San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí City, it is located in North-Central Mexico. It is bordered by 8 other Mexican states, making it the state with the most borders with other neighboring states; the northern borders are with Nuevo Coahuila. In addition to the capital city, the state's largest cities include Ciudad Valles, Matehuala and Tamazunchale. In pre-Columbian times the territory now occupied by the state of San Luis Potosí contained the cultural areas of Mesoamerica and Aridoamerica, its northern and western-central areas were inhabited by the Chichimeca tribes. These indigenous groups were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Although most natives died during the Spanish settlements, huasteco groups still live, along with pame and náhuatl although their numbers are small. In 1592, gold and silver deposits were discovered.
Spanish miners established the first town known as “San Luis de Mezquitique”, modern location of the capital San Luis Potosí. This led to the first mayor being appointed, Juan de Oñate; the State was given the name "San Luis Rey", King Saint Louis, in honor of Louis IX of France, "Potosí" because the wealth of the state compared to the rich silver mines in Potosí, Bolivia. Settlers hoped of rivaling the Bolivian mine wealth, but this was never accomplished. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Franciscans and Jesuits arrived in the area and settled began to build churches and buildings, many of which are still standing and have been turned into museums and universities. In mid-1821, after the Independence of Mexico, General Jose Antonio Echavarri intimidated and threatened the Mayor and the City Council to surrender the city of San Luis to the Army of the Three Guarantees of Agustín de Iturbide, who at the time was emperor of Mexico, they submitted to his demand, as there was no way to resist, thus proclamation of Independence of San Luis Potosí was declared.
The first Constitution of San Luis Potosí was written on October 16, 1826, this was in effect until 1835 when Congress proclaimed it centralist. At this point, local legislatures disappeared and state governors were appointed by the central government; this situation lasted until the promulgation of the 1857 Constitution. The state participation in the Mexican–American War in the years of 1846-1847 gave it the name "San Luis de la Patria", Saint Louis of the Motherland, for having contributed important leaders and ideas during the struggle with the United States. During the Reform War, state involvement was prominent, during the French Intervention in 1863, the city of San Luis Potosí became the capital of the country under the order of President Benito Juárez. During the regime of Maximilian, San Luis became an important location; the city was held by the Imperialists until late 1866. In that year the telegraph line was opened between San Luis Potosí and Mexico City, which opened up communication lines and helped begin the industrialization of the state.
The state lies on the Mexican Plateau, with the exception of the eastern part of the state, where the tableland breaks down into the tropical valley of the Tampaon River. The surface of the plateau is comparatively level, with some low mountainous wooded ridges; the Sierra Madre Oriental runs north and south through the state, separates the Mexican Plateau from the Gulf Coastal Plain to the east. The Sierra Madre Oriental is home to the Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests; the easternmost portion of the state lies on the Gulf Coastal Plain, covered by the Veracruz moist forests. The eastern part is included in the region referred to as "La Huasteca"; the Tampaón river and its tributaries drain the southeastern portion of the state. The northern and central portion of the state, including the capital, lie on an interior drainage basin which does not drain to the sea; the mean elevation is about 6,000 ft ensuring a temperate climate for the most part. The state lies within the arid zone of the north, while the southern half receiving a more liberal rainfall through the influence of the Nortes, which deliver significant amounts of rain.
