Spotlight on Mexico

Demographics

Specific cultural areas have evolved in Mexico because of differences in physical environment,
ethnicity, and settlement histories, and few of the regions correspond exactly with the country’s
physiographic regions. Mexico traditionally has been divided between the Spanish-mestizo north and
the Indian-mestizo south, corresponding roughly to the pre-Columbian boundary that separated the
highly developed indigenous civilizations of the Mesa Central and the south from the less
agriculturally dependent groups to the north. The country can be further divided into 10 traditional
cultural regions: the North, Northeast, Northwest, Baja California peninsula, Central, West, Balsas,
Gulf Coast, Southern Highlands, and Yucatán Peninsula.

The sparsely populated North closely corresponds in area to the Mesa del Norte and covers the states
of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí. Mining and ranching were
introduced there by the Spanish in the 16th and the 18th century, respectively, and those activities
continue to characterize the rural landscape, though modern irrigation projects and industrialization
along the border with the United States have transformed the economy there.

The Northeast, which stretches from Tampico to the U.S. border and inland to the Sierra Madre
Oriental, includes the states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. The indigenous population of the area
was eliminated by early European settlers, who established farms and ranches in their wake.
Although it was long one of the country’s poorest regions, the emerging petroleum and steel
industries and the development of irrigation projects along the Río Bravo del Norte have greatly
improved the Northeast’s economic condition.

The Northwest is an extensive region lying west of the crest of the Sierra Madre Occidental and
stretching southward from Sonora state on the U.S. border through Sinaloa and northern Nayarit.
This physiographically complex region had a substantial Native American population before the
Spanish conquest, and the Tarahumara and Seri are among the indigenous peoples still occupying
isolated settlements there. As in the North, mineral resources originally attracted the Spanish, but
ranching and irrigated agriculture later came to dominate the rural areas. Industrial plants,
encouraged by neoliberal economic policies (emphasizing the free market and the reduction of
government intervention) and NAFTA, have been opened in many cities of the Northwest. In addition,
the region is a hub for trafficking in illegal drugs bound for the United States.

Baja California is a peninsula that includes the states of Baja California in the north and Baja
California Sur in the south. Although there are now large urban areas at both ends of the peninsula,
it was historically one of the more-isolated parts of Mexico. The original, scattered indigenous
population was decimated by diseases introduced by Christian missionaries in the late 18th century.
Europeans and mestizos established themselves in farming communities at oases, originally at sites
such as San Ignacio and Mulegé (Mulejé). After the paved Transpeninsular Highway opened up the
length of the peninsula in the 1970s, tourism began to thrive, especially at Cabo San Lucas and other
sites in the far south.

The Central region is Mexico’s cultural core. It extends over the central and eastern portions of the
Mesa Central and its surrounding highlands, including the states of Hidalgo, México, Morelos,
Puebla, Querétaro, and Tlaxcala and the Federal District (Mexico City). It was the centre of the Aztec
empire as well as numerous other indigenous civilizations before becoming the core of New Spain
and the capital of modern Mexico. The Central region is now the primary centre of urbanization and
industrialization, as well as being one of the country’s most important agricultural areas. Numerous
basins, such as those of México, Toluca, Puebla, and Morelos, are densely settled. Most of the
population is mestizo, but indigenous groups are still found in the more-isolated portions of
Michoacán, Hidalgo (notably in the Mezquital valley), and Puebla. Even now there are sharp
contrasts between modern urban Mexico and traditional rural indigenous lifestyles in the region.

The West is centred on the city of Guadalajara and encompasses the state of Jalisco along with
portions of Colima, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, and Guanajuato states. The Bajío has long
been called the breadbasket of Mexico because of its relatively large rural population, fertile basins,
and access to the Pacific. Despite its agricultural prominence, a large number of small urban centres,
such as Querétaro, Salamanca, Irapuato, and León, are developing industrially, while Manzanillo and
Lázaro Cárdenas have become the most important ports on the Pacific. Many of the things often
thought of as distinctively Mexican—such as tequila, mariachi music, and the ornate embroidered
sombrero and costume of the charro (gentleman rancher)—originated in the West.

