1.
Mexico City
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Mexico City, or City of Mexico, is the capital and most populous city of Mexico. As an alpha global city, Mexico City is one of the most important financial centers in the Americas and it is located in the Valley of Mexico, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres. The city consists of sixteen municipalities, the 2009 estimated population for the city proper was approximately 8.84 million people, with a land area of 1,485 square kilometres. The Greater Mexico City has a domestic product of US$411 billion in 2011. The city was responsible for generating 15. 8% of Mexicos Gross Domestic Product, as a stand-alone country, in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America—five times as large as Costa Ricas and about the same size as Perus. Mexico’s capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by Amerindians, the other being Quito. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, Mexico City served as the political, administrative and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the district was created in 1824. Ever since, the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution has controlled both of them, in recent years, the local government has passed a wave of liberal policies, such as abortion on request, a limited form of euthanasia, no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage. On January 29,2016, it ceased to be called the Federal District and is now in transition to become the countrys 32nd federal entity, giving it a level of autonomy comparable to that of a state. Because of a clause in the Mexican Constitution, however, as the seat of the powers of the federation, it can never become a state, the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was founded by the Mexica people in 1325. According to legend, the Mexicas principal god, Huitzilopochtli indicated the site where they were to build their home by presenting an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its beak. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco, when the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire had reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. After landing in Veracruz, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés advanced upon Tenochtitlan with the aid of many of the native peoples. Cortés put Moctezuma under house arrest, hoping to rule through him, the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone, and they elected a new king, Cuitláhuac, but he soon died, the next king was Cuauhtémoc. Cortés began a siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521, for three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of smallpox brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island, the Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlan during the final siege of the conquest. Cortés first settled in Coyoacán, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site to erase all traces of the old order and he did not establish a territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown
2.
Municipalities of Mexico City
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Mexico City is divided into sixteen mayoralties, which have regulatory powers and are not fully autonomous in their internal administration. As of 2000, the citizens within a mayoralty elect by plurality a head of government, as of 2016, mexico City recorded an official 2010 census tally of 8,851,080 inhabitants. The municipalities are subdivided into neighborhoods and in cases in the southernmost municipalities, also into towns. Mexico City as a whole is bordered directly by the municipalities, going clockwise
3.
Historic center of Mexico City
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The Zocalo is the largest plaza in Latin America. It can hold up to nearly 100,000 people and this section of the capital has just over nine square km and occupies 668 blocks. It contains 9,000 buildings,1,550 of which have been declared of historical importance, Most of these historic buildings were constructed between the 16th and 20th centuries. It is divided into two zones for preservation purposes, zone A encompasses the pre-Hispanic city and its expansion from the Viceroy period until Independence. Zone B covers the areas all other constructions to the end of the 19th century that are considered indispensable to the preservation of the architectural and cultural heritage. This is where the Spaniards began to build what is now modern Mexico City in the 16th century on the ruins of the conquered Tenochtitlan and this has made it a World Heritage Site. What is now the downtown of Mexico City roughly correlates with the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. During the prehispanic era, the city developed in a fashion, with streets and canals aligned with the cardinal directions. The calpullis were named Cuepopan, Atzacualco, Moyotla and Zoquipan, which had subdivisions, the intersection of these roads was the center of the city and of the Aztec world. Here were the Templo Mayor, the palaces of the tlatoani or emperors, palaces of nobles such as the House of the Demons, also located here were the two most renowned Aztec schools, the Telpuchcalli for secular studies and the Calmecac for priestly training. When the Spaniards arrived, the city had built by Moctezuma Ilhuicamina. After the Spanish conquest, this remained largely intact, mostly due to the efforts of Alonso Garcia Bravo. This reconstruction conserved many of the main thoroughfares such as Tenayuca, renamed Vallejo, Tlacopan, renamed México Tacuba, and Tepeyac, now called the Calzada de los Misterios. They also kept major divisions of the city adding Christian prefixes to the such as San Juan Moyotla, Santa María Tlaquechiuacan, San Sebastián Atzacualco. In fact, most of the centro historicos is built with the rubble of the destroyed Aztec city, a number of people during this time, all Spaniards, accumulated vast wealth mostly through mining and commerce in the 17th and 18th centuries. This wealth is reflected in the various mansions scattered in the such as the Palace of Iturbide. This house was built in the 16th century in Arab style, historically, the Zócalo, or main plaza, has been a venue for fine and popular cultural events. Some example of events held here recently are Spencer Tunicks photo shoot, the Ashes and Snow Nomadic museum, the Festival de México is an annual event with programs dedicated to art and academia
4.
Federal District buildings
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The Federal District buildings are two buildings on the south side of the Zócalo in Mexico City divided by the avenue Avenida 20 de Noviembre. They house offices of the authority of Mexico City. The building to the west of 20 de Noviembre is the one and has been the site of city administration since the Conquest. The one to the east is newer, built in the 20th century, similar to other capital cities, like Washington, D. C. Mexico City is considered as belonging to the nation, rather than being part of a particular state, what is now the federal district used to be principally part of the State of Mexico until 1824, when the Mexican Congress decided to put the capital in Mexico City. At the time, the State of Mexico had its headquarters in the old Palace of the Inquisition, the government of Mexico City and the Federal District are one and the same, causing Mexicans to use the terms interchangeably. While it is considered under federal jurisdiction, recently, changes have been made. The first local authority in New Spain was the ayuntamiento of Villa Rica in Veracruz and this governing council was moved to Coyoacán, near Mexico City after the fall of the Aztec city Tenochtitlan. The ayuntamiento was moved here after the first town hall was built between 1526 and 1532, with the first recorded council meeting here in 1526 and it was built as a fortress against the Indians, who were forbidden to settle in the area. It had a meeting room, a scriveners room to keep records, another for accounting, and audience hall, a chapel. The building was expanded in 1582, in 1582, a jail was added, the first such in New Spain. Other functions were added to the such as a coin-making facility. This building was destroyed, along with the National Palace in the uprising in 1692. Work began in 1720 under viceroy Baltasar de Zúñiga, 1st Duke of Arión, the rest of the building was completed in 1724 under viceroy Juan de Acuña, marqués de Casafuerte. The official corn and meat markets located here were abolished and the market was allowed to take control of these commodities. This resulted in a market in what was the Alley of the Diputación. However, these stalls disappeared by 1888, in 1910, the building was remodeled for the upcoming centennial of Independence by architect Manuel Gorozope and engineer Guillermo Beltrán. The remodeled building was inaugurated on 16 September 1910, however, remodeling work went on from 1912 to 1930 with the addition of the main staircase, the library and the archives, even though work was periodically halted because of the Mexican Revolution
5.
