CITIES IN MEXICO

Mexico is a country dominated by what geographers call a primary city, a single metropolitan area that is larger than the next four cities combined. Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, had a population of 13,096,686 in 2000 and a population of 18.1 million (2000) in its metropolitan area. It has a concentration of economic, political, and cultural resources not seen anywhere else in the country. Much of Mexico’s manufacturing capacity is located in Mexico City or the Federal District, which surrounds it. Because political power is concentrated in the federal government, Mexico City dominated political life during the 20th century. These economic and political resources have attracted to the capital the majority of Mexico’s cultural resources. Most of the leading museums, prestigious educational institutions, skilled professionals, publishing firms, magazines, and newspapers are located in the capital.

Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara is located about 290 miles northwest of Mexico City. It was a colonial center of considerable religious and architectural importance and is now a major hub for commerce and industry. Guadalajara is second only to the capital in its importance as a cultural center. The city has produced numerous literary and cultural leaders.

Netzahuacóyotl, is located just east of the capital and is inhabited largely by skilled and unskilled blue-collar workers employed in nearby industrial operations in the state of Mexico and in the Federal District. Netzahuacóyotl suffers from serious problems, including inadequate housing, communications, and basic services.

Monterrey, located in the northern border state of Nuevo León, is the center of Mexico’s iron and steel industry and is for that reason often called “the Pittsburgh of Mexico.” Many residents of the city pride themselves on their entrepreneurial spirit and resent the domination of the capital. Monterrey is second only to the capital in its concentration of important, capital-intensive industries. It is a major center of economic activity, and a significant channel of commerce linking Mexico to the United States.

One of the oldest Mexican cities, located southeast of Mexico City in the neighboring state of Puebla, is the colonial town of Puebla. The state capital, it is an important commercial link between Mexico City and the major Gulf Coast port of Veracruz to the east. Finally, one of Mexico’s newer cities and an example of the rapidly growing north is Ciudad Juárez, the largest border city with the United States, and a major source of trade and transportation with its sister city, El Paso, Texas.

Due to explosive population growth, Mexico’s labor force expanded rapidly in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The number of Mexicans annually joining the nation’s labor force (anyone over the age of 12) generally exceeded 1,000,000. By 2001 the labor force had grown to 41.3 million people. Of these workers, 67 percent were male and 33 percent were female.

Official estimates of urban unemployment averaged between 6 and 7 percent in 1996, but most analysts believe that true rates of unemployment are much higher, and that underemployment in Mexico is significant. This situation has increased illegal immigration to the United States.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, the structure of the Mexican workforce underwent major changes. Manufacturing and other industries—sectors of the economy that have traditionally provided stable jobs that pay good wages—saw little growth and created few new jobs. At the same time, the number of low-paying, service sector jobs increased. At the 1990 census, services employed 55 percent of all of Mexico’s labor force. Industry (including construction, manufacturing, mining, and power) employed 27 percent of the labor force. Agriculture (including forestry and fishing) employed about 18 percent.

Less than 20 percent of Mexico’s labor force belongs to a union, the majority of which are controlled by the government. Rather than being aggressive advocates for workers, Mexican unions have typically played a crucial role in supporting the government-dominated Institutional Revolutionary Party. In doing so, the unions have often agreed to government economic pacts to control inflation, prices, and wage increases. Mexican unions are noted for their levels of corruption and subordination to government influence. The major unions are the Mexican Federation of Labor and the National Farmers Confederation.

Much of Mexico is too dry or mountainous for agriculture; only 14 percent of the nation’s land is cultivated or used for plantations and orchards. Irrigation is required to farm in many regions. Most of the food consumed by Mexicans is raised on Mexican farms, although frequent droughts and a population that is growing faster than the amount of food produced have made Mexico dependent on agricultural imports, particularly grains and milk products.

Agriculture accounts for only a small percentage of Mexico’s GDP. Although agriculture employed one-fourth of the nation’s economically active population, it only accounted for 4 percent of the value of the GDP in 2001. Between 1950 and 1990 this sector of the Mexican economy grew by only about 10 percent. This was due both to the declining importance of agriculture among the labor force and to Mexico’s increasing industrialization during this period.

