The volcano called el Popo (short for Popocatépetl) is on the verge of erupting, and the government is issuing warnings to keep folks from wandering too close. No doubt it will erupt soon, a not uncommon event here in Mexico, which has about 3,000 inactive and 14 active volcanoes. (FYI, we are 654 road kilometers from el Popo.)
Whenever a natural disaster–or a tragic crime–strikes Mexico, it is completely natural for friends and family to wonder if we’re alright. Many Americans have only a cursory understanding of the size and diversity of their southern neighbor; worse still, most only have experience visiting a few, very similar tourist destinations. I was certainly in that boat before becoming an expat and living here year-round.
Since most Americans visit the tourist resorts on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, they know Mexico to be a tropical climate with sandy beaches and warm (Carib Sea or Sea of Cortes) or cool (Pacific) water. Go a few meters inland and you hit tropical jungle or steep mountains. Which is all true. Yet Mexico is also the thirteenth largest (by size) state in the world (2,000,000 sq kms) and the eleventh by population (over 130 million). It’s the largest Spanish-speaking state in the world (gotcha! Brazil, though larger, speaks Portuguese, and Spain has only 46 million people).
Mexico has vast deserts, temperate midlands and plains (where did you think all those vegetables come from?), large canyons (Barranca del Cobre compares favorably with the Grand Canyon), major mountain ranges, high sierra, and of course those aforementioned tropical jungles and beaches. It is roughly shaped like a parallelogram that is hottest and driest in the uppermost, left-hand corner, traversing to hot and wet in the lowermost right-hand corner. Except for the Sierra Madre mountain ranges which run like a spine down the middle, accounting for micro-climates throughout the country.
Culturally, Mexico is literally a mixed bag. It is a blend of Spanish Catholic culture, indigenous ways, and a heavy dose of imported Americana. Today we tried to order papas ralladas with breakfast. Our waitress informed us they call them “papas hash browns.” Whatever. Mexico has gone through enormous changes in the past twenty-five years, much of it related to the NAFTA agreement. Like China, Mexico industrialized in a single generation. It is now the fifteenth largest state in Gross Domestic Product, ranked eleventh considering Purchasing Power Parity, and economists label it a “upper middle income” country. It was once a classic Third World nation; now it has a large manufacturing base and a middle class, alongside pre-existing elite wealth and poverty.
Many of the aspects which immediately come to mind when an American thinks of Mexican culture are in reality the cultural heritage of just one of Mexico’s thirty-two states: Jalisco. Mariachi bands: check. Tequila: check. Caballos Bailadores (dancing horses): check. Sombreros (some debate on this one). Vaqueros or cowboys (a lot of debate on this one). All claimed by Jalisco. In fact, the state government seizes on these associations with a tourist slogan that says “Jalisco ES Mexico,” literally Jalisco IS Mexico. Which is OK, since the rest of Mexico has adopted these customs, and you are not safe from a Mariachi band ANYWHERE in Mexico.
The best word to describe Mexico is diverse. The people include fair-skinned descendants of Spain and dark-skinned indigenous. Spanish is everywhere, except where one of the three hundred and sixty-four indigenous languages reign. There is no single Mexican cuisine: Oaxaca’s differs from Jalisco’s, which is different from Sonora, and none of them are Tex-Mex. The land has all the varied looks one recalls NOB, but with the addition of real tropical jungles. While it occasionally exceeds its fellow North American neighbor, it routinely rivals it in many ways. Not that one would notice that sipping margaritas on the way to the all-inclusive resort. Not that there is anything wrong with that!