Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0239/02391.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 41KB | 672 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02391}
$Pretitle{279}
$Title{Mexico
Chapter 2C.   Cities of Mexico}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas E. Weil}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{population
percent
city
mexico
labor
cities
early
workers
1970s
census}
$Date{1975}
$Log{Table 3.*0239101.tab
Table 4.*0239102.tab
}
Country:     Mexico
Book:        Area Handbook for Mexico
Author:      Thomas E. Weil
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1975

Chapter 2C.   Cities of Mexico

     Mexico City is one of the great urban centers of the world and ranks
with Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, as the largest in Latin
America. The 1970 census listed the population of the city proper at 2.9
million, but a 1972 decree had the effect of incorporating other districts
(delegaciones) of the Federal District in it, and at least five contiguous
municipalities of the state of Mexico are part of its metropolitan area.
This entire urban complex is usually considered part of Mexico City, which
President Luis Echeverria in 1972 estimated to have more than 10 million
inhabitants.

     Founded in the early thirteenth century on the several islands of Lake
Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico, Mexico City was the capital of the Aztecs
and is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited urban locality in
the Americas. There are evidences of human habitation beneath the Pedregal,
a lava flow on the southern perimeter of the city, and stone weapon heads
have been found near the city in proximity to the bones of prehistoric
animals.

     Mexico City is located at an elevation of more than 7,000 feet and is
surrounded by some of the country's highest peaks. Several are located within
the confines of the Federal District, where densely urbanized districts
are mixed with a small amount of remaining farmland. In 1970 about 4 percent
of the Federal District was classified as rural.

     After the Spanish conquest, the canals of the Venice-like island capital
of the Aztecs were gradually filled, and in the seventeenth century Lake
Texcoco was partially drained by construction of a ditch and tunnel across a
low divide to the waters of the Panuco River system. The continuing process
of land reclamation and the gradual elimination of the lake have given the
city a highly unstable foundation that has been worsened since World War II
by a lowering of the water table as a result of increasing requirements for
water for industrial and domestic use. Many of the colonial buildings
have become badly tilted and sunken, and the newer high-rise architecture has
been constructed on piles and literally floated on great subterranean
caissons. The technique, which appears to have been fully successful in
accomplishing stability, has also made the buildings highly resistant to the
frequent and severe earthquakes to which the city is vulnerable. In general,
however, the threat of earthquakes has limited the heights of buildings to
five or fewer stories.

     Among the numerous plazas of Mexico City, the centrally located square
named the Zocalo can be considered the center of the country as well as of the
city in the sense that in many if not most of Mexico's cities and towns, the
central plaza has been given the same name. In the immediate vicinity of the
Zocalo much colonial architecture remains. Elsewhere in the inner city old
mansions have been replaced by modern architecture, and old residential
areas have become part of the downtown business district. Within the Federal
District, the numerous clusters of working-class and middle and upper class
residential neighborhoods are in some cases separated by stretches of open
land. Some of the finest of the newer residences are scattered around the
Pedregal lava bed, built of the same lava rock on which their foundations are
laid. There are also enough factories both inside and outside the Federal
District, and a sufficiently heavy flow of automotive traffic, to give Mexico
City a serious smog problem that is aggravated by its bowl-shaped site.

     In the contiguous metropolitan municipalities of the state of Mexico,
the same mixed pattern of settlement is continued. The ancient town of San
Angel has cobblestone streets and colonial Spanish houses but is entirely
surrounded by factories shantytowns, and areas of low-cost housing. There
are some fine residential neighborhoods in the outer suburbs, but the most
conspicuous features of the area are the serried blocks of low-cost
dwellings. The government has located many of its housing projects in this
outer suburban area, which in the early 1970s was the fastest growing part
of Mexico City and probably of Mexico.

     Guadalajara is the country's second city in size and one of its fastest
growing. It has a well balanced economy based on the processing of local
agricultural production, manufacturing of goods for an extensive hinterland,
production of handicraft, and service as a transport and communications
center. It has an attractive setting and climate, is a cultural and
educational center, and is the place of origin of the famed mariachi street
musicians. Many old buildings survive, but industrial development and
demographic growth since World War II have been accompanied by much widening
of streets and construction of new business and residential buildings.

     Also located in Central Mexico and the country's sixth city in size,
Puebla (its seldom-used full name is Puebla de Zaragoza) is the country's
most Spanish city and perhaps its most traditional. The national women's
costume, the china poblana (literally, Chinese girl of Puebla), originated
there (see ch. 7). Its industrial growth since World War II, however, has
been greater than that of any city other than Mexico City, Guadalajara,
or Monterrey. As a consequence, there has been much modernization and
damage to the colonial atmosphere.

     The other large cities of Central Mexico, Leon and Queretaro, are both
located in the Bajio. Leon lies in a fertile agricultural district and
derives much of its importance from its status as a market center. It is
also a shoe manufacturing center and is noted for its fine leather handicraft.
Queretaro was an important pre-Columbian settlement and is a picturesque city
of old buildings and winding streets. It has little manufacturing but serves
an important agricultural hinterland; it is a railway and highway center and
is famous for its silver.

     The third urban center of the country in size and the largest city of
the North is Monterrey, a name familiar to millions of North Americans because
of the perennially popular romantic song "It Happened in Monterrey." But
Monterrey is a city of hard work rather than romance. Most of Mexico's great
cities had their beginnings either as market towns or as mining camps.
Monterrey, however, was colonized in the seventeenth century without the
advantage either of agricultural hinterland or mineral wealth with the
deliberate intent of establishing a settlement in the bleak and empty
countryside of the Sierra Madre Oriental on the rim of the Northern Plateau.

     Monterrey is an industrial city of breweries, textile mills, and glass
and paper factories. It is a place of conservative values, and there are
good-natured jokes about the thriftiness of its generally well-educated and
skilled inhabitants. It is located in a small mountainside pocket in which
the smog accumulation rivals that of Mexico City. The architecture of the city
proper tends to be drab, but attractive suburbs have pushed their way up the
surrounding mountain slopes, and in 1970 nearly one-third of the metropolitan
population lived in three urban municipalities located outside the city.

     Smaller but faster growing than Monterrey, the city of Chihuahua also
lies on the Northern Plateau and has similar disadvantages of natural setting
and climate. It is a ranching and mining center, however, and irrigation has
made its hinterland an important producer of wheat and cotton. Located little
more than 100 miles southwest of th