Many of Mexico’s agricultural workers are subsistence farmers, who produce only enough to feed their families. Although the Mexican government distributed millions of hectares of land to poor farmers between the 1920s and the 1970s, the plots were generally small and the quality of the land was often poor. In addition, many small farmers were unable to obtain the credit they needed in order to purchase the seeds, fertilizer, or equipment they required to stay in business. This led to high rates of migration from rural areas into the cities, as well as northward to the United States.

Mexican agriculture is highly productive in certain regions, especially near the capital and in the northwest. Corn and beans, the staples of the nation’s diet, are the primary food crops, and they grow best in the valleys and basins of the central plateau that surround Mexico City. Wheat is raised on irrigated land in central and northern Mexico and has replaced corn in the diet of many Mexicans. Other principal agricultural products grown for domestic consumption include barley, rice, soybeans, vegetables, and citrus fruits.

Large volumes of products such as coffee, cotton, citrus fruits, sugar, and tomatoes are grown for export, primarily to the United States. Most coffee is grown in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, cotton is cultivated mainly on irrigated land in northwest Mexico, and sugar plantations are scattered in various states, with the largest concentration in Veracruz. About 20 percent of Mexico’s agricultural production is exported.

The main forage and hay crops are alfalfa and sorghum. They are raised in arid regions, often with the use of irrigation, and are important to livestock farmers. Beef cattle are the most important Mexican livestock and beef is an important export. Chickens are raised throughout the country and consumed locally.

Mexico has significant forest resources, despite the fact that much of the nation’s land is semiarid and many of the forests that existed prior to the arrival of Europeans have been lost to logging and erosion. It is estimated that nearly two-thirds of what is now Mexico was covered by forests in the early 1500s; by 2000 forests covered only 29 percent of the country. Almost all logging has been placed under strict government supervision, but this has failed to halt deforestation. Between 1970 and 1985 Mexico lost about one-sixth of its woodlands. The most commercially valuable woods are pine, spruce, cedar, mahogany, logwood, and rosewood. Other important forest products include pitch, resins, and charcoal. Mexico does not produce enough wood pulp to meet its demand for paper products and the country imports much of its paper and cardboard. Mexico’s pine and oak forests are found largely in the nation’s mountainous central and northern regions. Tropical hardwoods such as mahogany are found in the tropical rain forests of southern Mexico. The country’s most important timber resources are located in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Michoacán, Oaxaca, and Jalisco.

Fishing has increased in importance, symbolized by the fact that Mexico now devotes a cabinet-level agency to its development and protection. The most valuable fishery resources are found in the Gulf of Mexico, especially the states of Campeche and Veracruz; the Gulf of California, bordering the states of Sonora and Sinaloa; and the Pacific Ocean, notably off the coast of Baja California. The most important seafood export is tuna, and shrimp is increasingly valuable to the domestic market.

Iron Mining in Mexico Mexico’s silver and petroleum industries provide an important source of income for the nation. Mexico leads the world in silver mining and provides significant quantities of petroleum to other countries. Iron mining occurs primarily in the northeastern part of the country in the states of Durango and Coahuila.Sergio Dorantes

Mining, especially of silver and copper, has historically been the most important extractive industry in Mexico. Although petroleum production has surpassed the mining of metals in importance, Mexico remains a major producer and exporter of silver. It also operates one of the largest salt extraction facilities in the world in Guerrero Negro in the state of Baja California Sur. Its chief mining regions are Chihuahua, Durango, Hidalgo, and Zacatecas. In the early 1990s mining accounted for about 2 percent of the nation’s GDP and employed about 1 percent of the labor force. In 1996 Mexico ranked eighth in the world in the total value of its crude oil production. It is also among the world’s top producers of celestite, silver, sodium sulfate, antimony, white arsenic, bismuth, fluorspar, and graphite.