Classification yard
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A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railway yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railway cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill, from there the cars are sent through a series of switches called a ladder onto the classification tracks. Larger yards tend to put the lead on an artificially built hill called a hump to use the force of gravity to propel the cars through the ladder, freight trains that consist of isolated cars must be made into trains and divided according to their destinations. Thus the cars must be shunted several times along their route in contrast to a unit train and this shunting is done partly at the starting and final destinations and partly in classification yards. Flat yards are constructed on ground, or on a gentle slope. Freight cars are pushed by a locomotive and coast to their required location, hump yards are the largest and most effective classification yards, with the largest shunting capacity, often several thousand cars a day. The heart of these yards is the lead track on a small hill over which an engine pushes the cars. As concerns speed regulation, there are two types of hump yards—without or with mechanisation by retarders, in the old non-retarder yards braking was usually done in Europe by railroaders who laid skates onto the tracks. The skate or chock was manually placed on one or both of the rails so that the treadles or rims of the wheel or wheels caused frictional retardation, in the United States this braking was done by riders on the cars. In the modern retarder yards this work is done by mechanized rail brakes called retarders and they are operated either pneumatically or hydraulically. Pneumatic systems are prevalent in the United States, France, Belgium, Russia and China, while hydraulic systems are used in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In the United States, many classification bowls have more than 40 tracks—up to 72—which are often divided into six to ten tracks in each balloon loop. Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, United States, the worlds largest classification yard, is a hump yard, notably, in Europe, Russia and China, all major classification yards are hump yards. Europes largest hump yard is that of Maschen near Hamburg, Germany, the second largest is in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. According to the PRRT&HS PRR Chronology, the first hump yard in the United States was opened May 11,1903 as part of the Altoona Yards at Bells Mills. Other sources report the PRR yard at Youngwood, PA which opened in the 1880s to serve the Connellsville coke fields as the first U. S. hump yard. Gravity yards are operated similarly to hump yards but, in contrast to the latter, thus, only few gravity yards were ever built, sometimes requiring massive earthwork. Most gravity yards were built in Germany and Great Britain, a few also in some other European countries, in the USA, there were only very few old gravity yards, one of the few gravity yards in operation today is CSXs Readville Yard south of Boston, Massachusetts
6.
Metro Hospital General
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Metro Hospital General is a metro station along Line 3 of the Mexico City Metro. It is located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, the station logo represents the symbol of International Red Cross. Its name refers to the General Hospital of Mexico, which is located above the station and this station transfers to the S trolleybus line, which runs between ISSSTE Zaragoza and Metro Chapultepec. Metro Hospital General serves passengers in the Colonias of Doctores and Roma, the station opened on 20 November 1970 when it served as the southern terminus of Line 3. Service southward towards Centro Médico started 10 years later on 7 June 1980
7.
General Hospital of Mexico
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The General Hospital of Mexico is a hospital in Mexico City, operated by the Secretariat of Health, the federal government department in charge of all social health services in Mexico. Towards the end of the 19th century, Dr. Eduardo Liceaga proposed the construction of a new hospital to fulfill the needs of the city. The General Hospital began its construction in 1896, with a budget for the project of four million eight thousand pesos. At the time of its opening, there were 600 beds in 18 pavilions, around the 1920s and 1930s there was a big medical and scientific development at the hospital, where several branches of medicine developed new resources and procedures for patient care. The General Hospital was the seedbed of some of the most important Mexican health institutions, like the National Institutes of Cardiology, Nutrition, Oncology, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake damaged the Gynecology Unit and the Medical Residence tower were completely destroyed. More than 295 people died, included patients, residents, researchers from the hospital found that classical music composed by Mozart had a positive effect on heart disease. The hospital is a leader in developing guidelines for the country. The Metro Hospital General serves the hospital, General Hospital of Mexico Welcome Message to the HGM
8.
Lucha libre
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Lucha libre is a term used in Mexico for a form of professional wrestling developed in the country. Professional wrestling is a form of entertainment based on a portrayal of a combat sport. Mexican wrestling is characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, as well as high-flying maneuvers, Tag team wrestling is especially prevalent in lucha libre, particularly matches with three-member teams, called trios. Lucha libre wrestlers are known as luchadores and they usually come from extended wrestling families who form their own stables. One such line integrated to the United States professional wrestling scene is Los Guerreros, Lucha libre has also transcended the language barrier to some extent as evidenced by works such as Los Luchadores, ¡Mucha Lucha. and Nacho Libre. Lucha libre also appears in pop culture such as mainstream advertising, in Canada. The rules of lucha libre are similar to American singles matches, matches can be won by pinning the opponent to the mat for the count of three, making him submit, knocking him out of the ring for a predetermined count or by disqualification. Using the ropes for leverage is illegal, and once a luchador is on the ropes, his opponent must release any holds, most matches are two out of three falls, which had been abandoned for title bouts in North America and Japan in the 1970s. As the legal wrestler can step to the floor willingly, there is no need for an actual tag to a teammate to bring him into a match. This often allows for much more action to take place in the ring than would otherwise be possible under standard tag rules. The promotion company flourished and quickly became the premier spot for wrestlers, moreover, it was the emergence of television that allowed Lutteroth to promote lucha libre’s first breakout superstar into a national pop-culture phenomenon. In 1942, lucha libre would be changed when a silver-masked wrestler, known simply as El Santo. He made his debut in Mexico City by winning an 8-man battle royal, the public became enamored by the mystique and secrecy of Santos personality, and he quickly became the most popular luchador in Mexico. He achieved international fame as one of the first high-flyers, something he was not considered in Mexico, Luchadores are traditionally more agile and perform more aerial maneuvers than professional wrestlers in the United States, who more often rely on power and hard strikes to subdue their opponents. For this same reason, aerial maneuvers are almost always performed to opponents outside the ring, allowing the luchador to break his fall with an acrobatic tumble. Lucha libre has several different weight classes, many catered to smaller agile fighters and this system enables dynamic high-flying luchadores such as Rey Mysterio, Jr. Juventud Guerrera, Super Crazy and Místico, to develop years of experience by their mid-twenties. A number of prominent Japanese wrestlers also started their careers training in Mexican lucha libre before becoming stars in Japan and these include Gran Hamada, Satoru Sayama, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Último Dragón. Lucha libre is also known for its tag team wrestling matches, the teams are often made up of three members, instead of two as is common in the United States
9.
