Culture of Mexico
Encyclopedia
Metropolitan areas of Mexico
Metropolitan areas in Mexico have been traditionally defined as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city...
include Mexico City
Greater Mexico City
Greater Mexico City refers to the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called Mexico City Metropolitan Area , constituted by the Federal District—itself composed of 16 boroughs—and 41 adjacent municipalities of the states of Mexico and Hidalgo...
, Guadalajara
Guadalajara Metropolitan Area
The Guadalajara Metropolitan Area is the most populous metropolitan area of the Mexican state of Jalisco and the second largest in the country after Greater Mexico City...
, Monterrey
Monterrey Metropolitan area
The Monterrey metropolitan area refers to the surrounding urban agglomeration of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Officially called Area Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Monterrey or AMM, the metropolitan area is the 3rd-largest such area in Mexico....
, and Puebla-Tlaxcala
Metropolitan area of Puebla
The Metropolitan area of Puebla or Greater Puebla is the fourth largest agglomeration in Mexico with a population of 2.109 million. This agglomeration includes 10 municipalities of the state of Puebla, and 13 municipalities of the state of Tlaxcala...
, while rural areas include small areas throughout Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
, Guerrero
Guerrero
Guerrero officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guerrero is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo....
, Sinaloa
Sinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....
, Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the...
, Yucatán
Yucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
, Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 11 municipalities and its capital city is Aguascalientes....
, Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, and many more.
Art
Mexican handcrafts and folk art
Mexican handcrafts and folk art is a complex collection of items made with various materials and intended for utilitarian, decorative or other purposes. Some of the items produced by hand in this country include ceramics, wall hangings, vases, furniture, textiles and much more...
traditions, mostly derived from the indigenous and Spanish crafts. Pre-Columbian art thrived over a wide timescale, from 1800 BC to AD 1500. Certain artistic characteristics were repeated throughout the region, namely a preference for angular, linear patterns, and three-dimensional ceramics. Notable handicrafts include clay pottery from the valley of Oaxaca and the village of Tonala. Colorfully embroidered cotton garments, cotton or wool shawls and outer garments, and colorful baskets and rugs are seen everywhere. Mexico is also known for its pre-Columbian architecture
Mesoamerican architecture
Mesoamerican architecture is the set of architectural traditions produced by pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, traditions which are best known in the form of public, ceremonial and urban monumental buildings and structures...
, especially for public, ceremonial and urban monumental buildings and structures.
Architecture
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, most of which pertain to the country's architectural history. Mesoamerican architecture in Mexico is best known for its public, ceremonial and urban monumental buildings and structures, several of which are the largest monuments in the world. Mesoamerican architecture is divided into three eras, Pre-Classic, Classic, and Post-Classic.
Churrigueresque
Churrigueresque refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 17th century and was used up to about 1750, marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing, normally found above the...
, which combined Amerindian and Moorish decorative influences.
The Academy of San Carlos
Academy of San Carlos
The Academy of San Carlos is located at 22 Academia Street in just northeast of the main plaza of Mexico City. It was the first major art academy and the first art museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1781 as the School of Engraving and moved to the Academia Street location about 10 years later...
, founded in 1788, was the first major art academy in the Americas. The academy promoted Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
, focusing on Greek and Roman art and architecture.
Second Mexican Empire
The Second Mexican Empire was the name of Mexico under the regime established from 1864 to 1867. It was created by Napoleon III of France, who attempted to use the Mexican adventure to recapture some of the grandeur of earlier Napoleonic times...
, Maximilian I
Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...
installed emperor of Mexico. This intervention, financed largely by France, was brief, but it began a period of French influence in architecture and culture which lasted well into the 20th century.
After the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
in 1917, idealization of the indigenous and the traditional symbolized attempts to reach into the past and retrieve what had been lost in the race toward modernization.
Functionalism, expressionism, and other schools left their imprint on a large number of works in which Mexican stylistic elements have been combined with European and North American techniques. Most notably the work of Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
winner Luis Barragán
Luis Barragán
Luis Barragán Morfin was a Mexican architect. He was self-trained.-Early life:Educated as an engineer, he graduated from the Escuela Libre de Ingenieros in Guadalajara in 1923 and was self-trained as an architect.After graduation, he travelled through Spain, France , and...
.
