Mexican culture
The culture of Mexico reflects the complexity of its present reality, its historical past and its trajectory towards the future. What has been called lo mexicano, its national identity, is influenced by cultural elements of the most diverse kinds: the modern, the old, and the recycled. The way of life in Mexico includes many aspects of the pre-Hispanic peoples of the colonial period. It is related to the customs of the rest of the Spanish-American countries.
Mexico changed rapidly during the 19th century. The state with the most cultural richness in Mexico was then the state of Veracruz. In many ways, contemporary life in cities has become very familiar to that of cities in the United States and Europe. The first National Survey of Culture 2003, prepared by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, was applied in homes to 4,050 people aged 15 or over, in 27 states of the country, in December 2003. In all cases, the results are presented both at the national level and disaggregated by the sociodemographic characteristics of the population –gender, age, education, income and occupation–, as well as by region, municipality by population size and for the Federal District (today Mexico City), Monterrey and Guadalajara. The results indicate that the consumption and cultural practices of Mexicans were highly related to the levels of schooling and income. However, most Mexican peoples follow the way of life of their ancestors. More than 90% of the population lives in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. The largest urban areas are Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.
The culture in Mexico is very rich, as it mixes elements from different periods, from pre-Hispanic aspects and the viceroyalty period, to modern ones. The cultural wealth is also nourished thanks to the around 62 indigenous peoples, successors of pre-Hispanic societies, who speak variants or dialects of a total of sixty-eight languages or languages, of which Nahuatl is the one with a The largest number of speakers in a population is concentrated in an area that includes Mexico City and the states of Guerrero, Hidalgo, Morelos, San Luis Potosí, the state of Mexico, Puebla and Veracruz. 22%-30% of the total indigenous population of the country lives in the three main cities: Monterrey, Cancún and Guadalajara.[citation required]
The natural wealth of the country, its plurality and its values, therefore, provide very specific characteristics to “lo mexicano”. In most of the towns, the uses and customs of the ancestors are respected; however, more than 85 percent of the Mexican population lives in large cities, such as Mexico City and Monterrey, and have adapted to the changes that modernity has brought with it.[citation required]
One of the most relevant and ancient cultural aspects is Mexican painting, already present since pre-Hispanic Mexico in buildings and in codices, and during the viceroyalty period, in convents. In the XX century, it achieved world renown with artists who expressed social criticism in their works, such as the muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera. Next to the latter, but with artistic independence, is Frida Kahlo, whose work is full of feeling and pain, in paintings in which she herself is the central subject. Other notable artists are José Luis Cuevas, Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo.[citation required]
Architecture has also played an important role in history. The Mesoamerican civilizations had a great stylistic development and urbanism had a great push, as an example are the cities of Teotihuacán and México-Tenochtitlán. With the arrival of the Spanish monarchy, new styles were introduced, such as baroque and mannerism, in cathedrals and buildings; Neoclassicism would be introduced later. One of the most representative buildings of modernization is the Palace of Fine Arts, which brings together Art Nouveau and Art Deco. In modern architecture, we can cite Juan O'Gorman and Luis Barragán, whose work combined religious mysticism and the rescue of national roots, integrating nature into his work.
Another fundamental characteristic of Mexican culture is its gastronomy, which was recognized as Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO on November 16, 2010. Mexican gastronomy brings together ingredients that date back to pre-Hispanic times, such as corn, chili, cocoa, avocado and nopal, with others that were influenced by the viceroyalty, such as meat, rice and wheat. The drinks, such as pulque, tequila or mezcal, are also very characteristic.
