MEXICO
Mexican Culture, History and Tradition
Geography of Mexico
The geography of Mexico is extreme, with high mountains, deep canyons, vast deserts and dense rain forests in the south. Mountains cover much of Mexico. Over half of the country is at an altitude higher than 3,300 ft. Mountain ranges include the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range in the east and the Sierra Madre Occidental in the west. These regions are rich with valuable metals like silver and copper. The stretch of land called the Yucatán Peninsula juts into the Gulf of Mexico from Mexico's southeastern tip (National Geographic, 2015).
Mexico is bordered by the United States to the north and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. Mexico is about one-fifth the size of the United States. The Pacific Ocean forms the western border while the Gulf of Mexico is located on the eastern border (Infoplease, 2016).
Rites of Passage
Young, Mexican females are honored on their 15th birthday with a quinceanera celebration. The party is full of emotion as the girl's father ceremoniously exchanges her flat, childish style shoes for a pair of high-heeled shoes to denote her passage into womanhood. The event is full of sentiment as the young woman dances with her father and the guests look on.
Another touching Mexican cultural tradition is the matrimonial golden coin ceremony. The groom bestows his fiancé with 13 golden coins as a gesture of his trust in her to treasure and care for him and his possessions. Her acceptance of the coins signifies her devotion to love, respect and nurture him (Meleen, 2013).
Language
Spanish is Mexico’s most widely spoken language, but the government also recognizes 68 Mexican indigenous languages as official national languages. After the Revolution, the 1917 constitution focused on preserving the languages of Mexico and the country’s multicultural identity. Mexico does not recognize Spanish as the official language. The constitution stated that every indigenous group had the right to protect and enrich their own Mexican language. There are over 6 million speakers of indigenous languages in Mexico. While 10-14% of the population identify themselves with an indigenous group, only 6% of them speak an indigenous language of Mexico (Donquijote.org, 2016). One of the main indigenous languages spoken is Nahuatl, which has almost 1.4 million speakers. Yucatec Maya is spoken by over three quarters of a million people, and Mixtec is spoken by about half a million (Donquijote.org, 2016).
Mexican Flag
The flag of Mexico is a vertical tricolor of green, white, and red with the national coat of arms charged in the center of the white stripe. While the meaning of the colors has changed over time, these three colors were adopted by Mexico following independence from Spain during the country's War of Independence, and subsequent First Mexican Empire. The form of the coat of arms was most recently revised in 1968, but the overall design has been used since 1821, when the First National Flag was created.
HISTORY
Before the Spanish arrival in 1519, Mexico was occupied by a large number of Indian groups with very different social and economic systems. At least three great civilizations including the Mayas, the Olmecs, and the Toltecs came before the Aztec empire. These groups developed high civilizations with elaborate urban centers used for religious, political, and commercial purposes. By AD 1100, the Toltecs had conquered much of central and southern Mexico and had established their capital at Tula in the Mesa Central. They also built the city of Teotihuacan near present-day Mexico City (History-world.org, 2016).
Hernando Cortez's arrived in 1519 and claimed Mexico as a colony of Spain. Cortez first entered the Valley of Mexico on the Mesa Central. The initial conquest of the Aztecs was possible only with the assistance of the large Indian armies Cortez assembled from among the Aztecs' enemies. Within a short time, central and southern Mexico and much of Central America were conquered. The Spanish went on to claim the Indian lands and redistributed them among themselves as haciendas, or land grants. During this early contact with Indians, millions died from such European diseases as measles and smallpox, for which the natives had no immunity. Central Mexico did not regain its population numbers until the 1900s (History-world.org, 2016).
For nearly three hundred years the Spanish ruled. Mexico fought for and gained its independence in the early 1800s. The Mexican Revolution was brought on by the tremendous disagreement among the Mexican people over the dictatorship of President Porfirio Diaz who was the ruler for three decades. During that span the people had no power to express their opinions or select their public officials. Wealth was concentrated to a small part of the population and injustice flourished (History-world.org, 2016).
After nearly a half century of independence, Mexico had made relatively little economic or political progress. In 1858, Benito Juarez became president. Because of the many years of economic and political chaos, Mexico was financially dependent on several other countries. In 1861, Juarez announced a suspension of payment on foreign loans, and the British, Spanish, and French occupied Veracruz in order to collect the Mexican debts. The British and Spanish quickly withdrew, but France overthrew the Mexican government and in 1864 declared Mexico an empire with Maximilian I of Austria as emperor. During the war with the French, the Mexican armies won a major battle on May 5, 1862, despite being severely outnumbered. That victory is celebrated as Cinco de Mayo, a national holiday. Because of its own Civil War, the United States was unable to enforce its Monroe Doctrine, which prohibited European involvement in the Americas. At the close of the Civil War, however, the United States threatened to send troops into Mexico, and the French army withdrew from the country. Maximilian was executed by the Mexicans in 1867 (History-world.org, 2016).
Over the past 140 years there has been much political reform and attempts to redistribute wealth. Many urban and rural areas contain vast amounts of poverty despite the tourist boom of recent decades. Immigrants flee Mexico, often risking their lives, in the hopes of a better life aNDopportunities for their children.
Mexican Immigrant Family
I interviewed the family of a student in my 4th grade classroom. Her mother is from Chiapas, Mexico. This is one of the thirty-one states in Mexico. It is in Southern Mexico and borders the country of Guatemala. The mother came from Mexico when she was just sixteen. Her sisters lived in Newport, Kentucky. She came to America for work to support her family back home. She met her husband while working. He is from Guatemala. They also have a five-year-old son.
I truly enjoyed my visit. I have always been close with Diana and it meant so much to see her home and that she was able to share her pride in her family with me. She was so excited about my visit and talked about it daily, both before and after the experience. I’ve had many families from this community over the past twelve years as part of my classroom, and visit the trailer park each summer to serve lunches and play at the playground with the children from our school. I’m familiar with the lifestyle and the homes in which they reside. I had always assumed that they were working for a better life and longed to move to a larger house with a yard. But they don’t. I have come to understand that this their better life. Diana’s family, and I now assume others, are proud that they own/rent homes, that family and friends are close by, and that they are able to send money to family in Mexico. I’m sure they worry daily about being deported or that others they love may be deported also. That would be a heavy burden.
As a professional, my compassion for my students has only grown from this experience. My motivation as a teacher has always been to help my students succeed, but to know that I hold the responsibility of a better future for their entire family is something that I will never take lightly. Of course I wish that all teachers could have this experience. I was lucky that the home that I visited was actually one of my own students. I feel that because I had a prior relationship with this family, they were more willing to open up and share with me. This would be an amazing opportunity for all teachers. If the opportunity is not there for all teachers to visit, then I would encourage them to participate in community programs, like the lunch program. I can see that opportunities in our school for family participation are just as important and can provide the same opportunities to get to know the families and their struggles and triumphs.
Learning about the home country of my student has helped as much as the interview. This is a lesson that I learned in our previous linguistics class when I studied Somalia. Understanding language, customs, traditions and history allows teachers to make connections on a personal level with their students. It helps there to be a trust and understanding that would not otherwise exist. With those barriers down, students are more willing to learn and participate. They are more willing to communicate with teachers and even other students.