Mexico
Geography and People
Mexico is a varied land. In the north, rugged mountains contain a wealth of minerals. The coastal lowlands and vast Central Plateau provide fertile farmland, as well as rain forests and deserts. In the past, foreigners often controlled key Mexican resources. After the revolution, however, Mexico took control of its own resources.
Location. Mexico shares a long border with the United States. Mexicans have mixed feelings about their larger, more powerful neighbor. A Mexican saying laments, “Porbe Mexico, tan legos de Dios, y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!” (“Poor Mexico, so far from God, and so near the United States!”) The two nations have clashed over land in the past. In 1848, Mexico was forced to give up large areas to the United States. During more recent times, Mexicans have faced economic domination by the United States.
People. With a population of 88 million people, Mexico is the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country. Although most Mexicans are mestizos, the country’s Native American heritage is still strong. The name Mexico, for example, comes from the Aztec god Mexìtli. More than 60 Native American groups, speaking 40 different languages, live in rural areas of Mexico. Several million Native Americans speak Na-huatl, the language of the Aztecs.
Rapid population growth poses serious problems for Mexico. About 38 percent of all Mexicans are under the age of 15. As they grow up, they will need jobs, housing and land, all of which are scarce. As elsewhere, the lack of jobs contributes to poverty and malnutrition.
Achieving Stability
As in other Latin American nations, caudillos (military dictators) often took power in Mexico during the 1800s. From 1876 to 1911, the dictator Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico.
Díaz. Under the motto “Order and Progress,” Díaz introduced programs that were intended to strengthen and modernize Mexico. He invited foreigners to invest in Mexico. They built railroads, developed mines, and bought land in Mexico. Production of silver, copper, coffee, and sugar soared. At the same time, Díaz set up a strong police force that destroyed rural bandits and political opponents.
Economic growth benefited foreign investors and wealthy Mexicans as well as Díaz and his supporters. For most Mexicans, however, life remained unbearably harsh. Nearly 90 percent of Mexican peasants owned no land at all. They worked on large estates for tiny wages. Many lived on the verge of starvation.
Revolution. In 1910, Mexicans’ anger against Díaz and foreign investors exploded. Peasants, workers, and members of the middle class joined in the struggle to overthrow Díaz. For almost 11 years, civil war raged across Mexico as various rebel groups fought for power: About 1 million Mexicans died in the fighting.
The revolution almost destroyed Mexico. Yet, in the end, it gave the country a more democratic government and brought lasting social changes. In 1917, in the midst of the fighting, Mexicans wrote a new constitution. It called for redistributing land to peasants, protecting the rights of workers, and limiting the power of the Catholic Church. In addition, the constitution of 1917 gave the Mexican government control over resources such as oil and silver.
Gradual change. During the years since the revolution, Mexico has gradually tried to fulfill the promises of the constitution. During the 1930s, President Lázaro Cárdenas (CAR thay nahs) took bold steps toward achieving reform. He broke up large estates, giving small farms to about one third of Mexico’s peasants. He also nationalized foreign oil companies and recognized the power of labor unions.
After Cárdenas, the pace of reform slowed. Economic hard times and pressure from right-wing groups have forced some presidents to retreat from reform.
Although Mexico is a democracy, one party, the Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI), has dominated the country since 1929. The PRI has succeeded in part by paying attention to the needs of many groups, including farmers, industrialists, labor unions, and the middle class. Critics, however, claim that the PRI has used fraud and violence to stay in power.
Challenges. In 1968, just as the Olympic Games were scheduled to begin in Mexico City, students and workers launched a massive strike. Government troops fired on peaceful protestors, killing hundreds of students. The Olympics took place as planned, but Mexicans were shocked by the massacre.
During the late 1980s, a rival political party mounted the most serious challenge the PRI had ever faced. In a close election campaign, the PRI candidate barely won the presidency. One reason many voters turned against the PRI was the economic crisis that gripped Mexico.
Economic Development
After the revolution, Mexico developed a mixed economy. The government owned key industries, such as oil. Private companies owned other businesses and industries. However, the government limited foreign ownership in any company to less than 50 percent of it.
