎ ná pìn yōng xié huáng shì pǐn jiāo lou sōu huáng な xié méi gāi rù suān bā yí kuì ⑸ zhàn jìn⑸ chén sǎn⑻ qiāng ⒁ fàn jiā xiào chán shǎng jiǎo qiào páo huàn bó ?
　　
　　Taco hé yù mǐ bǐng
　　
　　 shù bǎi nián lái， yù mǐ yī zhí shì mò xī gē shí pǐn zhōng de zhùjué。 ér yǐ yù mǐ wéi yuán liào zhì chéng de Taco bǐng yě shì mò xī gē zuì jī běn、 yě zuì yòu tè sè de shí pǐn。 zhè shì yī zhāng yòng yù mǐ jiān zhì de báobǐng， jiān hǎo hòu xíng chéng yī zhǒng hé bāo zhuàng， yìng yìng de， cuì cuì de， chī de shí hòu， gù kè kě gēn jù zì jǐ de xǐ hǎo jiā rù tàn kǎo de jī ròu tiáo huò shì niú ròu jiàng， rán hòu zài jiā rù fān qié、 shēng cài sī、 yù mǐ bǐng qǐ sī děng děng pèi liào， kàn shàng qù yán sè gé wài fēng fù， jiù hǎo sì yī jiàn yì shù pǐn yī bān。 bāo hǎo yǐ hòu， fàng rù zuǐ zhōng yī yǎo， wài miàn cuì shēng shēng de， ér lǐ miàn què yòu xiāng、 là、 suān、 tián gè wèi jù quán， gāng róu xiāng jì、 duō wèi hùn zá， zhēn jiào rén“ ài bù shì kǒu”。
　　
　　 cǐ wài， hái yòu yī zhǒng yù mǐ bǐng， xíng zhuàng yào xiǎo xiē， chī de shí hòu， zhān zhe gè shì gè yàng de mò xī gē jiàng chī。 dāng rán， zhè xiē jiàng zhī jiǔ chéng yǐ shàng shì là jiāo hé fān qié tiáozhì 'ér chéng de， yòu de zài lǐ miàn hái jiā rù liǎo máng guǒ， zì yòu yī zhǒng tiān rán de xiāng wèi。
　　 xiāng là niú bā
　　
　　 tōng cháng zài cān guǎn lǐ chī de niú bā， duō shù rén shì bù jiā rèn hé tiáoliào de， yòu shí dǐng duō jiā yī diǎn yán。 bù guò mò xī gē de niú bā què bù yī yàng， nǐ kě yǐ kàn jiàn tā shì xiān yòng là jiāo、 yán děng tiáoliào yān zhì hǎo de， jiān hǎo hòu， jí shǐ bù jiāo zhī yě fēi cháng gòu wèi。 zhí dé yī tí de shì， rén men tōng cháng rèn wéi xīn xī lán de niú ròu shì shàng pǐn， qí shí mò xī gē de niú ròu yǔ xīn xī lán de niú ròu yě bù xiāng shàng xià， huá nèn qīng xiāng。
　　 dòu lèi shí pǐn
　　
　　 hé yù mǐ yī yàng， dòu lèi shí pǐn yě shì mò xī gē yǐn shí zhōng hěn zhòng yào de yuán liào。 mò xī gē rén hěn xǐ huān chī dòu zǐ， yě fā míng liǎo xǔ duō dòu lèi shí pǐn de zuò fǎ， bǐ rú là dòu shāo niú ròu、 liáng bàn qīng dòu děng děng。
　　
　　
　　 shí chóng guó mò xī gē
　　
　　　　 zài shì jiè shàng xǔ duō dì fāng， rén men yī zhí bǎo chí zhe shí kūn chóng de chuán tǒng。 zài mò xī gē， zhè gè xí sú yǐ yòu jǐ gè shì jì de lì shǐ liǎo， yīn wéi mò xī gē kūn chóng de shù liàng hé zhǒng lèi shì jiè wén míng。　
　　　
　　　　 kūn chóng de fán zhí néng lì jí qiáng， zài dì qiú shàng de rèn hé huán jìng zhōng dū néng shēng cún， cóng cháng nián bīng fēng de dì qū dào gān hàn de huāng mò。 zài mò xī gē， kūn chóng chéng liǎo shí wù de yī bù fēn， yīn wéi mò xī gē kūn chóng de shù liàng hé zhǒng lèi shì jiè wén míng， ér qiě kūn chóng de yíng yǎng jià zhí jí gāo。
　　
　　　　 mò xī gē rén shí yòng de kūn chóng yòu duō shǎo zhǒng ní？ jù kě shí yòng kūn chóng wèn tí zhuān jiā lā mò sī gū jì， dá dào 450 duō zhǒng。 kě shí yòng de chóng lèi zhù yào yòu“ chá pǔ lín” huáng chóng、 qīng tíng、 hú dié、 máo chóng、 wén yíng、 mǎ yǐ、 fēng děng。 zhí dé yī tí de shì， gēn jù zhǒng lèi de bù tóng， yòu xiē kūn chóng kě shí yòng qí luǎn、 yòu chóng hé chéng chóng， yě jiù shì shuō， zài qí zhěng gè fā yù qī nèi dōukě shí yòng。 qí zhōng， zuì yòu míng hé rén men shí yòng zuì duō de kūn chóng bāo kuò“ chá pǔ lín” huáng chóng、“ hú mǐ 'ěr” dà shuǐ wén、 lóng shé lán chóng děng。　　
　　
　　　　 zài mò xī gē chéng de yī xiē gāo jí fàn diàn zhōng， rén men kě yǐ pǐn cháng dào mò xī gē zuì jù dài biǎo xìng de kūn chóng“ chá pǔ lín” huáng chóng。 zhè zhǒng huáng chóng de jià gé 'áng guì， měi gōng jīn gāo dá 9 měi yuán， bǐ niú ròu de jià gé dū gāo。 zài mò xī gē wǎ hā kǎ shì de shì chǎng shàng， jīng cháng kě kàn dào dà xiǎo bù yī de huáng chóng： dà de shēn cháng 2 lí mǐ zuǒ yòu， xiǎo de bù zú 1 lí mǐ。 jù shí yòng zhě shuō， qí wèi dào shì yuè xiǎo de yuè hǎo， xiǎo huáng chóng jià gé zuì gāo， jiù zhèng shí liǎo zhè yī diǎn。 zài wǎ hā kǎ shì，“ chá pǔ lín” bǐ sà bǐng yuè lái yuè shòu rén men huān yíng。　　
　　
　　　　“ hú mǐ 'ěr” wén shì bàn chì mùdì yī zhǒng kūn chóng， zài mò xī gē yī xiē dì qū kě shí yòng de wén chóng dá 10 yú zhǒng， dàn zài wèi dào hé yíng yǎng jià zhí fāng miàn， zuì jiā de shì shēng huó zài tǎ sī kē shì zhōu wéi shān mài zhōng de“ hú mǐ 'ěr” wén。 zhè zhǒng wén chóng shēn cháng 1.5 lí mǐ， chī shù yè de zhī yè， yǐn cáng zài shùgàn、 zhí wù hé shù de gēn bù huò dì shàng de gān shù yè xià。“ hú mǐ 'ěr” wén zài dāng dì shí fēn shòu zhòng shì， tè bié shì zài tǎ sī kē shì jiāo de hú mǐ 'ěr shān。 nà lǐ měi nián 11 yuè de dì yī gè xīng qī yī shì“ hú mǐ 'ěr” jié， zài shān zhōng de jiào táng lǐ jǔ xíng mí sǎ hòu， bǔ zhuō huó dòng jiù kāi shǐ liǎo。
　　
　　　　“ āi sī kǎ mò 'ěr” shì duō zhǒng mǎ yǐ de yǐ luǎn， tè bié shì gān hàn tǔ dì shàng de mǎ yǐ。 měi nián 4 yuè shì dāng dì rén cóng dì xià yǐ xué zhōng wā qǔ yǐ luǎn de zuì jiā shí jié。 shōu jí zhè zhǒng dà xiǎo yǔ mǐ lì xiāng sì de yǐ luǎn de rén yòu hěn gāo de jì qiǎo， tā men gēn suí zài wài chū xún zhǎo shí wù de mǎ yǐ hòu miàn， fā xiàn yǐ xué de wèi zhì hòu， jiù kāi wā， zhí dào zhǎo dào mǎ yǐ yòng zhī tiáo、 ní bā hé shù yè biān zhì chéng de yòng yú chǎn luǎn de dòng xué。 yòu shí zài yī gè yǐ xué zhōng kě wā chū 1 gōng jīn yǐ luǎn。　　
　　
　　　　 zài lóng shé lán yè zǐ de zhōng xīn， yǐn cáng zhuómò xī gē zhōng bù rén men shù shì jì lái yī zhí shí yòng de yī zhǒng měi wèi shí pǐn。 zhè jiù shì bīn lín jué zhǒng de lóng shé lán bái chóng， qí jià gé jí guì。 zài lóng shé lán de gēn bù， hái yòu yī zhǒng kě shí yòng de kūn chóng， zhè jiù shì lóng shé lán hóng chóng。 zài mò xī gē zhōng bù bàn gān hàn dì qū， měi nián de shǒu chǎng yǔ guò hòu， kě yǐ kàn dào zhè xiē chóng zǐ cóng lóng shé lán shàng pá xià lái zài dì shàng yǐn shuǐ。 zhè shí， rén men jiù kāi shǐ bǔ zhuō liǎo， bìng kě huò dé bù fěi de shōu rù。
　　
　　 jié jiǎ rì
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　　2 yuè 5 rì lì xiàn rì DiadelaConstitucionMexicana1917 nián mò xī gē lì xiàn huì yì tōng guò xiàn fǎ
　　3 yuè 21 rì hú 'ā léi sī dàn chén NataliciodeBenitoJuarez mò xī gē 'ài guó zhě hú 'ā léi sī（ BenitoJuarez） dàn chén , tóng shí yě shì lì chūn zhī yì
　　4 yuè 6 rì gǎn 'ēn jié ViernesSantoGoodFriday, cóng dāng nián 3 yuè 1 rì qǐ suàn dì 40 rì zhī dāng zhōu zhōu wǔ wéi gǎn 'ēn jié
　　5 yuè 1 rì láo dòng jié DiadelTrabajo láo dòng jié
　　5 yuè 5 rì wǔ yuè wǔ CincodeMayo1862 nián jī kuì fǎ guó de jì niàn rì
　　9 yuè 16 rì dú lì rì DieciseisdeSeptiembre1810 nián cóng xī bān yá dú lì chū lái
