Mexico’s central bank has released figures showing that remittances entering Mexico in 2012 totalled $22.446 billion, 1.57% less than the $22.803 billion recorded in 2011. [All figures in US dollars.] The central bank registered 71.62 million remittance movements in 2012, 2.52% more than the year before. The average remittance fell by about 4% from $326 […]
Cyclists retaking the streets of Guadalajara
The popularity of cycling is growing rapidly in several Mexico cities. Mexico City has created bike lanes, an Ecobici system for short-distance hires, and holds numerous cycling events and rallies, designed to appeal to the whole family, not just to commuters. Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, now has a higher density of car use than […]
The remote mountains and plateaus of the north-west corner of Jalisco where it shares borders with the states of Nayarit, Durango and Zacatecas (see map) is home to some 18,000 Huichol Indians, as well as their close cousins, the Cora. The Huichol heartland (central part of the rectangle on map) is an area of about […]
The distinctive street pattern of Venta de Bravo, Michoacán
The small settlement of Venta de Bravo, in the municipality of Contepec in the state of Michoacán, has a very distinctive street pattern. As the image shows, it has a circular “center”, surrounded by a series of concentric circular streets (see image), connected via regularly-spaced radial streets. The regularity of the pattern is not quite […]
The sacred geography of Mexico’s Huichol Indians
The remote mountains and plateaus where the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Zacatecas all meet is home to some 18,000 Huichol Indians, as well as their close cousins, the Cora. The Huichol (Wixárika = “the healers” in their own language) live in scattered, extended family, settlements (ranchos) and rely entirely on oral tradition. They are […]
Mexico’s Magic Town program loses its shine
Regular readers will be well aware of our concern about the number of towns in Mexico designated Magic Towns in the past few months. As we have written previously, some of the towns chosen are far from “Magic” and offer very little indeed of interest to any regular tourist. Not content with devaluing the program […]
Mexico City wins 2013 Sustainable Transport Award
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), together with an international committee of transportation and development experts, has awarded Mexico City the 2013 Sustainable Transport Award. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy works with cities worldwide to bring about sustainable transport solutions that cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce poverty, increase urban mobility and […]
Why Is Mexico in the OECD?
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was founded in 1961 to promote economic growth. Its current 34 members include 25 European countries along with Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Chile and Israel. Mexico joined the group in 1994. Four new members were admitted in 2010: Chile, Slovenia, Estonia […]
National Post graphic enters our “North America” hall of shame
Geo-Mexico feels compelled to add a graphic from a recent article in Canada’s National Post to its “North American Hall of Shame”. The article itself is about the shortcomings of some Canadian university students when asked basic world geography questions. While we share the author’s concern about the standards of geography teaching in many parts […]
Colima Volcano erupts, destroying lava dome first created in 2007
Colima Volcano (aka the Volcán de Fuego) is one of the westernmost volcanoes in Mexico’s Volcanic Axis, which straddles the country from west to east. The Volcano’s summit is only 8 km (5 miles) from the inactive Nevado of Colima volcano, Mexico’s sixth-highest peak, which rises 4260 m (13,976 ft) above sea level. (Curiously, despite […]
Street patterns in Mexico City
A recent post on Polis, “a collaborative blog about cities across the world”, focuses on the street patterns in Mexico City. Urban Morphology in Mexico City by Jordi Sanchez-Cuenca The post uses Google Earth images of different parts of the city to illustrate how street patterns vary between neighborhoods with different levels of wealth. This […]
Globalization: Mexico exports almost all motor vehicles it produces, but imports new cars
Which company exports the most motor vehicles in Mexico? In term of units exported, Ford was the leader with 449,925 units. Ford exported over 97% of the vehicles it made in Mexico in 2011. Though Ford sold many new cars in Mexico, virtually all were imports, mainly from the USA or Canada. GM was a […]
Mexico’s changing urban landscape: the rapid rise of low-income subdivisions
Between 2000 and 2006, more than 2.3 million new low-income INFONAVIT homes were built in Mexico, a staggering rate of 2,500 new homes each and every day. The achievement was documented by photographer Livia Corona, who divides her time between New York and Mexico City, in a four-year project entitled “Two Million Homes for Mexico”. […]
Education quality: How do Mexican students compare to those in other countries?
Mexico’s future is largely dependent on the quality of future citizens and consequently on the quality of its current education system. The Mexican economy has done quite well in recent years because it has a productive work force that is willing to work for relatively reasonable wages. While China previously had a workforce productivity advantage […]
The important role of telenovelas and historietas as forms of communication in Mexico
The highest rating programs on TV are televised novels, telenovelas. A telenovela is a limited‑run television serial melodrama, somewhat like a soap opera but normally lasting less than a year, and where the eventual ending has already been scripted. The first global telenovela was Los ricos también lloran (“The rich cry too”), originally shown in […]
Which company produces the most motor vehicles in Mexico?
