Culture and Community in Central Mexico

Lydia Hartman, M.Ed.
David Hartman, Ph.D.

Course Description:

This is a hands-on two week course in the city of Tapalpa , Mexico . Tapalpa is a town of 5,000 people at about 2,700 feet altitude. Since it is a small town it is extremely safe and students can get to know the layout of the town easily. Students may register for 3 credits at the University of North Texas . This is a multi-disciplinary course providing students with a supervised cross-cultural field experience in Mexico . There will be required readings on topics to complement class lectures and discussions. The course objective is to provide students with knowledge and relevant experience in a foreign culture, to understand Mexican culture and community issues and to bridge language and cultural gaps. The course will also provide a meaningful service learning experience working on local community projects coordinated by the instructor and local city officials. This experience provides 60 hours of supervised volunteer experience with a local service agency or agencies.

Text Material:

Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans. Author: Alan Riding. New York : Vintage, 1989. Selections

The US and Mexico. Author: Jeffery Davidow. Princeton , Markus Weiner Publishers, 2004. Selections

Vest Pocket Spanish, Institute for Language Study or a Spanish/English dictionary.

Requirements:

Participation in all classes and group activities; completion of individual and group projects as assigned (may include: micro-analysis of a neighborhood problem, notes from interviews with local residents, etc.); development of a paper based on your experience in Tapalpa. This paper will be based on your classroom and community experiences in Tapalpa. A daily journal of field notes from the service-learning experience that includes observations (what did you see); analysis (what does it mean); and personal reflections (how does it feel as it is bounced off your lifetime experiences and world view). These notes can be used in the paper that is developed for the course.

Topic Outline:

Areas will have more depth then 2 week version

1. Cross-cultural Issues and the Ethics and Problems of Living and Working in Another Culture

2. Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on Understanding Contemporary Central Mexico

The Culture and History of Mexico

The Culture and History of Tapalpa

The Ecology of the Region

3. Understanding family, politics, environmental issues, and health issues in a Mexican context

4. Non-Profit Agencies

5. Spanish conversation

TYPICAL FOUR WEEK AGENDA

For information call (940) 891-6814 (leave a message) or

send an e-mail to: LHartman@scs.unt.edu

Application Guidelines for UNT Faculty-Led Programs

In 1585, the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) received authorization to establish itself in Guadalajara . Five years later the Jesuits founded the Colegio de Santo Tomas Aquino, but it was not until 1688 that they had a permanent building for their school. From here, generations of missionaries departed, proselytizing up and down the Pacific coast until 1767, when the King expelled the Jesuits from all Spanish dominions and the school was closed. On November 18, 1791 , in place of the Jesuit school, King Charles IV ordered the Real y Literaria Universidad de Guadalajara founded.

During the War of Independence and the Revolution, the school was dissolved and reopened several times, and it was not until 1937 that the school took its present name the Universidad de Guadalajara. During the same period, characterized by ideological clashes and sometimes intense street fighting, a group of students and teachers separated themselves from the U de G and created the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara. The latter institution remains a separate, private university, supported by student tuition and institutional grants. The U de G is a state and federally supported institution. From 1914-1918, David Alfaro Siqueiros and a group of other young Tapatío artists formed an artistic circle that became the Centro Bohemio. Later the group turned its attention toward public and monumental art with a popular base, focussed on supporting class struggle. The group dissolved in the very revolution that it supported, but in 1924, Siqueiros returned to Guadalajara along with Amado de la Cueva to paint the main hall of the University. On the walls that were once the Church of Santo Tomás Aquino , the artists painted murals in honor of workers, campesinos, miners, and proletarians, with red stars and intoning an Aztec ascendence. The building later fell into possession of Telégrafos Nacionales.

In 1936, José Clemente Orozco executed a mural in the central hall of the university rectory. Representations of a humanist and a technician perhaps allude to professional choices for university students. A five faced man represents the plurality of university life. In the background, a proletarian mob surrounded by fire confronts its leaders.

The Industrial Area of Guadalajara is located to the south of the city based around easy railroad access and sufficient water and power to sustain industry. The area has developed only since the 1950s. Earlier, the city's economy was based predominantly on primary sector, and light artisan work. Advances in agriculture in the 1930s generated more demand for finished consumer goods, and at the same time, brought down the cost of raw materials for industry. Some of the leading manufacturers in Guadalajara are Cervecería Moctezuma, Industria Mexicana Borroughs, Conductores Guadalajara, Swecomex, Mexalit, Concreto y Precolados, Almidones mexicanos, Válvulas Senkowski, and Sánchez and Martín.

The story and tradition of the Virgen of Zapopan has been central to daily life in Guadalajara since the monks Antonio de Segovia and Angel Valencia donated the image to the town soon after its founding. The legend begins with the great success Segovia had converting indians of El Mixton with only a breviary, a crucifix, and the brilliance of the Virgen made of cornstalk. After her arrival in Guadalajara , she began to work miracles. In 1606, an entire church collapsed around the Virgin without harming her. Later, she was said to have restored sight to a blind man. Towards the end of the 17th century, during an epidemic, Bishop Juan Santiago de León Garabito ordered her brought into the city. Under oath, doctors swore that the plague lifted before her presence. In 1721, she came to the city again where she restored life to the Bishop Manuel de Mimbela for four days.

