Mexicans

Mexicans
Mexicanos

File:Octavio Paz.gif File:Marco rito.jpg File:María Félix.jpgFile:Jorge Negrete.gif Pictured: Emiliano Zapata, Octavio Paz, Benito Juárez, Porfirio Diaz, Moctezuma II, Marco Rito-Palomares, María Félix, Carlos Fuentes, Jorge Negrete
Total population
≈120,000,000
Regions with significant populations
Mexico 111,211,789 United States 9,900,000 Canada 36,225 Spain 14,399 Guatemala 11,481 Bolivia 9,377 Germany 8,848 Argentina 6,750 United Kingdom 5,125
Languages
Spanish, English and 62 indigenous linguistic groups including Amerindian languages which aren't within the Mexican Republic.

Mexican people constitute the national and ethnic group native to the country Mexico. Mexican nationality is relatively young, stemming back only to 1821 when Mexico achieved independence of the Spanish empire, and it consists of many, separate regional and ethnic groups such as the various indigenous peoples and European immigrants. The majority of Mexicans are Mestizos which makes up the core of the Mexican cultural identity.

The most spoken language by Mexicans is Mexican Spanish, but many also speak languages from 68 different indigenous linguistic groups and other languages brought to Mexico by recent immigration or learned by Mexican immigrants residing in other nations. The majority of Mexicans live in Mexico, but there is a sizable diaspora, especially in the United States.

History

The Mexican people have varied origins and an identity that has evolved with the succession of conquests among Amerindian groups and by Europeans. The area that is now modern-day Mexico has cradled many predecessor civilizations, going back as far as the Olmec which influenced the latter civilizations of Teotihuacan (200 B.C. to 700 A.D.) and the much debated Toltec people who flourished around the 10th and 12th centuries A.D., and ending with the last great indigenous civilization before the Spanish Conquest, the Aztecs (March 13, 1325 to August 13, 1521). The Nahuatl language was a common tongue in the region of modern Central Mexico during the Aztec Empire, but after the arrival of Europeans the common language of the region became Spanish.

After the Conquest of Mexico, the Spanish re-administered the former Aztec empire and expanded their own empire beyond the former boundaries of the Aztec, adding more territory to the Mexican sphere of influence which remained under the Spanish Crown for 300 years. Cultural diffusion and intermixing among the Amerindian populations with the European created the modern Mexican identity which is a conglomerate of regional indigenous and European cultures which evolved into a national culture shortly after the Mexican War of Independence and was more defined after the Mexican Revolution when the Constitution of 1917 officially established Mexico as a pluricultural nation founded on it's indigenous roots.

Definitions

Mexicano (Mexican) is derived from the word Mexica which is what the Aztec called themselves. The term Mexicano as a word to describe the different peoples of the region of Mexico as a single group emerged in the 16th century. In that time the term did not apply to a nationality nor to the geographical limits of the modern Mexican Republic. The term was used for the first time in the first document printed in Barcelona in 1566 which documented the expedition which launched from the port in Acapulco to find the best route which would favor a return journey from the Philippines to New Spain. The document stated: "el venturoso descubrimiento que los Mexicanos han hecho" (the adventurous discovery that the Mexicans have made). Those 'Mexicans' referred to Criollos, mestizos and Amerindians alluding to a plurality of persons who participated for a common end: the conquest of the Philippines in 1565. (Gómez M., et al. 56)

Race and Ethnicity

Judging Mexicans based on racial classification is never precise or accurate due to the various standards of measurement employed in classification which are often based on ambiguous standards and definitions. The percentages will inevitably overlap when comparing different sources because through some standards of classification certain individuals can classify in one group while in another study with different criteria they would be classified under another group.

We do know certain things when we employ interdisciplinary standards ranging from historical accounts to genetic studies. The Mexican National Institute of Genomic Medicine recently conducted research into mapping certain genetic markers that are found in the Mexican population. Their studies, along with other sources, have revealed that Mexicans are indeed racially diverse with about 80%-90% being Mestizos and having approximately even admixture of Native American and European heritage. Some researchers also believe that there are no "pure races" among the ethnically Mexican population, that is to say, among Mexicans who are Mexican by heredity excluding recent immigrants who have been naturalized as Mexican citizens.

