Mexico

1. Mexico

2. Quinceañera • The Quinceañera, or Quince años ("fifteen years" in English), in Latin American culture, is a coming of age ceremony held on a girl’s fifteenth birthday. The term Quinceaños refers to the birthday of the celebrant, and the term Quinceañera refers to the celebrant herself. Like many other coming-of-age ceremonies, the Quinceaños is associated with the Quinceañera "becoming a lady".

3. The Quinceañera ritual has been traced to 500 B.C. from the Aztec culture where a girl at the age of 15 was considered apt for motherhood. They celebrated hytjthrgvfsecdthis coming-of-agewith a ceremony, dance, and some words of wisdom from the mother. When the Spanish conquered America, they supposedly adopted this traditiongjmnrbtdfvs czxn, replacing the Aztec Temple with the Catholic Church. • The Quince años ceremony came from French culture during the 1800s. In Mexico, this century is called Porfirioto, which is comparable to the Victorian era in Anglo-speaking countries. The Mexican president brought this celebration to Mexican culture due to his admiration of French culture; this includes the Vals (European music) and the term Chambelan. • The meaning of the ceremony has changed over the centuries, but the celebration is becoming more popular in the United States than it is in Latin America. Quince años celebrated in the United States reflect the family's economic and social status, and the ceremony has become a means of preserving their culture as Latinos become more Americanized. Quince años are, today, a unique feature of Latino culture in the U.S.

4. Quince Photos - Quince church ceremony, the dance, the girl, and the cake!

5. Taxco, Mexico • Taxco de Alarcón (usually referred to as simply “Taxco”) is a small city and municipality located in the Mexican state of Guerrero. The name Taxco is most likely derived from the Nahuatl word tlacheco, which means “place of the ballgame.” However, one interpretation has the name coming from the word tatzco which means “where the father of the water is,” due to the high waterfall near the town center on Atatzin Mountain. “De Alarcón” is in honor of writer Juan Ruiz de Alarcon who was a native of the town. Like many municipalities in central Mexico, the municipality’s coat-of-arms is an Aztec glyph. This glyph is in the shape of a Mesoamerican ballcourt with rings, players and skulls, derived from the most likely source of Taxco’s name.

6. Church in center of Taxco, silver being produced, the altar of the church, a view of the town from my hotel balcony. • Photos of Taxco

7. The city is heavily associated with silver, both with the mining of it and other metals and for the crafting of it into jewelry, silverware and other items. This reputation, along with the city’s picturesque homes and surrounding landscapes have made tourism the main economic activity as the only large-scale mining operation here is coming to a close.

8. Taxco is locate d the north-central part of the state, 36 km from the city of Iguala, 135 km from the state capital of Chilpancingo and 170 km southwest of Mexico City. The city was named one of Mexico’s “Pueblos Mágicos” (Magical Towns) due to the quality of the silverwork, the colonial constructions and the surrounding scenery

9. The Market • Artesanias markets have all kinds of jewelry. They have handmade jewelry, and other jewelry. The handmade jewelry can be made with beads, string, They can have shells, too. The shells are sometimes cut into slices. •      They have a lot of jewelry made of silver, especially rings.  Silver is mined in parts of Mexico.

10. Mariachi Music • Mariachi is a type of musical group, originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Usually a mariachi consists of at least three violins, two trumpets, one Spanish guitar, one vihuela(a high-pitched, five-string guitar) one guitarron(a small-scaled acoustic bass) and occasionally a harp. They dress in silver studded charro outfits with wide-brimmed hats. The original Mariachi were Mexican street musicians or buskers. Many mariachis are professional entertainers doing paid gigs in the mainstream entertainment industry. Professionals are normally skilled at more than one instrument, and they also sing. They sometimes accompany ranchera singers such as Vicente Fernandez or even pop star Luis Miguel. Although ranchera singers dress in a traje de charro(Charro suit), they are not mariachis.

11. Mariachis

12. Ballet Folklorico • Ballet Folklórico de México is a folkloric ballet ensemble in Mexico City. Their performance home is the Palacio de Bella Arte in downtown Mexico City. For five decades it has presented dances in costumes that reflect the traditional culture of Mexico. The ensemble has appeared under the name, Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández. • The ballet works and musical pieces reflect various regions and folk music genres of Mexico. Many of the ensemble's works reflect the traditions of indigenous Mesoamerican culture. Numbers of performers in individual dance numbers range from two to over thirty-five. From the group's founding by Amalia Hernandez in 1952, the group grew from eight performers to a fifty piece ensemble by the end of the decade. In 1959 the group officially represented Mexico at the Pan American Games in Chicago, IL, U.S.. Under Hernández the group was a pioneer of Baile Folklorico in Mexico. It is practiced by many people in America as well as Mexico.