Enrique Norten
Enrique Norten
Enrique Norten, Hon. FAIA, is a Mexican architect and principal of the design firm TEN Arquitectos . Norten was born in Mexico City in 1954 where he graduated from the Universidad Iberoamericana with a degree in architecture in 1978. He obtained a Master of Architecture from Cornell University in...
, the founder of TEN Arquitectors, has been awarded several honors for his work in modern architecture
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
. His work express a modernity that reinforces the government's desire to present a new image of Mexico as an industrialized country with a global presence.
Other notable and emerging contemporary architects include Mario Schjetnan
Mario Schjetnan
Mario Schjetnan is a Mexican architect and landscape architect that manages to "unite social concerns, aesthetics and, increasingly, ecology- all by way of interpreting and celebrating Mexico's rich and diverse culture." He is co-founder of the interdisciplinary firm Grupo de Diseno Urbano in...
, Michel Rojkind
Michel Rojkind
Michel Rojkind=Michel Rojkind is a Mexican architect and former musician of Russian-Mexican descent.-Early Years and Education:...
, Tatiana Bilbao, Isaac Broid Zajman
Isaac Broid Zajman
Isaac Broid Zajman is a Mexican architect and designer.- Biography :Broid studied under J. Francisco Serrano Cacho and Carlos Mijares Bracho at the faculty of architecture and urban planning of the Universidad Iberoamericana, and graduated as master of design at the Oxford Polytechnic, England...
and Bernardo Gómez-Pimienta
Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta
Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta is a Mexican architect. In 1985, he co-founded TEN Arquitectos. Highly talented architect and furniture designer, Bernardo started his own architectural practice in 2003, BGP Arquitectura...
, Luis Vicente Flores, Alberto Kalach
Alberto Kalach
Alberto Kalach is a Mexican architect.- Biography :Kalach is a native of Mexico City, and studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and later at Cornell University in Ithaca. From 1981 to 2002 he worked with Daniel Álvarez in their company Taller de Arquitectura X...
, Daniel Alvarez, and José Antonio Aldrete-Haas.
Literature
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
. Outstanding colonial writers and poets include Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza , one of the greatest Novohispanic dramatists of the Golden Age, was born in New Spain .-Genealogy:...
and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
Other writers include Alfonso Reyes
Alfonso Reyes
Alfonso Reyes Ochoa was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat.-Early life:Alfonso Reyes parents were Bernardo Reyes and Aurelia Ochoa...
, José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi
José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi
José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi , Mexican writer and political journalist, best known as the author of El Periquillo Sarniento , reputed to be the first novel written in Latin America....
, Ignacio Manuel Altamirano
Ignacio Manuel Altamirano
Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Basilio was a Mexican writer, journalist, teacher and politician.Altamirano was born in Tixtla, Guerrero, of pure indigenous Nahua heritage. His father was the mayor of Tixtla, this allowed Ignacio to attend school there...
, Maruxa Vilalta
Maruxa Vilalta
Maruxa Vilalta is a Mexican playwright and a theatre director.Her plays have been translated, published and produced in numerous countries. She has won the critic’s prize for the best play of the year ten times....
, Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
, Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
(Nobel Laureate), Renato Leduc
Renato Leduc
Renato Leduc was a Mexican poet and journalist.- Biography :Leduc, son of a French father and a Mexican mother, served as a signalist in Francisco Villa's División del Norte, and studied law at the Universidad Nacional de México...
, Jaime Labastida, Mariano Azuela
Mariano Azuela
Mariano Azuela González was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910...
("Los de abajo") and Juan Rulfo
Juan Rulfo
Juan Rulfo was a Mexican author and photographer. One of Latin America's most esteemed authors, Rulfo's reputation rests on two slim books, the novel Pedro Páramo , and El Llano en llamas...
("Pedro Páramo"). Bruno Traven, from German origin, assimilated into the Mexican culture and wrote "Canasta de cuentos mexicanos", "El tesoro de la Sierra Madre."
Cinema
The history of Mexican cinema dates to the beginning of the 20th century, when several enthusiasts of the new medium documented historical events – most particularly the Mexican Revolution. The Golden Age of Mexican cinema is the name given to the period between 1935 and 1959 where the quality and economic success of the cinema of Mexico reached its peak. Some of the present-day film makers include, Alejandro González IñárrituAlejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu is a Mexican film director.González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the DGA of America for Best Director. He is also the first and only Mexican born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene...