On 5 November 1734 the church declared her “Patron of Guadalajara against storms, lightning strikes and epidemics.” At the same time, the diocese ruled that from June 13 to October 4 every year--roughly the period of the rainy season--the Virgen would pass around the city visiting neighborhood churches. Today, on October 12 annually, hundreds of thousands gather in Guadalajara for a procession that carries the Virgen home to Zapopan . On 13 June 1821 , as the Virgen entered the city, the forces of Pedro Celestino Negrete and Agustín de Iturbide united in the neighboring town of Tlaquepaque , establishing peace and independence without spilling a drop of blood. The following year, on September 15 (the eve of Independence Day) civil authorities granted her the insignia of general and declared her Sovereign of Jalisco, fitting her with a scepter and blue sash.

The monk of Francisco Frejes affirms that when Segovia brought her to Guadalajara , the image was only half of a cornstalk body, and that the other half formed itself miraculously. Today, she rests in a silver case, adorned with rubies, turquoise, pearls, her scepter, and the keys to the city.

The Church of Jesús María , which belonged to the convent of the same name, was also initially a Jesuit project. The Jesuit Feliciano Pimentel, who also founded Santa Mónica, began its construction planning a girls school. However in 1754, it was converted into a convent. Do Z a Isabel de Espinosa originally financed its construction for Carmelites who had arrived from Europe forty years earlier, but by the time construction finally ended, only one of the original sisters was still alive. Like other churches of its period and style, it features two lateral entrances (doric in this case), with triple reliefs above the entablature. Over one entrance the Holy Family appears in relief; above the other, Saint Dominic and Saint Francis stand on either sides of the Virgen.

The Temple of San Felipe Neri a block away from the Church of Santa Mónica , marks an abrupt break with the traditional style represented in Santa Mónica, and a rejection of traditional buttressing. Begun in 1766 by Pedro Ciprés, the church adopted the churrigueresque form of support, but returned, as construction continued, to more classical, tripartite columns, with carved bases--characteristic of the early baroque style in Jalisco.

The Church of Santa Mónica is a stylistic bridge between the facade of San Francisco --where simplicity and clarity typify the Salmanca style--and the exuberance of the popular baroque in Jalisco. Finished in 1733, it has a twin portico divided vertically by a wide entablature. Here, builders engraved symbols of the Agustinian order, to whose rules the convent was subject by orders of King Philip V. The lower half of the decorative space features helicoid columns with vines and bunches of grapes, representing the blood of Christ. The doorjambs, spandrels, and open spaces are covered in floral reliefs. The second level exterior features more relieved floral work, with “grecas” (a stepfret design), and ribbons that wrap around the corner of the building. In one corner, Saint Christopher serves as a caryatid--typical of Tapatío architecture.

Since 1960 this park--a triumph of urban renewal--has rivaled Agua Azul as a favorite recreational spot for Tapatios. In the late 1950s, the architect Alberto Arousety took charge of the 150,000 square meter space, installing a fountain, an amphitheater, a lake and recreational areas.

Five blocks from the park stands a statue of Antonio Alcalde in front of one of his most important works as Mayor: the Santuario of Guadalupe (Sanctuary of Guadalupe). Constructed in 1777, the church is similar architecturally to the cathedral with the thick, molded buttresses that gird the facade and a tile surfaced dome.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Jesuit Feliciano Pimentel moved to Guadalajara to form a convent, bringing some of his spiritual daughters with him. At first they lived in a private house to which prospective sisters gradually gathered from the south. In 1718, they finally received permission to found a convent and construction began almost at once on their sumptuous retreat.

Annexed to Hospital Civil--one of the oldest, and historically most important institutions in the city--rests the cemetery of Santa Paula . The cemetery occupies a square half-block which Manuel Gomez Ibarra designed between 1848 and 1850, laying out long arcades. An ionic colonnade with garlands and volutes adorns the facade where the dead are laid to rest in mausoleums. Trees dominate the open space featuring monuments carved by Jacogo Gálvez and Manuel Gómez Ibarra.

Far beyond the original and continued purpose of the building--care for orphans--the Hospicio Cabañas has become famous for its architecture. Manuel Tols designed the structure toward the end of the 18th century, and José Gutiérrez and Manual Gómez Ibarra supervised its construction, finishing in 1845. An excellent example of neoclassical architecture, it has a classical facade and entablature, twenty-three patios, and extensive corridors. By far the main attraction of the orphanage are the murals adorning the dome, executed in the 1930s by José Clemente Orozco. The theme is a conceptual history of Mexico : the magnificent though bloody prehispanic world; the heroic and violent passions of the conquest; ominous visions of violence in the machine age; the polarity of public service and demagogy; and the risks of alienation and dictatorship. In the pendentives, Orozco depicts the revolution; in the ring around the dome, he depicts artistic creativity, and in the dome itself, hovering above anthropomorphic allegories of imagination and creation, a man is enveloped in flames--consumed by need for self-realization.

The Mercado Libertad opened in 1958, and is now one of the principal commercial centers in the city. In its galleries, patios and plazas, vendors peddle almost everything imaginable: prepared food, groceries, clothes, footwear, fabric, leather, flowers, pets and even medicinal herbs.