13. There are three types of Ballet Folklorico. Danza, Mestizo, and Bailes Rejionales • The ensemble performs three times weekly at the Palace of Fine Arts (Palacio de Bella Arte) in Mexico City. Additionally, it has toured widely in the United States and has appeared in over 80 other countries

14. Dance with me….

15. The Cliff Divers of Acapulco • The La Quebrada Cliff Divers are a group of professional high divers, based in Acapulco, Mexico. They perform daily shows for the public, which involve diving 45 metres (148 ft) from the cliffs of La Quebrada into the sea below. During the night, they often hold torches while diving. Acapulco cliff diving was regularly featured on weekend sports television programming in the United States during the 1960s to 70's when film stunt man Ray Austin made the dive. • Although cliff diving at La Quebrada had taken place for many years, it was not until 1934 that the La Quebrada Cliff Divers was formed.

16. The cliff divers in action

17. Guadalajara • Guadalajara is the capital city of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of the state and in the western-Pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,579,174 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality. The Guadalajara Metropolitan Area includes seven other adjacent municipalities and has a population of 4,095,715 in 2008, making it the second most populous metropolitan area in Mexico, behind Mexico City.

18. Cuernavaca • Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the stae of Morelos in Mexico. As of the 2005 census, the population of the city was 332,197; the municipality's entire population was 349,102 in an area of 151.2 km2 (58.4 sq mi) that includes numerous small localities outside the city, like Ocotepec, where interesting religious celebrations take place, like the Day of the Dead in the first days of November. City shrine and palacio of Hernan Cortez.

19. Dia de los Muertos • The Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos or All Souls' Day) is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and by Latin Americans living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on the 2nd of November in connection with the Catholic holiday of All Saint’s Day which occurs on Nov 1st and All Soul’s Day which occurs on Nov 2nd. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

20. Cinco de Mayo • Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a regional holiday in Mexico, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico. The holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza, Seguin.

21. The Battle was important for at least two reasons. First, although considerably outnumbered, the Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army. "This battle was significant in that the 4,000 Mexican soldiers were greatly outnumbered by the well-equipped French army of 8,000 that had not been defeated for almost 50 years." Second, although countries in the Americas have been attacked since May 5, 1862, (Falkland Islands, Pearl Harbor, etc), no country in the Americas has been invaded by an army from another continent since then except for the brief occupation of two of the alaskan Aleutian Islands by the Japanese army during World War II.

22. Cinco de Mayo is not "an obligatory federal holiday" in Mexico, but rather a holiday that can be observed voluntarily. While Cinco de Mayo has limited significance nationwide in Mexico, the date is observed in the United States (also voluntarily) and other locations around the world as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. A common misconception in the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day which actually is September 16th (dieciséis de septiembre in Spanish), the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.

23. The Battle of Puebla

24. Pancho Villa • No one can be said to be more synonymous with the wild side of Mexico than Pancho Villa - the rebel general of the Mexican Revolution who invaded US territory and led American soldiers on a wild goose chase all over the harsh Mexican countryside for months.

25. Along with Emiliano Zapata and Francisco I. Madera, Villa led peasant armies to a swift victory over the corrupt and repressive regime of the aging dictator, Porfirio Diaz, only to see Madero betrayed by reactionary plotters. Undaunted, the rebel generals led their armies in another uprising against the usurpers, routing them at every stage and ultimately driving them into exile.

26. Diego Rivera/Frida Kahlo • Diego Rivera (December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez in Guanajuato. He was a world-famous Mexican painter, an active Communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo, 1929-1939 and 1940-1954 (her death). Rivera's large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. His 1931 retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MOM) in New York City was their second.