The Balsas cultural region, which closely corresponds to the physiographic area of the same name,
extends through northern Guerrero state. It is arid, hot, and sparsely settled. Cattle ranching has
been the mainstay of the economy, although subsistence-level slash-and-burn agriculture is widely
practiced by impoverished peasant farmers.

The Gulf Coast region includes the coastal zones of Veracruz and Tabasco states as well as the
adjacent east-facing slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The population of the coastal area is
overwhelmingly mestizo, but indigenous groups are found in the mountains north of Veracruz. The
city of Veracruz is the cultural centre of the region and has long been the country’s major
nonpetroleum port. Coatzacoalcos is another of the country’s leading ports. Mexican oil production
centres on a series of huge inland and offshore fields in the region, near Villahermosa and other parts
of the southern Bay of Campeche. Cattle ranching and commercial agriculture are also important
components of the economy. The southern parts of the region were swampy and nearly devoid of
settlement until the Papaloapan and Grijalva-Usumacinta river projects allowed commercial
exploitation of the rich alluvial soils.

The Southern Highlands encompass much of the states of Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and
Chiapas. This poverty-stricken region has the highest concentration of indigenous peoples in the
country, although mestizos dominate the southern half of Chiapas. Such groups as the Zapotec and
Mixtec farm minifundia (small plots of land) in the highlands using traditional methods. When
viewed from the air, the landscape resembles a patchwork quilt, but its picturesque image belies
widespread poverty. In marked contrast are the vibrant and modern coastal tourist centres, such as
Acapulco and the more recently developed Puerto Escondido, as well as inland cities such as Oaxaca.
Most of Chiapas is relatively isolated from the rest of Mexico, but increasing numbers of Guatemalan
refugees have entered the state. Since the 1990s the region has become the centre of indigenous
autonomy movements—such as the Zapatista National Liberation Army—which have gained
worldwide notoriety.

The Yucatán Peninsula, also called the Southeast region, was a centre of the ancient Maya
civilization. It includes the states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. The region still has a
predominantly Mayan indigenous rural population and is known for its archaeological sites, such as
Chichén Itzá and Uxmal (both of which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage sites) as well
as Tulum. Mérida, the only major city in the region, was an early centre for the production of
henequen (a type of agave), which led to a regional economic boom in the late 1800s. In the tropical
rainforests to the south, the sparse population depends on subsistence agriculture or hunting and
gathering.
Geography

Mexico, country of southern North America and the third largest country in Latin America, after
Brazil and Argentina. Although there is little truth to the long-held stereotype of Mexico as a slow-
paced land of subsistence farmers, Mexican society is characterized by extremes of wealth and
poverty, with a limited middle class wedged between an elite cadre of landowners and investors on
the one hand and masses of rural and urban poor on the other. But in spite of the challenges it faces
as a developing country, Mexico is one of the chief economic and political forces in Latin America. It
has a dynamic industrial base, vast mineral resources, a wide-ranging service sector, and the world’s
largest population of Spanish speakers—about two and a half times that of Spain or Colombia. As its
official name suggests, the Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States) incorporates 31
socially and physically diverse states and the Federal District.

More than half of the Mexican people live in the centre of the country, whereas vast areas of the arid
north and the tropical south are sparsely settled. Migrants from impoverished rural areas have
poured into Mexico’s cities, and more than three-fourths of Mexicans now live in urban areas.
Mexico City, the capital, is one of the most populous cities and metropolitan areas in the world.
Mexico has experienced a series of economic booms leading to periods of impressive social gains,
followed by busts, with significant declines in living standards for the middle and lower classes. The
country remains economically fragile despite the forging of stronger ties with the United States and
Canada through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mexico’s urban growing pains are in sharp counterpoint to the traditional lifestyles that prevail in
more-isolated rural areas. In states such as Oaxaca or Chiapas, small communal villages remain
where indigenous peasants live much as their ancestors did. The cultural remnants of great pre-
Columbian civilizations, such as Teotihuacán or the Mayan pyramids at Chichén Itzá and Tulum,
provide a contrast to colonial towns such as Taxco or Querétaro. In turn, these towns appear as
historical relics when compared with the modern metropolis of Mexico City. Yet even the bustling
capital city, which has been continually built and rebuilt on the rubble of past civilizations, reveals
Mexico’s wide range of social, economic, and cultural struggles. As the renowned Mexican poet and
intellectual Octavio Paz observed,