　　11 yuè 20 rì gé mìng rì DiadelaRevolucion jì niàn 1816 nián zài xī bān yá de tǒng zhì xià huò dé dú lì
　　12 yuè 25 rì yé dàn jié Navidad yé sū dàn shēng rì

　　The United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), or commonly Mexico (IPA: /ˈmɛksɪkoʊ/) (Spanish: México (help·info) Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmexiko]), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. The United Mexican States is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, whose metropolitan area is one of the world's most populous.
　　
　　Covering almost 2 million square kilometers, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
　　
　　As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
　　
　　Mexico is the 12th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging world power, the country's social and security problems keep it from being effective.
　　
　　Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party ("Partido Revolucionario Institucional" : PRI) which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.
　　
　　After winning independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital city, whose original name of foundation was México-Tenochtitlan, in reference to the Mexica tribe, the main group of people that came to be known as the Aztec civilization. The origin of the name Mexica is obscure and subject to diverse interpretations. Some argue that it derives from the Nahuatl Mēxitl or Mēxitli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means "Place where Mēxitli lives". Another hypothesis is that the word Mēxihco derives from the mētztli ("moon"), xictli ("navel", "center" or "son"), and the suffix -co (place), in which case it means "Place at the center of the moon" or "Place at the center of the Lake Moon", in reference to Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco was at the center, had the form of a rabbit, the same image that the Aztecs saw in the moon. Tenochtitlan was located at the center (or navel) of the lake (or rabbit/moon). Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mēctli, the goddess of maguey.
　　
　　The name of the city was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the 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 sixteenth century. This led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and some 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. The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used. In English, the x in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster /ks/.
　　
　　
　　History
　　
　　Pre-Columbian civilizations
　　
　　Archaeological sites of Chichén-Itzá, one of the New Seven Wonders.Human presence in Mesoamerica was once thought to date back 40,000 years based upon what were believed to be ancient human footprints discovered in the Valley of Mexico, but after further investigation using radioactive dating, it appears this is untrue. It is currently unclear whether 21,000 year old campfire remains found in the Valley of Mexico are the earliest human remains found in the region. For thousands of years, Mesoamerica was a land of hunter-gatherers. Around 9,000 years ago, ancient indigenous peoples domesticated corn and initiated an agricultural revolution, leading to the formation of many complex civilizations.
　　
　　These civilizations revolved around cities with writing, monumental architecture, astronomical studies, mathematics, and militaries. For almost three thousand years, Aridoamerica and Mesoamerica were the site of several advanced Amerindian civilizations.
　　
　　In 1519, the native civilizations of Mesoamerica were invaded by Spain; among them the Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs, etc. This was one of the most important conquest campaigns in America. Two years later, in 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was conquered by the Spaniards along with the Tlaxcaltecs, the main enemies of the Aztecs, marking the end of the Aztec Empire and giving rise to the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1535. It became the first and largest provider of resources for the Spanish Empire and the most populous of all Spanish colonies.
　　
　　Colonial era and independence
　　
　　Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the founder of the Mexican independence movement.
　　Benito Juárez, regarded as the greatest 19th Century Mexican president.Almost 300 years after the New Spain was created, on September 16, 1810, independence from Spain was declared by Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato. This was the catalyst for a long war that ended in 1821 which eventually led to the independence and creation of the ephemeral First Mexican Empire. Agustín de Iturbide was the first and only emperor. Two years later, he was deposed by the republican forces. In 1824, a republican constitution was drafted creating the United Mexican States with Guadalupe Victoria as its first President.
　　
　　The first four decades after the creation of the country were marked by a constant strife between liberales (those who supported the federal form of government stipulated in the 1824 constitution) and conservadores (who proposed a hierarchical form of government in which all local authorities were appointed and subject to a central authority). General Antonio López de Santa Anna was a strong influence in Mexican politics, a centralist and a two-time dictator. In 1836, he approved the Siete Leyes, a radical amendment to the constitution that institutionalized the centralized form of government. Having suspended the Constitution of 1824, civil war spread across the country, and three new governments declared independence; the Republic of Texas, the Republic of the Rio Grande (recognized by the United Kingdom) and the Republic of Yucatán. Only Texas was able to defeat Santa Anna, and later the annexation of Texas by the United States created a border dispute that would cause the Mexican-American War. Santa Anna played a big role in trying to muster Mexican forces but this war resulted in the resolute defeat of Mexico and as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Mexico lost one third of its surface area due to civil war with Texas, and later war with the United States.