Regarding music and as symbols of cultural identity, there are son, ranchera songs and mariachi (which were broadcast by the national cinema), northern music, banda and corrido. Mexican cinema, considered a fundamental promoter of Mexican identity, had its first Golden Age between the 1930s and the 1950s, when film production in the country was the most powerful of the Spanish-speaking countries. Figures from this period include Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, María Félix, Pedro Infante, Luis Aguilar, Jorge Negrete, Mario Moreno "Cantinflas" and Germán Valdés "Tin Tan", among others. Between the end of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI century, a second Golden Age arose, in which the industry no longer stood out but their representatives, who are recognized throughout the world as the best. As examples Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo Arriaga, Guillermo del Toro, Emmanuel Lubezki, Carlos Cuarón, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and others that at the beginning of the 20's.
Languages of Mexico
In Mexico, Spanish is mainly spoken as the mother tongue spoken by 99% of the population. However, there are also speakers of variants or dialects of a total of sixty-eight languages or indigenous languages, the most widely spoken of which is Nahuatl.[citation required]
Religion
Mexico is, at least according to what is stipulated in the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1917, a secular State, that is, in which the Church and the State must function in a completely independent of each other. When the Callista government began to prevent activities related to religious worship and even punish those who displayed images in public, many Catholic citizens and a large part of the Catholic clergy fought against government abuses and defeated the Mexican army in the so-called Cristero War. Finding itself overwhelmed, the government agreed to an amnesty with the high Catholic hierarchy. Many of the Cristeros turned in their arms, and so the government carried out massacres against those Cristero leaders in the 1920s. The conflict ended with a mutual agreement and new legislation that gave legal status to the churches. However, Mexican legislation still ignores the right of ministers of worship to be voted.
The context of the churches in Mexico is diverse and broad; Although the Catholic religion predominates in the country, it is increasingly common for other religious beliefs to make their way and grow (such as evangelicals).
The Catholic religion in Mexico currently represents the most important and widespread cult in the country. It was established in the 15th century, with the arrival of the Hispanic monarchy in the Mexican territories.
After the conquest of Tenochtitlan, the Hispanic monarchy ordered evangelizers to be brought to Mexican lands, who arrived in Texcoco, where evangelization began: three friars, among them Fray Pedro de Gante, teaching Latin, Spanish, arts and crafts, instituted the first catechism in the Nahuatl language and built the first chapel in Mexico, called the "Chapel of Teaching or Chapel of Gante".
Freedom of Cults
In Mexico there is no official religion. Since the promulgation of the Reform laws in 1859, freedom of worship was established. In this regard, some statistical data related to religious practices in Mexico:
- Catolicism 76.5%
- Protestantism 6.3%
- Seventh-day Adventists 2%
- Pentecostalism 1.4%
- Jehovah’s Witnesses 1.1%
- 3.8%
- Mormones (according to IJSUD, there are 1,234,545 members of this religious association in Mexico)
- Salvation Army
- Orthodox Christianity
- Mennonitas
- Atheism 3.1%
- Other religions 0.3%
- Aztec mythology
- Mayan mythology
- Santeria
- Bahaismo
- Buddhism
- Judaism
- Islam
- Unspecified data 13.8%
Religious traditions
Wise Men
The passage of the Gospel that came to New Spain through the Spanish friars for evangelization in the first half of the sixteenth century, speaks of the Holy Kings coming from the East following the star and as scholars of science come to Bethlehem, where they find the Child God to whom they offer their gifts: Incense to the God, Gold to the King and Mirra to Man. (Ávila, 2006)
In Mexico, this act of the Spanish friars (kings) towards the baby Jesus on January 6 is remembered. On January 5, children usually write a letter to the three Wise Men in which they ask each one for a gift: Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar. The children have to have been good throughout the year to receive what they asked for. On the night of January 5 to 6, the Three Kings leave the gifts under the Christmas tree so that children can see them on January 6, Three Kings Day. On January 6, the family gathers and eats Rosca de Reyes, in which some plastic dolls are hidden. The people who get the doll must prepare tamales, atole or put the house for the Candelaria party.
