Mexico

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. The war began after a pronunciamiento by a group of... right-wing generals under the leadership of José Sanjurjo against the Government of the Second Spanish Republic, at the time under the leadership of President Manuel Azaña. The rebel coup was supported by a number of conservative groups including the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right, monarchists such as the religious conservative Carlists, and the Fascist Falange. The uprising was authoritarian and anti-separatist in inspiration; anti-Basque and anti-Catalan feeling marked the Nationalist zone. Following the only partially successful coup, Spain was left militarily and politically divided. From that moment onwards, general Francisco Franco began a protracted war with the established government, as loyalist supporters of the left-wing Republican Government fought the rebel forces for control of the country.
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The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat... Porfirio Díaz, and lasted for the good part of two decades until around 1929. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarian movements. Over time the Revolution changed from a revolt against the established order to a multi-sided civil war. This armed conflict is often categorized as the most important sociopolitical event in Mexico and one of the greatest upheavals of the 20th century. After prolonged struggles, its representatives produced the Mexican Constitution of 1917. The Revolution is generally considered to have lasted until 1920, although the country continued to have sporadic, but comparatively minor, outbreaks of warfare well into the 1920s. The Cristero War of 1926 to 1929 was the most significant relapse into bloodshed. The Revolution led to the creation of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario in 1929; it was renamed the Partido Revolucionario Institucional in 1946.
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The Battle of Ambos Nogales , or the Third Battle of Nogales, was an engagement fought on August 27, 1918 between United States Army forces,... stationed in Nogales, Arizona, and the Carrancista garrison of Nogales, Sonora. It was notable for being one of the larger battles between American and Mexican forces during the Border War and it involved a group of German military advisors who fought along side the Mexicans. Since the United States was fighting in World War I, the advisors' participation in the conflict makes it the only battle of the war fought on American soil. By 1918, the United States had declared war on Germany, thus entering World War I. The situation in Mexico had been terrible since the beginning of the revolution in 1910. While fighting the Germans overseas, U.S. forces still had an obligation to defend the United States' southern border. Throughout the Mexican Revolution U.S. forces garrisoned America's border towns, occasionally exchanging fire with Mexican rebels or federals.
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The United States occupation of Veracruz, which began with the Battle of Veracruz, lasted for six months and was a response to the Tampico Affair of... April 9, 1914. The incident came in the midst of poor diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States, related to the ongoing Mexican Revolution. After the Tampico Affair, where nine American sailors were arrested by the Mexican government for entering off-limit areas in Tampico, Tamaulipas, President Woodrow Wilson ordered the United States Navy to prepare for the occupation of the port of Veracruz. While waiting for authorization of Congress to carry out such action, Wilson was alerted of a German delivery of weapons for Victoriano Huerta due to arrive to the port on April 21. As a result, Wilson issued an immediate order to seize the port's customs office and confiscate the weaponry. Huerta had taken power with the assistance of the American ambassador Henry Lane Wilson during a coup d'état in early 1913 known as La decena trágica.
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The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a... trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Canada. In terms of combined GDP of its members, as of 2010 the trade bloc is the largest in the world. The North American Free Trade Agreement has two supplements, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation . Following diplomatic negotiations dating back to 1986 among the three nations, the leaders met in San Antonio, Texas, on December 17, 1992, to sign NAFTA. U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas, each responsible for spearheading and promoting the agreement, ceremonially signed it. The agreement then needed to be ratified by each nation's legislative or parliamentary branch. Before the negotiations were finalized, Bill Clinton came into office in the U.S.
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Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the... Asia-Pacific region. Established in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional economic blocs in other parts of the world, APEC works to raise living standards and education levels through sustainable economic growth and to foster a sense of community and an appreciation of shared interests among Asia-Pacific countries. Members account for approximately 40% of the world's population, approximately 54% of the world's gross domestic product and about 44% of world trade. An annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting is attended by the heads of government of all APEC members except the Republic of China , which is represented under the name Chinese Taipei by a ministerial-level official. The location of the meeting rotates annually among the member economies, and until 2011, a famous tradition involved the attending leaders dressing in a national costume of the host member.
