MEXICO 



3765 



MEXICO 



.EXICO, the southernmost country 

 of North America, excepting the small states 

 of Central America, is a great republic which, 

 because of its nearness to the United States, 

 has always been of great interest to the latter 

 country. "The Land of Mafiana," which means 

 "The Land of To-morrow," it is sometimes hu- 

 morously called ; for its people, indolent because 

 of the tropical climate, and listless because 

 of the misery and poverty which have been 

 their lot for many generations, show an uncon- 

 querable tendency to put off all progress and 

 effort "hasta mafiana" "until to-morrow." 

 Narrowing rapidly from north to south . and 

 curving toward the east, Mexico is in shape 

 somewhat like the old "horn of plenty." Two 

 great peninsulas jut out from the mainland 

 in the south Yucatan, which turns northward 

 and encloses a broad curve of the Gulf of 

 Mexico; in the northwest Lower California, 

 separated from the western coast of the main- 

 land by the Gulf of California. 



Its Position and Measurements. Mexico 

 stretches from latitude 15 to 33 north, thus 

 lying through half its length in the torrid zone, 

 and through the other half in the north tem- 

 perate zone. Since its form tapers sharply, the 

 area of the northern or temperate portion is 

 the greater, yet Mexico is commonly regarded 

 as a tropical country. On the north California, 

 Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are its neigh- 

 bors, the last-named state being separated from 

 it by the famous Rio Grande, which forms over 



1,100 of the 1,833 miles of the northern bound- 

 ary line of the country. To the east are the 

 Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the 

 south British Honduras, Guatemala and the 

 Pacific Ocean, while the whole western bound- 

 ary is formed by 

 the Pacific Ocean 

 and its long, nar- 

 r o w a r m t h e 

 Gulf of Califor- 

 nia. 



The border line 

 with the United 

 States marks its 

 greatest east and 

 west breadth, and 

 the Isthmus of 

 Tehuantepec, 134 

 miles across, is its 

 narrowest point. 

 Its great e s t 

 length, from northwest to southeast, is about 

 1,900 miles, and its total area is 767,055 square 

 miles. It is thus about three times as large as 

 Texas, and a little larger than the Canadian 

 provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick, or than the whole north-central di- 

 vision of the United States. Among the nations 

 of the Western hemisphere four Canada, the 

 United States, Brazil and Argentina surpass it 

 in size, but only the United States and Brazil 

 have a greater population (see population sta- 

 tistics, under subtitle below). 



LOCATION MAP 



The People of Mexico 



What Is a "Mexican?" Mexico had in 1910 

 a population of about 15,112,600 people; an 

 accurate census has never been taken because of 

 the superstitious fears of the people. When a 

 census taker appears they conceal from him as 

 many facts as possible, thinking that he may 

 do them harm in some way at the very least 

 make them pay heavier taxes. The people are 

 for the most part very ignorant; this is not 

 strange when it is considered that out of the 



whole population only nineteen per cent may 

 be classed as pure whites, while the remaining 

 eighty-one per cent are Indians or of mixed 

 Indian and white blood. The typical Mexican, 

 then, is quite sure to have Indian blood in his 

 veins and to have inherited with it most of 

 the superstitions, the customs and the vices 

 which his Indian ancestors possessed four cen- 

 turies ago, before the Spanish conquest. See 

 subtitle, Government and History. 