The market connects via footbridge to what remains of the monastery of San Juan de Dios: an arcade that belonged to the cloister and church, the church facade, and a sculpture of Saint Eduwiges, carved by Agustín Espinosa in 1928. Nearby, the plaza de toros (bullring) El Progreso--built in the middle of the 19th century--and the plaza de Los Aariachis--famed for mariachi music and drinks--are favorite nightlife spots for Tapatios (the people of Guadalajara).

In 1542, brother Francisco de Segovia moved with his fellow brothers to Analco, on the bank of the San Juan de Dios river. However, it was not until the end of the 17th century that the brotherhood built a substantial church including a single nave, a spire, vaulting, a dome, buttresses and a relieved facade. Over centuries, modifications gradually destroyed the original design until a fire consumed it in 1936. Reconstruction continued for many years after the blaze until in 1970 an original arcade was rediscovered and added to the structure. The refurbished structure now houses the only surviving gilded altar pieces in the city.

The Plaza Juárez completes the area formed by Agua Azul park, the Casa de Cultura Jalisciense and the Pabellón de Arqueología. The Casa de Cultura Jalisciense--the first of its kind in the country--features galleries, exhibition rooms, an auditorium, and offices housing ten scientific and literary societies. The state library, annexed to the Casa de Cultura, features a painting interpreting “Prometheus” by José Servín, and a Gabriel Flores mural dealing with the printing industry and canon of poetry of Jalisco.

The Pabellón de Arqueología completes the plaza, housing and exhibiting works rescued from illegal trafficking in prehispanic relics. It specializes in ceramic works from Western Mexico --Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima--but it also contains some noteworthy exceptions: Rodin's The Thinker, and the only prehispanic gold and silver pieces discovered in Jalisco. In the pavilion's garden, the remains of a colonnade replaced in the Hospicio Caba Z as in 1958 rest among tabachines, poinsettia and jacaranda.

In 1543, the residents of Campostela, Guadalajara , Culiacan and Purificación petitioned for the creation of the diocese of Nueva Galicia , separating themselves from the diocese of Michoac n to the south. The following year, King Charles V brought the request before Pope Paul III who authorized the new bishopric in 1548. The first Bishop, the Franciscan Pedro de Ayala, took power in 1559 and construction on the cathedral began between 1568 and 1576. Prior to the cathedral standing today, Guadalajara had two temples serving as episcopal seats. The temple of San Miguel was built in 1546, in anticipation of authorization for the bishopric, but in 1565, Ayala ordered it torn down for materials to build a provisional cathedral. The new church was crude and makeshift. With stone foundation, adobe walls and a wooden roof, the structure resembled “a shack with three naves.” Nevertheless, the structure was functional and served until Easter of 1574, when gunshots fired in celebration touched off a fire that burned the temple down.

In 1602, with the walls and buttresses already constructed, the Church awarded the architectural position to Martin Casillas who closed the nave with gothic vaulting. Finally, on 19 February 1618 , the cathedral received the sacred sacrament, though construction on the cathedral continued long after its inauguration. On 30 May 1818 , just as the work was nearing completion, a powerful earthquake brought down its towers. The architect, Manuel Gomez Ibarra built the new towers--65 meters high--of pumice for lightness and surfaced them with tiles.

The cathedral also contains an impressive art collection, boasting among other treasures: the sculpture of Our Lady of the Rose, one of the four sculptures that Charles V gave to the nascent diocese; El Senor de las Aguas, a crucifix that indians of the island of Xochitepec threw into Lake Magdalena and was carried by waves to the shore at Etzatlan; ninety-six volumes of sumptuously adorned hymn books; sculpted images by Perusquia, Acurla, Arce, Islas and Ibarra; paintings by Cabrera, Paez, Uriarte and Villapando; but most importantly, in the sacristy hangs a canvas attributed to Bartolemé Murillo (Dr. Atl) representing the Immaculate Conception.

The Government Palace is today the seat of the State Government and houses the State Governor's personal offices. Construction began on The Government Palace--formerly Casas Reales--in 1643 according to plans by Juan Francisco Espino and finished in 1790. The purely formal baroque work--although symbolic of the false appearances and trappings of civil authority--is ridiculed by José Clemente Orozco in a mural on the dome of the Hospicio Caba Z as. Apart from the Latin inscription that runs the length of the facade, only the canons --serving as water spouts--and military breastplate reliefs invoke civil authority.

Above the principal staircase in the palace, Orozco also executed a mural of Hidalgo in monumental form. The patriot stands waving a torch, inspired and threatening, above a mass of people victim to injustice and violence. Juxtaposed with the spirit of liberty dominating the work, Orozco depicts on one side sinister forces--militarism and clericalism--and on the other the political circus, or carnival of the ideologies. In what was the old dome, repaired in 1872 by Governor Vallarta and converted into the meeting place for Congress, the same artist executed “El Cura de Dolores,” (The Priest from Dolores) this time represented as a legislator and liberator of slaves.

Santa María de Gracia was the first convent established in Guadalajara , settling in 1590 in its present day location. Of the original structures, which at one point occupied six square blocks, only the church and what is today the Palace of Justice remain. The temple has no spires, but has a dome, twin doric porticos, and a sacristy with ribbed vaulting. Inside hang four canvases by Antonio Enríquez from the second half of the 18th century, with scenes from the life of Saint Dominic.