27. Rivera was a notorious womanizer who had fathered at least one illegitimate child. Angelina Beloff was his first wife and gave birth to a son, Diego (1916-1918). Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska gave birth to a daughter named Marika in 1918 or 1919 when Rivera was married to Angelina (according to House on the Bridge: Ten Turbulent Years with Diego Rivera and Angelina's memoirs called Memorias). He married his second wife, Guadalupe Marin, in June 1922, with whom he had two daughters. He was still married when he met the art student Frida Kahlo. They married on August 21, 1929 when he was 42 and she was 22. Their mutual infidelities and his violent temper led to divorce in 1939, but they remarried December 8, 1940 in San Francisco. After Kahlo's death, Rivera married Emma Hurtado, his agent since 1946, on July 29, 1955. He died on November 24, 1957

28. The Zocalo • The Zócalo is the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City. The plaza used to be known simply as the “Main Square” or “Arms Square,” and today its formal name is “Constitution Square” (Plaza de la Constitución).This name does not come from any of the Mexican constitutions that have governed the country but rather from the Cadiz constitution which was signed in Spain in 1812. However, it is almost always called the “Zócalo” today. This word literally means “base” or “plinth”. Plans were made to erect an column as a monument to Independence, but only the base, or zocalo, was ever built. The plinth was destroyed long ago but the name has lived on. Many other Mexican towns and cities, such as Oaxaca and Guadalajara, have adopted the word “zócalo” to refer to their main plazas, but not all. • It has been a gathering place for Mexicans since Aztec times, having been the site of Mexica ceremonies, the swearing in of viceroys, royal proclamations, military parades, Independence ceremonies and modern religious events such as the festivals of Holy Week and Corpus Christi. It has received foreign heads of state and is the main venue for both national celebration and national protest.

29. Piedra del Sol • The Aztec calendar stone, Mexica sun stone, or Stone of the Sun (Piedra del Sol), is a large monolithic sculpture that was excavated in the Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square, on December 17, 1790

30. The Flag Symbol • The flag’s dramatic emblem is based on the legend of how the Mexicas (or Aztecs) traveled from Aztlán to find the place where they could establish their empire. The god Huitzilopochtli advised them that a sign—an eagle devouring a serpent atop a Nopal cactus—would appear to them at the exact spot where they should begin construction. On a small island in the middle of a lake, the Mexicas came upon the scene exactly as Huitzilopochtli had described it. They immediately settled there and founded the city of Tenochtitlán, which is now Mexico City, the country’s capital.

31. Mexico is filled with vibrant culture and breathtaking landscapes and has a vast history. The country is actually divided into 31 states. The capital is Mexico City. The country is mostly Roman Catholic and 90% practise. Mexico is the third-largest country in Latin America after Brazil and Argentina. It has the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. Mexico has the world’s second-highest number of Catholics. Mexican is the largest group of immigrants in the States.

32. The average Mexican only finishes grading 6.The country gets frequent earthquakes.Mexico’s main industries are food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel petroleum, mining and tourism.Thier agricultural products are rice, beans, coffee, fruit and tomatoes.Maize-corn has been used for thousands of years and is a big part of the culture.Hot chocolate is the sacred drink of the Aztecs.The name tomato comes from the Aztec language.The popular Caesar salad is named after Caesar Cardini.Mayans chewed gum from the sapodilla tree thousands of years ago.Mexico introduced chocolate to the world…yum!If you love Starbucks, you won’t find one in Mexico. They only have one Ben and Jerry’s too.Tequila is the national drink.Did you know that Mexico City sinks 10 inches each year?

33. Mexico has three colours on its flag-green represents hope and victory. White stands for purity. Red brings to mind bloodshed.The currency of Mexico is the Peso.At the beginning of the 21st century Mexico’s population was over 100 million!Mexico is the largest salt producers in the world. Along with that petroleum is their major export.The largest bullfighting ring is in Mexico.The poinsettia plant is named after Ambassador Poinsett.Primary school starts at 5.  Their Secondary school starts at 11 and lasts until 17.The Aztecs believed turquoise would protect them so they decorated their battle shields with it.There are fifty species of hummingbirds, several types of pelicans and other species of birds in Mexico.Hundreds of bones have been found in Northern Mexico.

34. If you stand by the pyramid Chichen Itza you will hear a bird singing.There is a tree called the Kapoc that produces cotton like balls.The first astronomer’s convention was held in Mexico in 700A.D.Did you know Mexico has the world’s smallest volcano? It is 43 feet tall and has a staircase inside.The country has the oldest living tree in the world. It is 40 feet tall.During the two equinoxes when the sun rises and sets the pyramid “El Castillo” shows a shadow of a serpent moving along its side! That is a mathematical amazement!They are actually decorating swine flu masks in Mexico!

35. What You Will See.