The rainfall, however, is uncertain at the western and northern regions, much of the state does not have major rivers. The soil is fertile and in favorable seasons large crops of wheat, maize and cotton are grown on the uplands. In the low tropical valleys, coffee, tobacco and fruit are staple products. Stockraising is an important industry and hides and wool are exported. Fine cabinet and construction woods are made and exported to a limited extent. Potosí was' believed' to have enough gold to build a bridge between Spain. San Luis Potosí was therefore named after it. At one time San Luis Potosí ranked among the leading mining provinces of Mexico, but the revolts following independence resulted in a great decline in that industry; the area around Real de Catorce has some of the richest silver mines in the country. Other well-known silver min
State of Mexico
The State of Mexico is one of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is the most populous, as well as the most densely populated state, it is divided into 125 municipalities and its capital city is Toluca de Lerdo. The State of Mexico is abbreviated to "Edomex" from Estado de México in Spanish, to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is located in South-Central Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Querétaro and Hidalgo to the north and Guerrero to the south, Michoacán to the west and Puebla to the east, surrounds on three sides Mexico City; the state's origins are in the territory of the Aztec Empire, which remained a political division of New Spain during the Spanish colonial period. After gaining independence, Mexico City was chosen as the capital of the new nation. Years parts of the state were broken off to form the states of Hidalgo and Morelos; these territorial separations have left the state with the size and shape it has today, with the Toluca Valley to the west of Mexico City and a panhandle that extends around the north and east of this entity.
The state name is México according to the 1917 Constitution of the United Mexican States, but to distinguish it from both the city and the country it is most called Estado de México. The demonym used to refer to people and things from the state is mexiquense, distinct from mexicano, which describes the people or things from the country as a whole. Mēxihco was the Nahuatl name for the Valley of Mexico where the cities of the Mexica were located; as such, the district that became Mexico City was properly known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan in the years shortly before and after Spanish conquest. After the Spanish Conquest, the term México came to be used for Tenochtitlan/Mexico City and all the pre-conquest lands it controlled, including several other aforementioned Mexican states incorporated in the boundaries of the Mexico state. There are two possible origins for the name “Mexico.” The first is that it derives from xictla to mean from the navel of the moon. This comes from the old Aztec idea that the craters on the moon form a rabbit figure with one crater imitating a navel.
The other possible origin is that it is derived from “Mextictli” an alternate name for the god Huitzilopochtli. Anáhuac was the proper term for all territories dominated by the Aztec Empire, from Cem Anáhuac, "the entire earth" or "surrounded by waters" e.g. the waters of Lake Texcoco which were considered to be the center of the Aztec world, as such was proposed as an early name for the entire nation of Mexico prior to independence, to distinguish it from the administrative division of New Spain that became the State of Mexico. The earliest evidence of human habitation in current territory of the state is a quartz scraper and obsidian blade found in the Tlapacoya area, an island in the former Lake Chalco, they are dated to the Pleistocene era. The first people were hunter-gatherers. Stone age implements have been found all over the territory from mammoth bones, to stone tools to human remains. Most have been found in the areas of Los Reyes Acozac, Tepexpan, San Francisco Mazapa, El Risco and Tequixquiac.
Between 20,000 and 5000 BCE, the people here went from hunting and gathering to sedentary villages with farming and domesticated animals. The main crop was corn, stone tools for the grinding of this grain become common. Crops include beans, chili peppers and squash grown near established villages. Evidence of ceramics appears around 2500 BCE with the earliest artifacts of these appearing in Tlapacoya, Malinalco and Tlatilco. In prehistoric State of Mexico, the Tepexpan Man is an important finding for Mexican and foreign anthropologists; some scholars attribute an age of 11 thousand years, others 8 thousand, some have suggested 5 thousand years old. This individual was identified as a male, but recent research confirms a female identity, although this is still a subject of discussion. Sacrum bone found in Tequixquiac is considered a work of prehistoric art; these people were thought to be nomadic, hunting large animals such as mammoths and gathering fruits as evidenced by archaeological evidence found at the site.
