History
and General Information
Historical Background
Mexico shares a long border, and a long
history, with the United States of America. It is bounded on
the north by the Rio Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande), on
the east by the United States and the Gulf of Mexico, and on
the west by the Pacific Ocean. The capital, largest city,
and cultural heart of Mexico is Mexico City.
The United Mexican States is a Federal Republic comprised of
31 states and one federal district. The Head of State and
Government for the nation is the President, who is elected
by universal suffrage of all citizens aged 18 and over, to a
six-year term. The president may not serve consecutive terms
in office. The Government of Mexico consists in the
Executive function, carried out by the elected president, a
bicameral Legislature, comprised of the Federal Chamber of
Deputies (500 Deputies) and the Senate (64 Senators). The
highest court in Mexico is the Supreme Court.
Mexico's Constitution has provided for: a code of labor,
prohibition on consecutive terms in elected office,
expropriated all property of religious orders, restored
communal lands to Native Americans. The unfolding of
Mexico's constitutional and federal government system has
been different from that of the United States. Mexico holds
a long tradition of public works, public welfare and social
programs, with appropriation of private industries or
properties as necessary, for the purpose of preserving and
protection the nation's vital national resources (oil,
minerals) or infrastructures (as in the 1937 nationalization
of the railway system). This tenet is part of a long
standing political struggle in Mexico, to attain a balance
between political freedoms and representation, stability and
trust in government, and economic parity. The tradition of
struggle is a feature, also, in the cultural, economic,
political, and class divisions that have recurred as issues
throughout the national experience.
History buffs should take special note
that Coahuila state was once Mexico's State of Coahuila and
Texas, so the connection for Texans is quite real.There are
three must-sees in Saltillo -- the historic center, el Museo
de las Aves (Museum of the Birds) and el Museo del Desierto
(Museum of the Desert.)
What to See
The sight of the Plaza de Armas, by the
cathedral and the Palacio de Gobierno, beautifully lit and
peaceful at night, is almost breathtaking. The cathedral
dates to 1745, with an ornate facade and suitably impressive
interior. to get first sight in the evening, and
then wander back during the day to explore the public
buildings and the nearby shopping streets (especially Calle
Victoria, of course.)
The bird museum, an easy walk from the
plaza, is in a 19th century building that originally was a
Jesuit college. It now houses the collection of Aldegundo
Garza de León, an ornithologist who over 40 years put
together stuffed birds representing about 75 percent of all
the species in Mexico. It sounds a bit strange, but taking
in the museum's five exhibit halls is fascinating.
El Museo del Desierto is a more modern and
extravagant affair, located in the expansive Parque Las
Maravillas about a 10-minute ride from downtown. It's a
modern natural history museum featuring dinosaurs,
ecosystems and geology, much of it interactive. I thoroughly
enjoyed it for about an hour and then got overwhelmed by the
sights and the noise, but dinosaur buffs and others really
into natural history can easily spend an afternoon there.
Saltillo
Saltillo is the capital of
the State of Coahuila, seat of the Government House and the
Congress of the state. The Governor's term of office is 6
years, with most recent election to the office in 1993. The
Municipal Presidency, an elected office comparable to a U.S.
city Mayor, holds a 3 year term of office. Contact the city
government of Saltillo through the office of the Honorable
Mayor Villareal:
Presidencia Municipal de
Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, P.O. Box 12-C cp 25000
Attention: Promotion and Economic Development Department,
Ing. Enrique Garza Gutierrez, (84)14-90-15 and 14-79-89
(Spanish Language)
(84)15-23-74 (telephone/FAX in Spanish or English Language)
The
city of Saltillo (population 550,000) was founded in
1577 by Captain Alberto del Canto, in a combined expedition
of the Spanish and Portugese. In the 19th Century it was the
capital of the states of Coahuila and Texas, and remains
capital of Coahuila. Saltillo has two universities, the
Ateneo Fuente, and Escuela Normal de Coahuila, founded over
100 years ago. Saltillo has been known throughout its
history as "The City of Flowers and Health."
Saltillo's history has been closely tied to that of the
United States of America, in the great conflicts and events
that shaped relations between the two nations. In 1847, the
Battle of Buena Vista took place just south of Saltillo.
This pivotal conflict of the Mexican War, in which U.S.
General Zachary Taylor defeated General Santa Anna,
ultimately changed the map of North America. The Casa de
Juarez in Saltillo is named for the great reformer and
revolutionary hero of Mexico, President Benito Juarez, who
lived there.
The city today is Mexico's number one producer of coal, with
thriving textile, steel and automotive industries. Saltillo
provides the industrial production sites for CIFUNSA
Company, which produces 1,700,000 engine blocks per year, a
major manufacturing site for John Deere, and automotive
assembly plants including General Motors and Chrysler
companies. In addition, the city has a highly developed
agricultural industry, metallurgy, machine tool, and
foundries. The ceramics industry for craft and industrial
applications is a noted enterprise, producing the famous
Saltillo Tile.
