Portal:Mexico

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

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Temple of Warriors at Chichen Itza, Mexico

edit

¡Bienvenido! Welcome to the Mexico portal

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

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

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Featured article - show another

This is a Featured article, which represents some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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

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

List of Featured articles

Selected article - show another

Above, from left to right: Great Gate of Mexico, Municipal Palace, Fort Casa Mata Historical Museum, Sixth Avenue, Main Square, El Hogar Stadium, Juárez Market, Reforma Theater, Bagdad Beach, Kiosk in Plaza Principal, Plaza Fiesta, and the building of the Judicial Power of the Federation.

Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and the municipal seat of the homonymous municipality. It is on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas, United States. Matamoros is the second largest city in the state of Tamaulipas. As of 2016, Matamoros had a population of 520,367. In addition, the Matamoros–Brownsville Metropolitan Area has a population of 1,387,985, making it the 4th largest metropolitan area on the Mexico–US border. Matamoros is the 39th largest city in Mexico and anchors the second largest metropolitan area in Tamaulipas.

The economy of the city is significantly based on its international trade with the United States through the USMCA agreement, and it is home to one of the most promising industrial sectors in Mexico, mainly due to the presence of maquiladoras. In Matamoros, the automotive industry hosts the assembly and accessories plants for brands such as General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. Prior to the growth of the maquiladoras in the 2000s, Matamoros' economy had historically been principally based on agriculture, since northern Mexico's biggest irrigation zones are in the municipality. PEMEX announced a multibillion-peso offshore drilling project for the port of Matamoros, one of the future prospects for Mexico's oil industry. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

edit

Selected picture

Curios for sale

image credit: Tomas Castelazo

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

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

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

List of Good articles

Selected biography - show another

Official portrait, 2000

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

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

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

edit

In the news

9 June 2024 – 2024 Mexican general election: Mexico's ruling party Morena and its coalition allies win a supermajority in the Chamber of Deputies but not in the Senate, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the Constitution. (Reuters)
7 June 2024 – RICH nightclub railing collapse: A glass railing collapsed outside the overcrowded RICH nightclub in Mexico, causing several concertgoers to fall three stories, killing two and injuring 15. (El Universal)
6 June 2024 –: SpaceX launches Starship's Integrated Flight Test 4, successfully guiding both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage to soft water landings in the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean, respectively. (The New York Times)
5 June 2024 – Mexico–United States border crisis: US President Joe Biden institutes a broad asylum ban on migrants illegally crossing the Mexico–United States border, with actions to deport or turn people back to Mexico, with exceptions for unaccompanied children, people with serious medical or safety threats, and victims of trafficking. (Reuters)
4 June 2024 – Mexico–United States border crisis: US President Joe Biden enacts an executive order to temporarily suspend asylum claims processing at the Mexico–United States border when the seven-day average of claims exceeds 2,500 per day. Amnesty International criticizes the executive order, accusing Biden of "setting a dangerous international precedent". (NPR) (AP)
2 June 2024 – 2024 Mexican general election: Mexicans elect a new president and legislature, eight governors, the mayor of Mexico City, and around 20,000 other positions in federal and local elections. (CNN)

Selected fare or cuisine - show another

Mexican cuisine consists of the cooking cuisines and traditions of the modern country of Mexico. Its earliest roots lie in Mesoamerican cuisine. Its ingredients and methods begin with the first agricultural communities such as the Olmec and Maya who domesticated maize, created the standard process of nixtamalization, and established their foodways. Successive waves of other Mesoamerican groups brought with them their cooking methods. These included: the Teotihuacanos, Toltec, Huastec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomi, Purépecha, Totonac, Mazatec, Mazahua, and Nahua. With the Mexica formation of the multi-ethnic Triple Alliance (Aztec Empire), culinary foodways became infused (Aztec cuisine).

Today's food staples native to the land include corn (maize), turkey, beans, squash, amaranth, chia, avocados, tomatoes, tomatillos, cacao, vanilla, agave, spirulina, sweet potato, cactus, and chili pepper. Its history over the centuries has resulted in regional cuisines based on local conditions, including Baja Med, Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxacan, and the American cuisines of New Mexican and Tex-Mex. (Full article...)

