I love gifts, especially books, and especially when they are related to the geography of Mexico! So, it was a doubly pleasant surprise recently to receive a copy of Glifos de la ciudad de México by Pablo Moctezuma Barragán (Gobierno del Distrito Federal, 2006; 103 pp.) The author is an accomplished researcher, historian and politician […]
In an earlier post, we listed the towns included in One Hundred and One Beautiful Small Towns in Mexico, by Guillermo García Oropeza and Cristóbal García Sánchez (Rizzoli International Publications, 2008; 280 pp.). Here we offer a short review of the book. This is a large format book, with many magnificent photographs. A fascinating range […]
The table shows the ten warmest states in Mexico, defined by their average annual temperature. In both Canada and the USA, average temperatures tend to depend largely on latitude, ie. they increase towards the south of the country. This is clearly only partially the case in Mexico. (a) What factors apart from latitude influence the […]
A short piece in The Economist entitled “Maternal Health in Mexico: A perilous journey” (26 June 2010) highlights some of the reasons why maternal mortality has remained stubbornly high in southern Mexico, despite a marked improvement in recent years. Since 1990, maternal mortality (death related to childbearing) has fallen by 36% in Mexico as a […]
More than 190 countries signed up to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed in 2000. Mexico is well on its way to meeting most of the eight goals (see table below). Each goal has numerous specific targets. Mexico met one of the key targets — a 50% reduction in the proportion of children suffering […]
The table shows the ten coolest states in Mexico, defined by their average annual temperature. In both Canada and the USA, average temperatures tend to depend largely on latitude, ie. they decrease towards the north of the country. This is clearly not the case in Mexico. (a) What factors apart from latitude influence the average […]
According to the book One Hundred and One Beautiful Small Towns in Mexico, by Guillermo García Oropeza and Cristóbal García Sánchez (Rizzoli International Publications, 2008; 280 pp), these places all merit inclusion in the list of the 101 Beautiful Small Towns in Mexico. We will review the book more formally in a future post, since […]
Santa Fe, in upscale western Mexico City is one example of the many new developments being built on the urban periphery in Mexico. The plan for the Santa Fe complex called for private sector financed office towers, a gigantic retail mall, high income housing, park areas, as well as schools and universities. Construction was halted […]
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed after the Mexican-American War, ceded over half of Mexico’s territory to the USA. A few years later, under the 1853 Gadsden Purchase (Treaty of La Mesilla), northern portions of Sonora and Chihuahua were transferred to the USA. This established the current border between the two countries. Minor disputes […]
The table and map show the ten states which have the highest percentage of homes receiving remittances. (Data for 2005) These data portray where remittances are most critical in terms of maintaining household finances. If a high percentage of homes in a state receive remittances, that suggests that people living in the state are likely […]
The functions of dams and reservoirs Mexico’s dams and reservoirs serve many valuable functions. The first is as a source of hydroelectric power. The amount of power that can be generated is a function of the amount of water streaming through the generators and its pressure, which is related to the height of the dam. […]
At first sight, it would seem unlikely that a Veracruz sugar plantation could be linked, even indirectly, to Mutiny on the Bounty. The connection, which also takes in the San Francisco earthquake and one of Mexico’s most famous tourist guide books, is made via Charles Bernard Nordhoff, born in London, England in 1887, to well-to-do […]
The alarming situation in Mexico with regard to drug-related violence has led the Wall Street Journal to prepare an interesting interactive graphic. The graphic shows narco-related killings from 2006 to 2010. The slider allows you to see the pattern for each year. Hovering over the proportional circles used to represent the deaths in each state […]
The table shows the 10 states which receive the highest total remittances. The data show very clearly that all the states receiving high total amounts of remittances are in the southern half of Mexico. (a) What factors might explain this pattern? (b) Compare this map with a map of the states with highest per person […]
In an earlier post we looked at the importance of Mexico City airport in the national network of airports. In this post, we focus our attention more on the network, and much less on any individual airport. Air travel greatly distorts the map of Mexico and the world. In terms of travel time on public […]
