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Mexico

Culture & Identity

WARNING: Parts of Mexico are unsafe, please read this travel warning before going!

Way of Life

Life in Mexico is diverse and is ever changing. The country is urbanizing as more and more people live in cities with each passing year. Today nearly 80% of the people are urbanized and this setting greatly affects the daily way of life in the country today.

Historically many people made a living off the land, primarily as farmers, but today less than 15% of the people work in agriculture. For these people life is based on the sunlight hours, the weather, and the seasons. Work consumes a huge amount of time and the schedule from season to season and from day to day is often dependent on the weather. However, many of the remaining farmers in the country today have adopted heavy machinery, making their lives much easier and giving them the ability to work more land in less time.

For most of the population, life is centered in cities, some of which are huge cities, such as Mexico City. In these places life is varied, but for those with regularly scheduled jobs life tends to revolve around a work schedule, which for many is from about 9:00 am to about 8:00 pm. However, in the middle of many work days is a long lunch break. After work dinners tend to be late, beginning as late as 10:00 pm, however with work and schools starting a bit later in the morning than many places (although some schools begin as early as 7:00 am), these late evenings generally don't mean a lack of sleep.

These jobs come in a huge number of industries, with manufacturing and factory work a common occupation as are jobs in the services sectors. The city life, from public transportation, regularly working hours, and numerous services being easily accessible means for many urbanites life is on a regular routine.

Free time in Mexico is spent in any number of ways, but many people seem to focus their lives on family, food, religion, and soccer (football) to varying degrees. Life seems to be centered on family for most people, often times talking over a meal or screaming at a TV with a soccer game on. For many Mexicans Sundays are also a day to attend Catholic mass, and afterwards to spend time with family.

Ethnicity

When the Spanish settlers arrived to what is today Mexico most of these settlers and the locals intermarried. This led to a huge "mestizo" population, which is a combination of Spanish and American Indian ethnically; this group makes up over half of the country's population today. Nearly another third of the population is wholly American Indian, although there are numerous groups under that larger umbrella, including many Mayan and Aztec groups. A much smaller percentage, about 10%, is wholly European or a member of a different ethnic group.

Language

Over 90% of the people in Mexico are native Spanish speakers, which another 6% grow up speaking both Spanish and a regional indigenous language. There are some American Indians who only speak an indigenous language natively, but nearly all of these people learn Spanish as a second language.

Spanish is a Romance language also spoken in Spain; it is closely related to other Romance languages, including Portuguese, Italian, French, Romanian, others. The dialect of Spanish in Mexico is quite distinct in comparison to that of Spain and there are also many minor differences in the language across Latin America.

Religion

Over three quarters of Mexico's population is Roman Catholic. This religion, which was brought over by the Spanish is much larger than any other religious group; most of the other people in the country are Christian or don't identify to any particular religion.

Catholicism is a Christian religion that is one of the first Christian religions (founded after the death of Jesus in about 30-33 AD). Catholicism believes that there is a single God who created everything, a savior, the son of God, Jesus Christ who is the forgiver of sins, and there is the Holy Spirit, which makes up the last part of the Holy Trinity. Catholics follow the teachings of the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments. Much of the faith is based on the life and teachings of Jesus, which is found in the gospels (in the New Testament).

Dress

The traditional clothing of Mexico begins with the clothing the indigenous people worn prior to the arrival of the Spanish and other Europeans, then changed to more European styles. Among the most common and popular of these indigenous clothes for women are the huipil, which is a long dress-like sleeve-less cloak, a covering called a quechquemitl, which is a woven poncho, and a rebozo, which is is a simple piece of cloth often wrapped around the shoulders when it's cold, or used as a sling of sorts to carry objects, including young children. These clothes were originally fairly dark in color, but with the arrival of the Europeans new dyes arrived and today these pieces of clothing can be very bright and colorful. The men wore very little prior to European arrival, so were quick to adopt western-styled clothing when it arrived, including shirts and pants. However, the men also incorporated the sarape, which is a woolen cape and the sombrero, which is a hat.

Today many people still dress in these traditional clothes, but they are generally found in more rural places and many are indigenous people as many Mexicans today prefer to wear modern western-styled clothing. As a visitor to Mexico there are few dress restrictions. Many tourists visit Mexico solely for the beaches so scantily clad dress is commonly accepted in these areas. However, elsewhere the Mexicans tend to dress a bit more on the formal side as long-sleeved pants and shirts are common for both women and men while some women prefer long dresses. This conservative dress is especially true in business settings, as suits are the norm, and in churches the arms and legs should be covered. Although the Mexicans are fairly relaxed on dress rules, sunbathing naked is rarely permitted, even on tourist beaches so be sure to check with locals before doing so.

Behavior

The Mexicans are conservative in most aspects of their lives and this is best seen in their behaviors, dress, and dining etiquette. They tend to dress and act conservatively, much of which is based on the doctrines of their Catholic faith. However, there is also great variety in the way the Mexicans behave as the country is quite diverse ethnically and geographically.

As a visitor to Mexico try to follow the lead of the locals by dressing conservatively (see above for details), dining in the local etiquette (see our Mexico Dining & Food Page), and avoid sensitive conversation topics, such as politics, finances, and business unless initiated by your local counterpart. Also try to avoid being loud, rude, showing off wealth, or getting noticeably drunk in public.

Identity

The constant instability in Mexico has stolen any identity from the people of Mexico as the most tend to identify in multiple ways and the Mexican identity is not uniformly defined, making the identity of the people even more confusing. Many people in Mexico will first identify with the city or region they are from, but others tend to primarily identify as Mexican. Both forms of identity are rooted in the local culture, foods, religion (Catholicism), and language (Spanish), while ethnicity is rarely a contributing factor to defining these identities. As most people are a combination of various ethnicities, this has little weight in the identity, however Mexicans abroad still generally identify as Mexican, which is more a statement of where they or their ancestors are from as opposed to a politically- or ethnically-based identity. For these people, the foods, culture, and history of Mexico truly form the basis of the culture and identity.

Many people also cling to a second identity of being "Hispanic" or "Latin American." People who identify as Hispanic (in the Americas) are generally a mix of Spanish and Native American ancestry who speak Spanish. It is this ethnic and linguistic link that is the true definition of the term, although today the foods, music, religion, and dress of the people are also closely associated with the term. Although the word "Hispanic" can refer to anyone with a historic tie to Spain or Portugal, in the Americas it tends to be an inclusive identity only referring to Spanish-speaking people from the Americas. The term Latin American is more inclusive as it refers to anyone from Latin America, no matter a person's ethnicity or linguistic affiliation.

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This page was last updated: November, 2013