Professional wrestling
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Professional wrestling is a dramatized athletic performance that portrays a combat sport. Various forms of weaponry are sometimes used, the content – including match outcomes – is scripted and choreographed, and the combative actions and reactions are performed to appear violent without injuring the wrestlers. Before the 1980s, these facts were considered trade secrets, in the mid-90s, the presentation of scripted events as legitimate is known as kayfabe. Although the combative content is staged and communicated between the wrestlers, there are physical hazards involved - including permanent injury and death. While it has declined in Europe, in North America it has experienced several different periods of prominent cultural popularity during its century. The advent of television gave professional wrestling a new outlet, unlike in Europe, show wrestling has become especially prominent in Japan and in North America. In Brazil, there was a popular wrestling television program from the 1960s to the early 1980s called Telecatch. High-profile figures in the sport have become celebrities or cultural icons in their native or adopted home countries, although professional wrestling started out as petty acts in sideshows, traveling circuses and carnivals, today it is a billion-dollar industry. Revenue is drawn from live event ticket sales, network television broadcasts, pay-per-view broadcasts, personal appearances by performers, branded merchandise, pro wrestling was also instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and formerly Bash at the Beach, Halloween Havoc, home video sales dominate the Billboard charts Recreational Sports DVD sales, with wrestling holding anywhere from 3 to 9 of the top 10 spots every week. Due to its persistent cultural presence and to its novelty within the performing arts, there have also been many fictional depictions of wrestling, the 2008 film The Wrestler received several Oscar nominations and began a career revival for star Mickey Rourke. Because actual events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines for the performers, special care must be taken when talking about people who perform under their own name. The actions of the character should be considered fictional events, wholly separate from the life of the performer and this is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers will incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and those who participated felt that it was necessary that spectators should be kept in a constant and complete illusion of a real competition to keep audience interest. For decades, up until the mid-1980s, wrestlers lived their lives as though they were their characters. Wrestlers, bookers and promoters all rigorously enforced the illusion and very few were allowed into the society of professional wrestling to maintain suspension of disbelief. The practice of keeping the illusion, and the methods used to do so, came to be known as kayfabe within wrestling circles. An entire lexicon of slang jargon and euphemism developed to allow performers to communicate without outsiders knowledge of what was being said, occasionally a performer will deviate from the intended sequence of events
10.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
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Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre co. ltd is a lucha libre professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City. The promotion is also referred to by its previous name Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, founded in 1933, it is the oldest professional wrestling promotion still in existence. CMLL has been nicknamed The serious and the stable, referencing their very conservative booking style, outside of live television broadcasts CMLL, has not shown matches where one of the competitors bleed. CMLL has on occasion fired wrestlers for excessive violence, like the use of chairs, CMLL currently recognizes and promotes twelve World Championships for various weight divisions and classifications, six national level and six regional level championships. The CMLL Anniversary Show series is the longest running annual major show, starting in 1934, CMLL also regularly promotes major events under the names Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, Sin Piedad, Sin Salida, Infierno en el Ring during the year. CMLL has promoted their regular weekly Super Viernes on a basis since the 1930s. Founder Salvador Lutteroth funded the building of Arena Coliseo in 1943, in 1929, Salvador Lutteroth, who at the time was a property inspector for the Mexican Tax department, moved to Ciudad Juárez near the Mexico/U. S. During a trip to El Paso, Texas Lutteroth witnessed a professional wrestling show and was intrigued by the show, four years later Lutteroth, along with his financial backer Francisco Ahumada chartered Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, the first Mexican owned wrestling promotion in the country. EMLL held their first shown on September 21,1933, considered the birth of Lucha libre, the concept of Lucha Libre quickly became very popular, so much so that the EMLL 1st Anniversary Show drew a sell out crowd of 5,000 paying fans. In 1934, an American wrestler debuted in Mexico under a black, leather mask, through the use of the masks and ring characters EMLL helped create the sacred position of the mask in Lucha libre, making it the ultimate status symbol for luchadors. In the early days of EMLL most of the top names were Americans, each booking office was independent of each other but the main office in Mexico City had the final say if there were disputes over who would be able to book certain wrestlers. In 1942, a masked wrestler clad is silver, simply known as El Santo, the arena, nicknamed the Lagunilla Funnel due to its interior shape would hold over 8,800 spectators when configured for Lucha libre or boxing. Arena Coliseo began hosting EMLLs annual Anniversary shows starting with the 10th Anniversary show, in 1953, Salvador Lutteroth joined the US based National Wrestling Alliance, becoming the official NWA territory for all of Mexico, known as NWA-EMLL outside of Mexico. By joining the NWA, Lutteroth and EMLL gained control of the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, as it turns out luck was on Lutteroth and EMLLs side as Lutteroth and the personnel at Arena Coliseo bought a lottery ticket worth 5 million Pesos. Lutteroth used his portion of the winnings to finance the construction of Arena México, Arena México enabled EMLL to broadcast their weekly wrestling shows across Mexico, yielding a popularity explosion for the sport. Starting in 1956, with the EMLL 23rd Anniversary Show all anniversary shows were held in Arena México, over time the arena became known as The Cathedral of Lucha Libre. The two took a number of EMLLs younger wrestlers with them to form Lucha Libre Internacional, S. C, with the creation of the UWA EMLL faced a rival national promotion for the first time. In the mid-1980s, Chavo Lutteroth retired, allowing his nephew Paco Alonso, grandson of Salvador Lutteroth, in the late 1980s EMLL decided to leave the NWA, seeking to distance themselves from the political infighting in the National Wrestling Alliance
11.
Belem Prison
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Belem Prison was located in Mexico City, Mexico and operated from 1886 until the early 1930s. The building was used by the Church and was confiscated during La Reforma in 1857. The prison was replaced as the prison by Luccemberri Prison. Housed many of the criminals who had very public trials. The building that would eventually become Belen Prison was commissioned by Padre Domingo Perez de Barcia and it was built in 1683, and in 1908 was listed as one of the oldest buildings in the city. This well noted priest of the late 17th century collected the necessary to build what would be named Colegio de San Miguel de Belem. This building, commonly referred to as Colegio de las Mochas, was convent/asylum/hospital for indigent religious women, in 1857, during the period known as La Reforma, the property was confiscated by the state. < In 1886, the building re-opened as Belen Prison. In 1886, Belen became the main Prison for Mexico City and it was in this year that all prisoner and courts were moved from the municipal palace and took up residence in the former convent. This building was located in the Southwest area of Mexico City and this prison was known throughout the city to be a center of filth and crime. It is suggested that criminals who came in left with an understanding of how to be a criminal. Pablo Piccato says that if someone was innocent when they entered Belem that they would come out a full-fledged criminal, during the Mexican Revolution, the prison was attacked and many of the prisoners set free. The prison became more like a county jail, holding only short sentence criminals, the building was eventually torn down, making way for a school to be built. Many Prison reformers had urged that Belem was the epitome of a broken prison and they explained that the prison was more of a source of entertainment than a place of rehabilitation. The building had three floors and a basement, the top floor was reserved for elites/nobles of Mexico City. Garza says in his book the Imagined Underworld, “once a gentleman, always a gentleman and this area was called the “Department of Distinction” and offered the elite law breakers the same comforts they would find at home. The second and first floors held areas for the women and children who were sentenced to jail time and it is important to note that while they were afforded separate living accommodations, these separations were not enforced. These floors also held the offices and court rooms. The basement of Belem was a place that was notorious, in the basement, frequent flooding happened, leaving the inmates to wade through their cells in dangerously contaminated waters
12.
Mural
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A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other permanent surface. A distinguishing characteristic of painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture. Some wall paintings are painted on canvases, which are then attached to the wall. Whether these works can be accurately called murals is a subject of controversy in the art world. Murals of sorts date to Upper Paleolithic times such as the paintings in the Chauvet Cave in Ardèche department of southern France, many ancient murals have been found within ancient Egyptian tombs, the Minoan palaces and in Pompeii. During the Middle Ages murals were executed on dry plaster. The huge collection of Kerala mural painting dating from the 14th century are examples of fresco secco, in Italy, circa 1300, the technique of painting of frescos on wet plaster was reintroduced and led to a significant increase in the quality of mural painting. In modern times, the became more well-known with the Mexican muralism art movement. There are many different styles and techniques, the best-known is probably fresco, which uses water-soluble paints with a damp lime wash, a rapid use of the resulting mixture over a large surface, and often in parts. The colors lighten as they dry, the marouflage method has also been used for millennia. Murals today are painted in a variety of ways, using oil or water-based media, the styles can vary from abstract to trompe-lœil. Initiated by the works of artists like Graham Rust or Rainer Maria Latzke in the 1980s, trompe-loeil painting has experienced a renaissance in private. The buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a layer of wet, fresh. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours. After this the painting stays for a time up to centuries in fresh. Fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster, the pigments thus require a binding medium, such as egg, glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. By the end of the century this had largely displaced the buon fresco method. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of a secco work, in Greco-Roman times, mostly encaustic colors applied in a cold state were used
13.