Back in 2006, General Motors (GM) was the clear leader in production with 493,841 units (just over 25% of the national total). Nissan was second with 411,236 units (21%). These were followed by Volkswagen (VW) – 339,183; Ford – 329,993 and Chrysler – 307,344. The newcomers, Toyota and Honda trailed way behind with 33,835 and […]
Mexico’s sixteenth century Geographic Accounts: the example of Jiquilpan, Michoacán
In a previous post, we introduced the Geographic Accounts, a rich source of information about Mexico’s sixteenth century geography. The style and substance of a typical Geographic Account can be judged by extracts from the response (dated 1579) relating to Jiquilpan (then written as Xiquilpan), in what is today the western part of the state […]
Two examples of bird re-introduction programs in Mexico
Assuming that the world did not come to an end yesterday, Geo-Mexico would like to convey best wishes to everyone for the entire duration of the next Long Count Maya calendar cycle, which runs until sometime in 2406. This may allow sufficient time for some real progress to be made in environmental stewardship. Today’s post […]
Mexican vehicle exports surge back after 2008-2009 recession
The Great Recession related to US housing and banking failures in 2009 hit the Mexican vehicle industry very hard. Production in Mexico declined by 28% from 2.10 million units 2008 to 1.51 million units in 2009. This dropped Mexico to 10th in the world. However, production shot up 50% in 2010 to 2.26 million and […]
Is this the final week of Geo-Mexico (and the world)? Predictions have snowballed in recent years that the world will come to an end on 21 December 2012. The claims are based on the fact that the current Maya calendar cycle “ends” on that day. The Maya have several simultaneous calendar counts. Each long cycle […]
The “Geographic Accounts”: Mexico’s sixteenth century “Domesday Book”
Mexico’s equivalent of the Domesday Book was compiled in the sixteenth century. Conquerors often have very little idea of precisely what they have acquired until their victory is assured. In many cases, one of their first post-conquest steps, therefore, is to undertake a comprehensive survey of everything of value, or potential value. For instance, in […]
Geographic Travels, one of my very favorite Geography blogs, recently posted a photo of a Mexican Christmas Tree, accompanied by a short history claiming that the Christmas tree was first introduced into northern Mexico by German industrialists and others. That may be a popular notion, but the true history of Christmas trees in Mexico is […]
Durango gets its first Magic Town: Mapimí, along with the Ojuela suspension bridge
The state of Durango state finally has its first Magic Town. The small and historic town of Mapimí served various local mines, including San Vicente, Socavón, Sta. Rita, Sta. María, El Carmen, La Soledad, and the presumably traitorous Judas. The indigenous Tepehuan Indians called this place “the rock on the hill” and repeatedly thwarted the […]
The spatial distribution of Mexico’s GDP
Mexico’s National Statistics Agency recently released a breakdown of GDP by state for 2011. The data allow for an analysis of the spatial distribution of Mexico’s GDP. The graph below shows each state’s contribution to GDP (blue bars) and their share of Mexico’s total population (red bars): In general, Mexico’s larger states (in terms of […]
Pemex boosts reserves and reduces its emissions
It may come as something of a surprise to many observers, but during 2012, Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos) has received several well-deserved plaudits for its efforts to slash the emissions associated with oil and gas exploration, reserves and production. For the fifth consecutive year, the Global Reporting Initiative awarded Pemex the highest […]
Decision about GM corn in Mexico postponed until 2013
Mexico’s new president Enrique Peña Nieto took office earlier today. His single, six-year term will end in 2018. The change of government means that a final decision about the commercial planting of genetically modified (GM) corn in Mexico has been postponed until sometime early next year. As we have seen in several previous posts, GM […]
Using Google to map areas influenced by drug cartel activity
The area of influence of each individual drug cartel in Mexico is far from fixed. As cartels fight each other (and government forces) to control their markets, the cartels’ areas of influence expand and contract. This inevitably means that conventional maps of drug cartel “territories” are only a snapshot, each valid only for a limited […]
The geography of music and dance in Mexico
Numerous different regional music styles are found in Mexico (see map), some strongly influenced by indigenous instruments but most relying on the string and brass instruments brought by early Spanish settlers. Curiously, mariachi music, which is often considered Mexico’s national musical style, is believed to owe its origin to French immigrants and refer to wedding […]
Magic Town #66: Lagos de Moreno, “the Athens of Jalisco”
Lagos de Moreno, just designated Mexico’s Magic Town #66, is a town with a charming ambiance. A succession of small squares with old trees and gardens, connected by shaded streets, gives it a cultured university air. At every turn there are beautifully kept old buildings to be enjoyed and it is absolutely fitting that the […]
How does Mexico’s telephone system compare with that in other countries?
Mexico’s first telephone line was erected in Puebla in the early 1880s. Before long, the Mexican Telephone Company, a subsidiary of Bell, was operating in Mexico City. The first telephone lines did not work very well and were limited to downtown areas. Only public officials, police stations, a few select businesses and the wealthy used […]