Mexico has sought to achieve balanced growth by developing both agriculture and industry. Despite setbacks, its economy has grown at a steady pace. Food production has increased, and many people now enjoy a higher standard of living than they did in the past. The benefits have not reached everyone, however. According to one estimate, for each Mexican who lives well, six still live in poverty.
Agriculture. Under its land reform program, the government divided many large haciendas into ejidos (eh HEE dohs), or agricultural communities. Today, about half of Mexico’s farmers live in ejidos. They raise crops on the land but cannot sell the land because it is owned by the community. Most people on the ejidos are subsistence farmers. They produce enough for their families but have little left over to sell.
The government encouraged the growth of commercial farming. It provided irrigation to open arid areas in the north for farming and ranching. Large companies, many of which are foreign-owned set up commercial farms there. Using modern farm machinery, they produced a variety of crops such as fruits and tomatoes for shipment to the United States.
As commercial farming grew, farmers no longer produced enough food for local markets. To feed its booming population, Mexico had to import food. The government further contributed to the problem of falling food production. It kept prices for wheat and corn low so urban dwellers could afford to buy bread and tortillas. The low prices discouraged farmers from growing these crops.
Industry. For many years, Mexico followed a policy of economic nationalism. The government imposed high tariffs to protect local industries. By the 1960s, Mexican factories were producing cars, refrigerators, appliances, and many consumer goods. Many state-owned factories were inefficient and unprofitable. The government, however, could afford to keep them going because of an oil boom.
In 1974, large new oil reserves were found in Mexico. As oil prices soared, Mexico borrowed and spent billions of dollars to build refineries and modernize its industries. It also borrowed heavily from foreign nations for various development projects.
Debt crisis. During the early 1980s, plunging oil prices ended the oil boom. At the same time, rising interest rates on its loans put Mexico into a major debt crisis. To avoid economic collapse, Mexico had to make painful reforms. As a result, it cut spending on education, health care, and other services. It also laid off thousands of government workers and sold state-owned industries to private investors.
Recent trends. Mexico also moved toward free trade, or trade that had low tariffs and no restrictions. Mexico, Canada, and the United States—already major trading partners—began to make plans for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). If approved, NAFTA would abolish most tariffs on goods traded among the three countries. In the future, the economies of North America are likely to become increasingly interdependent.
Many Mexicans hope that free trade will attract foreign investment and create new jobs. Others worry that the United States, Japan, and other countries might dominate Mexico’s economy.
Increased free trade has encouraged the growth of maquiladoras (mah keel uh DOHR uhs). A maquiladora is a foreign-owned plant in which local workers assemble parts into finished goods. American and Japanese companies built maquiladoras in Mexico to take advantage of workers’ lower wages. Mexicans flocked to the plants, which sprang up along the border with the United States. Despite overcrowded living conditions near the plants, workers were glad to have jobs.
Reading/Discussion Questions:
1. Describe the varied land of Mexico (physical characteristics).
2. Explain the feelings of most Mexicans towards the United States.
3. What is Mexico’s population? Why does its population growth pose problems for the future?
4. Who benefited from the rule of Mexican dictator Porfino Diaz? Explain how they benefited.
5. How did the bloody Mexican Revolution change Mexico for the positive?
6. What three reforms were instituted by President Lazaro Cardenas?
7. What was the political party that controlled Mexico for 70 years, and why were people critical of it?
8. What is the ratio in Mexico of those who live well, to those who live in poverty?
9. What is an ejido? What is it like to live there?
10. How did government price controls affect agriculture?
11. How has the discovery of large amounts of oil in Mexico led to its current debt crisis?
12. How is the Mexican government trying to deal with the debt crisis?
13. What is NAFTA? Why do some Mexicans support it and why do some oppose it?
14. What is a maquiledora? Why do you think they have sprung up in Mexico?
TIMELINE – On your paper, make a timeline using the dates below. For each date you should indicate what happened in Mexico at that time.
1848, 1876-1911, 1910-20, 1917, 1929, 1930s, 1960s, 1968, 1974, 1980s