National Autonomous University of Mexico
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The National Autonomous University of Mexico is the largest university in Latin America. In 2016 it had a rate of only 8%. As a public university in Mexico City, UNAM is regarded by many university world rankings as the leading university of the Spanish-speaking world. UNAM was founded, in its form, on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to its predecessor. UNAMs autonomy, granted in 1929, has given it the freedom to define its own curriculum and this has had a profound effect on academic life at the university, which some claim boosts academic freedom and independence. The UNAM generates a number of different publications in areas, such as mathematics, physics. Besides being one of the most recognized universities in Latin America and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site that was designed by some of Mexicos best-known architects of the 20th century. Murals in the campus were painted by some of the most recognized artists in Mexican history, such as Diego Rivera. The project initially unified the Fine Arts, Business, Political Science, Jurisprudence, Engineering, Medicine, Normal, and this opposition led to disruptions in the function of the university when political instability forced resignations in the government, including that of President Díaz. Internally, the first student strike occurred in 1912 to protest examination methods introduced by the director of the School of Jurisprudence, by July of that year, a majority of the law students decided to abandon the university and join the newly created Free School of Law. In 1914 initial efforts to gain autonomy for the university failed, in 1920, José Vasconcelos became rector. Efforts to gain autonomy for the university continued in the early 1920s, in the mid-1920s, the second wave of student strikes opposed a new grading system. The strikes included major classroom walkouts in the law school and confrontation with police at the medical school, the striking students were supported by many professors and subsequent negotiations eventually led to autonomy for the university. The institution was no longer a dependency of the Secretariat of Public Education, during the early 1930s, the rector of UNAM was Manuel Gómez Morín. The government attempted to implement socialist education at Mexican universities, which Gómez Morín, many professors, Gómez Morín with the support of the Jesuit-founded student group, the Unión Nacional de Estudiantes Católicos, successfully fought against socialist education. UNAM supported the recognition of the academic certificates by Catholic preparatory schools, in an interesting turn of events, UNAM played an important role in the founding of the Jesuit institution in 1943, the Universidad Iberoamericana in 1943. However, UNAM opposed initiatives at the Universidad Iberoamericana in later years, the first stone laid was that of the faculty of Sciences, the first building of Ciudad Universitaria. President Miguel Alemán Valdés participated in the ceremony on 20 November 1952, the University Olympic Stadium was inaugurated on the same day
14.
Carmen Romero Rubio
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Fabiana Sebastiana Maria Carmen Romero Rubio y Castelló, second wife of Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico. Carmen Romero Rubio was born on January 20 of 1864 in Tula and her parents were prominent liberal lawyer Manuel Romero Rubio, and Agustina Castelló. Her godfather was Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada and she had two sisters, Sofía and María Luisa. Known as Carmelita, she celebrated her saints day on the feast of the Virgin of Mt. Carmel and her friends and family members organized festivals in her honor in Carmelite convents during her lifetime. Carmens father was active in Mexican politics during the late 1860s and 1870s, the Rubios were acquaintances, and frequent guests, of the American ambassador, John W. Foster. It was during a reception at the American embassy that General Porfirio Díaz met Carmen Romero Rubio and she agreed to teach him English, and a closer relationship evolved. On November 5,1881, don Porfirio married Carmen Romero Rubio in a ceremony, with the President of Mexico Manuel González serving as witness. The next day, the ceremony took place. The couple received the blessing of Archbishop Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, the apocryphal memoirs of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada stress the importance of her mother—and not Carmen—in aiding Díazs relations with the Church. A year and a year after the death of Delfina Ortega, first wife of General Porfirio Díaz. Romero Rubio modeled her activities as First Lady on the role of rulers wives. Carmen expanded on this, accompanying Díaz at public events and her copious correspondence was managed by a special department of the Presidents office and she helped to host visiting personages. She attended religious, civic, and cultural events, working with the wives of cabinet members, governors, and regional oligarchs, she formed and chaired relief committees responding to natural disasters. She also saw to the upbringing of Díazs children, arranging marriages to prominent families, Rubio Romero served as First Lady for three decades, from when Diaz took office on December 1 by 1884 until his resignation on May 25 of 1911. Carmelita accompanied her husband in his exile to France in 1911 and they lived in Paris in rented apartments, never buying a home, frequently moving and traveling. They toured Europe and visited Egypt, after the generals death in 1915, Carmen remained in France for nearly two decades, living from investments in Mexican oil companies and rental income. She played an important role in the rituals of the Mexican colony in Paris, organizing memorial masses for Díaz, Carmelita spent much of her time traveling around France and Spain, and frequently summered at her stepson Porfirios chateau de Moulins, close to Landes-le-Gaulois. Carmen returned to Mexico in 1934, accompanied by her sister Chofa aboard the French steamer Mexique and she resided for some time in Mexico Citys Colonia Roma, on no.20 Tonalá Street, in a home that belonged to her niece Teresa Castelló
15.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
16.
Francisco Toledo
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Francisco Benjamín López Toledo is a Mexican painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. Toledo works in media, including pottery, sculpture, weaving, graphic arts. He has had exhibitions in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Japan, Sweden, Mexican National Prize for Arts and Sciences Prince Claus Award, Prince Claus Fund Right Livelihood Award Toledos parents were Zapotec. He is father of poet Natalia Toledo and artists Laureana Toledo, official website Biography on Aquí Oaxaca Biography on Right Livelihood Award website Biography on Widewalls Essay by Dore Ashton
17.
David Alfaro Siqueiros
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David Alfaro Siqueiros was a Mexican social realist painter, better known for his large murals in fresco. Along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, he established Mexican Muralism and he was a Marxist-Leninist in support of the Soviet Union and a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Leon Trotsky in May 1940. His surname would normally be Alfaro by Spanish naming customs, like Picasso and Lorca, Siqueiros changed his given name to David after his first wife called him by it in allusion to Michelangelos David. Another factual confusion is the year of his birth, he was born in 1896, but many sources state 1898 or 1899. Many details of his childhood, including date, birthplace, first name. Often, he is reported to have been born and raised in 1898 in a town in the state of Chihuahua, Siqueiros was born in Chihuahua in 1896, the second of three children. He was baptized José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros and his father, Cipriano Alfaro, originally from Irapuato, was well-off. Siqueiros had two siblings, a sister, Luz, three years older, and a brother Chucho, a year younger, davids mother died when he was four, their father sent the children to live with their paternal grandparents. Davids grandfather, nicknamed Siete Filos, had a strong role in his upbringing. In 1902 Siqueiros started school in Irapuato, Guanajuato and he credits his first rebellious influence to his sister, who had resisted their fathers religious orthodoxy. Around this time, Siqueiros was also exposed to new political ideas, one such political theorist was Dr. Atl, who published a manifesto in 1906 calling for Mexican artists to develop a national art and look to ancient indigenous cultures for inspiration. Their protests eventually led to the establishment of an academy in Santa Anita. At the age of eighteen, Siqueiros and several of his colleagues from the School of Fine Arts joined Venustiano Carranzas Constitutional Army fighting Huertas government and his military travels around the country exposed him to Mexican culture and the raw everyday struggles of the working and rural poor classes. After Carranzas forces had gained control, Siqueiros briefly returned to Mexico City to paint before traveling to Europe in 1919, first in Paris, he absorbed the influence of cubism, intrigued particularly with Paul Cézanne and the use of large blocks of intense color. Although many have said that Siqueiros artistic ventures were frequently interrupted by his political ones, by 1921, when he wrote his manifesto in Vida Americana, Siqueiros had already been exposed to Marxism and saw the life of the working and rural poor while traveling with the Constitutional Army. The manifesto also claimed that a spirit is essential to meaningful art. Through this style, Siqueiros hoped to create a style that would bridge national and universal art, in 1922, Siqueiros returned to Mexico City to work as a muralist for Álvaro Obregóns revolutionary government. Then Secretary of Public Education José Vasconcelos made a mission of educating the masses through public art and hired scores of artists, Siqueiros, Rivera and José Orozco worked together under Vasconcelos, who supported the muralist movement by commissioning murals for prominent buildings in Mexico City
18.
