Tampico and Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, are Mexico’s two primary seaports. Recognizing that the low productivity of Mexico’s 79 ports poses a threat to trade development, the government has constantly been privatizing port operations to improve their efficiency.
A number of international airlines serve Mexico, with direct or connecting flights from most major cities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Latin American (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Family
The Mexican household, those family members who dwell under the same roof, differs from the North American household. Mexican households can include the parents? nuclear family as well as that of a married son or daughter and their young children. In most cases in which two or more nuclear families share the same roof, each nuclear family keeps its separate budget and, a separate kitchen. After a few years of living with their parents, married children who choose for this arrangement often set up independent households.
Another interesting aspect of Mexican?s family is that members of the family are expected to display affection openly and reciprocally, as well as provide each other material and moral support. The traditional family has the power to enforce these virtues through the exercise of pressure over its members and through a series of actions usually performed by its elder members. These include social pressure, manipulation, and gossip. In a national survey in 1995 sponsored by the Institute of Social Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) observe,
the family remains the most important social institution. Respondents also associated the family with such positive terms as love, household, children, and well being. Approximately half of all respondents agreed that husbands and wives should jointly handle child-care duties and perform housekeeping chores. However, such views were very differences with the low income and minimally educated respondents who argue regarded household tasks as women?s works. In addition, men often subjected these women to control, domination, and violence. Observer noted that women generally were held to stricter sexual code of conduct than men were. Sexual activity outside of marriage was regarded as immoral for ?decent? women but acceptable for men (Merrillo and Miro 117).
Music and Dance
Mexican music is part of the precious culture of their people. The Indian had the earliest musical?s culture of the region because they ruled the region before the Spanish conquest. In the Indian?s times music played a vital and extensive part in Indian life. Every festival, ceremony, religious rite and military parade was accompanied by music and dancing. Whole orchestras comprising both wind and percussion instruments were used, as well as large choirs. The Spaniards introduced the musical traditions of Europe, and during their rule they developed a wide division between the music of the Church and aristocracy, which followed European styles, and of the common people, in which native elements remained strong. From the Spanish folk songs and dances brought to Mexico by the conquerors, there evolved the Mexican sones, jarabes and huapangos (types Mexican folk?s music) (Tylor 267). ?After the Revolution of 1910, a growing spirit of nationalism caused a new interest and respect of native themes and melodies?, observe Tylor (267).
In recent decades art and popular music have grown closer together as classical composers have sought to combine modern techniques with traditional elements to create music that conveys the unique spirit of Mexico. An important type of 20th century popular music consists of soldiers? songs of the revolutionary period. They often based on already exiting melodies, to which new words have been set. Many of them have a ballad-like, episodic character, but many have no obvious political content. A number of these songs, such as ?Adelita,? ?La Cucaracha,? and ?Valentina,? have won great popularity outside Mexico itself. Other popular music, especially ranchero and mariachi music, has attracted a wide following throughout the Spanish-speaking world,
and Mexico City has become one of the majors recording centers for America (Merrillo and Miro 150).
To encourage and help disseminate Mexican music in all its forms, the federal government sponsors the National Institute of Fine Arts. Under its auspices are the programs of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Ballet Folkloric, and the Modern and Classical Ballet, all of which perform nationally and internationally to promote
Mexican culture, Folk and popular culture also receive support through government bodies, among them the Native Institute, which seeks to preserve and stimulate traditional craftsmanship (Merrillo and Miro 150).
Arts and Crafts
Folk arts, including the weaving of magnificent textiles, pottery making, and silver work, have flourished in Mexico throughout its history, but with the coming of the Spanish to Mexico the native peoples were introduced to European art, especially painting, and building techniques. Many Spanish paintings were brought to Mexico, and during the 17th century gifted native artists became adept to religious oil painting, modeling religious figures in wax, and the art of polychrome wood sculpture (Cumberland 175). ?The early native art combined with the Spanish influence give to Mexican painting a richness of color not yet achieved in Spain at that time? (Merrillo and Miro 155). In fact, ?fifty years before Murillo made his mark as a colorist; Mexican artists were already giving their works rich red and blue tones. This type of work is sometimes referred to as Mexican baroque to distinguish it from the more rigid European baroque,? explain Rojas (30).
?Balt?sar de Echave the elder (c.1548-1620) is considered to be the first great Mexican artist; he founded the first native school in 1609. His Agony in the Garden (begun 1582) is an example of a Renaissance work with a Spanish character? (Rojas 33).
Rojas continues,
Contemporary Mexican painters and sculptors have continued to produce an extraordinary variety of works in many styles and techniques. Major figures include Jos? Luis Cuevas, Jorge G. Camarena, Mart?nez de Hoyos, Frida Kahlo (Diego Rivera’s wife), Enrique Echeverr?a, and Leonora Carrington. Of the abstract easel painters, Rufino Tamayo is an outstanding 20th-century figure (33).