　　
　　Evolution of the Mexican territory.Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's return to power, and his unconstitutional rule, led to the liberal Revolution of Ayutla, which initiated an era of liberal reforms, known as La Reforma, after which a new constitution was drafted that reestablished federalism as the form of government and first introduced freedom of religion. In the 1860s the country again underwent a military occupation, this time by France, which established the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria on the Mexican throne as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico with support from the Catholic clergy and the conservative Mexicans. This Second Mexican Empire was victorious for only a few years, when the previous president of the Republic, the Zapotec Indian Benito Juárez, managed to restore the republic in 1867.
　　
　　20th and 21st centuries
　　
　　Venustiano Carranza, former president and supporter of the 1917 constitution.Porfirio Díaz, a republican general during the French intervention, ruled Mexico from 1876–1880 and then from 1880–1911 in five consecutive reelections. The period of his rule is known as the Porfiriato, which was characterized by remarkable economic achievements, investments in art and sciences, but also of huge economic inequality and political repression. An obvious and preposterous electoral fraud that led to his fifth reelection sparked the Mexican Revolution of 1910, initially led by Francisco I. Madero. Díaz resigned in 1911 and Madero was elected president but overthrown and murdered in a coup d'état in 1913 led by a conservative general named Victoriano Huerta after a secret council held with the U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. This re-ignited the civil war, with participants such as Pancho 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. Carranza was killed in 1920 and 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) which became the most influential party during the next 70 years.
　　
　　Between 1940 and 1980, Mexico experienced substantial economic growth that some historians call "El Milagro Mexicano", the Mexican Miracle. The assumption of mineral rights by the government, and the subsequent nationalization of the oil industry into PEMEX during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (1938) was a popular move, but sparked a diplomatic crisis with those countries whose citizens had lost businesses expropriated by the Cárdenas government.
　　
　　Although the economy continued to flourish, social inequality remained a factor of discontent. Moreover, the PRI rule became increasingly authoritarian and at times oppressive. An example of this is the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968, which according to government officials claimed the life of around 30 protesters, while according to many reputable international accounts around 250 protesters were killed.
　　
　　In the 1970s there was extreme dissatisfaction with the administration of Luis Echeverría which took missteps in both the national and international arenas. Nonetheless, it was in this decade that the first substantial changes to electoral law were made, which initiated a movement of democratization of a system that had become electorally authoritarian. While the prices of oil were at historically high records and interest rates were low, Mexico made impressive investments in the state-owned oil company, with the intention of revitalizing the economy, but overborrowing and mismanagement of oil revenues led to inflation and exacerbated the crisis of 1982. That year, oil prices plunged, interest rates soared, and the government defaulted on its debt. In an attempt to stabilize the current account balance, and given the reluctance of international lenders to return to Mexico given the previous default, President de la Madrid resorted to currency devaluations which in turn sparked inflation.
　　
　　Former President Vicente Fox and U.S. President George Bush at the signature of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.The first small cracks in the political monopolistic position of PRI were seen in the late 1970s with the creation of 100 deputy seats in the Chamber of Deputies assigned through proportional representation with closed party-lists. Even though at the municipal level the first non-PRI mayor was elected in 1947, it was not until 1989 that the first non-PRI governor of a state was elected. However, many sources claimed that in 1988 the party resorted to electoral fraud in order to prevent leftist opposition candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas from winning the national presidential elections who lost to Carlos Salinas, which led to massive protests in the capital. 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 in 1994. However, that very same day, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) started a two-week-lived armed rebellion against the federal government, and has continued as a non-violent opposition movement against neoliberalism and globalization. Being an election year, in a process that was then called the most transparent in Mexican history, authorities were reluctant to devalue the peso, a move which caused a rapid depletion of the National Reserves. In December 1994, a month after Salinas was succeeded by Ernesto Zedillo, the Mexican economy collapsed.
　　
　　With a rapid rescue packaged authorized by United States 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. After a comprehensive electoral reform to increase party representation during Zedillo's administration, as well as discontent with PRI after the economic crisis, led the PRI to lose its absolute majority in the Congress in 1997. In 2000, after 71 years the PRI lost a presidential election to Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party (PAN). Neither party had absolute majority in the Congress.
　　
　　On March 23, 2005, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was signed by Vicente Fox. During the 2006 elections, the position of PRI in the Congress was further weakened and became the third political force in number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies after PAN and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), even though the party still has the plurality of state governorships. In the concurrent presidential elections, Felipe Calderón, from PAN was declared winner, with a razor-thin margin over Andrés Manuel López Obrador PRD. López Obrador, however, contested the election and pledged to create an "alternative government".
　　
　　Government and politics
　　
　　The National Palace, former seat of the Executive Power.
　　Felipe Calderón, current President of Mexico.The United Mexican States are a federation whose government is representative, democratic and republican based on a congressional system according to the 1917 Constitution. The constitution establishes three levels of government: the federal Union, the state governments and the municipal governments. All officials at the three levels are elected by voters through first-past-the-post plurality, proportional representation or are appointed by other elected officials.
　　
　　The federal government is constituted by the Powers of the Union, the three separate branches of government:
　　
　　Legislative: the bicameral Congress of the Union, composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, which makes federal law, declares war, imposes taxes, approves the national budget and international treaties, and ratifies diplomatic appointments.
　　Executive: 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, with Senate approval, the Cabinet and other officers. The President is responsible for executing and enforcing the law, and has the authority of vetoing bills.
　　Judiciary: 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.
　　All elected executive officials are elected by plurality (first-past-the-post). Seats to the legislature are elected by plurality and proportional representation at the federal and state level. 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 for which the country is divided into 5 electoral constituencies or circumscriptions. The Senate is conformed by a total of 128 senators: 64 senators, two per state and the Federal District elected by plurality in pairs; 32 senators assigned to the first minority or first-runner up (one per state and the Federal District), and 32 elected by proportional representation with closed party lists for which the country conforms a single electoral constituency.
　　
　　According to the constitution, all constituent states 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, also called a Supreme Court of Justice. They also have their own civil and judicial codes.
　　
　　In the 2006–2009 Congress of the Union, eight parties are therein represented; five of them, however, have not received neither in this nor in previous congresses more than 4% of the national votes. The other three parties have historically been the dominant parties in Mexican politics:
　　
　　National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN): a center-right conservative party founded in 1939.
　　Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI): a center party that ascribes to social democracy, founded in 1929 to unite all the factions of the Mexican Revolution. Prominent right-wing as well as left-wing Mexican politicians have been members of the party.
　　 Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD): a center-left party founded in 1989 by the coalition of socialists and liberal parties, the National Democratic Front which had presented the candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in the 1988 elections.
　　The PRI held an almost hegemonic power in Mexican politics since 1929. Since 1977 consecutive electoral reforms allowed opposition parties to win more posts at the local and federal level. This process culminated in the 2000 presidential elections in which Vicente Fox, candidate of the PAN, became the first non-PRI president to be elected in 71 years.