Luis Nishizawa
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Luis Nishizawa was a Mexican artist known for his landscape work and murals, which often show Japanese and Mexican influence. He began formal training as an artist in 1942 at the height of the Mexican muralism movement, the State of Mexico, where he was born, created the Museo Taller Luis Nishizawa to honor and promote his life’s work. Luis Nishizawa Flores was born on February 2,1918 at the San Mateo Ixtacalco Hacienda in the Cuautitlán municipality of the State of Mexico and his father, Kenji Nishizawa, was Japanese and his mother, María de Jesús Flores, was Mexican. Since he was a child, he was introverted and solitary, the family moved to Mexico City in 1925, where Nishizawa learned to create jewelry and studied music with a teacher named Rodolfo Halfter. Although he had interest in art at age 15, he began training at the Academy of San Carlos in 1942. He learned to paint landscapes as well as art and graphics with an interest in the art tradition of Japan. Either as teachers or working for them as assistants, Nishizawa had various mentors such as José María Velasco, Julio Castellanos, José Chávez Morado, Alfredo Zalce and Benjamin Correa. Although nationalism was the sentiment in artistic production in the 1940s, he studied other movements such as expressionism, abstract art. He received his masters in arts in 1947. In 1955, he began teaching art at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at UNAM, in 1963, he studied engraving with Yukio Fukazawa and took another course in engraving at the Center for Japanese Artists in Tokyo. He married Eva Zepeda in 1964, with whom he had four children, on Monday, September 29,2014, Luis Nishizawa died in Toluca, México at age 96. Nishizawa was a painter, engraver, graphic artist, sketch artist and ceramicist and his techniques include drawing, watercolor and ink. Most of his works depict landscapes of the highlands of Mexico such as the Valley of Mexico, areas in Morelos, Guanajuato, Puebla. He is considered to have one of Mexico’s best landscape artists. Some of his more important canvases include Paisaje, Valle de México, Paisaje de Yagul and Pátzcuaro where the blending of this Mexican and Japanese heritage and training are evident. His works have been exhibited in the Museo de Arte Moderno for over forty years and he created murals, paintings, drawings, ceramic and glass pieces and sculpture. His works are held in private collections in Mexico, Japan. He participated in individual and collective exhibition in Mexico and abroad
19.
1985 Mexico City earthquake
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The 1985 Mexico City earthquake struck in the early morning of, Thursday,19 September at 07,17,50 with a moment magnitude of 8.0 and a Mercalli intensity of IX. The event caused damage to the Greater Mexico City area. The sequence of events included a foreshock of magnitude 5.2 that occurred the prior May, the mainshock on 19 September, and two large aftershocks. The first of these occurred on 20 September with a magnitude of 7.5, the event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city. Much of Mexicos volcanic and seismic activity stems from the movement of the North American plate against the Cocos and Pacific plates, each year more than 90 tremors above magnitude 4.0 are recorded in this zone. While not on or near any fault line like San Francisco or Los Angeles, the main reason for this is the surface geology of the area, especially the downtown area. The city grew from an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco outward, on the bed of the historic lake, the prevailing silt and volcanic clay sediments amplify seismic shaking. Damage to structures is worsened by soil liquefaction which causes the loss of foundation support, above this is a layer of sand and above this is a layer of sand and rock. The western and northwestern parts of the city are outside the old lakeshores and are located on sands from eroding volcanic cones that surround the Valley of Mexico, the southern part of the city rests on hardened basalt lava flows. The old lakebed, with its water content, is easily moved or compressed. The old lakeshore area also has a high water content, allowing movement. The old lava flows have little content or movement in comparison and are therefore stable. Another factor is that the old lakebed resonates with certain seismic waves and this lakebed has a natural pitch of one cycle every 2.5 seconds making everything built on the bed vibrate at the same frequency. This is the pitch as a number of shallow earthquake waves. This resonance amplifies the effects of the waves coming from an earthquake far away. However, only certain types of structures are vulnerable to this resonance effect, taller buildings have their own frequencies of vibration. Those that are six to fifteen stories tall also vibrate at the 2. 5-second cycle, the low-frequency waves of an earthquake are amplified by the mud of the lakebed, which in turn, is amplified by the building itself. This causes these buildings to shake more violently than the earthquake proper as the earthquake progresses, many of the older colonial buildings have survived hundreds of years on the lakebed simply because they are not tall enough to be affected by the resonance effect
20.
Crime in Mexico
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Drug trafficking has led to corruption, which has had a deleterious effect on Mexicos Federal Representative Republic. Drug trafficking and organized crime have also been a source of violent crime in Mexico. Mexico has experienced high crime rates, especially in major urban centers. The countrys great economic polarization has stimulated criminal activity mainly in the socioeconomic strata. Other metropolitan areas have lower, yet serious, levels of crime. Low apprehension and conviction rates contribute to the crime rate. Since many crimes go unreported, the rates may be higher than reported by the government. The murder rate in 2015 was 14 per 100,000, most of the crime is committed by a small proportion of the population involved in the drug trade with about half of murders drug related. Assault and theft make up the vast majority of crimes, while urban areas tend to have higher crime rates, as is typical in most countries, the United States–Mexico border has also been a problematic area. In 2015 Hispanic Americans committed homicides at a similar to the US average of 4.9 per 100,000. Mexico is Latin Americas most dangerous country for journalists according to the Global Criminality Index 2016, in 2012, Mexico had a murder rate of 21.5 per 100,000 population. There were a total of 26,037 murders in Mexico in 2012, between 2000 and 2013,215,000 people in Mexico were murdered. By 2013 there were only 30,800 people incarcerated for murder, the state of Chihuahua ranked number one with the most homicide in the country, the least was Baja California Sur. The United States is a market for illegal drugs. The United Nations estimates that nearly 90% of cocaine sold in the United States originates in South America and is smuggled through Mexico, Mexico is the largest foreign supplier of marijuana and the second largest source of heroin for the U. S. market. The majority of methamphetamine sold in the United States is made in Mexico, Mexican drug cartels play a major role in the flow of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transiting between Latin America and the United States. These drug cartels often use Mexican-American gangs to distribute their narcotics in United States, Mexican drug cartels also have ties to Colombian drug traffickers, and other international organized crime. A sharp spike in drug-related violence has some analysts worrying about the Colombianization of Mexico, some illegal drugs are also produced in Mexico, including significant amounts of opium poppy, and marijuana in the western Sierra Madre Mountains region
21.