The Museum opened in its present site in 1918. Since 1701 the building had lodged successively, the Seminary of Saint Joseph, barracks, and a boys' high school. The museum's painting collection is the prize of the institution, featuring works by many of Mexico 's greatest painters.

A section of the building also contains a public library, founded in 1861 to house the books of the recently abolished convents and monasteries. The library opened to the public in 1874 with 20 thousand volumes; today it has over 300,000. Among the most valuable works in the library are the Latin Comedies of Plauto, printed in Venice in 1518, instructions by S. M., written in Mexico City in the House of Pedro Ocharte in 1563, and a eulogy to Faterh Antonion Alcalde, edited by Mariano Valdes Tellez Girón in 1793.

On 12 December 1855 , Governor Santos Degollado, a reformer, ordered the sale of the city's ejidos (collective farms) in order to finance the construction of a theater in what was then the Plaza de San Augustín. Four months later, the architect Jacobo Gálvez won the contract for the job, and in May 1859, while the conservatives still controlled the city, builders laid the key stone of the main vault, completing the work. Gálvez, in collaboration with Gerardo Suárez, decorated the main dome with scenes from the fourth stanza of The Divine Comedy. The theater was planned to be called the Alarcón, in memory of the playwright, but in June of 1861 the liberal Pedro Ogazón ordered it names the Degollado in memory of the recently assassinated governor and reformer. On 13 September 1866 , under French imperial control, the theater opened with the opera Donizetti Lucia de Lammermoor, starring Angela Peralta with the theater group of Annibale Bianchi. One hundred years later, the city completely remodeled the building with sandstone, replacing Benito Casta Z eda's marble relief on the pediment with a Venetian mosaic--Apollo and the Muses--executed in 1958 by Roberto Montenegro.

The city center is most noted for its plazas radiating in four directions from the cathedral. The Plaza del Ayuntamiento (west side of the cathedral)--also called the Plaza of the Laurels for the reliefs that adorn it--contains a fountain commemorating the founding of the city. Here, the municipal coat of arms, executed in bronze, rests on a marble pillar bordered by scallop shells. The Plaza de Armas (south side of the cathedral), pays homage to the seats of spiritual and temporal power. In the middle of the Plaza stands a kiosk/bandstand constructed towards the end of the 19th century and supported by wrought iron caryatids. On Thursdays and Sundays at sunset, the state band takes the stage for free, open air concerts under the direction of Arturo Xavier González. The Plaza de Lieración (east side of the cathedral) remembers Miguel Hidalgo; there present in bronze and represented in the two acts for which he is most famous: initiating the revolution and abolishing slavery. This, the largest of the four plazas, with two fountains, grassy areas and flowering trees, also serves to unify the surrounding buildings architecturally with its neutral color sandstone. The Plaza de Hombres Ilustres (north side of the cathedral) pays tribute to Jalisco's most distinguished sons. In the middle lies a rotunda constructed eighteen years ago to hold the remains of Jalisco's great. Before that time, the plaza exhibited statues and sculptures sponsored by the Governor Agustín Ya Z ez. Thus, the four plazas invoke the city itself, the powers that govern it, the heroic deeds of its past and the spirit of its dead.

At the outbreak of the War of Independence, Guadalajara had 30 thousand inhabitants spread throughout 300 square blocks. Very quickly the population jumped to 40 thousand as nearby ranchers and residents of neighboring towns took refuge from marauding contingencies involved in the fighting. In 1812, the supply line from Mexico City was cut and the royalist governor José de la Cruz opened up the port of San Blas to foreign trade. Merchants from England , France and the United States competed safely under royalist protection and gave rise to an unprecedented commercial frenzy. The capital of Nueva Galicia became the principal distribution point in the west and the city blossomed with new fortune.

he second half of the nineteenth century saw the construction of the Escuela de Artes y Oficios, the Botanical Garden, the Prison and the Cemetery of Belén and the completion of the Cathedral's new spires. With the completion of the Hospicio Caba Z as, and with the addition of the portico of Santo Tomás church, the city was even briefly considered as the seat of Congress.

During the Three Years War (1858-1860), Guadalajara was the site of events and combat decisive in the fate of the nation. From 14 February to 20 March 1858 , President Benito Juárez was in the city, even then at the point of being assassinated. General Santos Degollado sieged the city in both June and September of that year before finally entering it on October 27th. During the occupation, the city suffered sacking and war crimes. On October 29th the conservatives Pielago and Monayo were both hung; one in the main plaza, and the other by the gate of the Archbishopric. The same day, General José María Blancarte was shot to death without a trial.

Liberals controlled the city for only two months, but it was not until 30 October 1860 that the conservatives returned. In this lapse, the city witnessed some extraordinary events. On 10 January 1859 , an ammunition dump housed in the Government Palace exploded, destroying the interior of the structure. In May of that year General Leonardo Márquez was crowned king--with golden laurels! May the following year brought a second siege of the city, this time by General José López Uraga, and in October, the conservative chief Severo de Castillo plundered the cathedral's gold and silver for coinage.

On 27 September 1860 , the Republican Army began a new siege of the city. Under protective fire, the army blocked entry to the city, cut off the water supply and demolished half of the block contiguous to Santo Domingo church for materials needed to build earthworks and set up artillery pieces. On 29 October 1860 , following a truce that allowed the civilian population to escape, the assault began. All at once, 125 cannons opened a protective fire that shielded an infantry advance. The two armies fought hand to hand, often with bayonets the first day. However, on the second day, the first mortar shell fired by the liberals struck San Francisco church where the conservatives had their powder stored. The grim risk that a second impact would have blown up the temple along with the munitions and troops stationed there forced the conservatives to surrender.

