According to legend, the Aztecs were instructed by their god to leave their homes—in a mythical land called Aztlán, possibly in what is now northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States—in search of a promised land to be marked by a bird perched on a cactus devouring a reptile. In this land, it was foretold that they would establish the most powerful empire in Mesoamerica. Following centuries of wandering, they arrived at Lake Texcoco, where, on a small island in the middle of the lake, they saw an eagle on a cactus gobbling a snake, and here their arduous pilgrimage concluded. Archaeologists estimate that this moment of divine revelation occurred around 1325, when the Aztec founded upon the island the magnificent ancient city of Tenochtitlán, which scholars estimate was home to more than 200,000 residents by the time the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century.
After Spanish conquest and colonization in the 16th century, efforts by the Spanish to control flooding led to most of the lake being drained. Today the basin is almost completely occupied by México City, the capital of Mexico. The ceremonial center of the ancient city on the lake still holds a place of prominence as the Zócalo, or main square, of México City. The promise of a powerful empire by the Aztec god, it would appear, was fulfilled; and so it is that the eagle perched on a cactus consuming a snake became an essential element of Mexico’s national shield and flag.
I don’t think that high-ranking government officials are inherently corrupt, even though we have had cases of corruption in this presidency. I think most of the people who are involved in the government at high levels, even within México City and the federal government, are inherently looking out for the best interest of the country.
Ilan Katz Mayo, Partner, Katz & Gudiño, S.C.
RICH NATIVE HISTORY
The Aztec empire was actually the last of pre-Columbian Mexico’s great native civilizations. Its first known people were the Olmec, who first settled near Veracruz and Tabasco on the Gulf Coast and are remembered principally for the giant sculptures of heads that they carved from local stone. The Olmec lasted until about 100 BC The Maya, considered the most intellectually advanced of America’s pre-Columbian civilizations, thrived from 250 to 900 AD and dispersed across an area that covers southeastern Mexico and much of Central America. They developed a writing system and were so advanced in mathematics and astronomy that their calendar was the world’s most accurate until this century. They could predict solar and lunar eclipses and created large cities to serve nearby farming towns. Artisans inscribed altars with fantastical figures, both divine and human, as well as Maya history and important dates. In the city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico’s Yucatá, fantastic remains of beautifully preserved Maya construction may be found.
ANCIENT AND MODERN JUXTAPOSE
The final and most storied of the powerful native civilizations of Mexico were the Aztecs, who settled in the Valley of Mexico, where México City is today. They became prominent around 1427 by joining forces with a group of city–states known as the Triple Alliance. Tenochtitlán, the home of the Mexica/Aztec people; Texcoco, where the Acolhua lived; and Tlacopan, the city ruled by the Tepaneca, joined forces in an unprecedented political and military partnership, conquering less-powerful groups until their empire reached from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. At their zenith, the Aztec ruled five million people.
Like their peers and predecessors, the Aztec built incredible structures and cities, including Tenochtitlán. Spanish conquistadors razed much of the city in the 16th century and built what is today México City atop the site. However, archaeologists have unearthed the complex of the Templo Mayor, or Great Temple, which was the largest pyramid of Tenochtitlán. Hidden inside this compound in the heart of modern México City, archaeologists found gold ornaments, stone knives, remains of human children and eagles—apparently sacrificed— and a tunnel to a circular platform where Aztec rulers are believed to have been cremated.
CONQUEST AND EXTINCTION
In 1519, a Spanish explorer named Hernán Cortés landed at Veracruz. The Aztec king, Moctezuma II, also known as Montezuma II, believed that Cortés was the white serpent god Quetzalcoatl, and Moctezuma asked Cortés to visit Tenochtitlán. Moctezu ma’s goodwill turned tragic for the Aztecs: Cortés formed alliances with Moctezuma’s enemies as he traveled to the capital city. In May of 1521, Cortés and his new allies attacked the Aztecs, ultimately conquering them. He formed a colony in the region, which he named Nueva España. Within 50 years, Spain ruled most of the former Aztec empire and had taken many of the native residents into slavery. The Aztec might have survived but for common European diseases carried by the Spaniards, against which the native people had no immunity. European disease spread through the population and was responsible for the deaths of approximately 24 million people between 1521 and 1605.