(Amores perros
Amores perros
Amores perros is a 2000 neorealist Mexican film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Amores Perros is the first movie in Iñárritu's trilogy of death, and was followed by 21 Grams and Babel. It is a triptych; an anthology film, sometimes referred to as the "Mexican Pulp Fiction," containing...
, Babel), Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco is a Mexican film director, screenwriter and film producer, best known for his films Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y tu mamá también, and A Little Princess.- Early life :...
(Children of Men
Children of Men
Children of Men is a 2006 science fiction film loosely adapted from P. D. James's 1992 novel The Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. In 2027, two decades of human infertility have left society on the brink of collapse. Illegal immigrants seek sanctuary in England, where the last...
, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The book was published on 8 July 1999. The novel won the 1999 Whitbread Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the 2000 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and was short-listed for other...
), Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones...
(Pan's Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth is a 2006 Spanish Spanish-language dark fantasy film, written and directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro. It was produced and distributed by the Mexican film company Esperanto Films...
), Carlos Reygadas
Carlos Reygadas
Carlos Reygadas is a Mexican filmmaker known for his three films Batalla en el Cielo, Japón and Silent Light . After Batalla en el Cielo, he was known for his raw depiction of sex in his films and the use of old or ugly-seeming characters...
(Stellet Licht), screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga
Guillermo Arriaga
Guillermo Arriaga Jordán is a Mexican author, screenwriter, director and producer. Self-defined as “a hunter who works as a writer,” he authored Amores Perros, received a BAFTA Best Screenplay nomination for 21 Grams, and received the 2005 Cannes Best Screenplay Award for The Three Burials of...
and owners Guillermo Navarro
Guillermo Navarro
Guillermo Navarro, ASC, A.M.C. is a Mexican cinematographer. He has worked in Hollywood since 1993 and is a frequent collaborator of Guillermo del Toro and Robert Rodriguez. In 2006 he won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the film, Pan's Labyrinth...
and mmanuel bobbeski
National holidays
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...
on September 16, and other holidays with colorful festivals known as "Fiestas". Many Mexican cities, towns and villages hold a yearly festival to commemorate their local patron saints. During these festivities, the people pray and burn candles to honor their saints in churches decorated with flowers and colorful utensils. They also hold large parades, fireworks, dance competitions, beauty pageant contest, party and buy refreshments in the market places and public squares. In the smaller towns and villages, soccer, and boxing are also celebrated during the festivities.
Nochebuena
Nochebuena, , is a Spanish word referring to the night of Christmas Eve. In Spain, Cuba, Latin America, and the Philippines, the evening consists of a traditional dinner with family....
("Holy Night", celebrated on December 24), Navidad
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
("Christmas", celebrated on December 25) and Año Nuevo ("New Years Day", celebrated on December 31 to January 1). "Guadalupe Day" is regarded by many Mexicans as the most important religious holiday of their country. It honours the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, which is celebrated on December 12. In the last decade, all the celebrations happening from mid December to the beginning of January have been linked together in what has been called the Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon
Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon
Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon is a concept typical of Mexican culture. It began in the decade of the 1990s and informally refers to the vacational period from December 12 to January 6...
.
Piñatas are unique to Mexican celebrations. A pinata is made from papier-mache. It is created to look like popular people, animals, or fictional characters. Once made it is painted with bright colors and filled with candy or small toys. It is then hung from the ceiling. The children are blind folded and take turns hitting the piñata
Piñata
A piñata is a papier-mâché or other type of container that is decorated, filled with toys and or candy and then broken as part of a ceremony or celebration. Piñatas are most commonly associated with Mexico, but its origins are considered to be in China...
until it breaks open and the candy and small toys fall out. The children then gather the candy and small toys.
Cuisine
Enchilada
An enchilada is a corn tortilla rolled around a filling and covered with a chili pepper sauce. Enchiladas can be filled with a variety of ingredients, including meat, cheese, beans, potatoes, vegetables, seafood or combinations.-Etymology:...
s, mole sauce
Mole (sauce)
Mole is the generic name for a number of sauces used in Mexican cuisine, as well as for dishes based on these sauces...
, atole
Atole
Atole is a traditional masa-based Mexican and Central American hot drink. Chocolate atole is known as champurrado or atole...
