Mexican Culture Essay

Culture is a set of values, attributes, goals and practices shared by a group of people in a region. This region can be come in different sizes from a small village to a whole country. Modern Mexican culture is largely formed by it’s history and combination of cultures between the Spanish and the native Mexicans. I will examine how this combination plays out in Mexico but first I will define what culture is. There are many elements that come together to create a culture. Geography of a region contributes to its culture creating the setting in which the people live in. The history of a region also creates culture when a group of people have experienced similar events in their life they are going to be molded by those events and be able
to relate to each other over those events. In Mexico’s case this history is its largest driver in what makes Mexico’s Culture. Depending on the region religion can play a very large role in culture as well. In Mexico’s case religion does play a very large role. People within a region need to a way to communicate with each other which is where language comes into play. Language can cover large regions or be localized to a small region. Often these lines where language changed you can start to see a change in culture since it is hard to share experiences, values and goals without being able to effectively communicate. Economic standing of a region can also play a role in what form of a culture a region will develop. Now that we have defined a few characteristics of what a culture is, we can apply those to a specific region.
That region which is what I am going to be covering will Mexico and in more specific terms central Mexico. In my definition of culture I state that geography largely creates a cultural which makes it an appropriate place to start in my examination of Mexico. Mexico has a diverse physical geography from mountains to coast and from desert to tropical forests. The Mexican has coastline that touches both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. Mexico is part of what is known as the ring of fire. The ring of fire is an area of volcanic and seismic activity that exists in the Pacific Ocean. The Mexican people have had to learn how to live with this type of activity. Mexico is a large country but if we look at it has a whole we can point out a few things about its weather as well. Mexico lies within the Tropic of Cancer so overall it general has a warmer climate while at the same time majority of the country get relatively little
rainfall. Mexican history plays a very large role in modern what modern Mexico looks like. Mexico has a vast and rich history that begins before Europeans ever reached the New World however, the start of modern Mexico comes from when the Spanish first landed in Mexico. This mixing of the old world and the new world slowly mixed together to create the modern Mexico we know today. In 1519 Hernan Cortes arrived in Mexico along with his men. Cortes went on to eventually conquer the Aztec people who were there before the Spanish arrived. A lot of Mexican culture comes from this combination of Spanish and native heritage. This combination of cultures eventually leads to the people decided they want to form their own country.
In 1810 The Mexican war for independence began. After eleven years the war ended with with the new independent country of Mexico being formed. Similarly, to the US Spain did not recognize this country in the way Britain did not recognize the US as a country. After a few failed attempts to retake Mexico Spain finally recognized Mexico as an independent country in 1836. Later in 1835 the Texas Revolution takes place resulting in Mexico losing a large amount of it land in the north. Mexico’s next potential conflict was during World War 1. Germany asked Mexico to attack the United States and in return Mexico would regain its lost territory. Mexico denied this request after decided they would not be able to defeat the United States. Mexico later took the side of the allies during World War 2. Currently Mexico main war effort is the war on drugs.
Looking at the history of Mexico we can see large amounts of Spanish influence.
This makes it easy to understand why the most dominate language in Mexico is Spanish. The language of a country plays a part in the development of a countries culture. In addition to language the Spanish also brought the Roman Catholic Church to Mexico. Roughly 88 percent of Mexicans as of the year 2000 claim to be Catholic. Historically the Catholic Church held a lot of power in Mexico, which comes from them owning large amounts of land in Mexico as well as controlling this likes schools and hospital. Over years the Mexican government tried to take away power from the church with this effort eventually leading to an open civil war between the Church and the state in 1855. This conflict brought some powers back to the Church that was taken away in legislation but the church was still not as powerful as before. While the church and state still have disagreements in Mexico they have mostly solved issues and exist in peace. With how dominating the Catholic Church is in Mexico it plays a large part in the culture of the people of Mexico in how they perform their daily life as well as how they view
politics. The economic of the Mexican people is one of inequality. There are areas and people in Mexico with great wealth while at the same time many people in Mexico live in poverty. Mexico’s government estimates that roughly 33% percent of all Mexicans live in moderate poverty. While on the opposite end of the spectrum Mexico has one of the richest men in the world and who at one time did hold the record for the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim. When looking at Mexico in terms of culture if have to recognize this level of economic inequality and what it means for interacting with the local populace. As you can see Mexico has a rich history that creates what we see as a modern Mexican culture. This culture is a combination of Spanish and Native cultures that have come together to form a unique culture that looks like neither original cultural. Modern Mexican culture largely can trace its roots to when Cortez first landed in Mexico. This meeting effected how Mexico spoke and worshiped which both largely forms the culture we know today.