Catholicism arrived in 1523 with the missionaries who built monasteries and set about converting natives to the Catholic faith. Over the next two-and-a-half centuries, the Catholic Church grew increasingly influential. Concerned that the church was gaining too much power, King Carlos III of Spain forced the Jesuits to leave Nueva España in 1767. In a nation that by this time had embraced Catholicism, the king’s action proved disruptive and unpopular. In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Spain, weakening the economy and political structure of the country and diminishing Spain’s influence in the area. Tensions in the colony exploded into revolution, and Spanish rule of Nueva España permanently ended in 1821.
In the post-Spain epoch, Mexico was ruled for 30 years by General Antonio López de Santa Anna, whose presidency suffered both the revolt of Texas and the Mexican-American War of 1846. Benito Juárez became president in 1858 and presided over a period of economic and social turmoil. Hoping to break the Catholic Church’s stronghold, he separated church and state, abolished monastic orders, and nationalized church property that he had intended for the peasants but instead allowed to be scooped up by wealthy elites. By 1861, the country was insolvent, so Juárez defaulted on foreign loans. This led to occupation and eventual overthrow of the government by the French, though French rule only endured until 1867.
Subsequently, Mexico commenced a period of continual self-rule under a series of presidents, most of whom were elected by a democratic process that continues today. While the nation’s economy improved, little changed for Mexico’s poor, who in 1910 remained in virtual serfdom with 95 percent of rural families landless, a condition that led to a decade-long conflict known as the Mexican Revolution. Eventually the Constitution of 1917 architected an end to 400 years of feudalism, but in the process a different sort of servitude was ushered in with the ascension to power of what would become the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which controlled Mexico’s government from 1929 through 1997.
Peace reigned and the following landmark reforms were accomplished under PRI: rural schools and hydroelectric power facilities constructed, labor unions strengthened, irrigation projects developed, petroleum industry nationalized, steps taken to combat air pollution, develop public green spaces, and reinvigorate the oil industry. However, massive foreign debt was incurred, the peso was devalued, and citizens grew increasingly discontented with PRI domination. Finally, in 1996 the governing PRI and principal opposition parties signed landmark reform to eliminate PRI’s control of election procedures and vote counting, limit campaign spending, and add 17 constitutional amendments.
In the 1997 elections, two allied PRI opposition parties gained control of the lower house of Mexico’s congress, and three years later, PAN candidate Vicente Fox won the presidency, ending more than seven decades of PRI supremacy and ushering the nation into true multiparty democracy.
THE EMPIRE TODAY
Mexico’s official name is the United Mexican States. It is the 14th-largest country in the world, with an area of nearly two million square kilometers (755,000 square miles), a region approximately equivalent to the whole of Western Europe. On its northern border lies the United States, while to the south are the Central American countries of Belize and Guatemala. The northern border with the United States is the second-longest international border in the world, at more than 3,200 kilometers (1,989 miles).
With a population expected to reach almost 130 million inhabitants by the end of 2017, according to the World Bank, Mexico is the world’s 10th-most populous nation. It has the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world as well as the second-highest number of Catholics after Brazil, with the population is growing at 1.24 percent annually. Most inhabitants (79 percent) live in urban areas, with approximately one-sixth of the population living in the Greater México City area. Average life expectancy in Mexico is 76.9 years, putting the nation 93rd among all countries.
POLITICAL CHECKS AND BALANCES
The nation’s structure as a federal republic with 31 states and the political capital of México City stems from the Constitution of 1917. Three branches comprise the federal government—the executive, a bicameral legislature, and the judiciary. The president is elected by simple majority popular vote for a six-year term and is supported by a cabinet of 18 secretaries and the Attorney General. The legislative branch, known as the Congress of the Union, is divided into the Senate, with 128 seats elected to six-year terms, and the Chamber of Deputies, with 500 representatives serving three-year terms. Eight national political parties are registered, although the four largest hold most elected posts at the federal and state levels.
