Spotlight on Culture

People that call this area Home

Latin American Countries

 Immigrants from other areas of the Americas

Mexico

 Estados Unidos Mexicanos,

from the Nauatl Mēxihco

What are people like in Mexico?

Some common traits that you can find amongst Mexican people, as per cultural generalization, is that they are hardworking. positive and funny, hospitable and giving, proud, polite, family oriented, food loving people. These few things are very small generalizations, and they can't completely capture the full essence of the Mexican culture and way of life.

The country has great diversity, a large portion of indigenous Mexican people or people with indigenous heritages, and a multitude of unique backgrounds, which generally makes a good mix of people. Most of the population is considered young, a lot of them under twenty years old. About half of all Mexicans are 25 and under.

Mexico's population has grown rapidly over the last 50 years, from around 25 million in 1950 to more than 112 million in 2013. Population density however, is not evenly spread. Their central states are heavily populated, but northern ones are generally not, for a variety of reasons. The cities with the largest population are Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Puebla.

The life of Mexican people has changed dramatically in the past hundred years. At the beginning of this century, most of the population lived in the countryside and worked the land. Today, many people have migrated to the cities. This is where the majority now live and work. Most work in commerce, services and manufacturing.

Due to the migration to the cities, the number of people living in urban areas has increased and the number of people living in rural areas has declined. In 1950, 43% of Mexico's population lived in urban areas and by 2010, this figure rose to nearly 78%. Only about 22% of families still live in rural areas.

Mexican families are very closely knit, and enjoy themselves at every opportunity. Grandparents often live with the family and social activities revolve around holidays, birthdays, and saint's days.

Mexican people are a mix of Europeans, mostly Spanish, and the different Indigenous groups that they encountered. There is no definite answer on how many ethnicities there are in Mexico because the definition of ethnicity (or an ethnic group) is somewhat subjective, but people usually say that there are three large (or pan-ethnic) groups in Mexico: Mestizos, Native Mexicans, White Mexicans, and Afro-Mexicans. Native and white Mexicans are composed of several smaller ethnic groups. The term 'Mestizo' is rarely used in public nowadays (It means 'mixed' in Spanish).

Among the Native there are Nahuatl, Zapotec, and Maya people, and among White Mexicans there's people of many immigrant origins, such as Spanish Mexicans, Arab Mexicans, German Mexicans, etc. Mestizos make about 60% of the country's population, Whites make about 20%, Native or Indigenous Mexicans make about 15% and Afro-Mexicans make about 3%.

Since they are people of multiracial, primarily European and Native American, ancestries, their sense of common identity is not related to race, but more to the country's unique culture and history. Race, understood as physical features, and ethnicity in Mexico are related.

Ethnic identity in Mexico depends on someone's cultural, racial, geographical, and class background. Mestizos and White Mexicans form what could be considered the "mainstream" population, because they share common cultural features- with roots in the Spanish and indigenous cultures. The White population is composed of descendants of Spaniards and other ethnicities, who over generations have mostly assimilated into the culture. It could be said that in a way, the sense of common identity among Native Mexican groups is significantly stronger than among mestizos and whites.

To learn more about the Mexican population you can read more here, here, and also visit this page. To learn more about the term Mestizo and its history in Mexico, go here. For a more in-depth analysis of the demographics, go here.

NOTE- These for the most part do not include people outside of their country, so for more information on people in the US with Mexican origin, visit this page.

Stay tuned for more information on Mexico's rich history, culture, its people and the arts in future posts. Our area is blessed to be called home by many people of many cultures, and they deserve to be acknowledged.