Saltillo
Economy
Saltillo's most famous
exports are Saltillo tile and the locally
woven multi-coloured
sarapes. There is also the
automotive industry, with two major assembly
plants (one General Motors and the other
DaimlerChrysler), two engine facilities and
a car transmissions plant. Saltillo is home
to the Grupo Industrial Saltillo, an
important manufacturing conglomerate that
makes home appliances, silverware, and auto
parts. Some criticism has been made of this
new urbanization and the lack of
conservation and planning.
During the early 20th
Century, Saltillo was called the Athens of
Mexico because of its number of famous
intellectuals. Nowadays, it is considered
the Detroit of Mexico because of the
importance of its automotive industry,
including the huge Daimler-Chrysler and
General Motors plants.
Saltillo is a sister city
of Austin, Texas, as well as of other 15
cities in several countries.
Mexico's
Culture
The Native American
civilizations of Mexico, notably the Aztec, fell through
conquest by European Spaniards in the 16th Century. From
that time, Mexican population has been composed of European
(Spanish and French) descendants, Native Americans (30%) and
mestizos, the largest population group (60%) who are of
mixed European and Native American ancestry. The ethnic
makeup of Mexico is intertwined with the political history
of the country, issues of power and economics tied to ethnic
and related class divisions.
The primary language of Mexico is Spanish, with about a
dozen Native American languages also still in use, primary
of those Nahuatl (the Aztec language). Roman Catholic
religion is the belief of 90% of the population. Mexico's
government, as a result of Spanish political abuses and
institutional collusion between church and government, has
been by long custom anti- clerical. This official policy
altered in 1991, with passage of constitutional changes
granting legal status to religious institutions and
permitting the establishment of parochial schools.
Saltillo's Culture
Among the founders of the city, arriving in
1591, were 400 families of Native Americans, who worked to
settle and establish the city. Coahuila's Cultural Institute
exhibits national and international art works, the aviary at
the Museum of Mexico's Birds house specimens native to the
entire North American Continent. The Museum of natural
History is also sited in Saltillo, inside the Ateneo
Fuente. The Manuel J. Garcia Museum contains a large
collections of wild animals exhibited in their natural
settings. Saltillo is home to an exhibit of paintings by
Ruben Herrera, whose works are prized throughout the world.
Saltillo is the site of the Great Archives of Coahuila, and
the Municipal Archives, invaluable repositories for
documents, manuscripts, and diaries dating back to the very
earliest Colonial era in the 1500s. The architectural beauty
of Saltillo includes the Government Palace and the Casino of
Saltillo, in the 19th Century Style, with far older styles
unique to Mexico represented in the Parroquia of San
Esteban which was built in the 16th Century.
The city is bounded on the west by the city of Torreon (177
miles), to the north by Monclova (109) and is only 186 miles
from Laredo, Texas in the U.S. Saltillo has superb
communication and transportation infrastructures in place,
with access to other cities in Mexico via an international
airport, by rail, or on the main highways.
Language
As is true throughout Mexico, Spanish is
the language of Saltillo, with Native American languages
spoken today by some populations of the region as well. The
rich blending of native artistry with European Spanish forms
lends unique distinction to the architecture, crafts, and
folkways of Saltillo.
Travel
Travel to Mexico from the U.S. requires
proof of citizenship and a Mexican visa, obtainable at the
point of entry, from Canada proof of citizenship. Other
international visitors should contact their national
consulate for passport and other travel information.
Information about touring or doing business in Saltillo can
also be obtained from:
Saltillo Chamber of Commerce, Ave.
Universidad 514, Col. Universidad, (84) 15-56- 11, FAX
15-29-03
State Tourism Department, (84) 30-05-10, 30-06-35
Union de Organismos, Empresariales de Saltillo, Ave.
Universidad 514, Col. Universidad, (84) 15-48-49, FAX
14-44-80
Currency
The standard currency in Mexico is the
"Peso." As always, if you are traveling to this region,
please call your local bank or lending institution for the
current exchange rate.
Political
The political parties of Mexico are the
PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), largest and most
important in Mexico; and National Action Party, (PAN) the
only opposition party able to challenge the PRI at a
national level. The Partido de la Revolucion Democratica, a
hard-left party, (PRD) is also a vigorous opposition party.
The primary trends influencing Mexico
arose from the Spanish Conquest and subsequent colonization
of the Native American inhabitants of Mexico. Thousands of
Mexico's native people were killed outright, and their labor
exploited by the Spanish conquerers. In 1512, Bartolome de
Las Casas, "Apostle of the Indians" became the first priest
ordained in the New World, and served as the first historian
of the Aztec culture to the European world, and attempted to
abolish Native American slavery and exploitation in the
system of encomienda. That system was a large grant of land
to individual Spanish settlers, with Native American
inhabitants of the land included as chattel.
The enslavement policy was abolished as a
result of his strenuous efforts at persuasion (1542) and
over the years, the Spanish government attempted a variety
of reforms. All such efforts were ineffectual, undermined by
distance from the problems and the rapacious, corrupt
practices of the Spanish and, eventually French, colonial
powers. The alignment of power and ethnicity was a class
system for years, with Spaniards holding all positions of
real power, the criolles (creoles) holding official posts
but wielding only derivative authority, theocratic monopoly
by the Roman Catholic institutions, leaving mestizo and
Native American laborers in peonage, powerless to influence
the system.