In 2015, an independent candidate won a state governorship, a first for an independent in Mexico. Owing to the scope of the political parties, since 1997 no single party has held an absolute majority in either legislative chamber, a circumstance that has catalyzed the formation of alliances between parties. Three parties have traditionally dominated national and state politics—the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the prevailing political party for much of the 20th century; the National Action Party (PAN); and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Several smaller parties also regularly field candidates but must form alliances in government. Today, the PRD is in disarray, beset with defections, while the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the party of presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is on the rise.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DICHOTOMIES
Although Mexico now enjoys a fully democratic political system, economic and social progress is mixed. Growth, while positive, has slowed. Economic opportunity for the nation’s poor remains limited and there is a marked imbalance of wealth, which sometimes leads to regional uprisings and instability. Drug trafficking, which seems to be on the rise, continues to complicate the social divide and adds to corruption among the police and the judiciary, just another issue that threatens to increase the wealth gap in Mexico. Owing to alarming levels of organized crime, related violence, and rampant tax evasion, Mexico is ranked by the Sustainable Governance Indicators as having the most serious domestic security crisis among the 41 nations rated.
“We have some of the most archaic laws on earth, and that has permitted corruption to flourish,” observes Fernando de Ovando, Partner at Jones Day, a top ten international law firm, “but we are working on repairing that, and we are clever enough to find an answer without destroying the country.” Encouragingly, the nation has produced a generation of highly qualified policy makers and professionals educated at Ivy League universities as well as Mexico’s own increasingly competitive tertiary educational institutions. Meanwhile, Manuel Galicia R., the Founding Partner of Galicia Abogados, believes that many of Mexico’s problems are not exclusive to the country, but are born of external circumstances. “While we definitely are not overlooking our internal difficulties like debt or the rule of law, they are international problems. These issues don’t derive from the particular situation of Mexico.”
TOWARD EQUALITY
The new generation is working to address the various consequences of wealth disparity. Take, for instance, healthcare. Pablo Escandón Cusi, President & CEO of pharmaceutical distributor Grupo NADRO, reports that Mexico is on a path toward “universal health coverage, based on the notion that there is no better way to reduce social inequity than by improving the individual’s health.”
Education is another sector commanding the concern of today’s leaders. Despite education spending on par with comparable countries, Mexican students do not perform at comparable levels. “We need to work on basic competencies, like mathematics and language,” says Dr. Raúl Medina Mora, CTO of cloud technology company TEC360. The achievement gap may be attributable to unsound allocation of resources, rather than absolute spending levels, given that the education system has been in the grip of a teachers’ union that has come under fire for alleged embezzlement and absence of meritocracy within the profession. Jorge Eduardo Familiar, the President of philanthropic center CEMEFI, suggests yet another factor: “Education is not just something that happens at schools. I believe that the home is the main school.” He explains that the family is the basis of Mexican society and as such serves as the primary wellspring of learning.
NUISANCE NEIGHBOR
An unexpected cloud has appeared on the horizon with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has soured Mexico’s previously harmonious relationship with its northern neighbor. Trump ran on an anti-
immigrant platform, promising to build a wall along the Mexican border.In the first two months of his presidency, he began targeting undocumented immigrants, many of them Mexican—whose remittances back home represent 2 percent of Mexico’s GDP—more frequently for deportation. President Trump also promised to return jobs to the United States by taxing products manufactured in other countries and penalizing U.S. companies that build factories abroad, with Mexico a prime target. While it remains to be seen whether he will be able to deliver on campaign promises, the actions of Trump and his administration could portend tension and economic disruption for Mexico.