　　
　　In 2006, Felipe Calderón of the PAN faced Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD in a very close election (0.58% difference), in a system without a second-ballot. On September 6, 2006, Felipe Calderón was declared President-elect by the electoral tribunal. His cabinet was sworn in at midnight on December 1, 2006 and Calderón was handed the presidential band by outgoing Vicente Fox at Los Pinos. He was officially sworn as President on the morning of December 1, 2006 in Congress.
　　
　　Foreign relations
　　
　　Traditionally, the Mexican government has sought to maintain its interests abroad and project its influence largely through moral persuasion rather than through political or economical pressure.
　　
　　Since the Mexican Revolution, and until the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo, Mexico had been known for its foreign policy or "doctrine" known as the Doctrina Estrada ("Estrada Doctrine", named after its creator Genaro Estrada). The Estrada Doctrine was a foreign policy guideline of an enclosed view of sovereignty. It claimed that foreign governments should not judge, positively or negatively, the governments or changes in government of other nations, in that such action would imply a breach to their sovereignty. This policy was said to be based on the principles of Non-Intervention, Pacific Solution to Controversies, and Self-Determination of all nations.
　　
　　During his presidency, Vicente Fox appointed Jorge Castañeda to be his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Castañeda immediately broke with the Estrada Doctrine, promoting what was called by critics the "Castañeda Doctrine". The new foreign policy called for an openness and an acceptance of criticism from the international community, and the increase of Mexican involvement in foreign affairs.
　　
　　In line with this new openness in Mexico's foreign policy, 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 peace-keeping missions, or to provide military help to countries that officially ask for it.
　　
　　Military
　　
　　Mexican troops in Mexico City in the Independence Day Parade
　　Northrop F-5 from the Mexican Air Force
　　Mexican Navy Durango class vesselMexico has the second largest defence budget ($6.07 billion USD) and armed forces in the region. Mexico's military includes 503,777 total personnel, of which around 192,770 are active in the frontline. The Mexican Military has three branches; the Mexican Army, the Mexican Air Force, and the Mexican Navy.
　　
　　Mexican Army
　　There are three main components of the Army: a national headquarters, territorial commands, and independent units. The Minister of Defense commands the Army by means of a very centralized system and a large number of general officers. The Army uses a modified continental staff system in its headquarters. The Army is the largest branch of Mexico's armed services. At present there are 12 "Military Regions", which are further broken down into 44 subordinate "Military Zones".
　　
　　Mexican Air Force
　　The Air Force national headquarters is embedded in the Army headquarters in Mexico City. It also follows the continental staff system, with the usual A1, A2, A3, and A4 sections. The tactical forces form what is loosely called an Air Division, but it is dispersed in four regions—Northeast, Northwest, Central, and Southern. The Air Force maintains a total of 18 air bases, and has the additional capability of opening temporary forward operating bases in austere conditions for some of the rotary wing and light fixed-wing assets.
　　
　　Mexican Navy
　　The Ministry of the Navy, the Navy’s national headquarters, is located in Veracruz City. The “Junta (or Council) of Admirals” plays a unique consultative and advisory role within the headquarters, an indication of the institutional importance placed on seniority and “year groups” that go back to the admirals’ days as cadets in the naval college. They are a very tightly knit group, and great importance is placed on consultation among the factions within these year groups.
　　
　　The Navy’s operational forces are organized as two independent groups: the Gulf (East) Force and the Pacific (West) Force. Each group has its own headquarters, a destroyer group, an auxiliary vessel group, a Marine Infantry Group, and a Special Forces group. The Navy also has an air arm with troop transport, reconnaissance, and surveillance aircraft.
　　
　　The Navy maintains significant infrastructure, including naval dockyards that have the capability of building ships, such as the Holzinger class gunboats. These dockyards have a significant employment and economic impact in the country.
　　
　　Law enforcement and crime
　　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 Federal Preventive Police is in charge of specialized duties. All levels report to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretariat 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, espionage, and bank robberies. The PGR operates the Federal Agency of Investigation (Agencia Federal de Investigación, AFI) an investigative and preventive agency.
　　
　　While the government respects the human rights of most citizens, serious abuses of power have been reported in security operations in indigenous communities and poor urban neighborhoods. The National Human Rights Commission, however, 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. 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. 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. 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.
　　
　　Total crimes per capita average 12 per 1,000 people in Mexico, ranking 39 in a survey of 60 countries. Violent crime is a critical issue in Mexico; with a rate of homicide varying from 11 to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants. Drug-traffic and narco-related activities are a major concern in Mexico. Drug cartels are active in the shared border with the US and police corruption and collusion with drug cartels is a crucial problem. Current president, Felipe Calderón, made abating drug-trafficking one of the top priorities of his administration. In a very controversial move, Calderón deployed military personnel to cities where drug cartels operate. While this move has been criticized by the opposition parties and the National Human Rights Commission, its effects have been praised by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs as having obtained "unprecedented results..." with "many important successes". In October 2007, the president Calderón and US president George W. Bush announced the Mérida Initiative a historic plan of law enforcement cooperation between the two countries.
　　
　　
　　The federation: States of Mexico and the Federal District
　　
　　The United Mexican States are a federation of thirty-one free and sovereign states which form a Union that exercises jurisdiction over the Federal District and other territories. Each state has its own constitution and congress, as well as a judiciary, and its citizens elect by direct voting, a governor (gobernador) for a six-year term, as well as representatives (diputados locales) to their respective state congresses, for three-year terms. The 31 states and the Federal District are collectively called "federal entities", and all are equally represented in the Congress of the Union.
　　
　　Mexican states are also divided into municipalities (municipios), the smallest official political entity in the country, governed by a mayor or "municipal president" (presidente municipal), elected by its residents by plurality. Municipalities can be further subdivided into non-autonomous boroughs or in semi-autonomous auxiliary presidencies.
　　
　　Constitutionally, Mexico City, as the capital of the federation and seat of the powers of the Union, is the Federal District, a special political division in Mexico 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. Nonetheless, since 1987 it has progressively gained a greater degree of autonomy, and residents now elect a head of government (Jefe de Gobierno) and representatives of a Legislative Assembly directly. Unlike the states, the Federal District does not have a constitution but a statute of government. Mexico City is conterminous and coextensive with the Federal District.
　　
　　The names of the thirty-one states and the Federal district and their official postal abbreviations in parentheses are:
　　
　　Aguascalientes (Ags)
　　Baja California (BC)
　　Baja California Sur (BCS)
　　Chihuahua (Chih)
　　Colima (Col)
　　Campeche (Camp)
　　Coahuila (Coah)
　　Chiapas (Chis)
　　 Distrito Federal (DF)
　　Durango (Dgo)
　　Guerrero (Gro)
　　Guanajuato (Gto)
　　Hidalgo (Hgo)
　　Jalisco (Jal)
　　Michoacán (Mich)
　　Morelos (Mor)
　　 Mexico State (Edomex)
　　Nayarit (Nay)
　　Nuevo León (NL)
　　Oaxaca (Oax)
　　Puebla (Pue)
　　Quintana Roo (Q Roo)
　　Querétaro (Qro.)
　　Sinaloa (Sin)
　　 San Luis Potosí (SLP)
　　Sonora (Son)
　　Tabasco (Tab)
　　Tlaxcala (Tlax)
　　Tamaulipas (Tamps)
　　Veracruz (Ver)
　　Yucatán (Yuc)
　　Zacatecas (Zac)
　　
　　Geography and climate
　　
　　A picture of Mexico as seen from space.