Candlemas
In the Fiesta de la Candelaria, held on February 2, the Virgin of Candelaria is celebrated. A party is held with atole and tamales in which friends and family gather. In some parts of Mexico it is customary to take care of a doll of the child of God and take it to mass, while in other parts ears of corn are brought to church so that both these and the crops to come can be blessed. In other places, such as Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, the Virgin is celebrated with mornings and parades; the virgin is also taken along the river and the child God is presented before the temple.
Holy Week
In Mexico, Holy Week. This commemorates the death of Jesus by men. On these dates we see different parades, popular demonstrations and representations of what happened to Jesus. A very popular representation is that of Good Friday where in the celebration of the Via Crucis you can see a young man or man who carries the cross as Jesus did and is nailed to it. This representation is very impressive. Religious films are broadcast on local channels. On these dates there is no work or classes. In some towns, water balloons are thrown through the streets on glory Saturday and parties are held with endless food. However, we also find that young people go to parties and it is a time where many accidents occur.
The Day of the Dead
On the Day of the Dead or All Saints' Day, offerings are placed for the deceased. In these offerings, the photo of the people they remember is placed and around them is filled with food, fruits, flowers, articles and drinks that they enjoyed. The belief is that in some latitudes of the country, some dates are distinguished, in addition to November 1 and 2, October 28 is mentioned as the arrival of the people who died for a third party, to the boys and girls on the day November 1 and adults on November 2. They arrive at the offering and take the essence of everything put in it to remember when they were alive. Festivals are held in schools and they say "skulls" (death jokes among others). In the houses they eat puff pastries and bread of the dead.
Christmas
Christmas is one of the most important holidays for Mexico since it is a country of the Catholic religion. On this day they go to mass and celebrate the birth of the Child God. Mexicans gather with the whole family, which travels from all over to be together on this day. Previously, posadas are made, they sing and perform representations of how Joseph and Mary played from house to house until some noble people opened them up and allowed the Child Jesus to be born. At Christmas punch is drunk, the Child is lulled to sleep, piñatas are broken and a lot is eaten. Before Christmas Christmas Eve begins, where gifts are distributed.
Artistic manifestations
Painting
Painting is one of the oldest arts in Mexico. Rock painting in Mexican territory is about 7,500 years old, and has been manifested in the caves of the Baja California peninsula. In pre-Hispanic Mexico it is present in buildings and caves, in the Mexica codices, in ceramics, in clothing and religion, etc.; Examples of this are the Mayan mural paintings of Bonampak or those of Teotihuacán, those of Cacaxtla and those of Monte Albán.
Mural painting had an important flourishing during the XVI century, both in religious buildings and in lineage houses; such is the case of the convents of Acolman, Actopan, Huejotzingo, Tecamachalco and Zinacantepec. It is said that they were mainly indigenous painters directed by friars who made them. These were also manifested in illustrated manuscripts such as the Mendocino Codex.
For a time it was believed that the first European painter to settle in New Spain was Rodrigo de Cifuentes, an apocryphal artist to whom works such as The Baptism of the Caciques of Tlaxcala, a painting of the main altarpiece of the Ex Convent of San Francisco in Tlaxcala. Among the native painters was Marcos Aquino. The religiosity of the New Hispanics made painting important for the evangelization of society, the friars realized the graphic skills of the natives, who enriched the baroque and mannerist style. The arrival of multiple European painters and some students from New Spain, such as Juan Correa, Cristóbal Villalpando or Miguel Cabrera, who made the walls and altarpieces the main source of ideological and political expression for artists, was relevant.
The painting of the XIX century had a very marked romantic influence, landscapes and portraits were the greatest expression of this epoch. Hermenegildo Bustos is one of the most appreciated painters in the historiography of Mexican art. Also notable in these years are Santiago Rebull, José Salomé Pina, Félix Parra, Eugenio Landesio and his famous disciple, the landscaper José María Velasco Gómez, as well as Julio Ruelas.