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The Caribbean Development Bank is a financial institution which assists Caribbean nations in financing social and economic programs in its member... countries. Created on October 18, 1969, by a conference of eighteen countries and territories in Kingston, Jamaica, it has its headquarters located in Bridgetown, Barbados. In 2004 and 2010, Standard & Poor's gave the CDB a rating of Triple A, the firm's highest rating. According to Standard and Poor if the Caribbean Development bank "continues its prudent financial policies of the past, its rating should remain stable over the medium term." At the end of 2000, the bank had shareholders' equity of US$426 million. The United Nations launched Development Business in 1978 with the support of the Caribbean Development Bank, the World Bank, and many other major development banks from around the world. Today, Development Business is the primary publication for all major multilateral development banks, United Nations agencies, and several national governments, many of whom have made the publication of their tenders and contracts in Development Business a mandatory requirement.
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to... stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices, and co-ordinate domestic and international policies of its members. The OECD originated in 1948 as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation , led by Robert Marjolin of France, to help administer the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. Later, its membership was extended to non-European states. In 1961, it was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a "very high" Human Development Index and are regarded as developed countries. The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris, France.
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The National Polytechnic Institute colloquially known as the Polytechnic is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 153.027 students... at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It was founded on 1 January 1936 during the administration of President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río as a response to provide professional education to the most disadvantaged social classes in that historical period. The institute consists of 81 academic units offering 271 courses of study. It includes 65 technical careers, 78 different undergraduate and 128 postgraduate programs. Its main campus, called Unidad Profesional Adolfo López Mateos or Zacatenco, is situated on approximately 530 acres north Mexico City. The IPN is based primarily in Mexico City and its suburbs, but with several research institutes and facilities distributed over 17 different states.
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The Autonomous University of Nuevo León is a public university with seven campuses across the Northern state of Nuevo León, Mexico.... Founded as University of Nuevo León on 25 September 1933, it is the oldest and largest university in the state in terms of student population and it is currently headquartered in San Nicolás de los Garza, a suburb of Monterrey. The immediate forerunner of this public university dates back to 1859, when the Civil Academy started its courses. This institution had been envisioned by Governor Santiago Vidaurri but was erected by his successor, José Silvestre Aramberri, after the former was removed from office. The academy began to sponsor the Pharmacy and Medicine courses José Eleuterio González had been teaching at the local Hospital of the Rosary for several decades. The academic offerings included courses in Law and Medicine, as well as a preparatory school. Its first director was José de Jesús Dávila y Prieto.
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The Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education commonly shortened as Monterrey Institute of Technology or Monterrey Tech is one of the... largest private, nonsectarian and coeducational multi-campus universities in Latin America with over 90,000 students at the high school, undergraduate, and postgraduate levels. Based in Monterrey, Mexico, the Institute has 31 campuses in 25 cities throughout the country and is known for becoming the first university ever connected to the Internet in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world, having one of the top graduate business schools in the region and being one of the leaders in patent applications among Mexican universities. The Institute was founded on September 6, 1943 by a group of local businessmen led by Eugenio Garza Sada, a moneyed heir of a brewing conglomerate who was interested in creating an institution that could provide highly skilled personnel — both university graduates and technicians— to the booming Monterrey corporations of the 1940s.