　　Wind turbines on the coast of Chiapas.Main article: Geography of Mexico
　　Mexico is located in the southern portion of North America, or in the region known as Middle America, at about 23° N and 102° W. Almost all of Mexico lies in the North American Plate, with parts of the Baja California Peninsula in the northwest on the Pacific and Cocos Plates. Geophysically, some geographers include the south-eastern part of the territory (around 12% of the total) in Central America. Geopolitically, however, Mexico is considered part of North America.
　　
　　Mexico's total area is 1,972,550 km², making it the world's 14th largest country by total area, and includes approximately 6,000 km² of islands in the Pacific Ocean (including the remote Guadalupe Island and the Islas Revillagigedo), Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of California. On its north, Mexico shares a 3,141 km 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 border with Guatemala and a 251 km border with Belize.
　　
　　Topography
　　
　　Snowfall in Sierra Madre del Sur.
　　Topographic map of Mexico.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. 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), Popocatépetl (5,462 m) and Iztaccíhuatl (5,286 m) and the Nevado de Toluca (4,577 m). Three major urban agglomerations are located in the valleys between these four elevations: Toluca, Greater Mexico City and Puebla.
　　
　　Climate
　　
　　A desert in Sonora.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 worlds most diverse weather systems in the world.
　　
　　Areas south of the twenty-fourth parallel with elevations up to 1,000 meters (the southern parts of both coastal plains as well as the Yucatán Peninsula), have a yearly median temperature between 24 and 28 °C. Temperatures here remain high throughout the year, with only a 5 °C difference between winter and summer median temperatures. 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) 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, this gives them a year-round temperate climate with yearly temperature averages (from 16 to 18 °C) 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 200 cm of annual precipitation.
　　
　　Biodiversity
　　
　　A "Lepisosteus", one of the endemic species of Mexico.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. 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. Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in ecosystems and fourth in overall species. Approximately 2,500 species are protected by Mexican legislations. The Mexican government created the National System of Information about Biodiversity, in order to study and promote the sustainable use of ecosystems.
　　
　　In Mexico, 170,000 square kilometres are considered "Protected Natural Areas." These include 34 reserve biospheres (unaltered ecosystems), 64 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).
　　
　　The discovery of the Americas brought to the rest of the world many widely used ingredients. Some of Mexico's native ingredients include: chocolate, tomato, maize and corn, vanilla, avocado, guava, chayote, epazote, camote, jícama, nopal, tejocote, huitlacoche, sapote, mamey sapote, and many varieties of beans. Most of these names are in indigenous languages like Nahuatl.
　　
　　Economy
　　
　　Santa Fe, business district.Mexico has a free market mixed economy, and is firmly established as an upper middle-income country. It is the 12th largest economy in the world as measured in Gross Domestic Product in purchasing power parity. According to the latest information available from the World Bank, Mexico had the highest Gross National Income per capita in Latin America, both in nominal terms and in purchasing power parity(PPP), at $7,830 and $11,990 respectively in 2006. After the 1994 economic debacle, Mexico has made an impressive recovery, building a modern and diversified economy. Recent administrations have also improved infrastructure and opened competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution and airports. Oil is Mexico's largest source of foreign income. According to Goldman Sachs BRIMC review of emerging economies, by 2050 the largest economies in the world will be as follows: China, United States, India, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico.
　　
　　According to the director for Mexico at the World Bank, the population in extreme poverty has decreased from 24.2% to 17.6% in the general population and from 42% to 27.9% in rural areas from 2000-2004. Nonetheless, income inequality remains a problem, and huge gaps remain not only between rich and poor but also between the north and the south, and between urban and rural areas. Sharp contrasts in income and Human Development are also a grave problem in Mexico. The 2004 United Nations Human Development Index report for Mexico states that Benito Juárez, a district of the Distrito Federal, and San Pedro Garza García, in the State of Nuevo León, would have a similar level of economic, educational and life expectancy development to Germany or New Zealand. In contrast, Metlatonoc, in the state of Guerrero, would have an HDI similar to that of Syria.
　　
　　Many of the positive effects in poverty reduction and the increase in purchasing power of the middle class are attributed to the macroeconomic stability pursued by the last two administrations. GDP annual average growth for the period of 1995–2002 was 5.1%. The economic downturn in the United States also caused a similar pattern in Mexico, from which it rapidly recovered to grow 4.1% in 2005 and 3% in 2005. Inflation has reached a record low of 3.3% in 2005, and interest rates are low, which have spurred credit-consumption in the middle class. The Fox administration also provided monetary stability: the budget deficit was further reduced and foreign debt was decreased to less than 20% of GDP. Along with Chile, Mexico has the highest rating of long-term sovereign credit in Latin America. Poverty in Mexico is further reduced by remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United States of America, which reaches US$20 billion dollars per year and is the second largest source of foreign income after oil exports.
　　
　　Approximately 90% of Mexican trade has been put under free trade agreements with over 40 countries, of which the North American Free Trade Agreement remains the most significant. Almost 90% of Mexican exports go to the United States and Canada and close to 65% of its imports come from these two countries. Other major trade agreements have been signed with the European Union, Japan, Israel and many countries in Central and South America. As such, Mexico has become a major player in international trade and an export power. Measured in the dollar value of exports, Mexico was the 15th largest exporter in the world—tenth if the European Union is treated as a single entity. Mexican exports roughly equal the total exports of all Mercosur members together, Venezuela inclusive.
　　
　　Ongoing economic concerns include the commercial and financial dependence on the US, low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution (the top 20% of income earners account for 55% of income), and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states. Lack of structural reform is further exacerbated by an ever increasing outflow of the population into the United States, decreasing domestic pressure for reform.
　　
　　Tourism
　　
　　Coastal Skyline of Acapulco, GuerreroAccording to the World Tourism Organization, Mexico has one of the largest tourism industries in the world. In 2005 it was the seventh most popular tourist destination worldwide, receiving over 20 million tourists per year; it is the only country in Latin America to be within the top 25. Tourism is also the third largest sector in the country's industrial GDP. The most notable tourist draws are the ancient Meso-American ruins, and popular beach resorts. The coastal climate and unique culture – a fusion of European (particularly Spanish) and Meso-American cultures; also make Mexico attractive. The peak tourist seasons in Mexico are during December and during July and August, with brief surges during the week before Easter and during spring break at many of the beach resort sites which are popular among vacationing college students from the United States.
　　
　　Mexico's middle/lower class typically take their vacations within Mexico, in contrast to the middle/higher class who travel worldwide, especially to Europe and the United States, and in lesser numbers to Asia and South America. Mexico is the twenty-third highest tourism spender in the world, and the highest in Latin America.
　　
　　Infrastructure
　　
　　A Pemex oil Refinery.Energy production in Mexico is managed by State-owned companies: the Federal Commission of Electricity (Comisión Federal de Electricidad, CFE) and Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos). The CFE is in charge of the operation of electricity-generating plants and its distribution all across the territory, with the exception of the states of Morelos, México, Hidalgo and the Federal District, whose distribution of electricity is in charge of the State-owned Luz y Fuerza del Centro. Most of the electricity is generated in thermoelectrical plants, even though CFE operates several hydroelectrical plants, as well as wind power, geothermal and nuclear generators.
　　
　　Pemex is in charge of the exploration, extraction, transportation and marketing of crude oil and natural gas, as well as the refining and distribution of petroleum products and petrochemicals. Pemex is the largest company in Latin America, and the ninth-largest oil company in the world. In terms of total output, in 2007 it was the sixth-larger producer in the world—in 2003 it was the third-largest— producing 3.1 million of barrels a day, way above the production of Kuwait or Venezuela.