Mexican painting of the XX century has achieved world renown with figures such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Joaquín Clausell, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, a generation of idealists who marked the image of modern Mexico in the face of strong social and economic criticism. The Oaxacan school quickly gained fame and prestige, diffusion of an ancestral and modern culture, freedom of design in terms of color and texture of canvases and murals is observed as a transition period between the XX and the XXI century.
Some of the most outstanding painters of the XXI century: Patricia Calvo Guzmán. She studied painting in Beijing. Her work, with a marked oriental influence, recalls the cut-out paper figures of Mexico and China, mixing them with a rich chromatic range; Eliseo Garza Aguilar, painter and performer considered among the main exponents of provocative and reflective art of the Third Millennium; In search of a critical response from the spectators, he combines his pictorial work in performances with theatrical histrionics; Pilar Goutas, a painter who uses oil on an amate support, heavily influenced by Jackson Pollock and Chinese calligraphy; Rafael Torres Correa established his residence in Mexico in 2001 and joined the contemporary art workshop "La Polilla" in Guadalajara, and carried out various plastic and scenographic projects.
Sculpture
Architecture
The presence of man in the Mexican territory has left important archaeological findings of great importance for the explanation of the habitat of primitive man and contemporary man. The Mesoamerican civilizations managed to have great stylistic and proportion development on the human and urban scale, the form evolved from simplicity to aesthetic complexity; in the north of the country, adobe and stone architecture is manifested, the multi-family housing as we can appreciate it in Paquimé; and the troglodyte dwelling in caves of the Sierra Madre Occidental.
Urban planning had a great development in pre-Hispanic cultures, where we can observe the magnitude of the cities of Teotihuacán, Tollan-Xicocotitlan and México-Tenochtitlan, within environmentalist urbanism the Mayan cities stand out as they are incorporated into the monumentality of their buildings with the thickness of the jungle and complex networks of paths called sacbeob.
With the arrival of the Spanish, architectural theories of the classical order and Arabic formalities were introduced, when the first temples and monastic convents were built; unique models of their kind were projected that were the basis for the evangelization of indigenous peoples, marking their ideology within the architectural style called tlaquitqui (from Nahuatl; worker or master builder), years later the baroque and the Mannerism prevails in large cathedrals and civil buildings, while in rural areas haciendas or stately estates with Mozarabic tendencies are built.
In the XIX century, the neoclassical movement emerged as a response to the objectives of the republican nation, one of its examples being the Cabañas Hospice where the strict plastic of the classical orders are represented in its architectural elements, new religious, civil and military buildings also appear that demonstrate the presence of neoclassicism. The romanticisms for a past seen through archeology show images of medieval, Islamic Europe and pre-Hispanic Mexico in the form of architectural elements in the construction of international fair pavilions seeking an identity of the national culture. Art nouveau and art deco were styles introduced into the design of the Palacio de Bellas Artes to mark the identity of the Mexican nation with Greco-Roman and pre-Hispanic symbols.
Modern architecture in Mexico has an important development in the plasticity of form and space, José Villagrán García develops a theory of form that sets the standard of teaching in many architecture schools in the country within functionalism. The emergence of the new Mexican architecture was born as a formal order of the policies of the nationalist state, which sought modernity and differentiation from other nations. Juan O'Gorman was one of the first environmental architects in Mexico, developing the "organic" theory, trying to integrate the building with the landscape within the same approaches as Frank Lloyd Wright. In the The search for a new architecture that does not resemble the styles of the past achieves a joint manifestation with mural painting and landscaping.
After the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, many social interest housing units began to be built, and the places that were intended for recreational parks began to be replaced by said units, despite the fact that the soil was not viable for these constructions. Examples of these buildings are those located in Tultitlán, in the State of Mexico.
The Jalisco School was a proposal of those socio-political movements that the country demanded. Luis Barragán managed to combine the shape of the space with forms of the vernacular rural architecture of Mexico and Mediterranean countries (Spain-Morocco), integrating an impressive color that manages light and shadow in different shades, opening a look at international minimalism.