One of the most salient discoveries of primitive art in America was found in here, called the Tequixquiac Bone, which had no known purpose, but reflected the ideological sense of the artist who carved the piece of bone from a camelid around 22,000 years BCE. The first native settlers of Tequixquiac were the Aztecs and Otomi, who decided to settle here permanently for the abundance of rivers and springs, they were engaged in agriculture and the breeding of domestic animals. The earliest major civilization of the state is Teotihuacan, with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon being built between 100 BCE and 100 CE. Between 800 and 900 CE, the Matlatzincas established their dominion with Teotenango as capital; this city is walled with plazas, temples, living quarters and a Mesoamerican ball game court. In the 15th century, the Aztecs conquered the Toluca and Chalco valleys to the west and east of the Valley of Mexico respectively. Part of the Toluca Valley was held by the Purépechas as well. Other dominions during the pre-Hispanic period include that of the Chichimecas in Tenayuca and of the Acolhuas in Huexotla
San Jerónimo Acazulco
San Jerónimo Acazulco is a town and community in the municipality of Ocoyoacac, Mexico State, Mexico. Once an agricultural community, the economy of the ejido is now based on tourist commerce, it is within La Marquesa National Park. The town is an indigenous community of the Otomi people, most of the elderly still speak the Acazulco Otomi dialect of the Otomi language. In 2010 census there are 4,827 inhabitants; the community has an active cargo system of religious fiestas, with leaders of its religious fraternities taking turns putting on public celebrations throughout the year
Protestantism
Protestantism is the second largest form of Christianity with collectively between 800 million and more than 900 million adherents worldwide or nearly 40% of all Christians. It originated with the 16th century Reformation, a movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy and sacraments, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, they emphasize the priesthood of all believers, justification by faith alone rather than by good works, the highest authority of the Bible alone in faith and morals. The "five solae" summarise basic theological differences in opposition to the Roman Catholic Church. Protestantism is popularly considered to have begun in Germany in 1517 when Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses as a reaction against abuses in the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church, which purported to offer remission of sin to their purchasers.
However, the term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks and attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Jan Hus—only Luther succeeded in sparking a wider and modern movement. In the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Sweden, Latvia and Iceland. Reformed denominations spread in Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and France by reformers such as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, John Knox; the political separation of the Church of England from the pope under King Henry VIII began Anglicanism, bringing England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants have developed their own culture, with major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, many other fields. Protestantism is diverse, being more divided theologically and ecclesiastically than either the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, or Oriental Orthodoxy.
Without structural unity or central human authority, Protestants developed the concept of an invisible church, in contrast to the Roman Catholic view of the Catholic Church as the visible one true Church founded by Jesus Christ. Some denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of Protestant denominational families: Adventists, Anglicans, Reformed, Lutherans and Pentecostals. Nondenominational, charismatic and other churches are on the rise, constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Proponents of the branch theory consider Protestantism one of the three major divisions of Christendom, together with the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodoxy. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, who issued a protest against the edict of the Diet of Speyer, were the first individuals to be called Protestants; the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier.
The term protestant, though purely political in nature acquired a broader sense, referring to a member of any Western church which subscribed to the main Protestant principles. However, it is misused to mean any church outside the Roman and Eastern Orthodox communions. Protestantism as a general term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i.e. Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. During the Reformation, the term protestant was hardly used outside of German politics. People who were involved in the religious movement used the word evangelical. For further details, see the section below. Protestant became a general term, meaning any adherent of the Reformation in the German-speaking area, it was somewhat taken up by Lutherans though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ. French and Swiss Protestants instead preferred the word reformed, which became a popular and alternative name for Calvinists.
The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was used for those involved in the religious movement in the German-speaking area beginning in 1517. Nowadays, evangelical is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and United Protestant traditions in Europe, those with strong ties to them. Above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the Evangelical Church in Germany. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Calvinist, or a United Protestant; the German word evangelisch means Protestant, is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical refers to evangelical Protestant churches, therefore to a certain part of Protestantism rather than to Protestantism as a whole; the English word traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, was brought to the United States. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term evangelical, derived from euangelion, a Greek word meaning "good news", i.e. "gospel".