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Sara García was a Mexican actress who made her biggest mark during the "Golden Age of Mexican cinema". During the 1940s and 1950s, she often... played the part of a no-nonsense but lovable grandmother in numerous Mexican films. In later years, she played parts in Mexican telenovelas. Known as "Mexican Cinema's Grandmother", García's image is displayed on the label of Mexico's traditional Abuelita chocolate, a company now owned by Nestlé. García was born Sara García Hidalgo to Andalusian parents, Isidoro García Ruiz, an architect, and his wife Felipa Hidalgo de Ruiz. Her father was hired for various jobs in Veracruz, where they arrived, having just come from Havana, Cuba. García was the only survivor of their eleven children. In 1900, her mother died of typhoid fever which García had caught first and her mother caught from her. García started her film career at 22 when she was a teacher at a Catholic school for girls, where she served as a substitute art professor. She is said to have been a talented painter in those days.
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Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist. Mingus's compositions retained the hot and... soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music. Yet Mingus avoided categorization, forging his own brand of music that fused tradition with unique and unexplored realms of jazz. Mingus focused on collective improvisation, similar to the old New Orleans jazz parades, paying particular attention to how each band member interacted with the group as a whole. In creating his bands, Mingus looked not only at the skills of the available musicians, but also their personalities. Many musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. He recruited talented and sometimes little-known artists whom he assembled into unconventional and revealing configurations. As a performer, Mingus was a pioneer in double bass technique, widely recognized as one of the instrument's most proficient players.
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Gloria Lasso was a Spanish-born singer, long based in France. In the fifties, she was one of the major competitors to Dalida. Born as Rosa... María Coscolin in Vilafranca del Penedès, Catalonia, she achieved a degree of fame and success in the 1950s and 1960s, with songs such as Amour, castagnettes et tango , Etranger au paradis , Buenas noches mi amor and Bon voyage . Eventually superseded by Dalida, she moved to Mexico, but attempted a come back in France in 1985 at the Paris Olympia. She was reportedly married six times. She died from a myocardial infarction, aged 83, at her Cuernavaca, Mexico home.
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Raegan Butcher is an American poet and singer. He is known for his association with the anarchist collective CrimethInc., who published his first... two books of poetry, Stone Hotel and Rusty String Quartet. According to a CrimethInc. biography, Butcher was born in Seattle, Washington and moved to Snohomish, Washington in his youth. In 1991, he published his first written work: a chapbook of poetry titled "End Of The World Graffiti". Three years later, in 1995, he appeared in a Seattle independent film titled The Year Of My Japanese Cousin. In 1996, Butcher was arrested and convicted for first degree robbery and sentenced to eight years in prison. During his sentence, he wrote the poems that would make up Stone Hotel, along with numerous screenplays and other currently unpublished works. He was released on March 17, 2003. Clamor identified Stone Hotel as among CrimethInc.'s best work, calling it a "great start" for Butcher and "commendable in many ways". Butcher has named, among others, Leonard Cohen, Billy Childish, Charles Bukowski, and Edward Bunker as influences. In the early summer of 2005 Raegan Butcher lived in Cuernavaca.
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Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the... Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its area is 108,890 km with an estimated population of 13,276,517. A representative democracy, its capital is Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City. Guatemala's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contributes to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The former Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization, which continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. The Mayas live in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the southern part of Mexico and northern parts of El Salvador. Guatemala became independent from Spain in 1821, joining the Mexican Empire. After it became an independent country in its own right, it was ruled by a series of dictators, assisted by the United Fruit Company. The late 20th century saw Guatemala embroiled in a 36-year-long civil war.
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Belize /bəˈliːz/ is a country located on the north eastern coast of Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many... cultures and languages. Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language. Kriol, and Spanish are more commonly spoken. Belize is bordered to the north by Mexico, south and west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Belize’s mainland is about 290 kilometres long and 110 kilometres wide. With 22,960 square kilometres of land and a population of only 333,200 people , Belize possesses the lowest population density in Central America. The country's population growth rate of 2.21% , however, is the highest in the region and one of the highest in the western hemisphere. Belize's abundance of terrestrial and marine species, and its diversity of ecosystems give it a key place within the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Belize is culturally unique among its Central American neighbours; it is the only nation in the region with a British colonial heritage.
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