Mexico can’t be defined as just a geographical space, a set of territorial or political dividers. Mexico is defined by Mexicans. It is our food, holidays, thoughts, devotion, character and art that creates something distinctively our own and sets us apart from any other nation.
Mexico has spirit of its own and it is the Mexican people who breathe the life into the land.
It is a country with an abysmal economic gap between the upper classes and the lower classes, but the traits and characteristics that we all share as Mexicans bridge the space between social strata.
North or South, city or country, past or the present, it is our shared identity.
Posadas, mariachi, tortillas, charro, tequila, tacos; this is Mexico. Our cultural identity survives in spite of a country beaten, shaken and violated by corruption and social problems.
It has been said that "men are molded according to the circumstances of their history", but I prefer the poetry of the Culhuacan Memorials:
"As long as the world lasts there will be no end to the fame or the glory of Mexico Tenochtitlan".
Written by Monica Venegas for Caras de México. Click here to read more articles examining Mexican identity.