Yet the looming existential threat seems to have inspired the citizenry. “The people of Mexico want to overcome their problems. They want to get ahead, if not for themselves, then for their children,” asserts Regina Montes Senosiain, General Manager of Nima Local House Hotel in México City. Montes Senosiain champions Mexico’s culture, beloved social structure, and strong families as its greatest assets.
COLORFUL CULTURE
Underneath the political and economic uncertainties afflicting Mexico thrums a culture of riotous color, flavor, and language. Ninety-five percent of the population speaks Spanish, the official language of Mexico. The Spanish that is spoken in Mexico is rooted in Spain and features almost identical syntax, grammar, and spelling, but the sound and pronunciation of the language are different. Mexican Spanish also borrows vocabulary from the most widely spoken native language, Nahuatl, particularly in domestic areas like the home and food. Mexico counts 62 indigenous groups in the population, numbering approximately 15 million people, each with a unique language. Approximately half of these native people speak an indigenous language; however, 85 percent are bilingual, speaking both their native dialect and Mexican Spanish.
Mexico’s gastronomy, like the language, is diverse, influenced by both indigenous and immigrant cultures. Predominant ingredients include rice, beef, maize, avocados, tortillas, potatoes, and beans, with regional variations ranging from hearty meats in the north and seafood along the coasts to carnitas and tamales in Central Mexico and spicy, piquant vegetable and chicken dishes in the south. The common thread uniting all Mexican food is its colorful chilies, sweet and mild to volcanic hot.
Beyond enriching local cuisine, foodstuffs comprise a significant portion of Mexico’s exports. Agricultural exports, at US$28 billion, outperformed oil in 2016, according to Mark McCoy, CEO of Banco Finterra. He anticipates that “the positive trend for the agriculture sector in Mexico will continue as it diversifies export markets beyond the United States and Canada to Asia and Europe.” Of course, Mexico’s most infamous agricultural export is tequila, distilled from the native blue agave plant primarily in the central western state of Jalisco. No authentic Mexican dining experience is complete without it.
Football (known in the United States as soccer) is the most widely practiced sport in Mexico. Nearly every child plays, and, as in most of Central and South America, fan fervor approaches religious dedication toward their favorite team. That Mexicans love football is no revelation, but what may come as a surprise is their passion for charrería, a form of rodeo that is the country’s national sport. Bullfighting competitions—owing to the influence of Spanish conquerors—are also popular. Boxing, baseball, and lucha libre, a flamboyant style of wrestling, are among other popular sports throughout the country.
ABUNDANCE OF ARTISTRY
This pulsating reactor of diversity has given the world some of its most original and influential art. Pre-Columbian Mexican treasures are revered for their creativity and sophistication and are celebrated at the National Museum of Anthropology in México City. Among the best-known modern artists are Frida Kahlo, a gifted but tragic figure who principally painted self-portraits, and her husband, Diego Rivera, who was well known for his many influential murals. Other internationally acclaimed artists include José Clemente Orozco, who helped lead the revival of Mexican mural painting; painter and sculptor Rufino Tamayo; and David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose murals reflected his Marxist ideology.
The other arts thrive in Mexico, as well. Mexican cinema has a long and illustrious past, dating back to the Mexican Revolution. While motion pictures have flourished artistically at various times, the contemporary era of great Mexican film can be said to have begun in 1992, with the enormous popularity of Like Water for Chocolate. Today, the “triumvirate” of directors Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, and Alejandro González Iñárritu rivals any national cinema in the world.
Not to be overlooked is Mexican architecture, which has influenced the world with innovative design from Maya temples to Colonial neoclassicism to contemporary schools including Expressionism, Functionalism, and Modernism. Mexican literature ranges from Pre-Columbian creation stories like the Popol Vuh to the works of legends Gabriel García Márquez—Colombian by birth but a devoted Mexican for most of his life—and Octavio Paz, both of whom won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other great writers hailing from Mexico include Elena Poniatowska, Jorge Volpi, Carlos Fuentes, and Juan Rulfo.