　　
　　Transportation
　　
　　An Aeromexico plane landing at Mexico City International AirportThe paved-roadway network in Mexico is the most extensive in Latin America at 116,802 km in 2005; 10,474 km were multi-lane freeways or expressways, most of which were tollways. Nonetheless, Mexico's diverse orography—most of the territory is crossed by high-altitude ranges of mountains—as well as economic challenges have led to difficulties in creating an integrated transportation network and even though the network has improved, it still cannot meet national needs adequately.
　　
　　Being one of the first Latin American countries to promote railway development, the network, though extensive at 30,952 km, is still inefficient to meet the economic demands of transportation. Most of the rail network is mainly used for merchandise or industrial freight and was mostly operated by National Railway of Mexico (Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, FNM), privatized in 1997.
　　
　　In 1999, Mexico had 1,806 airports, of which 233 had paved runways; of these, 35 carry 97% of the passenger traffic. The Mexico City International Airport remains the largest in Latin America and the 44th largest in the world transporting 21 million passengers a year. There are more than 30 domestic airline companies of which only two are known internationally: Aeromexico and Mexicana.
　　
　　Mass transit in Mexico is modest. Most of the domestic passenger transport needs are served by an extensive bus network with several dozen companies operating by regions. Train passenger transportation between cities is limited. Inner-city rail mass transit is available at Mexico City—with the operation of the metro, elevated and ground train, as well as a Suburban Train connecting the adjacent municipalities of Greater Mexico City—as well as at Guadalajara and Monterrey, the first served by a commuter rail and the second by an underground and elevated metro.
　　
　　Communications
　　
　　A Telmex retail store in Puerto Vallarta, JaliscoThe 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 twenty-percent. Mobile telephony has the advantage of reaching all areas at a lower cost, and the total number of mobile lines is almost three times that of landlines, with an estimation of 57 million lines. The telecommunication industry is regulated by the government through Cofetel (Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones).
　　
　　Usage of radio, television, and Internet in Mexico is prevalent. There are approximately 1,410 radio broadcast stations and 236 television stations (excluding repeaters). Major players in the broadcasting industry are Televisa—the largest Spanish media company in the Spanish-speaking world— and TV Azteca.
　　
　　Demographics
　　
　　According to the latest official census, which reported a population of 103 million, Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world. Mexican annual population growth has drastically decreased from a peak of 3.5% in 1965 to 0.99% in 2005. Life expectancy in 2006 was estimated to be at 75.4 years (72.6 male and 78.3 female). The states with the highest life expectancy are Baja California (75.9 years) and Nuevo Leon (75.6 years). The Federal District has a life expectancy of the same level as Baja California. The lowest levels are found in Chiapas (72.9), Oaxaca (73.2) and Guerrero (73.2 years). The mortality rate in 1970 was 9.7 per 1000 people; by 2001, the rate had dropped to 4.9 men per 1000 men and 3.8 women per 1000 women. The most common reasons for death in 2001 were heart problems (14.6% for men 17.6% for women) and cancer (11% for men and 15.8% for women).
　　
　　Mexican population is increasingly urban, with close to 75% living in cities. The five largest urban areas in Mexico (Greater Mexico City, Greater Guadalajara, Greater Monterrey, Greater Puebla and Greater Toluca) are home to 30% of the country's population. Migration patterns within the country show positive migration to north-western and south-eastern states, and a negative rate of migration for the Federal District. While the annual population growth is still positive, the national net migration rate is negative (-4.7/1000), attributable to the emigration phenomenon of people from rural communities to the United States.
　　
　　Metropolitan areas of Mexico
　　
　　The Angel of Independence in Mexico City. Metropolitan areas in Mexico have been traditionally defined as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city. In 2004, a joint effort between CONAPO, INEGI and the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL) agreed to define metropolitan areas as either:
　　
　　the group of two or more municipalities in which a city with a population of at least 50,000 is located whose urban area extends over the limit of the municipality that originally contained the core city incorporating either physically or under its area of direct influence other adjacent predominantly urban municipalities all of which have a high degree of social and economic integration or are relevant for urban politics and administration; or
　　a single municipality in which a city of a population of at least one million is located and fully contained, (that is, it does not transcend the limits of a single municipality); or
　　a city with a population of at least 250,000 which forms a conurbation with other cities in the United States.
　　It should be noted, however, that northwestern and southeastern states are divided into a small number of large municipalities whereas central states are divided into a large number of smaller municipalities. As such, metropolitan areas in the northwest usually do not extend over more than one municipality (and figures usually report population for the entire municipality) whereas metropolitan areas in the center extend over many municipalities.
　　
　　Few metropolitan areas extend beyond the limits of one state, namely: Greater Mexico City (Federal District, Mexico and Hidalgo), Puebla-Tlaxcala (Puebla and Tlaxcala, but excludes the city of Tlaxcala), Comarca Lagunera (Coahuila and Durango), and Tampico (Tamaulipas and Veracruz).
　　
　　The following is a list of the major metropolitan areas of Mexico, as reported in the 2005 census.
　　
　　Metropolitan areas by population Rank City proper State
　　1 Mexico City Federal District 19,231,829 11 Querétaro Querétaro 918,100
　　2 Guadalajara Jalisco 4,095,853 12 Mérida Yucatán 897,740
　　3 Monterrey Nuevo Leon 3,664,331 13 Mexicali Baja California 855,962
　　4 Puebla Puebla 2,109,049 14 Aguascalientes Aguascalientes 805,666
　　5 Toluca Mexico State 1,610,786 15 Tampico Tamaulipas 803,196
　　6 Tijuana Baja California 1,483,992 16 Culiacán Sinaloa 793,730
　　7 León Guanajuato 1,425,210 17 Cuernavaca Morelos 787,556
　　8 Ciudad Juárez Chihuahua 1,313,338 18 Acapulco Guerrero 786,830
　　9 Torreón Coahuila 1,110,890 19 Chihuahua Chihuahua 784,882
　　10 San Luis Potosi San Luis Potosí 957,753 20 Morelia Michoacán 735,624
　　2005 Census
　　
　　Immigration
　　Mexico is home to the largest number of U.S. citizens abroad (estimated at one million as of 1999), which represents 1% of the Mexican population and 25% of all U.S. citizens abroad. Other significant communities of foreigners are those of Central and South Americans, most notably from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Belize. Though estimations vary, the Argentine community is considered to be the second largest foreign community in the country (estimated somewhere between 30,000 and 150,000). Throughout the 20th century, the country followed a policy of granting asylum to fellow Latin Americans and Europeans (mostly Spaniards in the 1940s) fleeing political persecution in their home countries.
　　
　　Discrepancies between the figures for official legal aliens and those of all foreign-born residents regardless of their immigration status are quite large. The official figure for foreign-born legal residents in Mexico is 493,000 (since 2004), with a majority (86.9%) of these born in the United States (except Chiapas, where the majority of immigrants are from Central America). The five states with the most immigrants are Baja California (12.1% of total immigrants), Mexico City (the Federal District; 11.4%), Jalisco (9.9%), Chihuahua (9%) and Tamaulipas (7.3%). More than 54.6% of the immigrant population are fifteen years old or younger, while 9% are fifty or older.