, tamale
Tamale
A tamale — or more correctly tamal — is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa , which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating...
s, pozole
Pozole
Pozole is a ritually significant, traditional pre-Columbian soup or stew from Mexico. Pozole was mentioned in Fray Bernardino de Sahagún's "General History of the Things of New Spain" circa 1500 CE. It is made from nixtamalized cacahuazintle corn, with meat, usually pork, chicken, turkey, pork...
and burritos. Traditionally the main Mexican ingredients consisted of maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, beans, chicken, pork, beef, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers
Bell pepper
Bell pepper, also known as sweet pepper or a pepper and capsicum , is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum . Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange and green. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as...
, chilies, Habenero peppers, Naga Jolokia peppers (Ghost chili)
Naga Jolokia pepper
The Bhut Jolokia , as it is commonly known—also known variously by other names in its native region, sometimes Naga Jolokia—is a chili pepper previously recognized by Guinness World Records as the hottest pepper in the world...
(the hottest/spiciest pepper in the world), onions, nuts, avocados and guavas. Popular beverages include water flavored with a variety of fruit juices, and cinnamon-flavored hot chocolate prepared with milk or water and blended until it becomes frothed using a traditional wooden tool called a molinillo
Molinillo (whisk)
A Molinillo is a traditional Mexican turned wood whisk. Its use is principally for the preparation of hot beverages such as hot chocolate, atole and champurrado. The molinillo is held between the palms and rotated by rubbing the palms together; this rotation creates the froth in the drink...
. Alcoholic beverages native to Mexico include mescal, pulque
Pulque
Pulque, or octli, is a milk-colored, somewhat viscous alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant, and is a traditional native beverage of Mexico. The drink’s history extends far back into the Mesoamerican period, when it was considered sacred, and its use was limited to...
, and tequila
Tequila
Tequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
. Mexican-produced beers
Beer in Mexico
"Beer In Mexico" is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music singer Kenny Chesney. It was released in January 2007 as the fifth and final single from Chesney's 2005 album The Road and the Radio...
are also popular in Mexico and are exported. There are international award-winning Mexican wineries that produce and export wine.
The most important and frequently used Spices in Mexican Cuisine are chili powder, cumin
Cumin
Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to India. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form.-Etymology:...
, oregano
Oregano
Oregano – scientifically named Origanum vulgare by Carolus Linnaeus – is a common species of Origanum, a genus of the mint family . It is native to warm-temperate western and southwestern Eurasia and the Mediterranean region.Oregano is a perennial herb, growing from 20–80 cm tall,...
, cilantro, epazote
Epazote
Epazote, wormseed, Jesuit's tea, Mexican tea, Paico or Herba Sancti Mariæ is an herb native to Central America, South America, and southern Mexico....
, cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
, and cocoa
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
. Chipotle
Chipotle
A chipotle , or chilpotle, which comes from the Nahuatl word chilpoktli meaning "smoked chili pepper" is a smoke-dried jalapeño that tends to be brown and shriveled. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Mexican-American and Tex-Mex.Varieties of jalapeño...
, a smoked-dried Jalapeño pepper, is also common in Mexican Cuisine. Many Mexican dishes also contain onions and garlic, which are also some of Mexico's staple foods.
Next to corn, rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
is the most common grain in Mexican Cuisine. According to food writer Karen Hursh Graber, the initial introduction of Rice to Spain from North Africa in the 4th century led to the Spanish introduction of Rice to Mexico at the port of Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
in the 1520s. This, Graber says, created one of the earliest instances of the world's greatest fusion Cuisine's
Fusion cuisine
Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...
.
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, the latter having a famous reputation for its fish dishes, à la veracruzana.
In modern times, other cuisines of the world have become very popular in Mexico, thus adopting a Mexican fusion. For example, sushi in Mexico is often made by using a variety of sauces based on mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
and tamarind
Tamarind
Tamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...
, and very often served with serrano
Serrano
-People:* Serrano , a Native American tribe of Southern California** The Serrano language spoken by the Serrano people*Serrano , people with the surname Serrano-Places:*Serrano Intermediate School, in Lake Forest, CA...
-chili-blended soy sauce, or complemented with vinegar, Habenero peppers and Chipotle peppers.
Chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
originated in Mexico, especially by the Aztecs, and it is now used in Mexican cooking, especially in Mexican desserts.