Colonia del Valle
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Colonia del Valle is an area of Benito Juarez borough in Mexico City, consisting of three official areas, Norte, Centro and Sur, and small surrounding neighborhoods. Its inhabitants belong mostly to the upper and upper-middle class of the capital, home to parks, wide tree-lined streets, luxurious shops. It is an area with an important infrastructure, including communications, transport and urban services of all kinds, since 2013 it has been listed, by Mexican financial media, as one of the areas with highest housing costs in the country. At the beginning of the 20th century the ranches cultivated with alfalfa and fruit trees were divided, some neighborhood streets are named after these ranches and their fruit trees, others after Mexican philanthropists. While serving as a route from Mexico City to Coyoacán it developed slowly until 1920, when it expanded. Large-scale home and mansion construction started, the area also featured monument construction and green areas, one is the Paque Hundido, built on a former sand mine. In the 1960s the area was as developed as many other neighborhoods of equal purchasing power on its borders. Commercial development included two major facilities, Liverpool Insurgentes opening in 1962 and the countrys first shopping center, University Plaza, ejes 4,5,6,7 and 8 south crossed from east to west and 1,2 and 3 from south to north. This drove many families to look for a place to live. Mansions were replaced by apartment buildings, offices or schools, however,2012 statistics do not place Del Valle on the list of the top 6 most crime-ridden neighborhoods. Major roads running through the neighborhood include, Insurgentes, Cuauhtemoc, Northern Division, University, Félix Cuevas, José María Rico, Mexico City Metro Line 3 has several stations in the vicinity, Etiopía, Eugenia, División del Norte, Zapata and Coyoacán. Mexico City Metrobús Line 3 stops at Amores, the architecture includes large mansions in Californian mission revival Art Deco style and, to a lesser extent, surviving examples of Porfiriato. At the end of the 1960s many small skyscrapers, both commercial and residential, were built, making the one of the most densely populated of Mexico City. The religious structures found in the Del Valle include the Templo del Purísimo Corazón de María at the corner of Gabriel Mancera number 415 and it was built in the early 20th century. In 1996 several scenes of the film Romeo + Juliet were filmed at the church, Mexican singer Luis Miguel was baptized there. The Temple of San Lorenzo Xochimanca, located in the park of the name a. k. a. Parque Popular, was built in the 16th century, the Parroquia del Señor del Buen Despacho, located in Parque Tlacoquemécatl, dates from the 18th century. The Temple of Santo Tomás Actipan, built in 1897, is located at the corner of Bufalo, the Temple of Santa Monica, with the signature cáscaro thin-shell structure of its architect Félix Candela, on Fresa Street opposite the park of San Lorenzo, was built in 1962
22.
Cabaret
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Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. It is mainly distinguished by the venue, which might be a pub. The audience, often dining or drinking, does not typically dance, performances are usually introduced by a master of ceremonies or MC. The entertainment, as done by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is oriented towards adult audiences. In the United States striptease, burlesque, drag shows, or a solo vocalist with a pianist, the word cabaret was first used in 1655. It is derived from tavern probably from Middle Dutch cambret, the word cabaret came to mean a restaurant or night club by 1912. Cabaret can be divided in 10 different types. However, these are artificial dividing lines, cabaret shows are most of the time a compound of elements from the different types, the cabaret performer plays with language, sometimes poetic, but often is he or she rock hard and hateful. The cabaret performer analyses in his/her stubborn manner actual, social and political topics, the cabaret performer tells an often slightly absurd story with a moral packed in it. The cabaret performer plays with music, for example by twisting or combining familiar melodies, the cabaret performer tells nonsensical and absurd stories and plays idiotic types. The emphasis is less on text in the show of cabaret performer. Here the cabaret performer eludes on his liberating through laughter role, an iteration of storytelling cabaret The cabaret performer quickly switches between the different styles/types of cabaret, types, or songs. In this the cabaret performer is a guest at a government, institution or a company, cabarets existed in Paris in the 16th century, they were ancestors of the modern restaurant. Unlike taverns they sold wine not by itself but only with a meal, customers might sing if they had drunk enough wine, but early cabarets did not have formal programs of entertainment. Cabarets were frequently used as meeting places for writers and artists, in 1773 French poets, painters, musicians and writers began to meet in a cabaret called Le Caveau on rue de Buci, where they composed and sang songs. The Caveau continued until 1816, when it was forced to close because its clients wrote songs mocking the royal government, in the 18th century the café-concert or café-chantant appeared, which offered food along with music, singers, or magicians. The most famous was the Cafe des Aveugles in the cellars of the Palais-Royal, in the early 19th century many cafés-chantants appeared around the city, the most famous were the Café des Ambassadeurs on the Champs-Élysées and the Eldorado on boulevard Strasbourg. By 1900 there were more than 150 cafés-chantants in Paris, the first cabaret in the modern sense was Le Chat Noir in the Bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre, created in 1881 by Rodolphe Salis, a theatrical agent and entrepreneur
23.
Hummer
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Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. By 2008, Hummers viability in the downturn was being questioned. Rather than being transferred to the Motors Liquidation Company as part of the GM bankruptcy in 2009, in 2009, a Chinese manufacturer, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company, announced that it would acquire Hummer, pending government approvals, but later withdrew its bid. At the end of February, General Motors announced it would begin dismantling the Hummer brand, after filling a rental-car fleet order, the last Hummer H3 rolled off the line at Shreveport on May 24,2010. The original maker of Hummer, AM General, lost their bid to build the HMMWVs replacement for the U. S. military in 2015. The original Hummers were first designed by AM General Corporation, an owned subsidiary American Motors Corporation. In 1979, the United States Army was seeking contractors for a new High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle which could follow the tracks, among the four competitors for the contract, AM General designed an entirely new vehicle to meet the Armys requirements. In less than one year, it was the first to deliver a prototype vehicle, initial production versions were delivered to the Armys proving grounds in April 1982. After testing was completed AM General was awarded the contract to supply its HMMWV to the United States armed forces, the first models were built in a variety of military-based equipment and versions. The first contract was in 1983, worth US$1.2 billion to produce 55,000 Humvees by 1985, the first production vehicle was assembled by AM General on January 2,1985. The contract was increased for an additional 15,000 units. AM General had planned to sell a version of the Humvee as far back as the late-1980s. The civilian model began in part because of the persistence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 1992, AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee vehicle to the public under the brand name Hummer. In December 1999, AM General sold the name to General Motors. GM was responsible for the marketing and distribution of all Hummers produced by AM General, shortly thereafter, GM introduced two of its own design models, the H2 and H3, and renamed the original vehicle H1. AM General continued to build the H1 until it was discontinued in 2006, the H3 was built in Shreveport, LA alongside the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups, with which it shared the GMT-355 platform. Hummer dealership buildings featured an oversized half Quonset Hut style roof, by 2006, the Hummer began to be exported and sold through importers and distributors in 33 countries. On October 10,2006, GM began producing the Hummer H3 at its Port Elizabeth plant in South Africa for international markets, the Hummers built there at first were only left-hand drive, but right-hand drive versions were added and exported to Australia and other markets
24.