The fighting left heavy damages. During that month, liberal forces alone fired 7,500 artillery shells and 304,000 bullets. Walls of houses were shredded by gunfire. Both armies used household furniture from hundreds of homes as ersatz parapets. Troops had mined many buildings, and torn up streets to construct trenchworks. Many of the vacant lots in the city had become giant burial pits.

The following years brought reconstruction. The government seized the majority of the church's real estate holdings, and the city's physiognomy changed with the construction of new parks, gardens and civil buildings. In the early 1880s, the first animal powered urban trams appeared, and in 1888 the railroad arrived. In the 1890s, don Mariano Bárcena founded the Astronomical Observatory and Industrial Museum , and the Governor Luis C. Curiel improved water service and constructed a sewer system.

Since 1900 the city has slowly developed into its present day form. The turn of the century brought art-nouveaux architecture to Guadalajara . One of the best surviving examples from this school is the Nuevo Mundo building, with an elaborately laced facade, a reminder of the table linen trade. Other examples are the neo-gothic Templo Expiatorio--designed by Adamo Boari and still under construction--and the Genoveva building, with neo-renaissance reliefs. At the same time, American structuralism appeared--a concern with laying bear the structure of a work. The Hotel Fénix, designed by Guillermo de Alba, stands in opposition to the last universalist attempts to return to the past.

This period of architectural imitation spanned the first two decades of the century. In the third, following the revolution, architects began a search for a local or national expression. The new style came primarily from Mexico City , where the use of tezontle and sandstone--often in colonial designs--was identified with nationalism. In the thirties, the firm of Barragan and Garibi, and the architects Legarreta, Basave and Castellanos produced some outstanding works bearing a unique style.

At the end of the pre-Columbian epoch, groups of Cocas, Tecuexes and Caxcanes lived in what is today Guadalajara . In contrast with the Mexica, Purepecha and Maya, there is very little left in the area to remember them by. It's even possible that they were not aware that much earlier the Valley of Atemajac was occupied by the Quinametzin, a corpulent people who founded Teotihuacan .

In March of 1530, Nu Z o Beltrán de Guzmán, a conquistador in search of the chimerical Kingdom of the Amazons, arrived in Tonal (today, part of Guadalajara ), the capital of the Tecuex people. Continuing, he arrived in Tlacot on the 29th of that month, and in Nochistl (now part of the state of Zacatecas) during Holy Week. The following year, on both the 15th of October and the 3rd of December, Juan de O Z ate convened the indigenous population at a round table. Following the instructions of Guzmán, he founded a village which by 1533 was known as Guadalajara . It consisted of only 16 square blocks and a precarious existence.

The actual location of the city changed several times in the early period. On 24 May 1533 , Guzmán ordered the city moved to another site closer to the center of the new province where the city had been founded. Guzmán named the new province Nueva Galicia to distinguish it from the older, central province of Nueva Espa Z a . On August 8th of that year, the colonists again moved to Tonal, where they were only to stay 18 months. The site they had chosen fell to the south of the Santiago River , which, lying officially in the territory of Nueva Espa Z a , gave the Audiencia of Mexico City the right to name the chief magistrate there. A bitter dispute followed, and on 12 March 1535 , the city was moved again--this time to a narrow, inaccessible site on the right bank of the Santiago River . The newcomers managed to establish themselves, building a temple, a main plaza, and even a rectilinear street plan consisting of 30 blocks, with houses built of wood and thatch.

In 1537, litigation over the possession of Tonal was decided in favor of Nueva Espa Z a by the regal envoy Diego Pérez de la Torre. Guzmán was apprehended and exiled, and O Z ate and others fled to Peru . However, two years later, Santiago de Aguirre won a more favorable decision for Nueva Galicia : (1) lands in the Valley of Atemajac to the south of the Santiago River , (2) the title to the city of Guadalajara (which at that point was still in Tonal) and (3) a municipal coat of arms. The city title and the municipal coat of arms were officially granted on 8 November 1539 .

Beginning in 1535, Spaniards and various indigenous groups met in a series of bitterly fought skirmishes. In 1540, a general indigenous uprising swelled, led by the Tenamaxtli. Twice, indigenous forces routed Miguel de Ibarra in El Mixtón, and in July of 1541 smashed a contingency led by Pedro de Alvarado. On September 28 of that year, indigenous forces began an attack on the city of Guadalajara . They entered the city, destroyed it, but were eventually repulsed.

Impelled by these events, the colonists decided to move to the Valley of Atemajac -- Guadalajara 's present day site. Beatriz Hernández initiated the proposition, and to stress that her only concern was the common good opened and closed her speech with the famous declaration, “el Rey es mi gallo!” (the king is my rooster!). On October 9th, the community drew up a roster of the men to begin dividing plots of land among the households. It shows: 16 Castilians, 6 Extremadurans, 11 Biscayans, 13 Andalusians, 9 Highlanders (from the region around Santander on the northern coast of Spain ), and 8 Portuguese--a total of 63 men with their families.