Modern architecture has also flourished. Functionalism, expressionism, and other schools have left their imprint on a large number of works in which Mexican stylistic elements have been combined with European and North American techniques.
About architecture, in the great manufacturing center of Monterrey we can find fine examples of industrial architecture. Perhaps the most outstanding achievement of contemporary Mexican architecture is the Ciudad Universitaria (Fig 6) (University City) outside Mexico City, a complex of buildings and grounds housing the National Univ. of Mexico (Rojas 34).
Norms and Behavior
Mexican?s culture actually is made of two contradictory elements, tradition and revolution. Tradition enters into the smallest, everyday things of his life as well as into the largest and most exceptional. For example, every home owns a metate, the rolling pin and platform made of volcanic stone for the making of tortillas, the cornmeal cakes the Mexican eats as bread. These objects survive from the pre-Columbian times. In poorer home, the Mexican still dies on the pepate, the straw mat on which he was born and learned how to make love. In richer home, the pepate is used as a rug, while in still others it is a wall decoration. This too is of pre-Columbian origin. All the knowledge, and ability that the Mexican have about herb, animals and birds for medicinal purpose is generations old. His most familiar drinks, tequila as well as chocolate and foods, turkey and tortillas, are similarly ancient. Tradition is also present in his folk arts and crafts. Each state has its own specialties: Michoacan is known for its ceramics, copper objects, Guadalajara for its glass and pottery; Oaxaca for it woolen and cotton goods, and back pottery; Querrero for its silver, masks and red pottery. These products reflect the variety of the peoples and cultures in pre-Columbian age (Villaca?a 47,48).
If tradition is one element of the Mexican?s culture, revolution is the other. It has taken no less than two revolution, the War of Independence in 1810 and the Revolution of 1910, to bring about the reconciliation and redefinition of the dual inheritance, Spanish and Indian, that makes the modern Mexican. And yet the revolution themselves have made its value, along with independence and economic improvement, stability and continuity. Therefore, it is quite natural that the politics of a Mexican tend to become institutional, formal and ceremonial (Villaca?a 48). For example, nothing express this more quickly and clearly than the name of the party in which the revolution has come to culmination, the Party of Revolutionary Institution. In other words, the Mexican has institutionalized their revolution.
?The personal qualities of the Mexican reveal an array of paradoxes?, said Villica?a (48). He continues,
from his loves and regard of tradition, he values courtesy and manners. He is friendly to others and ready to go out of his way to be helpful. And yet, suddenly he can be impenetrable and stoic, not merely ready to endure pain, want and failure silently, but to endure them with self-sufficiency; or he can be exuberant, wild and violent in action. He loves life, children, their baptisms, first communion, marriage and birthdays are major occasions of joy and celebration (48).
Conclusions
In conclusion, this research has transformed the perception that I have about the Mexican?s culture. The cultural diversity and racial mix of modern Mexico owes much to its complex, colorful and ancient history. Mexico is a nation of a profound history that at the same time is open to the future. They are proud of their culture and of the diversity with which it is manifested in their regions. As I mentioned before their cultural heritage and background is reflected in all the arts, especially in their paintings, sculptures handcrafts and much more. Also, throughout this paper, I have learned that three great civilizations?the Mayas, the Olmecs, and later the Toltecs?preceded the wealthy Aztec Empire, conquered in 1519?21 by the Spanish under Hernando Cort?s.
Mexico shares a fraternal bond with Central America that unites them in a special way within the greater Latin American community. They share their history, language and hopes for progress. They share a profound link with Europe that dates back to the creation of their nations, and which has persisted constructively for centuries. Today, they share a World that is more united than ever before through communication and economic exchange. Throughout the ages Mexico has contributed to the civilization of mankind greatly . Today this legacy continues to live and will endure until the end.
Work Cited
Blij, H.J., Muller, Peter O. Geography Realms, Regions, and Concepts. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1997.
Cumberland, Charles C. Mexico the Struggle for Modernity. New York: Oxford
University Press. 1968.
Lloyd, Allen W. ?Mexican Economic Report? Mexico Connect. (1999): April
1, 2000
“Mexico” Encyclop?dia Britannica Online.
http://www.eb.com:180/bol/topic?eu=115530&sctn=1>
[Accessed 1 April 2000].
Merrill, Tim L., Miro, Ramon. Mexico a Country Study. Washington: U.S. Government
Printing Office. 1997.
Rojas, Pedro. The Art and Architecture of Mexico from 10,000 Bc to the Present.
Czechoslovakia: Hamlyn House. 1968.
Tylor, Edward B. Mexico and the Mexican Ancient and Modern. New York: Bergman
Publishers. 1968.
Villica?a, Eugenio C. Mexico, the World and its People. New York: Greystone Press.
1969.
Whetten, Nathan L. Rural Mexico. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1989.