The followers of
Tepanec
The Tepanecs or Tepaneca are a Mesoamerican people who arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the late 12th or early 13th centuries. The Tepanec were a sister culture of the Aztecs as well as the Acolhua and others—these tribes spoke the Nahuatl language and shared the same general pantheon, with local and tribal variations; the name "Tepanecas" is a derivative term, corresponding to their original mythical city, Tepanohuayan known as Tepano. Ideographically it is represented as a stone, their conquered territories received the name Tepanecapan. Reputedly welcomed to the Valley of Mexico by the semi-legendary Chichimec ruler Xolotl, the Tepanecs settled on the west shores of Lake Texcoco. Under their tlatoani, the Tepanec took over Azcapotzalco from the indigenous inhabitants. In the early 14th century, Tezozomoc brought the Tepanec to the height of their power. Native sources say that Tezozomoc lived to the age of over 100 and was legendary for his generalship and statesmanship; the death of Tezozomoc in 1426 brought his sons Tayatzin and Maxtla to the throne, with Maxtla most poisoning Tayatzin.
In 1428, Maxtla was overthrown by the nascent Aztec Triple Alliance, which included the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan and the Acolhua of Texcoco, as well as Maxtla's fellow Tepanecs of Tlacopan. With the rise of the Aztec empire, Tlacopan became the predominant Tepanec city, although both Tenochtitlan and Texcoco eclipsed Tlacopan in size and prestige. According to the tradition recompiled by several historians, the Tepanec people constituted one of the seven tribes that started the migration from Chicomoztoc. To the Tepaneca tribe belonged, by their military might, one of the best zones where they founded Azcapotzalco main Altepetl of their territory, known as Tepanecapan; when the Spaniard conquistadores arrived to the Valley of Mexico, the Tepaneca tribe was subject to the Triple Alliance, led by Tenochtitlan, not able to remain as an ethnic group. We know of their existence thanks to references in stories derived from the prehispanic codex traditions, which were compiled by novohispanic historians
Cultigen
A cultigen is a plant, deliberately altered or selected by humans. These man-made or anthropogenic plants are, for the most part, plants with commercial value used in horticulture, agriculture or forestry; because cultigens are defined by their mode of origin and not by where they are growing, plants meeting this definition remain cultigens whether they are naturalised in the wild, deliberately planted in the wild, or growing in cultivation. Cultigens arise in the following ways: selections of variants from the wild or cultivation including vegetative sports. Cultigens may be named in any of a number of ways; the traditional method of scientific naming is under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae and plants, many of the most important cultigens, like maize and banana, are so named. Although it is in order to give a cultigen a botanical name, in any rank desired, now or at any other time, these days it is more common for cultigens to be given names in accordance with the principles and recommendations laid down in the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants which provides for the names of cultigens in three classification categories, the cultivar, the Group, the grex.
From that viewpoint it may be said that there is a separate discipline of cultivated plant taxonomy, which forms one of the ways to look at cultigens. The ICNCP does not recognize the use of trade designations and other marketing devices as scientifically acceptable names, but does provide advice on how they should be presented. Not all cultigens have been given names according to the Cultivated Plant Code. Apart from ancient cultigens like those mentioned above there may be occasional anthropogenic plants such as those that are the result of breeding and tissue grafting that are of no commercial value and have therefore not been given names according to the ICNCP. A cultigen is a plant whose origin or selection is due to intentional human activity. Interest in the distinction between wild and cultivated plants dates back to antiquity. Botanical historian Alan Morton notes that wild and cultivated plants were of intense interest to the ancient Greek botanists and that the distinction was discussed in some detail by Theophrastus the "Father of Botany".
Theophrastus was a pupil of both Plato and Aristotle and succeeded the latter as head of the Peripatetic School of Philosophy at the Lyceum in Athens. Theophrastus accepted the view that it was human action, not divine intervention, that produced cultivated plants from wild plants and he "had an inkling of the limits of culturally induced changes and of the importance of genetic constitution", he noted that cultivated varieties of fruit trees would degenerate if cultivated from seed. The word cultigen was coined in 1918 by Liberty Hyde Bailey an American horticulturist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science, he was aware of the need for special categories for those cultivated plants that had arisen by intentional human activity and which would not fit neatly into the Linnaean hierarchical classification of ranks used by the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature. In his 1918 paper Bailey noted that for anyone preparing a descriptive account of the cultivated plants of a country it would be clear that there are two gentes or kinds of plants.