In 1810, a Mexican priest and
revolutionary, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, led an armed
insurrection of mestizo and Native American people in
rebellion against Spanish rule, He carried a banner
depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico, and
captured with his army of desperate people, the City of
Guadalajara, in Jalisco. However, on January 11, 1811, this
rebellion was crushed near Guadalajara by Spanish forces.
Hidalgo fled, but was captured and shot. Independence was
gained, and the republic of Mexico established by 1824, and
the priest was regarded as a hero, almost a saint. The state
of Hidalgo was named in his honor, and September 16, the day
on which he proclaimed the revolt, is celebrated as
Independence Day in Mexico.
Political change arrived with the ideas of
the French Revolution, which inspired the criolles and
educated Mexicans in the newly forming middle class. The
revolutionary French political ideas also caught fire with
the vast disenfranchised laboring classes. The Napoleonic
upheavals in Europe during later years provided an
opportunity for armed rebellion and independence from Spain
to take place, but permanent class stratifications, mixed
with politics and the personal ambitions of political
leaders, kept the nation from finding equilibrium.
Armed struggle, dictatorship, and cylces
of revolt and repression, became the landscape of politics
in Mexico for much of its history. This is exemplified in
the person of Benito Pablo Juarez, President of Mexico from
1861 - 1863, and again from 1867 - 1872. He was a Native
American, educated for a career in law and civil service.
During the turbulent struggles of the 19th
Century, this hero of Mexico served, first, as minister of
justice. He opposed the corruption of government and the
abuses of General Santa Anna, and was jailed for that
opposition (1853). He lived in exile in the United States,
but helped lead the opposition revolt which succeeded at
last in 1855. Benito Juarez instituted reforms that included
reducing the civil power of the Roman Catholic church and
creation and enforcement of Mexico's constitution.
He was constitutionally elected President
in 1861, and in the face of economic disaster caused by
warfare within the nation as well as in conflicts with the
United States, suspended debt payments to foreign powers.
Great Britain and Spain consented to the Juarez reform
settlements, but France attempted to colonize Mexico.
The French declared Maximillian, the
archduke of Austria who was connected to the French
government and ruling class, as Emperor of Mexico and took
Mexico City by force. President Juarez led a Government in
Exile from Saltillo, in Coahuila, and ousted the French by
force of arms. Following the rout of France and execution of
the puppet Maximillian, Juarez served again as the duly
elected President of Mexico (1867). In 1871, a political
rival, Porfirio Diaz, began an unsuccessful coup d'etat, but
the long burdens of leadership took their toll. President
Benito Juarez died of stroke in 1872, before the end of the
uprising.
When border disputes between Mexico and
the United States of America had been resolved by armed
conflict, and by formal treaty with financial compensation,
the two nations constructed what is now referred to as the
"Good Neighbor Policy." Mexico served through military and
diplomatic crises as an ally of the United States. The
Mexican people lost fighting men in the battles of the
Second World War against fascism, and was a founding member
of the United Nations. Recent free trade agreements between
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico (NAFTA) may well increase the
level of cross-border interaction.
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon was elected
as Mexico's President, following the assassination of his
party's candidate, for whom President Zedillo had served as
campaign manager. Other killings and national scandals were
investigated, and a National Mediation Commission was formed
to address the armed rebellion of the EZLN, a Native
Zapatista insurrectionist movement arising in the Chiapas
region, where grievances against governing officials,
involving corruption and political, ethnic persecution, had
not been investigated or redressed.
In recent elections, the traditionally
predominant, governing party of leftism and anti-colonial
revolution, the powerful PRI, lost gubernatorial and mayoral
elections in Jalisco State and the city of Guadalajara, to
the conservative National Action Party (PAN). Present trends
include departure from former policies in some areas, with
moves toward privatization in some industries and
institutions.
Education
Saltillo is home to the Escuela Normal de
Coahuila, a university founded 100 years ago, and Antonio
Narro which is a major agricultural university, as well as
the century old Ateneo Fuentes. In addition, numerous
technical and vocational schools and colleges are sited in
Saltillo. There are more than twenty technological schools
and forty five post-secondary schools and colleges in the
city. In addition, the universities and industries of the
area offer research centers in metallurgy, chemistry,
agricultural science, and economics:
UAC (Coahuila State University)
ITESM (Monterrey Technological Institute, Saltillo Campus)
ITS (Saltillo Technological Institute and Research Center)
UANE (Northeast Autonomous University)
CINVESTAV (Advanced Studies and Research Center)
UPN (National Pedagogic University)
Language schools in Saltillo include:
Mexican North-American Cultural Relations
Institute, Gayle Yondorf, Director, (84) 14-84-22, 12-06-53
Alianze Franco-Mexicana (French), (84) 14-91-05
American School of Saltillo, (84) 15-96-32
For special assistance in arranging for
extended residence in Saltillo, contact:
Cindy Jahnke (84) 15-21-21 or 10-11-45 (English and Spanish
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