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10 Interesting Facts About Mexico

Mexico, most of us believe it is to be one of the beautiful beach vacation spots in the world. And few consider it to be a hub of drug peddlers, making it the scariest place to visit. They make their opinion on the basis of false news spread by some bad publishing houses and press. Mexico is a country situated in the southern part of North America and the third-largest country in Latin America with the largest Spanish speaking population in the world. September 16th is celebrated as a National Day in Mexico. There is a typical music band found in Mexico called Mariachi which is very much liked and enjoyed by the local crowd and the tourists. Mexican culture is also rich and diversified as one of them is throwing a party for a girl who turns 15, marking her transition from a girl to a woman. Mexico beholds a lot of interesting facts which many of us might be unaware of and here in this article, we will try to unveil at least a few of them.

1. Mexico’s Real Name

Flying mexicos flag
Flying Mexico flag

Mexico’s real name is not Mexico but the “United States of Mexico” (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos). It is divided into thirty-one states and the Federal District. The capital of Mexico was not Mexico City since the beginning as many of us think. The actual capital was Distrito Federal which means Federal District. The population of Mexico is around 13 crores as per the survey conducted in the year 2017.

2. Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos)

Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City
Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City

This is celebrated traditionally to honor the dead and in the belief that they will become alive on the “Day of the Dead”. After the celebration, they mourn and remember the dead. The celebration lasts for three days starting from October 31 and ending on November 02 with the grand finale of Dia de Muertos.

Though both Halloween and this day fall around the same dates but should not be confused as both are not related to each other at all. During Halloween people dress up as dead and perform to drive off evil spirits whereas on Dia de Muertos people honor their dead friends and relatives.

On this day the favorite food and drink of the departed souls are prepared for the offering. They believe that the spirits of the dead can travel back to earth during 24 hours of Dia de Muertos.

3. Privileged Women

Group of happy mexican women during Guelaguetza
Group of happy Mexican women during Guelaguetza

Despite being said that the women in Mexico are abused, they are actually very much privileged in certain areas. In Mexico, there are women-only buses running for them and have a distinct path on subways. This might sound silly for many as a privilege but let us compare it with Turkey where women are abused on public transport and no one tries to protect them. Even the Turkish government is not much bothered about this situation of women and not considered having a separate section in public transport.

According to the survey done in the year 2013, it was found that women prefer the general section instead of the women-specific section as men offer them to seat more kindly than the women.

4. Located in the “Ring of Fire”

The Legendary Volcanic Ring of Fire
The Legendary Volcanic Ring of Fire

Ring of Fire or Circum-Pacific Belt is the area encircling the Pacific Ocean. This is named so as the circumference of this circle consists of most active volcanoes on Earth (around 90%) which are responsible for earthquakes and volcano eruptions around the region.

The world’s second-smallest rabbit called Volcano rabbit lives near these volcanos. These rabbits weigh around 400-550 gms. Though these rabbits are not extinct yet they are listed in the endangered species due to a lot of risk factors faced for survival by them.

The world’s smallest and inactive volcano Cuexcomate is also situated in Mexico.

5. The Wonder of the World

Chichen Itza, one of the new 7 wonders of the world located in Mexico
Chichen Itza, one of the new 7 wonders of the world located in Mexico

Chichen Itza, one of the world’s seven wonders is situated in Mexico. It is known to be one of the highly visited archeological places as per the survey was done in the year 2017 when more than 2 million tourists were reported visiting the site.

Chichen means “the mouth of the well” and Itza, “water magicians” hence meaning “Mouth of the well of water magicians”. In the year 1988, it was listed on UNESCO’s world heritage sites list.

6. The Sinking Mexico City

Valley of the Dead. Teotihuacan, Mexico
Valley of the Dead. Teotihuacan, Mexico

Mexico City is built on the ruins of the Aztec city, Tenochtitlan which was situated on a lake. However the Aztec city was created with a lot of carefulness to control flood situations and drainage systems, the Spanish never bothered to focus on them while building Mexico City.