El Paso, Texas
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El Paso is the seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The city is situated in the far corner of the U. S. state of Texas. El Paso stands on the Rio Grande river across the Mexico–United States border from Ciudad Juárez, the region of over 2.9 million people constitutes the largest bilingual and binational work force in the Western Hemisphere. The city hosts the annual Sun Bowl college football post-season game, El Paso has a strong federal and military presence. William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Biggs Army Airfield, and Fort Bliss call the city home, Fort Bliss is one of the largest military complexes of the United States Army and the largest training area in the United States. Also headquartered in El Paso are the DEA domestic field division 7, El Paso Intelligence Center, Joint Task Force North, Border Patrol El Paso Sector, and U. S. In 2010, El Paso received an All-America City Award, El Paso has been ranked the safest large city in the U. S. for four consecutive years and has ranked in the top three since 1997. As of July 1,2015, the estimate for the city from the U. S. Census was 681,124. Its U. S. metropolitan area covers all of El Paso and Hudspeth counties in Texas, the El Paso MSA forms part of the larger El Paso–Las Cruces CSA, with a population of 1,053,267. The El Paso region has had human settlement for thousands of years, the evidence suggests 10,000 to 12,000 years of human habitation. The earliest known cultures in the region were maize farmers, when the Spanish arrived, the Manso, Suma, and Jumano tribes populated the area. These were subsequently incorporated into the Mestizo culture, along with immigrants from central Mexico, captives from Comanchería, the Mescalero Apache were also present. El Paso del Norte was founded on the bank of the Río Bravo del Norte. El Paso remained the largest settlement in New Mexico until its cession to the U. S. in 1848, the Texas Revolution was generally not felt in the region, as the American population was small, not being more than 10% of the population. However, the region was claimed by Texas as part of the treaty signed with Mexico, during this interregnum, 1836–1848, Americans nonetheless continued to settle the region. The present Texas–New Mexico boundary placing El Paso on the Texas side was drawn in the Compromise of 1850, El Paso County was established in March 1850, with San Elizario as the first county seat. The United States Senate fixed a boundary between Texas and New Mexico at the 32nd parallel, thus largely ignoring history and topography, a military post called The Post opposite El Paso was established in 1854. Further west, a settlement on Coons Rancho called Franklin became the nucleus of the future El Paso, a year later, pioneer Anson Mills completed his plan of the town, calling it El Paso
25.
Pulque
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Pulque is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant. It is traditional to central Mexico, where it has produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, somewhat viscous consistency and a sour yeast-like taste, the drink’s history extends far back into the Mesoamerican period, when it was considered sacred, and its use was limited to certain classes of people. After the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, the drink became secular, the consumption of pulque reached its peak in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, the fell into decline, mostly because of competition from beer. There are some efforts to revive the drink’s popularity through tourism, Pulque is a milk-colored, somewhat viscous liquid that produces a light foam. It is made by fermenting the sap of certain types of maguey plants, in contrast, mezcal is made from the cooked heart of certain agave plants, and tequila, a variety of mezcal, is made all or mostly from the blue agave. About six varieties of maguey are best used for the production of pulque, the name pulque is derived from Nahuatl. The original name of the drink was iztāc octli, the term pulque was probably derived by the Spanish from the octli poliuhqui. The maguey plant, also called a “century plant” in English, is native to Mexico and it grows best in the cold, dry climates of the rocky central highlands to the north and east of Mexico City, especially in Hidalgo and Tlaxcala states. Maguey has been cultivated at least since 200 CE in Tula, Tulancingo and Teotihuacan, the plant historically has had a number of uses. Fibers can be extracted from the leaves to make rope or fabric, its thorns can be used as needles or punches. The name maguey was given by the Spanish, who picked it up from the Taíno and this is still its common name in Spanish, with Agave being its scientific generic or technical name. The Nahuatl name of the plant is metl, the manufacturing process of pulque was complex and required the death of the maguey plant. As the plant nears maturity, the center begins to swell and elongate as the plant gathers stored sugar to send up a flower stalk. However, plants destined for production have this flower stalk cut off. In this center, the sap, known as aguamiel. It takes a maguey plant 12 years to mature enough to produce the sap for pulque, Pulque has been drunk for least 1,000 years, and its origins are the subject of various stories and myths
26.
Beer
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Beer is the worlds oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drink, it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, the fermentation process causes a natural carbonation effect, although this is often removed during processing, and replaced with forced carbonation. Beer is sold in bottles and cans, it may also be available on draught, particularly in pubs, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume, archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilisations. Approximately 5000 years ago, workers in the city of Uruk were paid by their employers in beer, the earliest known chemical evidence of barley beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, Syria, a fermented beverage using rice and fruit was made in China around 7000 BC. Unlike sake, mould was not used to saccharify the rice, almost any substance containing sugar can naturally undergo alcoholic fermentation. It is likely that many cultures, on observing that a liquid could be obtained from a source of starch. Bread and beer increased prosperity to a level that allowed time for development of other technologies, Beer was spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes as far back as 3000 BC, and it was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. The product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today, alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers might contain fruits, honey, numerous types of plants, spices and other substances such as narcotic herbs. What they did not contain was hops, as that was an addition, first mentioned in Europe around 822 by a Carolingian Abbot. Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a scale, although by the 7th century AD, beer was also being produced. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. As of 2006, more than 133 billion litres, the equivalent of a cube 510 metres on a side, of beer are sold per year, the process of making beer is known as brewing. A dedicated building for the making of beer is called a brewery, a company that makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company. Beer made on a scale for non-commercial reasons is classified as homebrewing regardless of where it is made. Brewing beer is subject to legislation and taxation in developed countries, however, the UK government relaxed legislation in 1963, followed by Australia in 1972 and the US in 1978, allowing homebrewing to become a popular hobby
27.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
28.
Barrio Chino (Mexico City)
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Barrio Chino is a neighborhood located in the downtown area of Mexico City, near the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The neighborhood is located on two blocks of Dolores Street and consists of a number of restaurants and businesses that import goods, the neighborhood consists of approximately 3,000 families with Chinese heritage in Mexico City. The history of Barrio Chino is tied with the history of Chinese immigration to Mexico and Mexico City spans the decades between the 1880s and the 1940s-1950s, when the government could not attract enough Western European immigrants, it was decided to allow Chinese migrant workers into the country. At first, small Chinese communities appeared mostly in the north of the country, a census done at the very end of the 19th century shows only 40 people registered as Chinese in Mexico City, but by 1910, that number had grown to 1,482. This culminated in 1913, with 303 Chinese massacred in Torreón, the Chinese in Mexico City congregated on Dolores Street one block south of the Alameda Central and the Palacio de Bellas Artes, in the historic center of Mexico City. They were basically businesspeople, opening restaurants, laundries, bakeries, the number of Chinese-Mexicans in the city reached its peak during the 1920s and 1930s. When the Mexican government attempted to expel all ethnic Chinese from the country, Barrio Chino exists primarily on two blocks along Dolores Street and one block east and west of the street. There was an expulsion of the ethnic Chinese in the 1930s, after that, the ethnic Chinese have mixed and dispersed with the local population. According to the government of Mexico City, about 3,000 families in the city have Chinese heritage, in many parts of the older sections of the city, there are “cafes de chinos”, which are eateries that serve Chinese and Mexican food. However, Barrio Chino remains the home for many of these Chinese-Mexicans. The buildings here are no different from the rest of the city, most of the shops and restaurants here had abundant Chinese-style decorations and altars, but statues of the Virgin of Guadalupe and San Judas Tadeo can be seen as well. Comunidad China de México, A. C. sponsors festivals and cultural events to preserve, by far the largest festival sponsored is the annual Chinese New Year’s celebration, which has as cosponsors organizations such as the borough of Cuauhtemoc and Coca-Cola. For the 2009 New Year’s festival, celebrated on 30 January of that year, there were various festivals, in addition to the traditional celebrations, the Mexico City government and the Chinese embassy held a number of events. The Chinese Embassy in Mexico had a gathering of its citizens who reside in the country to demonstrate Chinese cuisine, later there was a parade from the Angel of Independence to the Monument to the Revolution along Paseo de la Reforma. The Teatro del Pueblo had a Gala Night with Chinese opera, displays of martial arts, the Chinese Arch was unveiled on 16 February 2008 as part of an effort to convert the small neighborhood into a tourist attraction. The arch is located at the Santos Degollado Plaza, one block west of Dolores Street, the arch is made of steel-reinforced concrete, covered ceramic, granite and marble, and is decorated with two large statues of lions on each side