Mexican architecture is a cultural phenomenon born from the ideology of nationalist governments of the XX century, which was shaping to the image of identity for its color and variegation of ornamental elements inherited from ancestral cultures, of classical, monumental forms; and later the incorporation of modernism and international avant-garde trends.
Cinema
The first time a movie could be seen in the Mexican cinema was in 1895, thanks to its inventors: Louis and Auguste Lumière, but it was not until 1931 that movies with sound appeared, thanks to a new sound synchronizing device, invented by the Rodríguez brothers (Roberto and Joselito), who worked in Hollywood. Since then, movies have been filmed that became very popular and grossing in Mexico. For 1950, the competition of the Mexican cinema arose: the television, when several chains came together to form the Mexican Telesistema. This led Mexican cinema to seek new techniques that would increase box office sales, such as wide screens, color films, stereophonic sound, and three-dimensional images.
Mexican cinema, considered a fundamental promoter of Mexican identity, had its Golden Age between the 1930s and the 1950s, when film production in the country was the most powerful of the speaking countries hispanic Figures from this period include Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, María Félix, Pedro Infante, Luis Aguilar, Jorge Negrete, Mario Moreno "Cantinflas" and Germán Valdés "Tin Tan", among others, who filmed prestigious and successful films, such as the trilogy made up of Nosotros los pobres, Ustedes los ricos and Pepe El Toro and starring Infante, among other films.
Music
Opera
In 1711 the opera La Parténope premiered in Mexico City with music by Manuel de Sumaya, master of the cathedral chapel and, along with Francisco López y Capillas and Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, the most great Mexican baroque composer. The special importance of this opera is that it is the first composed in North America and the first opera composed on the continent by a composer from the American continent. This opera begins the fertile and still little-studied history of Mexican operatic creation that has not been interrupted since then for three hundred years.
The opera Guatemotzín by Aniceto Ortega is the first conscious attempt to incorporate native elements into the formal characteristics of opera. Within the Mexican opera production of the XIX century, the opera Agorante, rey de la Nubia by Miguel Meneses, premiered during the commemorative festivities for the birthday of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, the operas Pirro de Aragón by Leonardo Canales, Keofar by Felipe Villanueva, and, above all, the operatic production of Melesio Morales, the most important Mexican composer of operas of the XIX century, whose works were highly successful between the public in Mexico City and which, even, were released in Europe. In the first half of the XX century, Julián Carrillo and composers close to him such as Antonio Gomezanda, Juan León Mariscal, Julia Alonso, Sofía Cancino de Cuevas, José F. Vásquez, Arnulfo Miramontes, Rafael J. Tello, Francisco Camacho Vega, Efraín Pérez Cámara. All of them have been relegated by the official musical historiography that only recognized the work of nationalist composers.
Since the end of the XX century in Mexico (and all of Latin America) there is a growing interest of composers in writing opera. Among the Mexican composers of the beginning of the XXI century who stand out with their operas, mention should be made of Federico Ibarra, Daniel Catán, Leandro Espinosa, Marcela Rodríguez, Víctor Rasgado, Javier Álvarez, Roberto Bañuelas, Luis Jaime Cortez, Julio Estrada, Gabriela Ortiz, Enrique González Medina, Manuel Henríquez Romero, Leopoldo Novoa, Hilda Paredes, Mario Stern, René Torres, Juan Trigos, Samuel Zyman, Mathias Hinke, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Isaac Bañuelos, Gabriel de Dios Figueroa, Enrique González-Medina, José Carlos Ibáñez Olvera, Víctor Mendoza and Emmanuel Vázquez.