　　
　　Ethnography
　　
　　School children, from Monterrey, Nuevo León.Mexico is ethnically diverse, and the constitution defines the country to be a pluricultural nation.
　　
　　Mestizos (those of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry) form the largest group, comprising up to 60-75% of the total population.
　　Amerindians called indigenous peoples (indígenas) are estimated to be between 12% (pure Amerindian) and 30% (predominantly Amerindian). Indigenous peoples are considered the foundation of the Mexican pluricultural nation and therefore enjoy self-determination in certain areas. Indigenous languages are also considered "national languages" and are protected by law.
　　Whites make up 9%-17% of the population, mostly descendants of the first Spanish settlers; although there are a minority of French, Italian, Portuguese, Basque, German, Irish, Polish, Romanian, Russian and British descents from recent contemporary migration after the waves of immigration that brought many Europeans at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, along with some Canadians and Euro-Americans from the United States and Argentina. Most are found in major cities.
　　Mexico also received a large number of Lebanese, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Filipino immigrants.
　　
　　Afro-Mexicans, mostly of mixed ancestry, live in the coastal areas of Veracruz, Tabasco and Guerrero.
　　
　　Language
　　
　　There is no de jure constitutional official language at the federal level in Mexico. Spanish, spoken by 97% of the population, is considered a national language by The General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, which also grants all indigenous minority languages spoken in Mexico, regardless of the number of speakers, the same validity as Spanish in all territories in which they are spoken, and indigenous peoples are entitled to request some public services and documents in their native languages. Along with Spanish, the law has granted them –more than 60 languages– the status of "national languages". The law includes all Amerindian languages regardless of origin; that is, it includes the Amerindian languages of ethnic groups non-native to the territory. As such the National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples recognizes the language of the Kickapoo, who immigrated from the United States, and recognizes the languages of the Guatemalan Amerindian refugees. The Mexican government has promoted and established bilingual primary and secondary education in some indigenous rural communities. Approximately 7.1% of the population speaks an indigenous language and 1.2% do not speak Spanish.
　　
　　Mexico has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world with more than twice as many as the second largest Spanish-speaking country. Almost a third of all Spanish native speakers in the world live in Mexico. Nahuatl is spoken by 1.5 million people and Yucatec Maya by 800,000. Some of the national languages are in danger of extinction; Lacandon is spoken by fewer than one hundred people.
　　
　　English is widely used in business, at the border cities, as well as by the one million U.S. citizens that live in Mexico, mostly retirees in small towns in Baja California, Guanajuato and Chiapas. Other European languages spoken by sizable communities in Mexico are Venetian, Plautdietsch, German, French and Romani.
　　
　　Religion
　　
　　Metropolitan Cathedral of Guadalajara, Jalisco.Unlike some other Latin American countries, Mexico has no official religion, and the Constitution of 1917 and the anti-clerical laws imposed limitations on the church and sometimes codified state intrusion into church matters. The government does not provide any financial contributions to the church, and the church does not participate in public education.
　　
　　The last census reported, by self-ascription, that 95% of the population is Christian. Roman Catholics are 89% of the total population, 47% percent of whom attend church services weekly. In absolute terms, Mexico has the world's second largest number of Catholics after Brazil.
　　
　　About 6% of the population (more than 4.4 million people) is Protestant, of whom Pentecostals and Charismatics (called Neo-Pentecostals in the census), are the largest group (1.37 million people). There are also a sizeable number of Seventh-day Adventists (0.6 million people). The 2000 national census counted more than one million Jehovah's Witnesses. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims one million registered members as of 2006, about 250,000 of whom are active, though this is disputed.
　　
　　The presence of Jews in Mexico dates back to 1521, when Hernando Cortés conquered the Aztecs, accompanied by several Conversos. According to the last national census by the INEGI, there are now more than 45,000 Mexican Jews. Almost three million people in the 2000 National Census reported having no religion.
　　
　　In 1992, Mexico lifted almost all restrictions on the Catholic Church and other religions, including granting all religious groups legal status, conceding them limited property rights, and lifting restrictions on the number of priests in the country. Until recently, priests did not have the right to vote, and even now they cannot be elected to public office.
　　
　　Culture
　　
　　A type of traditional Mexican dance and costumes.Mexican culture reflects the complexity of the country's history through the blending of pre-Hispanic civilizations 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. As was the case in most Latin American countries, when Mexico became an independent nation, it had to slowly create a national identity, being an ethnically diverse country in which, for the most part, the only connecting element amongst the newly independent inhabitants was Catholicism.
　　
　　The Porfirian era (el Porfiriato), in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth 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, though accentuated during the Mexican Revolution, cultural identity had its foundation in the mestizaje, of which the indigenous (i.e. Amerindian) element was 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. 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.
　　
　　Cinema
　　
　　Pan's Labyrinth, "film poster".Main article: Cinema of Mexico
　　Mexican films from the Golden Era 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. 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 (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.
　　
　　Music
　　
　　Jalisco Symphony Orchestra.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 and Luis Miguel. Popular groups are Café Tacvba, Molotov, RBD and Mana, among others.
　　
　　Most states, through their Ministry of Culture or of Education, sponsor an Orquesta Sinfónica or Orquesta Filarmónica (Symphony Orchestra or Philharmonica Orchestra) so people can enjoy classical music. The Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco is the oldest in the country.
　　
　　Fine arts
　　
　　Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City.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, 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. Some of Rivera's murals are displayed at the Mexican National Palace and the Palace of Fine Arts.
　　
　　Academic music composers of Mexico include Manuel M. Ponce, Mario Lavista, Silvestre Revueltas, Arturo Marquez, and Juventino Rosas, many of whom incorporated traditional elements into their music. Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, Elena Poniatowska, and José Emilio Pacheco, are some of the most recognized authors of Mexican literature.
　　
　　Broadcast media
　　
　　RBD at the Otro Rollo show with Adal RamonesTwo 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. 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. Even Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna from Y tu mamá también and current Zegna model have appeared in some of them. Some of their TV shows are modeled after counterparts from the U.S. like Family Feud (100 Mexicanos Dijeron or "A hundred Mexicans said" in Spanish) and Que Dice la Gente, Big Brother, American Idol, Saturday Night Live and others. Nationwide news shows like Las Noticias por Adela on Televisa resemble a hybrid between Donahue and Nightline. Local news shows are modeled after counterparts from the U.S. like the Eyewitness News and Action News formats. Border cities receive television and radio stations from the U.S., while satellite and cable subscription is common for the upper-classes in major cities, often watch movies and TV shows from the U.S.
　　
　　Cuisine
　　
　　Enchiladas, a traditional Mexican dishMain article: Mexican cuisine
　　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-hispanic 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, papaya, pineapple, chile pepper, beans, squash, limes (limón in Mexican Spanish), sweet potato, peanut and turkey.
　　
　　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.
　　
　　Sports
　　
　　The Estadio Azteca (Aztec Stadium) is the official home stadium of the Mexico national football team.
　　Baseball stadium in Monterrey, home to Monterrey Sultans.See also: 1968 Summer Olympics, 1970 FIFA World Cup, 1986 FIFA World Cup, and Sports in Mexico
　　Mexico City hosted the XIX Olympic Games in 1968, making it the only Latin American city to do so. The country has also hosted the FIFA World Cup twice, in 1970 and 1986.