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La Merced (neighborhood)
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La Merced is a barrio or a neighborhood of Mexico City defined by its socioeconomics and history rather than by an official designation. In the latter 19th century, the La Merced market was established in the replacing the massive La Merced monastery which was almost completely destroyed in the 1860s. This market was established to centralize the marketing of foodstuffs for the city on one area, the first La Merced market was built in 1890 and then replaced by the current building in 1957, one of the largest traditional Mexican markets in Mexico City. In the 1980s, the function of this market was taken over by the newly constructed Centro de Abasto in the south of the city, with the barrio then going into economic. Although there have been efforts to revitalize the area and the La Merced market remains important, La Merced is a “barrio” an unofficial city division, located in the southeast corner of the historic center of Mexico City. It covers a territory of 106 city blocks or 121 hectares, accounting for about thirteen and it is part of the declared World Heritage site, with about forty percent of the area’s historic buildings. Officially, the area is divided two of the boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc and Venustiano Carranza. In addition, it is divided into “colonias” or official neighborhoods called Merced Balbuena, the neighborhood is defined by both its history and its social structure with most of formerly occupied by the massive La Merced monastery complex. The neighborhood is divided into three zones, the “antigua” section is the largest with 97 blocks and corresponds to the lands of the La Merced monastery and the first La Merced market. It is defined by the streets of San Pablo to the south, Corregiadora to the north, Circunvalación to the east, here the population is more stable although it has suffered a loss of population like the rest of the historic center. Its businesses have shifted from retail outlets to warehouses with the exception of the westernmost section, the western section is almost entirely commercial with few residences. This area also has the largest number of street vendors, the San Pablo section was the former Teopan shrine. It is bordered by Fray Servando Teresa de Mier to the south, San Pablo to the north, Circunvalacion to the east and it itself subdivides into two areas. The southeast dominated by the San Lucas plaza and the other by two churches called San Pablo el Viejo and San Pablo el Joven, the last section is dominated by the current La Merced market, commonly referred to as “las naves” and belongs to the Venustiano Carranza borough. The barrio has been defined by both its socioeconomics and history, traditionally associated with retail and wholesale commerce, especially traditional Mexican foodstuffs. Its reliance on commerce done in families and influx of migrants has supported a social structure made up of social clusters within the barrio. As the area’s commerce provided ready employment in the 20th century and it has absorbed various Mexican indigenous peoples such as the Triquis, Mazahuas, Otomis, Mazatecos, Nahuas, Chinantecos and Purépechas. Foreign immigration has included Lebanese, Jewish, Spanish and Armenian from Europe, Asia, one notable establishment related to immigration in the area is Café Bagdad, which is popular among the Lebanese population, which comes to drink Middle Eastern style coffee
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Colonia Obrera
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Colonia Obrera is an administrative neighborhood of the borough of Cuauhtémoc in the center of Mexico City. It was established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and became home to many artisans, today, the area has a high crime rate but there have been efforts to revitalize it. The neighborhood is bounded by Chimalpopoca Street to the north, Eje Central to the west, San Antonio Abad to the east and Eje Tres Contreras to the south. In addition to the streets that define its borders, other major streets include the elongations of 5 de Febrero, Isabel la Catolica, major east-west roads include Boturini, Manuel J. Othon, Manuel Payno and Jose Maria Roa Barcenas. The project to create the neighborhood was announced in 1889, with the name of El Cuartelito. It was laid out and lots were sold before official authorization or municipal services were established, many of the lots created here were acquired by artisans. Efforts to make the legal and to install municipal services began around the same time. By 1920, the colonia had taken on its modern form, around this time was built the Santiago Galas building, which was the station for the FF. CC. Mexico Tlalpan rail line for many years, in the first decades of the 20th century, it was one of the most important neighborhoods as industrialization took hold in the city. During this time period, many artisans, semi-skilled and skilled labor were organizing into unions, in this neighborhood brothers Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón organized the Partido Liberal Mexicano. They also published a newspaper called Regeneración beginning in 1900, up until the 1980s, the northeast of this neighborhood had a number of sewing factories, especially near station San Antonio Abad. During the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a number of these were destroyed, one in particular, called “Topeka” was located on Manuel José Othón Street and was the scene of many deaths. About 150 bodies of workers had already pulled from the wreckage by other workers with their bare hands. The collapse of this exposed the deplorable conditions that many of these seamstresses were subject to. The building that collapsed, as well as others, were found to be decrepit. It came to be known that many of women had to work extended hours with little or no compensation. This event made the garment industry of the area a labor embarrassment, all that is left to remind of the factory is a small empty lot with a bronze statue of a woman sewing to commemorate the event. On the rest of the property, apartments have been built, the colonia is located in the borough of Cuauhtémoc, which has some of the highest crime rates in the city the same as Tepito, one of the notorious places for being unsafe
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Tepito
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Tepito is a barrio located in Colonia Morelos in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City bordered by Avenida del Trabajo, Paseo de la Reforma, Eje 1 and Eje 2. Most of the neighborhood is taken up by the tianguis or open-air market. Tepitos economy has been linked to tianguis or traditional open air markets since pre-Hispanic times, estimates of the areas population may vary from 38,000 to 120,000 residents, with an estimated 10,000 more who come in during the day to sell in the market. It also has been a lower-class neighborhood since pre-Hispanic times, which has known crime since the same period and it is famously known as the Barrio Bravo or fierce neighborhood. Most crimes here involve the counterfeiting of goods but it is robbery that gives the area its reputation, Tepito is home to a subculture that has attracted the attention of academics and artists. Art exhibitions have been based on Tepito and the area boasts a number of journals to which residents contribute. The name Tepito comes from the Nahuatl teocali-tepiton, meaning small temple or chapel, there is a folk etymology for the name as well. The frequency that the police had to use their whistles in the neighborhood became a sign of fear, of the resignation of authorities and the pride of the locals. Archeological finds indicate that this was an area in early Aztec times that lived by fishing. It was subdued by the Aztecs quickly, but its residents were barred from trading in the large nearby Tlatelolco market. It soon became a place to stay for those bringing goods into this market to sell, leading to the Aztec name Mecamalinco, similar to Aztec times, this area became filled with inns for caravans of donkeys and other transport bringing goods for the markets of Mexico City. At the same time, indigenous merchants who had lost their wealth and they were joined by caravan merchants who decided to stay. Tepito remained outside the city proper until well into the 19th century with life here relatively unchanged, more merchants came into the area as large informal markets were pushed out of the city center over the course of the colonial period and the early decades after Independence. In retaliation, the General ordered the neighborhood bombarded and razed, when the railroad was built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it took over the task of bringing goods to market, and the inns that sheltered merchant travelers became tenements. In 1901, the decision was made to close the El Volador market, El Volador was a baratillo or baratijo, a tianguis market for selling new goods at very low prices. This is the origin of Tepitos role as a baratillo, prior to this, most of the good sold here were used, especially used clothing and utensils. The Revolution saw the foundation of the influential Casa del Obrero Mundial, in the 1920s, many people from Jalisco and Guanajuato came here to escape the Cristero War and many settled in Tepito. Many were shoemakers, and this became known for shoes
