LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Mexico: Mexico City
built 615 days ago
Mexico's urban growing pains are in sharp counterpoint to the traditional lifestyles that prevail in more-isolated rural areas. In states such as Oaxaca or Chiapas, small communal villages remain where indigenous peasants live much as their ancestors did. The cultural remnants of great pre-Columbian civilizations, such as Teotihuacán or the Mayan pyramids at Chichén Itzá and Tulum, provide a contrast to colonial towns such as Taxco or Querétaro. In turn, these towns appear as historical relics when compared with the modern metropolis of Mexico City. Yet even the bustling capital city, which has been continually built and rebuilt on the rubble of past civilizations, reveals Mexico's wide range of social, economic, and cultural struggles. As the renowned Mexican poet and intellectual Octavio Paz observed,
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Easier - Mexico is part of the continent of North America and lies between the United States (to its north) and Central America (to the south). It is the northernmost country of Latin America. The Rio Grande River forms about two-thirds of the boundary with the United States. The population of the country is about 104 million people. About one-third live in or near Mexico City, the capital city and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Mexico city is the seat of government and the center of the nation's commerce, finance and the arts.
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A federal republic of North America, Mexico has coastlines on the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Area: 1,958,201 sq km (756,066 sq mi). Pop. (1993 est.): 89,955,000. Cap.: Mexico City. Monetary units: Mexican (old) peso, with (Oct.
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Mexico has over thirty thousand flowering plants including frangipani, magnolia, bougainvillea and orchids. The cactus is the plant which most people associate with Mexico. The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, on whose site Mexico City stands, takes its name from the "tenochtli" - the prickly pear cactus.
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In 2005, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the enormously popular mayor of Mexico City, emerged as a presidential candidate for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution. López Obrador seemed likely to defeat the party of the deeply unpopular incumbent, Vicente Fox. But in Oct. 2005, Felipe Calderón unexpectedly became the candidate of Fox's National Action Party (PAN), defeating Fox's chosen successor. By spring 2006, Felipe Calderón had caught up to López Obrador in opinion polls. In the July election, Calderón won 35.9% of the vote, a razor-thin margin over López Obrador, who received 35.3%. López Obrador appealed the election, but on Aug. 28 Mexico's top electoral court rejected López Obrador's allegations of fraud.
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None of Mexico's pre-Columbian civilizations is more storied... than the Aztecs. Though it is arguable that other civilizations in Mexico achieved greater artistic and scientific feats, none advanced as quickly or ruled as much territory. Prior to the 15th century, the Aztecs were a marginal tribe living on the edge of Lake Texcoco, the site of present day Mexico City. By 1473, after subjugating neighboring tribes, they ruled the largest empire Mexico had ever seen. Their capital of Tenochtitlan, set in the lake, was a picturesque city of pyramids, mile-long floating roads, aquaducts, animated marketplaces, and one hundred thousand residents. Leading a highly codified government was an all-powerful emperor who exacted taxes from the conquered and distributed land to his people, especially the warriors. When the Spanish adventurer Hernan Cortez arrived in 1519, the rich city was a vision perfectly meshed to his thirst for conquest.
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