Traditional and popular music
The most widespread traditional musical genre is the son (see the disambiguation page about the son in Mexico) whose forms are highly variable depending on the geographical region where it is cultivated. The son is of peasant tradition, but remains as a symbol of cultural identity. Also from rural origins are the canción ranchera and the corrido. The ranchera song and the mariachi son, disseminated by the cinema, are the best-known traditional Mexican genres in the country and abroad and have been elevated in a certain way to a kind of national music, although they are not representative of the musical culture of the whole country. The mariachi has its origins in the current state of Jalisco. Norteño music is performed with the accordion and sometimes also with keyboards and, although it originates from the northern states, it is widely accepted throughout the country. Also very popular is banda music, especially those from Sinaloa, Sonora and Durango.
Popular music
Rock in Spanish has, since the 1960s to date, legions of followers in big cities, there are also cultural rock currents called "alternatives"(El Tri, Caifanes, Maldita Vecindad and Los Hijos del Quinto Patio, Santa Sabina, Panteón Rococó, Café Tacuba, Maná; other very widespread genres are the ballad and the bolero itself, which came from the Caribbean to Mexico through the Yucatan peninsula, became a rage during the 1940s and 1940s. It has returned with a relative boom.
A piece of music that is widely disseminated by the media is the so-called grupera music, which is made up of various musical styles such as banda, northern music, ballads, and tropical music.
Underground scene
Regarding the underground or independent rock scene, Mexico has a wide range of exhibitors distributed throughout the national territory, from representatives in Ciudad Juárez such as Lúnatic, Freeway or Nina Sofá, to the southern part of the territory with bands like Krayon and La Farola, from Yucatán, or Lumaltok, from Chiapas, who with their tsotsil rock have aroused the curiosity of locals and strangers by interpreting their songs in their native language. In Mexico City there are various proposals that range from grunge, with Aneurysma, to melodic metal, with Mighty Thor, stages and exhibitors, where the Gato Calavera Bar & Forum, for its constant support for the dissemination of these bands.[citation required] In addition to the efforts of young talents, there is also the support of investors, who organize events and festivals to disseminate these young rock promises, such as: Rock unites us, Indi-O Fest, Amecameca Fest and Tlane Rock Fest, among others.[citation required ]
Dance
The dance of the peoples of Mexico has a sacred knowledge towards natural phenomena, deities, living beings and the daily life. The music or the sound of some object accompany the bodily movement of the human being to express his feelings through the movement of his body.
The Deer Dance is a dance celebrated by the Yaqui and Mayo Indians of the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa. This dance is a dramatization of the hunting of the deer, a cultural hero of these towns, by the paskolas (hunters).
During the viceroyalty, Spanish and Creole landowners held magnificent parties for Carnival; access to these festivals was denied to mestizos and indigenous people. During the festivities, the richest flaunted their wealth using clothes overloaded with ornaments and fabrics.
As a way of satire, the segregated castes began to carry out costumes and celebrations to parody the whites; for this they used pink masks with a very prominent chin (so as not to be recognized), costumes imitating the sumptuous ones used by whites with an exaggerated ornamentation of mirrors, beads and beads, as well as conical hats. Among the most outstanding dances are that of the chinelos in Morelos, the parachicos in Chiapas and the carnivals of Tlaxcala.
During the viceroyalty, the syrup spread throughout much of western, central, and southeastern Mexico. The reason that this name has been imposed on both the dance and the dance that accompanies it is uncertain. It has been proposed, for example, that it is a word of Arabic origin that designates happiness or celebration. The possibility has also been raised that the name of the genre comes from its nature of mixing various musical airs in a single piece.
Carnivals are another European cultural heritage with a very marked Hispanic and indigenous syncretism, carnivals were the popular expression of comparsas and pagan music to express the sentiment of the people before beginning the celebrations of Holy Week; Thus, the pre-Hispanic roots are shown in the Carnival of Tenosique in Tabasco, the image of the Spanish face is shown in the viceregal dances and carnival troupes of chinelos in Morelos, huehues in Tlaxcala and parachicos in Chiapas. Since the year 1849, the Carnival of Chimalhuacán, one of the oldest in the country, has been celebrated. Other very important Mexican carnivals are: the Tlaxcala Carnival, which stands out for its Hispanic and indigenous elements.