Music
Voices
Voices is a 2006 translation of a 2003 crime novel by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, another entry in the multi award-winning Detective Erlendur series. It was first published in English in August, 2006. The Swedish translation of the novel won Sweden's Martin Beck Award for the best crime...
to make music and dances. This ancient music is still played in some parts of Mexico. However, much of the traditional contemporary music of Mexico was written during and after the Spanish colonial period, using many European instruments. Some instruments whose predecessors were brought from Europe, such as the vihuela
Vihuela
Vihuela is a name given to two different guitar-like string instruments: one from 15th and 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the other, the Mexican vihuela, from 19th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands.-History:The vihuela, as it was known...
used in Mariachi
Mariachi
Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...
music, are now strictly Mexican.
Mexican society enjoys a vast array of music genres, showing the diversity of Mexican culture. Traditional music includes Mariachi
Mariachi
Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...
, Banda
Banda music
Banda is a brass-based form of traditional music. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, baladas, and boleros. Bandas are most widely known for their rancheras, but they also play modern Mexican pop, rock, and cumbias...
, Norteño
Norteño (music)
Norteño , also norteña or conjunto, is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño's most characteristic instruments. The norteño genre is popular in both Mexico and the United States, especially among the Mexican community...
, Ranchera
Ranchera
Ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico originally sung by only one performer with a guitar. It dates to the years of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. It later became closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco. Ranchera today is also played...
and Corrido
Corrido
The corrido is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad, of Mexico. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for peasants, and other socially important information. It is still a popular form today, and was widely popular during the Mexican Revolution and Nicaraguan...
s. Mexicans also listen to contemporary music such as pop
Mexican pop music
The type of Pop music produced in Mexico is called Mexican pop, is a music genre particularly intended for teenagers and young adults.Mexico is the country that exports the most entertainment in Spanish language...
and Mexican rock. Mexico has the largest media industry in Latin America, producing Mexican artists who are famous in Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America and parts of Europe. Folk songs called corridos have been popular in the country since the 16th century. It may tell the story about the Mexican Revolution, pride, Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
, romance, poverty, politics or crime.
Today, musical groups known as Mariachis perform along streets, festivals and restaurants. A Mariachi group includes singers, guitar, trumpets, violin and marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
players. The most prominent Mariachi group is Vargas de Tecalitlán
Vargas de Tecalitlán
Vargas de Tecalitlan is a Mexican folk ensemble of mariachi music created in 1897 by Gaspar Vargas. From 1950 it has been under the artistic guidance of Rubén Fuentes. The group's musical direction has been the responsibility of Don Jose "Pepe" Martinez since 1975.-Members:A minimum mariachi group...
, which was originally formed in 1897.
Son Jarocho
Son Jarocho is a traditional musical style of Veracruz, a Mexican state along the Gulf of Mexico. It evolved over the last two and a half centuries along the coastal portions of southern Tamaulipas state and Veracruz state, hence the term jarocho, a colloquial term for people or things from the...
(Veracruz, with guitars and harp), Huapango
Huapango
Huapango is a corruption of the Nahuatl word huapanco that textually means on top of the wood platform according to the dictionary of the Real Academia Española . Today huapango refers to a musical style that originated in and is played throughout the La Huasteca region in Mexico...
or Son Huasteco
Son Huasteco
Son Huasteco is one of 8 Mexican son styles and is a traditional Mexican musical style originating in the 6 state area of Northeastern Mexico called La Huasteca. It dates back to the end of the 19th century and is influenced by Spanish and indigenous cultures...
(Huasteca, northeastern regions, violin and two guitars known as quinta huapanguera and jarana
Jarana
The jarana jarocha is a guitar-shaped fretted stringed instrument, from the southern region of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Typically strung with 8 strings in 5 courses, usually arranged in two single outer strings with three courses between. The strings are usually nylon, although they were gut...
), Tambora (Sinaloa, mainly brass instruments) Duranguense
Duranguense
Duranguense is a genre of Mexican music. It is popular among the Mexican-American community in the United States. Duranguense is closely related to the Mexican styles of banda and norteño. The main instruments, which are held over from banda, are the saxophone, trombone, and bass drum...
, Jarana (most of the Yucatán peninsula) and Norteña (North style, redoba
Redoba
The redoba is a percussion instrument.It consists of a wood block fixed to a belt and struck with sticks. A pair of blocks can be used to obtain two different musical notes. It is possible to dance and play at the same time. It is mainly used in conjunto norteño ....
and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
).