As a result of aforesaid carelessness and pumping of water from beneath to fulfill the covering need of the increasing population, Mexico City is sinking at the rate of 9-10 inches per year.

You should not drink tap water in Mexico, though the same is distributed after filtration the route of supply may contaminate the water. This is the reason why you get packaged drinking water at all the hotels and restaurants in Mexico.

7. Respect the National Anthem, or Else…

A person handcuffed in jail
A person handcuffed in jail

Mexican National Anthem was written by Francisco Gonzalez Bocanegra in the year 1854 through a national contest. This is well known as “Mexicanos, al Grito de Guerra” which means “Mexicans, at the cry of war.” The original song consisted of 10 stanza’s but the same was shortened to be recreated as an official anthem of Mexico. In the year 1943, the first, fifth, sixth and tenth stanzas of the original composition were considered to be the part of the abridged national anthem.

In Mexico, the law is quite strict for the national anthem. If you joke about the anthem, sing it incorrectly or disrespects it in any sense, you will be penalized heavily and even put behind the bars. There have been instances where the culprit was asked to write an apology letter to the country.

8. Booming Economy

Aerial view of Mexico City
Aerial view of Mexico City

Mexico has the largest economy in the world and ranked 15th among others. Mexico’s GDP is 17% and Mexico City contributes approximately one-fifth and is the eighth richest city in the world. It is expected that by the year 2020, the economy of Mexico will be doubled and placed at seventh rank just after the other competitors, such as New York, Chicago, Paris, and London, etc.

9. Largest Exporter of Beer

Mexican beer with lime
Mexican beer with lime

Mexico is one of the leading exporters of beer in the world as it is contributing to 29% of the export which is almost worth 5 billion US dollars. Corona is one of the leading and famous brands of Mexican beer which is exported the most. Amongst the beer, Mexico is also a leading exporter of silver, cotton, coffee and oil products.

Mexico’s main industries are tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, clothing, and tourism.

10. Largest Bullring of the World

Plaza de Toros Mexico
Plaza de Toros Mexico

The world’s largest bullring, Plaza de Toros Mexico is situated in Mexico City. It has more than forty thousand seating capacity which is exclusively for bullfighting and is rarely also used for boxing too. Mexico is one of the few remaining countries where bullfighting is still legal among others like France, Portugal, Colombia, Spain, Peru, Venezuela, and Ecuador.

Plaza de Toros Mexico was constructed in six months’ time by about ten thousand workers with a shift of three in a day.

The original bullring of Mexico City was near Condesa, but the same was switched with Plaza de Toros in the midst of the 20th century. This new stadium was inaugurated on February 05, 1946, and during the launch event, both the fighters, Luis and Manuel both killed the bull inside the ring during the fight.

Conclusion

It is for sure that after knowing the aforesaid facts you will be keen to visit Mexico and feel the culture and facts by yourself. In that case, let me add that the cuisine in Mexico is also varied and amazing. The people in Mexico are very friendly and warm-hearted. The locals are always ready to help you, whether it is for getting directions to your destination or a restaurant to eat. So if you are a tourist and visiting Mexico for the first time and not well versed with Spanish, don’t worry as the locals will take you to the tourist desk or even drop at the location where you want to reach. There is a lot of beaches where you can chill and relax with your partner. The beaches of Mexico maintains world-class condition and hygiene. If you are a surfer and love to cruise, Oaxaca is the best choice for you. Mexico is a biodiverse country where you can spot some of the endangered species like an axolotl, an amphibian, and cacomistle, shy nocturnal native mammal. For any traveler, Mexico offers diversified climatic conditions and options. Like northern states are almost dry with deserts whereas western Mexico can offer you spring. The southern part of Mexico has dense jungles with a hot and humid climate.

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