Another example of these carnivals is the one that is celebrated in Tlaltenco (town of the Tláhuac delegation in the center of the country), in which allegorical cars and different troupes stand out, such as: Sociedad Benito Juárez, Club Juvenil, San Francisco Tlaltenco, the independent of Chupamaros and Guadalupanas, which conclude with the coronation of the queens in Plaza Centenario and after this a popular dance.
Of all the Mexican syrups, perhaps the best known internationally is the jarabe tapatío, originally from Jalisco, and performed by the group called mariachi. There are other Mexican syrups such as Michoacan syrup, Guerrero syrup, Mixtec syrup or Mazahua syrup.
During the Porfiriato, rhythms from Europe arrived, such as the polkas and mazurkas danced in Poland and the former Czechoslovakia that adapted to the popular dance of the northerners of Mexico. In the Baja California peninsula, the chaveranes that come from Arkansas in the United States. The waltz that came from Austria and spread among the Mexican society of the time, acquiring its own identity in this country.
Literature
Photography
When the daguerreotype technique was surpassed, there is news of the use of paper in photography in Mexico since 1851. Prices drop, the private sphere is no longer their exclusive space. Photography is also used as political promotion. Following the death of President Benito Juárez, & # 34; the company Cruces y Campa sells an edition of twenty thousand copies of his portrait in business card format & # 34;. At the beginning of the XX century, Jesús Hermenegildo Abitia was a studio and outdoor photographer, documentary and fiction film cameraman. Agustín Víctor Casasola was a photographer who managed to establish himself as the quintessential portraitist of the ruling class: Porfirio Díaz, Francisco Villa, Huerta, among others. The photographs of Manuel Álvarez Bravo are urgent in the corners, managing to scrutinize what others fail to detect, while the photographer Nacho López was able to transfer his scripts and stories to his photographs.
Other representatives of photography are Lola Álvarez Bravo, Edward Weston, Tina Modoti, Julián Carrillo, Gabriel Figueroa, Enrique Segarra, Aramando Salas Portugal, Mariana Yampolsky, Lázaro Blanco, Juan Rulfo, Pedro Valtierra, Pedro Meyer Enrique Bossterman, Enrique Segarra Jr., Gavilán, Markova, Fabritzio León, Emanuel Lubezky, Rodrigo Prieto, among others. The National Museum of Photography is located in the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo. It features the first inventions and photographic devices of the XIX century, as well as the various techniques and genres developed throughout history. photographic.
Philosophy
The stages of philosophy in Mexico are subdivided in relation to the history of Mexico and the institutions of the Mexican State, as follows: pre-Columbian thought, viceregal thought, thought of the century XIX, Mexican Revolution and period of professionalization of philosophy (since philosophy reaches universities as a discipline of professional study). Within philosophy in Mexico there is a group of works considered specifically as Mexican philosophy, that which took Mexican social and political reality as its object of study. It is within this group where many of the great Mexican philosophers appear, such as Leopoldo Zea, Luis Villoro, Octavio Paz, Emilio Uranga, Samuel Ramos and José Vasconcelos.
Food
Mexico's gastronomy is characterized by its great variety of dishes and recipes, as well as by the complexity of its preparation, such as its medicines. It is recognized for its distinctive and sophisticated flavors with great seasoning. It brings together both Mesoamerican and European gastronomic traditions, among many others. Mexican cuisine is no stranger to cuisines: Spanish, Cuban, African, Middle Eastern, and Asian, to name a few.