Folk dances are a feature of Mexican culture. Significant in dance tradition is the "Jarabe Tapatío
Jarabe tapatío
The Jarabe Tapatío dance in its standardized form was first choreographed by the Mexican, in the early twentieth century to celebrate a government-sponsored fiesta that commemorated the successful end of the Mexican Revolution....
", known as "Mexican hat dance". Traditional dancers perform a sequence of hopping steps, heel and toe tapping movements.
Among the most known "classical" composers: Manuel M. Ponce ("Estrellita"), Revueltas, Jordá (Elodia), Ricardo Castro
Ricardo Castro
Ricardo Castro Herrera was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz.- Life :Castro's father, Vicente Castro, was a deputy congressman; his mother was María de Jesús Herrera...
, Juventino Rosas
Juventino Rosas
José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas was a Mexican composer and violinist.-Life and career:Rosas was born in Santa Cruz de Galeana, Guanajuato, now renamed Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas. Rosas began his musical career as a street musician and playing with dance music bands in Mexico City...
("Sobre las olas"), Carrillo (Sonido 13), Ibarra, Pablo Moncayo (Huapango) and Carlos Chávez
Carlos Chávez
Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by native Mexican cultures. Of his six Symphonies, his Symphony No...
.
Popular composers includes: Agustín Lara
Agustín Lara
Agustín Lara was a Mexican singer and songwriter.-Biography:Lara was born in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz. Later, the Lara family had to move again to Mexico City, establishing their house in the borough of Coyoacán. After Lara's mother died, Agustín and his siblings lived in a hospice run by their...
, Consuelo Velázquez
Consuelo Velázquez
Consuelo Velázquez was a Mexican concert pianist, songwriter and recording artist.According to her obituary, she was 88 years old when she died...
("Bésame mucho
Bésame Mucho
"Bésame Mucho" is a Spanish language song written in 1940 by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez.-Inspiration:According to Velázquez herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin.She was inspired by the piano...
"), "Guty" Cárdenas, José Alfredo Jiménez
José Alfredo Jiménez
José Alfredo Jiménez was a Mexican singer-songwriter in the ranchera style whose songs are considered an integral part of Mexico's musical heritage....
, Armando Manzanero
Armando Manzanero
Armando Manzanero Canché is a Mexican musician and composer of Maya descent, widely considered the premier Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era and one of the most successful composers of Latin America....
, Luis Arcaraz, Álvaro Carrillo
Álvaro Carrillo
Álvaro Carrillo Alarcón was a Mexican popular music composer born in San Juan Cacahuatepec, Oaxaca, on 2 December 1921, who died in a car accident on 3 April 1969...
, Joaquín Pardavé
Joaquín Pardavé
Joaquín Pardavé Arce was a Mexican film actor, director, songwriter and screenwriter of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. He was best known for starring and directing various comedy films during the 1940s...
and Alfonso Ortiz Tirado
Alfonso Ortiz Tirado
Alfonso Ortiz Tirado was an opera singer and doctor born in Álamos, Sonora, Mexico in 1893. His musical talent was apparent early in life, but he studied at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and university to become a doctor. He specialized in gynecology as well as general medicine, and eventually...
.
Traditional Mexican music has influenced the evolution of the Mexican pop and Mexican rock
Mexican rock
Mexican rock music, often referred to in Mexico as rock nacional , originated in the 1950s with covers of standards by Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers, among others, bands such as Los Rebeldes del Rock, Los Locos del Ritmo, Los Crazy Boys, Los Nómadas, and Javier Bátiz soon arose...
genre. Some well-known Mexican pop singers are Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri is a Mexican singer. He is widely known only by the name Luis Miguel and is often referred to as "El Sol de México"...
and Alejandro Fernández
Alejandro Fernández
Alejandro Fernández is a Mexican singer. Nicknamed as "El Potrillo" by the media and his fans, he has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. Alejandro is the son of the ranchera singer Vicente Fernández. He originally specialized in traditional, earthy forms of Mexican folk music, such as...