Of the nation’s natural resources, petroleum far exceeds in value all other resources combined. In 1982 petroleum was Mexico’s number-one export product, accounting for 80 percent of the value of total exports. Until the 1930s many of Mexico’s natural resources were primarily controlled and operated by foreigners. After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), the nation began to nationalize many of its basic resources and industries. The nationalization of the petroleum industry in 1938, which had been owned primarily by U.S. firms, signaled the new lengths Mexico was willing to go to assert its sovereignty and regain control of its resources. Petroleum in Mexico is extracted, processed, and sold by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), a government-owned company. Although most mining firms that the Mexican government once owned have been privatized, or sold to private investors, the petroleum industry remains largely in government hands. As of late 1996, some of Mexico’s petrochemical industries had been offered for sale, but only 49 percent of any operation can be purchased by foreigners.

Oil revenue is extremely important to the Mexican economy. In the mid-1990s oil accounted for about one-fourth of all government revenues and one-eighth of export earnings. In the 1970s reliance on petroleum earnings contributed to the country’s huge national debt. During this period, the government borrowed money at high interest rates and used the loans to finance the development of manufacturing and service industries. The government anticipated that it would be able to pay the loans off quickly with oil revenues. When the price of oil dropped steeply in the early 1980s, the Mexican government was unable to meet its loan payments and was forced to cut spending on economic development and social services.

In early 1998 a world oil surplus prompted Mexico to join forces with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, other leading oil-producing countries, to restrict oil production. The surplus had caused a drop in oil prices, lessening Mexico’s earnings from petroleum. The reduced oil revenue led the government to cut $1.05 billion from the country’s budget.

Mexican Craftsworker Manufacturing makes up an increasing proportion of the Mexican economy. While Mexico has expanded its industrial output since the 1940s, it still produces fine handmade crafts. This woman sells handicrafts on the steps of the Church of Guadalupe at Puerto Vallarta, in the west central Mexican state of Jalisco.

Mexico has moved away from an economy dominated by oil revenues in the early 1980s, to one in which diversified manufacturing plays a much more significant role. Manufacturing employed approximately 12 percent of economically active Mexicans in 1950; this figure had climbed to 19 percent by 1990. In 2001 manufacturing accounted for 19.39 percent of the nation’s GDP. The development of manufacturing in Mexico has included two important subsectors: an assembly and light manufacturing sector (whose businesses are known as maquiladoras in Spanish) that is concentrated largely along the country’s northern border with the United States, and a capital-intensive sector that includes industries such as steelmaking and automobile manufacturing.

Many large foreign companies, owned primarily by U.S. and Japanese investors, have located hundreds of maquiladoras in Mexico. These businesses produce specific parts of products to be sold in or exported from the home country, or they import parts from abroad, assemble the products in Mexico, and then ship the completed products back to the home country. This sector has been one of the fastest-growing in the Mexican economy, contributing significantly to economic growth, and providing new employment even during the years that followed the 1994 economic crisis.

Mexican factories produce motor vehicles, cement, sulfuric acid, petrochemicals, metals, rubber products, plastics, paper products, and a variety of consumer goods, including cigars and cigarettes, textiles, clothing, shoes, glassware, beer and soft drinks, household appliances, and radios and televisions. Mexico built a thriving iron and steel industry after World War II, with much of this manufacturing capacity located in the city of Monterrey. Mexico doubled its steel production between 1970 and 1980, although production remained stagnant throughout the 1980s. In recent years Mexico’s capital-intensive industries, such as steelmaking, have become more competitive as modern factories with automated equipment have been built. Production of steel began to grow again in the 1990s, and some Mexican businesses acquired control over foreign companies.

Mexico’s most important manufacturing centers include the combined urban area of the Federal District and Mexico state, as well as the cities of Monterrey and Guadalajara. Since the late 1970s, Mexico has attempted to decentralize its manufacturing base and to encourage foreign investment in areas of central Mexico outside of Mexico City or the Federal District. While the nation has achieved some success in this area, most of Mexico’s poorer, rural regions have not attracted industry.