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

General images

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

Image 1La leyenda de los volcanes (The legend of the volcanoes). Saturnino Herrán. 1910-1912. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 2President Carranza in La Cañada, Querétaro, January 22, 1916. (from History of Mexico)
Image 3President Vicente Fox with Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh (from History of Mexico)
Image 4President Felipe Calderón with President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (from History of Mexico)
Image 5Club América vs Cruz Azul at the Estadio Azteca. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 6Variegated maize ears (from History of Mexico)
Image 7Surrender of Santa Anna by William Henry Huddle shows the Mexican president and general surrendering to a wounded Sam Houston in 1836. (from History of Mexico)
Image 8La huida a Egipto (The Flight into Egypt). Miguel Cabrera, around 1700. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 9Olmec colossal (from History of Mexico)
Image 10Logo of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, with the colors of the Mexican flag (from History of Mexico)
Image 11Comanchería, territory controlled by the Comanches, prior to 1850 (from History of Mexico)
Image 12Distribution of linguistic groups around 1500. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 13Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, Maya, lintel 24 of temple 23, Yaxchilan, Mexico, ca. 725 ce. (from History of Mexico)
Image 14Alegoría de la Constitución de 1857, Petronilo Monroy, 1869. (from History of Mexico)
Image 15The Execution of Emperor Maximilian, 19 June 1867. Gen. Tomás Mejía, left, Maximilian, center, Gen. Miguel Miramón, right. Painting by Édouard Manet 1868. (from History of Mexico)
Image 16Panel 3 from Cancuen, Guatemala, representing king T'ah 'ak' Cha'an (from History of Mexico)
Image 17Porfirio Díaz (from History of Mexico)
Image 18El Chapo in US custody after his extradition from Mexico. (from History of Mexico)
Image 19Entry into Mexico City by the Mexican army (from History of Mexico)
Image 20Spanish and Portuguese empires in 1790 (from History of Mexico)
Image 21Ignacio Comonfort (from History of Mexico)
Image 22Liberación (Liberation). Jorge González Camarena. 1908. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 23Exconvento (Ex-convent), by José María Velasco. 1860. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 24Toltec carving representing the Aztec Eagle, found in Veracruz, 10th–13th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (from History of Mexico)
Image 25Chihuahua Cathedral and a monument to the city's founder, Antonio Deza y Ulloa (from History of Mexico)
Image 26Victoriano Huerta, ruler of Mexico from 1913 to 1914 (from History of Mexico)
Image 27Colossal atlantids, pyramid B, Toltec, Tula, Mexico, ca. 900–1180 AD (from History of Mexico)
Image 28Battle of Miahuatlán (from History of Mexico)
Image 29Chacmool, Maya, from the Platform of the Eagles, Chichen Itza, Mexico, ca. 800–90 CE (from History of Mexico)
Image 30Dining table, painted between 1857 y 1859, oleo sobre tela (oil on canvas) by Agustín Arrieta (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 31The Castillo, Chichen Itza, Mexico, ca. 800–900 CE (from History of Mexico)
Image 32Agustín de Iturbide the first Emperor of Mexico (from History of Mexico)
Image 33A map of Mexico 1845 after Texas annexation by the U.S. (from History of Mexico)
Image 34A unit of Cristeros preparing for battle. (from History of Mexico)
Image 35Mexican Central Railway train at station, Mexico (from History of Mexico)
Image 36Making cigarettes in the El Buen Tono factory, Mexico City (from History of Mexico)
Image 37Teotihuacan view of the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun, from the Pyramid of the Moon (from History of Mexico)
Image 38Cerro del Cubilete ("Dice Cup Hill"). At the top of the hill is the Cristo Rey (Christ the King) statue. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 39A statue of a Chichimeca Warrior in the city of Querétaro (from History of Mexico)
Image 40General Pancho Villa at the entrance of Ojinaga (from History of Mexico)
Image 41Battle of Centla, the first time a horse was used in battle in a war in the Americas. Mural in the Palacio Municipal of Paraíso, Tabasco (from History of Mexico)
Image 421985 Mexico City earthquake (from History of Mexico)
Image 43Cabinet Officers of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (left) and of Enrique Peña Nieto (right). (from History of Mexico)
Image 44Subcomandante Marcos (from History of Mexico)
Image 45Plutarco Elías Calles (from History of Mexico)
Image 46Modern group monument of Cortés, Doña Marina, and their mestizo son Martín (from History of Mexico)
Image 47General Santa Anna. (from History of Mexico)
Image 48Sawdust carpet made during "The night no one sleeps" in Huamantla, Tlaxcala (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 49Goddess, mural painting from the Tetitla apartment complex at Teotihuacan, Mexico, 650–750 CE (from History of Mexico)
Image 50Viceroy José de Iturrigaray (from History of Mexico)
Image 51Murals of Bonampak (between 580 and 800 AD) (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 52Lázaro Cárdenas mural (from History of Mexico)
Image 53Buffalo Soldiers of the American 10th Cavalry Regiment taken prisoner during the Battle of Carrizal, Mexico in 1916. (from History of Mexico)
Image 54"The Torture of Cuauhtémoc", a 19th-century painting by Leandro Izaguirre (from History of Mexico)
Image 55The first Braceros arrive in Los Angeles by train in 1942. Photograph by Dorothea Lange. (from History of Mexico)
Image 56"The Fall of the Alamo" by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (from History of Mexico)
Image 57Battle of Tampico (1829) (from History of Mexico)
Image 58Equestrian statue of Charles IV in Mexico City (from History of Mexico)
Image 59Pear, Quince and Psidium cajeta. In 2010 declared the Bicentennial Dessert of Mexico. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 60U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto during their meet at the White House following Peña Nieto's election victory. (from History of Mexico)
Image 61Three world leaders: (background, left to right) Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, observe the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. (from History of Mexico)
Image 62Mexico City street market (from History of Mexico)
Image 63Gilberto Bosques Saldívar took the initiative to rescue tens of thousands of Jews and Spanish Republican exiles from being deported to Nazi Germany or Spain. (from History of Mexico)
Image 64Logo of Nacional Financiera (NAFIN), the state development bank. (from History of Mexico)
Image 65Singer and actor Pedro Infante, one of the leading figures of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 66Portrait and book by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Baroque poet and writer. (from Culture of Mexico)
Image 67Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (from History of Mexico)
Image 68Mexican Army troops in the Zócalo in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. (from History of Mexico)
Image 69President Obregón. Note that he lost his right arm in the Battle of Celaya (1915), earning him the nickname of Manco de Celaya ("the one-armed man of Celaya"). (from History of Mexico)