. Latin rock musicians such as Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, Café Tacuba and Caifanes
Caifanes
Caifanes is a Spanish-language rock band from Mexico City formed in 1987. They achieved fame throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s. The original lineup consisted of Saúl Hernández , Sabo Romo , Alfonso André and Diego Herrera . Argentine guitarist Alejandro Marcovich joined in 1989...
have incorporated Mexican folk tunes into their music. Traditional Mexican music is still alive in the voices of artists such as Eugenia León and Lila Downs
Lila Downs
Lila Downs is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music...
.
Sport
Azteca (horse)
The Azteca is a horse breed from Mexico, with a subtype, called the "American Azteca", found in the United States. They are well-muscled horses that may be of any solid color, and the American Azteca may also carry pinto colors. Aztecas are known to compete in many western riding and some English...
. Bullfighting, a tradition brought from Spain, is also popular. Mexico has the largest venue for bullfighting in the world - The Plaza de toros
Plaza México
The Plaza México, situated in Mexico City, is the world's largest bullring. This 48,000-seat facility is usually dedicated to bullfighting, but many boxing fights have been held there as well, including Julio César Chávez's third bout with Frankie Randall...
in Mexico City which seats 48,000 people. Soccer is the most popular Sport in Mexico. Most states have their own representative football teams. Among the country's significant teams include Chivas de Guadalajara
C.D. Guadalajara
Club Deportivo Guadalajara , is a Mexican professional football club based in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Guadalajara plays in the Primera División de México and is the most successful club in Mexican football, having won 11 First Division titles, 7 Campeón de Campeones and 2 Copa México...
, Club América
Club América
Club América is a Mexican Professional football club based in Mexico City. It competes in the Primera División, the top professional league in the country. The team's nickname is Las Águilas ....
, Cruz Azul and Pumas de la UNAM. Notable players include Hugo Sánchez
Hugo Sánchez
Hugo Sánchez Márquez , popularly nicknamed Pentapichichi, or Hugol, is a Mexican football coach and former striker. He played for four European clubs, including Real Madrid. Sanchez is considered the first highly talented Mexican player. He was also a member of the Mexico national team, and...
, Claudio Suárez
Claudio Suárez
Luis Claudio Suárez Sánchez is a retired Mexican footballer. He last played for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer....
, Luis Hernández
Luis Hernández (footballer)
Luis Arturo "El Matador" Hernández Carreón is a Mexican football striker, the fourth highest goalscorer of all-time for the Mexican national football team, and their highest goalscorer in World Cups...
, Francisco Palencia
Francisco Palencia
Juan Francisco Palencia Hernández is a former Mexican football striker, his last team was Pumas UNAM.- Biography :...
, Cuauhtémoc Blanco
Cuauhtémoc Blanco
Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo is a Mexican professional footballer currently signed for Irapuato in the Mexican Liga de Ascenso.Known for his aggressive yet charismatic personality on the field, playing most of his career as a deep-lying forward and his last years as an attacking midfielder...
, Memo Ochoa, Jared Borgetti
Jared Borgetti
Jared Francisco Borgetti Echavarría is a retired Mexican footballer. Borgetti is the all-time leading goal scorer for the Mexican national team, with 46 goals. A prolific goal scorer at both club and national level, Borgetti was renowned for his heading ability...
, Rafael Márquez
Rafael Márquez
Rafael Márquez Álvarez is a Mexican footballer who plays for New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer and the Mexico national team. He plays as a centre back or defensive midfielder....
, Pável Pardo
Pavel Pardo
Pável Pardo Segura , is a Mexican international footballer, who currently plays for the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer.- Biography :...
, Ramón Ramírez
Ramón Ramírez
Jesús Ramón Ramírez Ceceña is a retiredMexican footballer. He is one of the all-time most capped players for the Mexican national football team, and last played as a midfielder for Chivas USA in the Major League Soccer .Ramirez was meant to be one of the best Mexican players since Hugo Sánchez,...
, Jorge Campos, Javier Hernandez
Javier Hernandez
Javier Hernandez is an American artist, comic book creator, and radio host from Whittier, California. Perhaps best known for creating the popular series, El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie, the majority of his works are published through his privately-owned imprint, Los Comex.-Early life:Javier Hernandez...
, and Oswaldo Sánchez
Oswaldo Sánchez
Oswaldo Javier Sánchez Ibarra is a Mexican footballer. He plays as a goalkeeper for Santos Laguna in the Mexican Primera Division, where he is also the team captain. He has 99 caps for Mexico.-Early career:...
.