The following verse provides a way to remember how likely hurricanes are in different months of the year. It applies specifically to Atlantic (Gulf of Mexico) and Caribbean hurricanes. June, too soon July, stand by August, come it must September, remember October, all over. This verse matches the historical records of Atlantic and Caribbean hurricanes […]
A shortage of affordable housing is a persistent problem in large Mexican cities. In response, new, subsidized lower income housing developments are being built on the periphery of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and other metropolitan areas. Though most working families can afford the down payment and monthly payments for these subsidized housing units, these expenses […]
Mexico’s 32 states are divided into municipios (municipalities). There are 2456 municipalities which vary greatly in size and population. For example, the average population of Oaxaca’s 570 municipalities is about 6000 while the average population of Baja California’s five municipalities is over 500,000. Each municipality elects a new president and local council every three years […]
The 4th Assessment Report (2007) of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) involved the contributions of 2,500 scientists from 130 countries. The number of Mexican scientists participating was higher than the number from many richer countries including Spain and France. Sixteen Mexican scientists were involved in writing the 4th IPCC report. Ten of the […]
Mexico City’s inner city slums date from the regime of Porfirio Díaz (1877–1910) which stimulated rapid railroad expansion and industrialization north and northwest of the city center. The industrial zone expanded out along the rail lines into the areas now known as Azcapotzalco and Gustavo A. Madero. With this expansion, the upper classes sold or […]
Have you ever wondered how food supplies are organized in a metropolitan area the size of Mexico City (population 20 million) so that all its inhabitants have regular access to fresh produce? Like most major world cities, Mexico City has a specialized wholesale market for food, Central de Abasto. It is located in Iztapalapa, south-east […]
Richard Rhoda, joint author with Tony Burton of “Geo-Mexico: the geography and dynamics of modern Mexico”, visited the University of Guanajuato on 2 July 2010 to present two lectures (based on the book) to an eager group of about 30 US students. The lectures were titled: “Mexico: More Important than We Think” and “Mexico: Current […]
After the conquest, Spanish settlers introduced numerous Old World species into the New World. The most pernicious introductions were human-borne diseases, which led to the rapid and tragic decimation of the indigenous population. However, most of the introductions were deliberate, made with the intention of increasing the diversity of available food and resources. Among the […]
Rapid industrialization north of Mexico City after World War II brought a giant wave of immigrants aggravating a serious shortage of low income housing. With the vecindades (inner city slums) severely overcrowded, the only alternative was “irregular housing” or “colonias populares.” These were developed wherever there was vacant land, mostly in the west and north […]
Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, of Colorado State University, have analyzed the atmospheric and oceanic conditions in the Atlantic immediately prior to the 2010 hurricane season. They conclude that this season’s hurricane activity in the Atlantic is likely to be stronger than has been the norm during the past 50 years. They predict that the […]
Reviewing Geo-Mexico blog statistics, we have found some curious search phrases. In each case, when these phrases were entered into a famous leading search engine, a Geo-Mexico page appeared in the results, and someone, somewhere, followed that link to reach our humble site. Here are our current favorite “top ten”: 10. gender basis in mexico […]
With very rapid growth in the mid-20th century, inner city urban slums could not absorb all the new low income immigrants. The only viable option was so-called “irregular” housing or colonias populares. Irregular housing schemes were initiated by developers who gained ownership of large tracts of contiguous land on the urban periphery. Some of these […]
About 1900 one of the densest railroad networks on earth was operating in the Yucatán Peninsula. Between 1870 and 1920 the area experienced an economic boom based on the production of twine from sisal (oro verde or green gold). The numerous plantations in the area needed a way to move the sisal from the fields […]
Paricutín first erupted, completely unexpectedly, in the middle of a farmer’s field, on February 20, 1943. A remarkable account of its early days is given by Simón Lázaro Jiménez, who recounts in his book, Paricutín: 50 Years After Its Birth , his adventures as a young boy as he fled with his parents for safety […]
The 4/4/2010 (Easter Sunday) earthquake centered in Baja California really did not only shake the earth but also move it. What is even more amazing is that this may be one of the best documented examples of an earthquake in one country moving parts of a neighboring country. NASA has released data showing that the […]