| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
10 Facts You May Not Know About Mexico
 The West Australian
go to original
October 06, 2010
| | The Mexican flag has changed over the course of the country’s history. When Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla declared independence in 1810, he carried the standard of the Virgin of Guadalupe. This is considered to be the first Mexican flag. In 1813, the revolutionaries designed a new flag. | |
EMPEROR
An Austrian named Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph was Emperor of Mexico from 1864 until a firing squad shot him dead three years later.
LOST PROPERTY
Mexico once owned Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming but lost it all in the Mexican-American War (1846-48).
FOOD AND FLOWERS
Chocolate, avocados, tomatoes, maize, corn, vanilla, zucchini and the poinsettia originated in Mexico.
POPULATION
One million US citizens live in Mexico, and 29 million US citizens claim Mexican ancestry. With 111 million, Mexico is the 11th most populous country in the world. It has more than twice the number of Spanish-speaking people than Spain.
RELIGION
There are more Catholics in Mexico (100 million) than any other country except Brazil. The Mexican Catholic Church was severely persecuted in the 20th century.
SPORT
Mexicans play the oldest ball game in the world (ulama). It originated in 1600 BC. Soccer is now the most popular game but bullfighting is the official national sport.
SLIM PICKINGS
The richest man in the world is a Mexican, Carlos Slim, a telecoms magnate said to be worth $US60 billion ($61. billion). When his father arrived as a penniless immigrant from Lebanon, he was only 14 and unable to speak Spanish.
ECONOMY
More cars are built in Mexico than in the US and Canada. Mexico is predicted to be one of the five largest economies in the world in 40 years time (the others are the US, India, China and Brazil). Oil is its most lucrative export.
TRAGEDY
Mexico has had more than its share of tragedy. Its revolution (1910-20) claimed one million lives, a war against persecution of Catholics cost 90,000 dead, thousands of students died in a protest in Tlatelolco Square before the Olympic Games in 1968. Since 2007, more than 28,000 have died in the war against drug cartels.
ARTS
Good books by foreigners about Mexico include All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy), The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene); and Mornings in Mexico by D.H. Lawrence.
|
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us