Firstly, those that are of known origin or nativity "of known habitat". These he referred to as indigens; the other kind was: "... a domesticated group of which the origin may be unknown or indefinite, which has such characters as to separate it from known indigens, and, not represented by any type specimen or exact description, having therefore no clear taxonomic beginning." He called this second kind of plant a cultigen, the word derived from the conflation of the Latin cultus – cultivated, gens – kind. In 1923 Bailey extended his original discussion emphasising that he was dealing with plants at the rank of species and he referred to indigens as: "those that are discovered in the wild" and cultigens as plants that: "arise in some way under the hand of man" He defined a cultigen as: "a species, or its equivalent, that has appeared under domestication" Bailey soon altered his 1923 definition of cultigen when, in 1924, he gave a new definition in the Glossary of his Manual of Cultivated Plants as: " Plant or group known only in cultivation.
This definition of the cultigen permits the recognition of cultivars, unlike the 1923 definition which restricts the idea of the cultigen to plants at the rank of species. In publications of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, the idea of the cultigen having the rank of species returned: both of these publications indicate that the terms cultigen and cultivar are no
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in North America. It extends from central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and northern Costa Rica, within this region pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In the 16th century, European diseases like smallpox and measles caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, it is one of five areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently, the second in the Americas along with Norte Chico in present-day Peru, in the northern coastal region. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. Beginning as early as 7000 BCE, the domestication of cacao, beans, avocado, vanilla and chili, as well as the turkey and dog, caused a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribal grouping to the organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent Formative period and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition, a vigesimal numeric system, a complex calendric system, a tradition of ball playing, a distinct architectural style, were diffused through the area.
In this period, villages began to become stratified and develop into chiefdoms with the development of large ceremonial centers, interconnected by a network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods, such as obsidian, cacao, Spondylus shells and ceramics. While Mesoamerican civilization did know of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these technologies became culturally important. Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf Coast of Mexico and extended inland and southwards across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas and Oaxaca laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica along the Pacific coast; this formative period saw the spread of distinct religious and symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes. In the subsequent Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya, with the rise of centers such as El Mirador and Tikal, the Zapotec at Monte Albán.
During this period, the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec cultures, the Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Maya hieroglyphic script. Mesoamerica is one of only three regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed. In Central Mexico, the height of the Classic period saw the ascendancy of the city of Teotihuacan, which formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area and northward. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 AD, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula, ensued. At this time during the Epi-Classic period, the Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoamerica from the North, became politically and culturally dominant in central Mexico, as they displaced speakers of Oto-Manguean languages. During the early post-Classic period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, Oaxaca by the Mixtec, the lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán.
Towards the end of the post-Classic period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica. The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Over the next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were subjected to Spanish colonial rule. Aspects of the Mesoamerican cultural heritage still survive among the indigenous peoples who inhabit Mesoamerica, many of whom continue to speak their ancestral languages, maintain many practices harking back to their Mesoamerican roots; the term Mesoamerica means "middle America" in Greek. Middle America refers to a larger area in the Americas, but it has previously been used more narrowly to refer to Mesoamerica. An example is the title of the 16 volumes of The Handbook of Middle American Indians. "Mesoamerica" is broadly defined as the area, home to the Mesoamerican civilization, which comprises a group of peoples with close cultural and historical ties. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as the civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico.
The term was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff, who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columbian cultures within the region that included southern Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, western Honduras, the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica. In the tradition of cultural history, the prevalent archaeological theory of the early to middle 20th century, Kirchhoff defined this zone as a cultural area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction. Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area, the term is now integrated in the standard terminology of pre-Columbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica, which refer to northern Mexico and the western United States have not entered into widespread usage; some of the significant cultural traits defining the Mesoamerican cultural tradition are: sedentism based on maize agricultu
