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Get your camera. It’s time for a Mexico-hopping photo tour. Many tourists never get past Mexico City. But there is so much more to see.
Just as Mexico has a variety of natural resources, landscapes, and climates, the cities and regions in different parts of the country have different ways of life.
▲ Chiapas has more mountains than most Mexican states. It is also one of the poorest states in Mexico. Many of the people here, like this woman, are Indians who survive by planting crops without tools or machines. They grow only enough food for their families. Many people are directly related to the Maya Indians. They also speak Mayan languages. Tourists visit Chiapas for the Maya ruins.
People call Monterrey the City of the Mountains. The Sierra Madre Oriental range passes through one of its suburbs. Monterrey is the third-largest city in Mexico. It is filled with factories. They make everything from glass and beer to cement and other building materials. It is also a major banking center. Monterrey is known for its modern office buildings, wide highways, golf courses, shopping malls, and beach resorts. It is one of Mexico’s richest cities. At right is the 230-foot-tall Faro del Comercio (Lighthouse of Commerce) monument and Monterrey Cathedral. ▶
▲ Chiapas is home to a group of rebels. They are called Zapatistas. They have been fighting a war with the Mexican government since 1994. That’s because farmers in Chiapas were promised land after the 1910 revolution. But they never got it. The Zapatistas have called attention to their need for land, economic help, and self-government. They have also called for more education and the right to keep their way of life. The Zapatistas want to remind people that the world is becoming more modern. But yet there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. They take their name from a hero of the Mexican Revolution, Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919).
▲ This man is selling handmade straw hats in Guanajuato city, the capital of the state of Guanajuato. The city lies in a long, narrow valley. It is surrounded by the Sierra de Guanajuato mountains of central Mexico. Guanajuato means “mountainous place of frogs”!
◀ In the 1880s, Mexican cowboys were called vaqueros. They taught pioneers in the U.S. many ranching skills. Mexicans were North America’s first cowboys. In central and northern Mexico, traditional cowboys are now called charros. They hold rodeo-like contests called charreadas. This charro is practicing for a charreada. He may show off his horseback riding, bull riding, or steer roping. In ranching areas, some towns hold charreadas every month. They happen in arenas called charro rings.
▲ Do you like fresh seafood? Go to Veracruz. It’s Mexico’s main port on the Gulf Coast. Boats leave here and come back with shrimp, clams, oysters, crabs, and many kinds of fish.
