"Saludos Amigos" Mexico by seagoingJLW

We just got back from a cruise on the Mexican Riviera. There is a short travelogue on the ship we took, the Statendam, on this page. If you want to see more of the ship go to My Travelogue on the Statendam on my Panama page. We think Mexico has so many tourist attractions that one can go back time after time. Here are the Papantla Fliers.

We visited Cabo San Lucas and took an absolutely wonderful ride on a catamaran up the Sea of Cortez. See the Travelogue on Cabo San Lucas to find out more about it.

Miscellaneous Information

Mexico is located in middle America bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico between Belize and the Us and bordering the North Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and the US. It has a total area of 1,972,550 sq. km. or slightly less than three times the size of Texas. It has 9,330 km of coastline.

The climate varies from tropical to desert. There are high, rugged mountains, low coastal plains, high plateaus, and desert.

The population as of July 2001 was 101,879,171. Mestizos (Amerindian-Spanish) make up 60% of the population. There are also 30% Amerindian, 9% white and 1% other. Roman Catholicism is practiced by 89% of the people, with 6% Protestant and 5% other.

Spanish is the official language. Other languages spoken are various Mayan, Nahuatl and other regional indigenous languages.

The official name of the country is Estados Unidos Mexicanos. It is made up of 31 states and 1 federal district. The states are: Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragosa, Colima, Distrito Federal, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrera,Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave, Yucatan and Zacatecas.

Mexican shops

Mexico was inhabited about 20,000 years before Columbus. From 1200 BC to 1521 AD highly developed civilizations (i.e. Mayan, Aztecs, etc.) flourished.

Because the Aztec calendar for 1519 predicted the arrival of the god, Quetzalcóatl, from the east, Hernán Cortés was welcomed when he arrived. The first Indians that the Spaniards encountered resented the Aztecs. So it was with 6,000 Indians that the Spaniards approached the Aztecs' island capital, a city bigger than any of the cities in Spain.

King Moctezuma II invited the Spaniards into his palace where they took him hostage immediately. By August 13, 1521, the Spaniards had total control. The Indian population diminished rapidly from 25 million at their capture to 1 million in 1605.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Mexico was divided into two societies. Spanish born colonists and criollos (people born in New Spain of Spanish parents,) who acquired fortunes in mining, commerce, ranching, and agriculture were the nobility. they sought political power commensurate with their wealth. The mestizos were of mixed Spanish and Indian or African slave ancestry.

There was a rebellion in 1808 when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied most of Spain. The lack of direct Spanish control emboldened the criollos against the Spanish born. On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a criollo parish priest, led the rebellion. In 1821 Mexico achieved independence from Spain.

During the next 22 years, the presidency changed hands 36 times. When the US Congress annexed Texas in 1845, it led to the Mexican American War during which US troops captured Mexico City. Under the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo in 1848 Mexico ceded Texas, California, Utah, Colorado and most of New Mexico and Arizona to the United States.

By 1862 Mexico was heavily in debt to Britain, France, and Spain. France decided to colonize Mexico causing another war. Maximilian of Hapsburg was appointed by the French to rule Mexico in 1864. This lasted a very brief time.

Porfirio Diaz (1878-1911) became the Mexican dictator and industrialized the country. Due to widespread dislike of Diaz, there were many strikes, which led to the Mexican Revolution.

The basic rift during this revolution was between liberal reformers and more radical leaders such as Emiliano Zapata. There were 10 years of violent civil war. The Party of the Institutionalized Revolution took power in 1934. They introduced a program of reform and land distribution.

There was more civil unrest in 1966 when university students expressed outrage with the conservative Diaz Ordaz administration.

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari began his term in 1988. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) effective January 1, 1994 was his greatest achievement, but it caused a Zapatista uprising. The leader of the rebels, Subcomandante Marcos is a national folk hero.

In March, 1994, Luis Donaldo Col7oacute;sio, Salinas' successor was assassinated. Emesto Zedillo was elected with 49% of the vote. Then Mexico's currency collapsed leading to crime, discontent with the PRI and immigration to the US. By 1997 more than 2.5 million Mexicans a year were illegally entering the US. But by the end of Zedillo's term in 2000, Mexico's purchasing power recovered.

The National Action Party (PAN) put up former Coca Cola executive Vicente Fox. In the freest and fairest national election since the Mexican Revolution he beat Zedillo's hand picked successor, PRI candidate Francisco Labastida. This ended the PRI's 71 year reign.

• Pros:It's interesting and it's nearby.
• Cons:You have to brush up on your Spanish
• In a nutshell:Have a nice vacation here. Travel around.