Mexico is very famous for its gastronomy, internationally recognized, since UNESCO considers it an intangible cultural heritage of Humanity, due to the incomparable aromas and flavors of traditional cuisine. His chile recipes are his hallmark, a wide variety of chiles are used in mole and Mexican sauces. One of the reasons to love the gastronomy of Mexico is the rich pozole and tostadas that are already a tradition to celebrate the national holidays, we can also savor the exquisite tacos in their different varieties, such as suadero, golden basket, carnitas, also the green red and mole enchiladas, stuffed peppers, guacamole, tamales and cochinita pibil, for these reasons it is worth enjoying a delicious Mexican meal.
In pre-Hispanic Mexico, turkeys and xoloitzcuintles were raised, in addition to hunting all kinds of animals, including insects and larvae such as escamoles, jubiles, chinicuiles and dips that were part of the regular diet. Of all the techniques used to prepare food, the nixtamalization of corn stands out, a process that binds the starches of the grains and allows them to be converted into dough. It was also common to cook food with steam using a ground oven, hence the preparation of the famous tamales. This system was also used for the preparation of barbecue and zacahuil.
Television
Television is the main means of entertainment for the majority of the population in Mexico and its strength has displaced all other cultural manifestations, such as cinema and theater. Two large companies dominate the television market: Televisa, the founder of television in Mexico, and TV Azteca, beneficiary of the privatization of the state-owned national television company.
Soap operas capture the attention of millions of people throughout the country and stars such as Verónica Castro, Lucía Méndez, Victoria Ruffo, Salma Hayek, Leticia Calderón, Edith González, Fernando Colunga, Diego Luna have catapulted to fame., Lucero, Adela Noriega and Thalia. Leading characters in highly successful dramas that have somewhat replaced the big movie stars. Although mainly focused on romance, soap operas have also ventured successfully into youth and children's genres, and recently into political and comic themes.
Mexican television series have been of little relevance and their production is quite scarce. American series are preferred instead.
Famous comic characters have also emerged from television. Among the children and family audiences, Cachirulo, Chespirito, Cantinflas, La India María, Los Polivoces, Chabelo, Cepillín, Ramiro Gamboa, Andrés Bustamante and Anabel Ferreira stand out. In adult humor Víctor Trujillo, Héctor Suárez, Manuel "El Loco" Valdes, Eugenio Derbez and Adal Ramones.
Sports programs focus on broadcasting the soccer league or the world championships of that sport, while other sports are almost completely ignored. Every two years, the two main television networks invest large sums of money in the production of special programs that broadcast the Olympic Games or the Soccer World Cup. This program format, originally introduced in Mexico by the journalist José Ramón Fernández in what is currently ESPN ("closed" television), has been extended to Televisa and is an example of waste of resources and fierce struggle for monopolizing the rating , only comparable to soap operas.
In addition to soap operas, commercial television has been invaded in the last decade by programs that are part of the gossip press and by light magazine programs abundant in commercials. Sensational talk shows, so successful in the late 1990s, have lost ground as they are considered offensive to certain sectors. In the early 2000s, reality shows became very popular, especially La Academia (a version of the Spanish Operación Triunfo) and Big Brother, which has been fading away.
Cultural and entertainment television has been severely restricted on the two main television stations and is concentrated on two important educational channels: Channel 11, of the National Polytechnic Institute and Channel 22, dependent on the National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta). Local television channels, subsidized by state governments, also have cultural spaces that promote the identity of each state.
Mexico theater had a very important participation from the XIX century and the XX; and outstanding actresses and actors of the stature of María Tereza Montoya, María Conesa, Virginia Fábregas, Dolores Beristain, as well as actors of the stature of Fernando Soler, Manolo Fábregas, Ignacio López Tarso, who gave Mexico glory and its golden age. of the theater.
Children's programs have always been dominated by American cartoon series and from the 70's by Japanese animated series (Animé). In recent years, Channel 11 has started programs that try to introduce children to science and culture.
Contenido relacionado
Tlaxcala
Jose Diaz Fernandez
1969