In the early 16th century, the valley was also home to the Tecuex village of Mezquitán , and the Mexica village of Mexicaltzingo . The latter was founded sometime around May 1540, on the left bank of the San Juan de Dios River. Two years later, the monk Antonio de Segovia moved with a group of settlers to a new site. De Segovia, who before operated a monastery in Tetlán, brought with him other Franciscans and 500 indians. Thus, the population of Guadalajara at that time drew from four different origins: Tecuexes from Mezquitán, Mexica from Mexicaltzingo, Spaniards from Tonal, and De Segovia's Franciscans and Indians from Tetlán. On 5 February 1542 , the city named its first authorities.

By 1700 the citizenry numbered approximately 500, not including black and mulatto slaves, or indentured indians and mestizos. For reasons of racial pride, no Spaniard served other Spaniards. By and large Spaniards dedicated themselves to cattle, wheat and sugar production and small scale mining.

At the same time, the city was beginning to take shape amid economic prosperity. Toward the middle of the 18th century, augustinians funded the construction of the gateways which stand to the southwest of the main plaza, and shortly after, the nuns of Santa María de Gracia sponsored a similar project to the west of the plaza. Gradually the city spread to the north, thanks to the establishment of the hospital, El Santuario, and dwellings for the poor that Bishop Antonio Alcalde ordered constructed in the area. However, the majority of city structures at this time were of adobe, and there were no gardens. Water was scarce in the city until Father Pedro Buzeta brought in water from the Del Colli Hill. Open air sewers remained a source of disease.

Early attempts to locate the city geographically were crude. In 1741, the historian Matías Angel de la Mota Padilla determined the city's longitude at 267 degrees, which--equivalent to 93 degrees by the Greenwich standard--places the city in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico .

Towards the end of the 18th century, upon publication of the works of Francisco Díaz Covarrubias, more precise methods for fixing geographical coordinates became more widely circulated. In December 1880, Angel Anguiano set up his instruments (on the roof of what is today the State Museum ) and obtained an average measure of 20 degrees 40'45" latitude, which, at 16'15" difference from Mexico City , gives a corresponding longitude of 103 degrees 20'15". These figures are very close to those used today.

Resting in the Valley of Atemajac , Guadalajara is bordered on the northwest by Rio Blanco Mountain , and on the north by the Mesa de San Isidro . To the northeast cuts the Rio Grande gorge, and on the east and southeast, basaltic hills run from De la Reina Hill in Tonal to the town of Las Juntas . To the south stand Del Cuatro, Santa Maria and El Gachupin Hills, and to the southwest and west stands the LaVenta mountain range.

Toward the northwest, the valley is drained by the San Juan de Dios river and its tributaries. In the central and western portions of the valley lie El Caballito, el Hondo, de Atemajac and El Chicalote rivers, draining a 23,4000 hectare basin. Toward the east, the San Andrés, De Osorio, and de San Gaspar rivers drain an additional 6,600 hectares. Adding to this the 1000 hectares drained directly by the San Juan de Dios river, the greater basin covers a total of 310 square kilometers.

Greater Guadalajara includes the municipalities of Guadalajara , Tonal, Tlaquepaque and Zapopan . The average elevation of the city is 1,560 meters (5,117 feet), 1,545 meters (5,069 feet) in the Plaza de Armas (city center).

Guadalajara (from Arabic wad-al-hidjara, river of the stones), is the capital of the State of Jalisco and seat of the greater municipality of Guadalajara . According to projections from the 1990 census, it has just over 5 million inhabitants, which represents about 40% of the total population of Jalisco. It is also the commercial hub of Western Mexico .

The approach to Tequila, some 50km northwest of Guadalajara , is through great fields of spiky, blue-grey maguey cactus. It's from these plants that they make the quintessentially Mexican liquor to which the town lends its name, producing it in vast quantities at a series of local distilleries (pulque and mescal are also made from the maguey). More than 100 million liters of tequila are manufactured annually, and this simple product alone accounts for some three percent of Mexico 's export earnings. The town itself is a dusty little place whose scattering of bourgeois mansions and fine churches are overwhelmed by the trappings of thriving modern business. But no matter; you don't come here to sightsee, you come to drink. Or at least to visit the distilleries.

They've made tequila here since the 17th century and probably earlier, but the oldest and most important surviving distillery is La Perseverancia, the Sauza operation founded in 1875, where free tours are given by the gatekeeper. To get there, follow c/Ramon Corona from the plaza down beside the Banco Promex. If you'd like to learn more, Sauza also operate an experimental cactus farm, again open to the public on the edge of town at Rancho El Indio, where they have planted some 197 different varieties of maguey. There are plenty of cafes around the plaza in Tequila for less potent drinks.

Tapalpa means “ Land of Colors ” in the Tlapalpan language. Located 132 km south of Guadalajara , Mexico's second largest city, Tapalpa is a small town high in the mountains, 7,200 feet, amidst the pine forests. The air is clear and pine scented. History dates the town to before the 12 th century when the Otomies inhabited it. It is fairly quiet, but busy on a Sunday, when the local people display their wares. The cantinas in town often have a lively group of musicians singing and playing. This is a town barely touched by modernization and the fast pace of the 21 st century. The town hosts international paragliding championships each Winter.