A NATURAL PLAYGROUND
While Mexico may lag in some economic and social indicators, it shines in its biological wealth. Mexico is one of only 17 of the world’s nearly 200 countries considered to be megadiverse by Conservation International. Megadiverse countries, while taking up 10 percent of the world’s area, hold more than 70 percent of the earth’s biodiversity.
Among the factors influencing extreme biodiversity are temperature, rainfall, soil, and altitude. Mostly found in the tropics and subtropics, these warm, moist, stable environments, particularly the ecosystems in tropical rainforests, allow flora and fauna to thrive. In addition, diverse topographies such as long coastlines and mountain landscapes with their varied environments, complex soils, and range of climates, encourage the evolution of unique species. Finally, isolation—in this usage, meaning the separation of islands and continents—promotes the development of unique biological species.
Mexico, a predominately mountainous country with long coastlines, sits in the tropics, bridging the long-isolated continents of North and South America. The dry lands of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts make up portions of northern Mexico. Treeless alpine tundra dots the volcanic highlands above 13,000 feet, while pine and oak forests cover lower elevations. Southern Mexico is home to savannas and tropical rainforests.
Consequently, Mexico ranks second in the world in terms of unique reptile and mammal species (804 and 438, respectively) and fourth for amphibian species (290) and types of flora (26,000). Among the unique characters in Mexico’s animal kingdom are the jaguar, the largest wildcat in North America, which resides in the southern jungles, and the volcano rabbit, the world’s second-smallest rabbit species, which is native to four volcanoes just south of México City.
Additionally, Mexico’s Gulf of California, a body of water separating the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland, is thought to be one of the most diverse seas on the planet. Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau described the body of water as “the world’s aquarium.” The gulf is home to sea turtles and dolphins, some of which are endangered, more than 900 species of fish, and a diver’s paradise of coral reefs. This unique place also offers a protected sanctuary where whales, including the world’s largest, the blue whale, as well as humpbacks, orcas, and fin orcas, fin whales, and sperm whales can breed.
SECOND TO NONE
“Mexico is a country with extremely talented people, historically and currently,” avers TEC360’s Medina Mora. Indeed, Mexico’s inhabitants are descended from ancient leaders who founded powerful civilizations, great thinkers who invented previously unknown disciplines, explorers who opened new worlds, and some of the greatest artists, artisans, and engineers of all time. Thierry Mahé, General Manager of CNH Industrial–FIAT Group, sums it up, noting that a machine is the same anywhere in the world, while “Mexico’s main asset is the nobility of the people at work.”
Perhaps it is their unique heritage that has enabled Mexicans not merely to endure, but to develop a particular sense of their own worth, expressed in the mantra “Como México no hay dos.” It is with this conviction and a spirit of perseverance that Mexicans confront challenges, recalling always the inheritance of a powerful civilization promised by the Aztec gods.
ANA OLABUENAGA, Partner, Cuchí Consultoría
“There is a crisis in communicating with people,” says Ana Olabuenaga. “We need to reconnect.” A legend in Mexican advertising, Olabuenaga, a Partner in her firm Olabuenaga & Cuchí Consultoría, identifies the problem at the business level as a lack of systematized branding. She visualizes a new, multilevel model for rebranding Mexico that draws on its “rich culture, both ancient and modern, its commercial capabilities, and its strengths in innovation and manufacturing.”
Olabuenaga is concerned that Mexico lacks a systematic approach to communicate its good qualities. Like every country, Mexico has its bad news—the drug wars, , the AH1N1 virus, and the clashes with the new administration in the United States—but the country is much bigger than that. Now Mexico wants to overcome those stereotypes, to establish another image internationally. “The country wants to demonstrate that it has an open, modern culture, it’s an open place to do business, it’s dynamic and modern, it has first-grade manufacturers,” she explains.
Olabuenaga wants to get the news out: “We must communicate our story through every media,” she says. “Mexico should be seen as a strategic and business partner to the world.”