Julio César Chávez
Julio César Chávez is a retired Mexican professional boxer.He is a six-time world champion in three weight divisions, and for several years he was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world...
, Salvador Sánchez
Salvador Sánchez
Salvador Sánchez Narváez was a Mexican boxer born in the town of Santiago Tianguistenco, Estado de México. Many of his contemporaries as well as boxing writers believe that, had it not been for his premature death, Sanchez could have gone on to become the greatest Featherweight boxer of all time...
, José Nápoles
José Napoles
José Ángel Nápoles, nicknamed Mantequilla , is a Cuban-Mexican boxer and former world welterweight champion, who is frequently ranked as one of the greatest fighters of all time in that division...
, Ricardo Lopez, Rubén Olivares
Rubén Olivares
Rubén Olivares is a former Mexican boxer and current member of the Boxing Hall of Fame. A native of Mexico City, Olivares was a world champion multiple times, and considered by many as the greatest bantamweight champion of all time. He was very popular among Mexicans, many of whom considered him...
, Carlos Zarate
Carlos Zarate
Carlos Zárate Serna is a former Mexican boxer, who was better known in the world of boxing as Carlos Zarate. He has the distinction of being the only boxer in history to put together two streaks of 20 or more knockout wins in a row. He was ranked #21 on The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of...
, Érik Morales
Erik Morales
Érik Isaac Morales Elvira is a Mexican professional boxer. He is the first Mexican born boxer in history to win a world title in four weight classes and is the current WBC Light Welterweight Champion...
, Marco Antonio Barrera
Marco Antonio Barrera
Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia is a Mexicanprofessional boxer. He has won numerous world titles in three different weight classes; he is a former two-time WBO super bantamweight , WBC, Lineal, & The Ring featherweight , and WBC & IBF super featherweight champion...
, Sugar Ramos
Sugar Ramos
Ultiminio Ramos is a Cuban-Mexican boxer who is better known as Sugar Ramos. Ramos fought out of Mexico where he was adopted as a national hero...
and Juan Manuel Márquez
Juan Manuel Márquez
Juan Manuel Márquez Méndez , is a Mexican professional boxer. He is the fourth Mexican-born boxer to become a three-division world champion, where he won eight world titles in three different boxing weight classes.Currently, Marquez is the WBA Super, WBO and The Ring lightweight champion...
. Other popular recreational activities include lucha libre
Lucha libre
Lucha libre is a term used in Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries, for a form of professional wrestling that has developed within those countries...
(Mexican professional wrestling), baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, scuba diving
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
, Jai alai
Jai alai
Jai alai is a sport involving a ball bounced off a walled space. It is a variety of Basque Pelota. The term, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton where the sport is played...
, and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
.
The country hosted the summer Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
in 1968 and the FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
in 1970
1970 FIFA World Cup
The 1970 FIFA World Cup, the ninth staging of the World Cup, was held in Mexico, from 31 May to 21 June. The 1970 tournament was the first World Cup hosted in North America, and the first held outside South America and Europe. In a match-up of two-time World Cup champions, the final was won by...
and 1986
1986 FIFA World Cup
The 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 13th FIFA World Cup, was held in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so and officially...
and was the first country to host the FIFA World cup twice.
See also
- Mexican handcrafts and folk artMexican handcrafts and folk artMexican handcrafts and folk art is a complex collection of items made with various materials and intended for utilitarian, decorative or other purposes. Some of the items produced by hand in this country include ceramics, wall hangings, vases, furniture, textiles and much more...
- Loteria
- QuinceañeraQuinceañeraQuinceañera , sometimes called "Fiesta de quince años", "Fiesta de Quinceañera", "Quince años" or simply "quince", is the celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America...
- PiñataPiñataA piñata is a papier-mâché or other type of container that is decorated, filled with toys and or candy and then broken as part of a ceremony or celebration. Piñatas are most commonly associated with Mexico, but its origins are considered to be in China...
- La LloronaLa LloronaLa Llorona is a widespread legend in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Central America. Although several variations exist, the basic story tells of a beautiful woman by the name of Maria killing her children by drowning them, in order to be with the man that she loved. When the man rejects her, she kills...
- China PoblanaChina PoblanaChina poblana is a term that refers to two elements of the culture of Mexico that have been related by name since the end of the 19th century, although the elements they incorporate are much older...
- Serape
- MacheteMacheteThe machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...