Indigenous

Various estimates claim between 12%-30% of Mexicans are indigenous peoples (indígenas). To be classified as indigenous under the Mexican government's standards they use a political, linguistic and cultural criteria to judge whether or not the indigenous people still retain their traditional cultures and languages as well as their political autonomy within the Mexican national territory.

The 2nd Article of the Mexican constitution gives the criterion for the classification of indigenous people:

"The Mexican nation is one and indivisible. The nation has a multicultural composition originally based on its indigenous peoples who are those who descend from the populations that inhabited the territory of the present nation at the beginning of the colonization and who still retain their own social, economic, cultural and political identity or part thereof. The awareness of their indigenous identity should be the fundamental criterion for determining to whom the provision of indigenous peoples applies. Those communities that are members of an indigenous people are those who form a social, economic and cultural unit of development and is established in a certain territory and who recognize their own authorities in accordance with their own customs."

When this strictly cultural/political method of classification is used the number of people classified as indigenous significantly drops to around 12% or less, but when racial/genetic factors are included and cultural affiliation is disregarded, as it's often done by foreign observers and researchers, the number dramatically increases to around 30%, more or less. Despite the high esteem in which the indigenous people are held in the mainstream consensus, and their importance to the foundation of Mexicans's identity, the indigenous peoples are still the most marginalized group which has resulted in various revolts such as the Zapatista Rebellion and the Caste War of Yucatán.

Whites

It is estimated that 9% - 16% or more of the Mexican population is white/criollo. Most white Mexicans are of Spanish ancestry, with minorities of French, Italian, and German, among others. There is also a sizable amount of Arab Mexicans (and other Middle Easterners) who arrived in Mexico, like Turks and Armenians. Altogether, Arab Mexicans constitute about 1.1% of the Mexican population.

Afro-Mexicans

About 0.1% (or 100,000) Mexicans are black. These are mostly the descendants of slaves brought by the Spanish. There are still large black communities in states like Guerrero and Veracruz.

East Asians

East Asians make up less than 1% of the population. Many are of Korean and Japanese descent. Others are of Filipino and Chinese descent due to the Acapulco-Manila trade where the Spaniards imported people from East Asia in Mexico.

Languages

Main article: Languages of Mexico

See also: Mexican Spanish

Mexico is home to some of the worlds oldest writing systems such as Mayan Script. Maya writing uses logograms complemented by a set of alphabetical or syllabic glyphs and characters, similar in function to modern Japanese writing.

Mexicans are linguistically diverse, with many speaking European languages as well as various Indigenous Mexican Languages. Spanish is spoken by approximately 92.17% of Mexicans as their first language making them the largest Spanish speaking group in the world followed by Colombia, Argentina and the United States. Although the great majority speak Spanish de facto the second most populous language among Mexicans is English due to the regional proximity of the United States which calls for a bilingual relationship in order to conduct business and trade as well as the migration of Mexicans into that country who adopt it as a second language.

Mexican Spanish is distinct in dialect, tone and syntax to the Peninsular Spanish spoken in Spain. It contains a large amount of loan words from indigenous languages, mostly from the Nahuatl language such as: "chocolate," "tomate," "mesquite," "chili," and "coyote".

Mexico has no official de jure language, but as of 2003 it recognizes 62 indigenous Amerindian languages as "national languages" along with Spanish which are protected under Mexican National law giving indigenous peoples the entitlement to request public services and documents in their native languages. The law also includes other Amerindian languages regardless of origin, that is, it includes the Amerindian languages of other ethnic groups that are non-native to the Mexican national territory. As such, Mexico's National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the language of the Kickapoo who immigrated from the United States, and recognizes the languages of Guatemalan Amerindian refugees. The most numerous indigenous language spoken by Mexicans is Nahuatl which is spoken by 1.7% of the population in Mexico over the age of 5. Approximately 6,044,547 Mexicans (7.1%) speak an indigenous language according to the 2000 Census in Mexico. There are also Mexicans living abroad which speak indigenous languages mostly in the United States but their number is unknown.

See also

• List of Mexicans
• Culture of Mexico
• History of Mexico
• Mexican literature
• Mexican nobility
• Indigenous Mexican
• Mestizo
• White Mexican
• Mexican American
• Anti-Mexican sentiment

Works cited

Gómez M., et al. Historia de México: Texto de Consulta Para Educación Media Superior. Mexico: Limusa, 2006.