Click here to see a map of Tapalpa

Though there is a village-like feel around the plaza, with its 18th-century wooden portales and two impressive churches, this is actually a fair-sized place, and messy development on the outskirts reflects rapid growth. The best walks are out on the road towards Chiquilistlán (signed as you enter Tapalpa). Here you rapidly escape into a pine forest, passing a romantically ruined fabrica--an old water-driven paper mill--and climbing towards a gorgeous valley of upland pasture, studded with wild flowers and with huge boulders that look as if they've been dropped from the sky. There's good walking in almost any direction from Tapalpa, in fact, and plenty of wildlife, especially birds, to spot; you can also hire horses--popular ride is to the local waterfall. Be warned that it is very cold in winter, and even the summer nights can get decidedly chilly. They brew their own tequila in the village; it is sold from the barrel in some of the older shops.

Though just 6km west of Chapala , Ajijic has a completely different atmosphere. Undeniably picturesque, it's a smaller, quieter and more self-consciously arty place, with numerous little crafts shops--you get the distinct feeling that the ex-pats here resent the intrusion of outsiders, regarding themselves as writers or artists manqués, hoping to pick up some of the inspiration left behind by D. H. Lawrence and more recent residents like Ken Kesey. In truth, there's little evidence that Lawrence liked the place at all (though he may have disliked it less than he did the rest of the country), but then he can't have had much time to appreciate it, since in just eight weeks here he turned out an almost complete 100,000-word first draft of The Plumed Serpent (or Quetzalcoatl as it was then titled).

The largest lake in Mexico , Lake Chapala lies just over 50km south of the city. Some 30,000 Americans and Canadians are said to live in and around Guadalajara , and a sizeable proportion of them have settled on the lakeside--particularly in Chapala and in the smaller village of Ajijic . English is spoken widely, and there's even an English newspaper produced down here. This mass presence has rendered the area rather expensive and in many respects somewhat sanitized, but it cannot detract from the beauty of the lake itself, and on weekends and holidays day-trippers from the city help create an enjoyable party atmosphere.

Chapala, on the shore of the lake, is a sleepy, even dull community most of the time, but can become positively festive on sunny weekends, when thousands come to eat, swim (though the water is none too clean) or take a boat ride, visiting one of the lake's islands. Shoreline restaurants all offer the local speciality, pescado blanco, famous despite its almost total lack of flavor, and street vendors sell cardboard plates of tiny fried fish from the lake, very like whitebait. Along the promenade streets of shuttered 19th-century villas, and you'll find a small crafts market.

Separated from the country's colonial heartland by the peaks of the sierra madre, the semitropical state of Jalisco has an unhurried ease. Cursed by a complex landscape--now lofty plain, now rugged sierra--the area is, nevertheless, blessed with supreme fertility and is as beautiful and varied as any in Mexico , ranging from fresh pine woods and cool pastures to lush tropical forest. Jalisco stretches all the way to the coast, with resorts and beaches that vary from the sophistication of Puerto Vallarta to the simplicity of Playa Azúl: the coastal strip is covered elsewhere.

Something of a backwater until well into the 18th century, the high valleys of Michoacán and Jalisco were left to develop their own strong regional traditions and solid agricultural economy: there's a wealth of local produce, both agricultural and traditionally manufactured, from avocados to tequila, and glassware to guitars. Relative isolation also made the region a bastion of conservatism--in the years following the Revolution the Catholic Cristero counter-revolutionary guerrilla movement enjoyed its strongest support here.

Easy-going Guadalajara -- Mexico 's second largest city--is the area's best-known destination, packed with elegant buildings and surrounded by scenic country. Further afield the land spreads spectacularly green and mountainous, studded with volcanoes and lakes, including Lake Chapala , where D. H. Lawrence wrote The Plumed Serpent. Fiestas around here--and there are many--are among the most vital in Mexico , and there's a legacy of village handicrafts that survives from the earliest days of the Conquest.

Jalisco is among the most serene states in the country--relaxing, easy to get about, and free of urban hassle. Add to this the fact that Jalisco is the home of mariachi and of tequila and you've got a region where you could easily spend a couple of weeks exploring without even beginning to see it all.

Prolonged drought, population growth, and outmoded practices and infrastructure in the border region have strained water-sharing arrangements with the US

Nationals from Central America slip into Mexico seeking work or transit into the US

Undocumented Mexican nationals continue to enter the United States

Illicit cultivation of opium poppy (cultivation in 2001 - 4,400 hectares; potential heroin production - 7 metric tons) and of cannabis (in 2001 - 4,100 hectares)

Government eradication efforts have been key in keeping illicit crop levels low

Major supplier of heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the US market

Continues as the primary transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America, accounting for about 70 percent of estimated annual cocaine movement to the US

Major drug syndicates control majority of drug trafficking throughout the country

Producer and distributor of ecstasy; significant money-laundering center

Mexican peso (MXN)

Currency code: MXN

Exchange rates: Mexican pesos per US dollar - 10.79 (2003), 9.66 (2002), 9.34 (2001), 9.46 (2000), 9.56 (1999)

$168.9 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Commodities: Metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment, car parts for assembly, repair parts for motor vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts

Partners: US 63.2%, Japan 5.5%, China 3.7% (2002)

Food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, tourism

Revenues: $174 billion

Expenditures: $176 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2004 est.)

3.3% plus underemployment of perhaps 25% (2003)

41.5 million (2003)

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 18%, industry 24%, services 58% (2003)

4% (2003 est.)