　　
　　Mexico’s most popular sport is 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 5 team league emerged still with a strong English influence . Football became a professional sport in 1943. Since the “Era Professional” started, Mexico’s top clubs have been Guadalajara with 11 championships, América with 10 and Toluca and Cruz Azul with 8 . In Mexican Football many players have been raised to the level of legend, but two of them have received international recognition above others. Antonio Carbajal was the first player to appear in 5 World Cups, and Hugo Sanchez was named best CONCACAF player of the 20th Century by IFFHS. Mexican’s biggest stadiums are Estadio Azteca, Estadio Olimpico Universitario and Estadio Jalisco.
　　
　　The national sport of Mexico is Charreria. Bullfighting is also 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.
　　
　　Baseball, is also popular, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula and the Northern States. The season runs from March to July with playoffs held in August. The Mexican professional league is named the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol. Current champions (2007) are Sultanes de Monterrey who defeated in a tight series Leones de Yucatán. However the best level of baseball is played in Liga Mexicana del Pacífico, played in Sinaloa, Sonora and Baja California. Given that it is played during the MLB off-season, some of its players are signed to play with the league 8 teams. Current champions (2007) are Naranjeros de Hermosillo. The league champion participates in the Caribbean Series, a tournament between the Champions of Winter Leagues of Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
　　
　　Lorena Ochoa, world's number one woman golfer according to the LPGA.The most important professional basketball league is the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional and covers the whole Mexican territory, where the Soles de Mexicali are the current champions. In 2007 three Mexican teams will be competing in the American Basketball Association. In the northwestern states is the CIBACOPA Competition, with professional basketball players from Mexico and the U.S. Universities and some teams from the NBA.
　　
　　American football is played at the major universities like ITESM (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey), UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León), UDLA (University of the Americas), IPN (Instituto Politécnico Nacional) and UNAM. The college league in Mexico is called ONEFA. There is also a strong following of the NFL in Mexico with the Cowboys, Steelers, Dolphins and Raiders being the most popular teams. Rugby is played at the amateur level throughout the country with the majority of clubs in Mexico City and others in Monterrey, Guadalajara, Celaya, Guanajuato and Oaxaca.
　　
　　Ice Hockey is played in larger cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara, Villahermosa, Culiacan and of course Mexico City, with teams like: Galerias Pumas, Gran Sur Wolves, Lomas Verdes Falcons, Metepec Tigres, Monterrey Toros, San Jeronimo Bears, Villahermosa Garrobos and as independent teams: Bosques, Cuatitlan Izcally, Jalapa, Jalisco, Leon, Merida, Puebla, Jurasicos. The IIHF or Federación Deportiva de Mexico de Hockey Sobre Hielo A.C. is the Official Mexico National Ice Hockey Federation and regulates all tournaments in Mexico.
　　
　　Other notable Mexican athletes include golfer Lorena Ochoa, who is currently ranked first in the LPGA world rankings, Ana Guevara, former world champion of the 400 metres and Olympic subchampion in Athens 2004, and Fernando Platas, a numerous Olympic medal winning diver.
　　
　　Sport fishing is popular in Baja California and the big Pacific coast resorts, while freshwater bass fishing is growing in popularity too. The gentler arts of diving and snorkeling are big around the Caribbean, with famous dive sites at Cozumel and on the reefs further south. The Pacific coast is becoming something of a center for surfing, with few facilities as yet; all these sports attract tourists to Mexico.
　　
　　Health Care and Education
　　
　　Hospital Angeles in Villahermosa, Tabasco.In the 1990s, Mexico entered a transitional stage in the overall health of the population; in the 1990s Mexico exhibited mortality patterns similar to those found in developed societies.
　　
　　Health and hospital care is free and available to all Mexicans through the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the Security and Social Services Institute Workers for Government Workers (ISSSTE). Overall, health services are adequate; though exceptional cases are mostly centralized in large cities and offered by private hospitals. Residents of small towns have to travel to large urban centers to get specialized attention. Disparities between large cities, urban and rural are quite noticeable; health coverage in rural and indigenous communities is poor. Medical training is done mostly at public universities with specializations abroad. Some public universities in Mexico, most notably the University of Guadalajara, have signed agreements with the US 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; drugs manufactured in Mexico are 50% less costly on average than those manufactured in the US.
　　
　　Biotechnology center, ITESM Campus MonterreyIn 2004, the literacy rate was at 97% for youth under the age of 14 and 91% for people over 15, placing Mexico at the 24th place in the world rank accordingly to UNESCO. Primary and secondary education (9 years) is free and mandatory. Even though different bilingual education programs have existed since the 1960s for the indigenous communities, after a constitutional reform in the late 1990s, these programs have had a new thrust, and free text books are produced in more than a dozen indigenous languages.
　　
　　In the 1970s, Mexico established a system of "distance-learning" through satellite communications to reach otherwise inaccessible small rural and indigenous communities. Schools that use this system are known as telesecundarias in Mexico. The Mexican distance learning secondary education is also transmitted to some Central American countries and to Colombia, and it is used in some southern regions of the United States as a method of bilingual education. There are approximately 30,000 telesecundarias and approximately a million telesecundaria students in the country.
　　
　　The largest and most prestigious public university in Mexico, today numbering over 269,000 students, is the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) founded in 1551. Three Nobel laureates and most of Mexico's modern-day presidents are among its former students. UNAM conducts 50% of Mexico's scientific research and has presence all across the country with satellite campuses and research centers. The National Autonomous University of Mexico ranks 192th place in the Top 200 World University Ranking published by The Times Higher Education Supplement in 2007, making it the highest ranked Spanish-speaking university in the world and the third highest ranked in Latin America. The second largest university is the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). These institutions are public, and there are at least a couple of public universities per state.
　　
　　One of the most prestigious private universities is Monterrey's Technological and Higher Education Institute (ITESM). It was ranked by the Wall Street Journal as the 7th top International Business School worldwide and 74th among the world's top arts and humanities universities ranking of The Times Higher Education Supplement, published in 2005. ITESM has thirty-two secondary campuses, apart from its Monterrey Campus. Other important private universities include Mexico's Autonomous Technological Institute (ITAM), ranked as the best economics school in Latin America, Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) and the Ibero-American University (Universidad Iberoamericana).
　　
　　Science and technology
　　
　　A photograph of the Large Millimeter Telescope in Puebla.
　　Dr. Rodolfo Neri Vela, the first Mexican scientist in space.Notable Mexican technologists include Luis E. Miramontes, the co-inventor of the contraceptive pill, Guillermo González Camarena, who invented the "Chromoscopic adapter for television equipment", an early color television transmission system, and Mario J. Molina, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Rodolfo Neri Vela, an UNAM graduate, was the first Mexican to enter space (as part of the STS-61-B mission in 1985.)
　　
　　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. It was designed to observe regions of space obscured by stellar dust.
　　
　　Nonetheless, the government currently spends only 0.31% of GDP in science and technology, a low percentage in comparison with other countries. Mexico has the lowest number of researchers of the OECD countries, with only 4.8 researchers per 10,000 inhabitants. Mexico trains only three PhDs per million inhabitants per year. Moreover, there is a regional disparity in the allocation of scientific resources; 75% of all doctorate degrees are awarded from institutions in Mexico City area.
　　
　　In 1962, the National Commission of Outer Space (Comisión Nacional del Espacio Exterior, CONNE) was established, but was dismantled in 1977. In 2007, a project was presented to re-open a new Mexican Space Agency (AEXA). It is awaiting Senate approval by the end of 2008.

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