Cultural Study on Mexican Americans

Mexico

Mexico is 1,972,550 sq km just south of the United States, this equates to roughly less than 3 times the size of Texas. Mexico is classed as a member of Latin American nations and part of the North American Continent; not South America as often thought. Mexico is located in Middle America and is bordered by the United States, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Belize, North Pacific Ocean, and Guatemala. The climate of Mexico varies from tropical to desert like conditions. The terrain of Mexico consists of high, rugged mountains; low costal plains; desert; and high plateaus.

According to the CIA website, Mexico has an estimated current population of 108,700,891 people (July 2007 census). Languages that are spoken in Mexico are Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other religious indigenous languages. Sixty percent of the population is of Amerindian-Spanish decent, thirty percent is Amerindian, nine percent is white and the one percent is of other nationality. Roughly seventy-six of the population is of Roman Catholic religious origin; which corresponds with the history of the country. Approximately thirteen percent of the population is below the food based poverty line, with over forty percent of the population below the asset poverty line. An estimated twenty-five percent of the Mexican workforce is unemployed or working in the "informal" sector (Mexico the facts).

History

The Aztecs fought against Cortes and other Spanish explorers