Mexico has a free market economy with a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports.

Per capita income is one-fourth that of the US ; income distribution remains highly unequal. Trade with the US and Canada has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Real GDP growth was a weak -0.3% in 2001, 0.9% in 2002, and 1.2% in 2003, with the US slowdown the principal cause. Mexico implemented free trade agreements with Guatemala , Honduras , El Salvador , and the European Free Trade Area in 2001, putting more than 90% of trade under free trade agreements.

The government is cognizant of the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, and provide incentives to invest.

Convergence for Democracy or CD [Dante DELGADO Ranauro];

Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI [Roberto MADRAZO Pintado];

Mexican Green Ecological Party or PVEM [Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ Martinez ];

National Action Party or PAN [Luis Felipe BRAVO Mena];

Party of the Democratic Revolution or PRD [Leonel GODOY];

Workers Party or PT [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]

Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (judges are appointed by the president with consent of the Senate)

Bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Union consists of the Senate or Camara de Senadores (128 seats; 96 are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms, and 32 are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote) and the Federal Chamber of Deputies or Camara Federal de Diputados (500 seats; 300 members are directly elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms; remaining 200 members are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote, also for three-year terms)

Election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PRI 60, PAN 46, PRD 16, PVEM 5, unassigned 1; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PRI 222, PAN 151, PRD 95, PVEM 17, PT 6, CD 5, unassigned 4; note - special elections were held in December 2003; the PRI and the PRD each won one seat and were each assigned one additional proportional representation seat

Elections: Senate - last held 2 July 2000 for all of the seats (next to be held NA 2006); Chamber of Deputies - last held 6 July 2003 (next to be held NA 2006)

Chief of state: President Vicente FOX Quesada (since 1 December 2000 );

Note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government

Election results: Vicente FOX Quesada elected president; percent of vote - Vicente FOX Quesada (PAN) 42.52%, Francisco LABASTIDA Ochoa (PRI) 36.1%, Cuauhtemoc CARDENAS Solorzano (PRD) 16.64%, other 4.74%

Elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term; election last held 2 July 2000 (next to be held NA July 2006)

Cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president; note - appointment of attorney general requires consent of the Senate

Head of Government: President Vicente FOX Quesada (since 1 December 2000 );

Note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government

18 years of age; universal and compulsory (but not enforced)

Mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

5 February 1917

Independence Day, 16 September (1810)

16 September 1810 (from Spain )

31 states (estados, singular - estado) and 1 federal district* (distrito federal); Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima, Distrito Federal*, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave, Yucatan, Zacatecas

Mexico (Distrito Federal)

Federal Republic

Conventional long form: United Mexican States

Conventional short form: Mexico

Local short form: Mexico

Local long form: Estados Unidos Mexicanos

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

Total population: 92.2%

Male: 94%

Female: 90.5% (2003 est.)

Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages

Nominally Roman Catholic: 89%

Protestant: 6%

Other: 5%

Mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish): 60%,

Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian: 30%,

White: 9%

Other: 1%

noun: Mexican(s)

adjective: Mexican

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.3% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 150,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths: 4,200 (2001 est.)

2.49 children born/woman (2004 est.)

Total population: 74.94 years

Male: 72.18 years

Female: 77.83 years (2004 est.)

Total: 21.69 deaths/1,000 live births

Female: 19.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.)

Male: 23.63 deaths/1,000 live birth

At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

Under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female

Total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2004 est.)

-4.87 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Birth rate: 21.44 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Death rate: 4.73 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)

1.18% (2004 est.)

Total: 24.6 years

Male: 23.7 years

Female: 25.5 years (2004 est.)

0-14 years: 31.6% (male 16,913,290; female 16,228,552)

15-64 years: 62.9% (male 31,975,391; female 34,090,440)

65 years and over: 5.5% (male 2,618,713; female 3,133,208) (2004 est.)

104,959,594 (July 2004 est.)

Scarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities; rural to urban migration; natural fresh water resources scarce and polluted in north, inaccessible and poor quality in center and extreme southeast; raw sewage and industrial effluents polluting rivers in urban areas; deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification; deteriorating agricultural lands; serious air and water pollution in the national capital and urban centers along US-Mexico border; land subsidence in Valley of Mexico caused by groundwater depletion

Note: the government considers the lack of clean water and deforestation national security issues

Tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico , and Caribbean coasts

65,000 sq km (1998 est.)

Arable land: 13.2%

Permanent crops: 1.1%

Other: 85.7% (1998 est.)

Petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber

High, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus; desert

Total: 1,972,550 sq km

Land: 1,923,040 sq km

Water: 49,510 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly less than three times the size of Texas

The following links provide general and interesting information about Mexico.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/north_america/mexico/

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/mexico.html

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

Culture and Community in Central Mexico -- Honors. May 17 -- May 25, $700 (plus tuition and transportation). 3 credits. For students in Honors College and students with a 3.5 GPA. For Program description see Sample Syllabus.

Culture and Community in Central Mexico. July 2 --July 29, $1,100 (plus tuition and transportation). 3 credits. For Program description see Sample Syllabus.

Special Semester long Internships available by request.

Please click on the above link to view a video introduction to Tapalpa, Mexico. You may also right-click on the link and save the video to your computer.