I think the first place to start is a brief overview of the 32 Estados Unidos Mexicano –United Mexican States. They are a diverse topography of mountains, deserts, coastal plains, and plateaus with a variety of climate zones from deserts to tropical rain forests. All found in a country slightly larger than Alaska, the 32nd State, Mexico City being the Capitol.
Governing such a country must prove difficult. Although 94% of the people speak Spanish, making it the largest Spanish speaking country, there are 68 Native Languages; Nahuatl, Mixtex, Otomi, and Mayan to name a few. This of course doesn’t count the linguistic variants in each language. Such as differentiating the resurgent Yucateca Mayan currently being taught in schools and universities from other Mayan variations.
Approximately 800,000 people speak Yucateca Mayan mainly in the 3 States of the Yucatan Peninsula; Quintana Roo, Campeche, and Yucatan . . . my home.
132 million souls live in this stunning land. 99% Catholic souls, although level of participation varies. But spirituality is the bedrock, as I see it for the emotional intelligence, resilience, industriousness and joie de vivre of the Mexican people. For me having the DNA of 10,000 years old ancestors running in the people assures a wisdom of learning to live with each other in a refined courteous and respectful way through thick and thin. Although throughout their history, they were not as civil to enemies outside their ethnic heritage. That accommodation to civility today is not to be mistaken for is passivity it’s the wisdom of knowing not being passionately pissed off before all other measures have been exausted.
In addition to national holidays like the recent February 24 – Flag Day – Día de la Bandera, or Dia de Muertos, Dia de la Virgen de Guadlupe, Dia de la Revolucion, Natalicio de Benito Juárez, Dia de la Constutucion and the usual Labor Day, Christmas, New Years, et al, states and towns may also have fiestas and holiday for their area. I do know that each town has a fiesta for their own particular Patron Saint . . . saints I never heard of in some instances, but nevertheless a cause for a fiesta, that makes Mexico a country in which it is possible to travel from one party to another.
What an interesting idea for a year long tour, no?