Sharing a common border throughout its northern extent with the United States, Mexico is bounded
to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, to the east by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea,
and to the southeast by Guatemala and Belize. Mexico also administers such islands and
archipelagoes as the Tres Marías in the Pacific and Cozumel and Mujeres off the coast of the Yucatán
Peninsula. Including these insular territories, the roughly triangular country covers an area about
three times the size of Texas. While it is more than 1,850 miles (3,000 km) across from northwest to
southeast, its width varies from less than 135 miles (217 km) at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to more
than 1,200 miles (1,900 km) in the north.

Mexico is located in one of the Earth’s most dynamic tectonic areas. It is a part of the circum-Pacific
“Ring of Fire”—a region of active volcanism and frequent seismic activity. Among its towering
volcanic peaks are Citlaltépetl (also called Orizaba), which forms the highest point in the country at
18,406 feet (5,610 metres), and the active volcano Popocatépetl, which rises to 17,930 feet (5,465
metres) to the southeast of Mexico City. These and other Mexican volcanoes are young in geologic
terms, from the Paleogene and Neogene periods (about 65 to 2.6 million years ago), and are
examples of the volcanic forces that built much of the central and southern parts of the country.
Mexico is situated on the western, or leading, edge of the huge North American Plate, whose
interaction with the Pacific, Cocos, and Caribbean plates has given rise to numerous and severe
earthquakes as well as the earth-building processes that produce southern Mexico’s rugged
landscape. It is in this dynamic and often unstable physical environment that the Mexican people
have built their country.

The Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of northern and north-central Mexico are characterized by
sparse desert scrub vegetation, although at higher elevations distinctive ecosystems including short
grasses, scattered shrubs, and a variety of cacti and other succulents have evolved. A similar process
has also occurred in much of the states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas. One of the more unusual species
is the boojum tree; found only in a small area of Sonora and Baja California, it resembles an
enormous upside-down carrot standing up to 50 feet (15 metres) above the desert soil.

Forests of coniferous and deciduous trees originally covered most of the Sierra Madre Occidental,
large parts of the Mesa Central, and the Southern Highlands. However, long periods of human
occupation in these regions have decimated most of the natural vegetation. In the early 21st century
the government declared that it had significantly slowed the rate of deforestation, but its statistics
were disputed by many environmentalists. The vast majority of Mexican forests are under local
control, and impoverished or overcrowded communities contribute to higher local rates of
deforestation. Extensive coniferous forests are still found at higher elevations in the Sierra Madre
Occidental. The semiarid Balsas Depression has tropical scrub vegetation composed of shrubs, low
deciduous trees, and scattered cacti. The high-precipitation zones of the Gulf Coastal Plain, the
adjacent east-facing mountain slopes, the Chiapas Highlands, and the southern part of the Yucatán
Peninsula are dominated by tropical rainforests (selvas). The dense, layered stands of broadleaf
evergreen trees are among the most luxuriant and diversified in the world. Tropical hardwoods,
ferns, epiphytes, and a variety of palms are commonly found there. But Mexico’s rainforests, like
those elsewhere in the tropics, continue to be degraded through farming, logging, ranching, and
mining. Satellite images have indicated a particularly high loss of forest in Chiapas from the 1970s to
the early 21st century. A large portion of the Pacific coastal area, from Mazatlán to the Guatemalan
border, is covered by tropical deciduous or semi-deciduous forests, which lack the variety and density
of tropical rainforests.

Mexico’s diverse array of fauna is especially notable in its southern selvas. The rainforests of the Gulf
Coast and Chiapas Highlands and the semi-deciduous forests of the Pacific coast provide habitat for
monkeys, parrots, jaguars, tapirs, anteaters, and other tropical species. In contrast, the natural
wildlife of northern Mexico was severely affected by the introduction of European grazing animals
more than 400 years ago. While rabbits, snakes, and armadillos abound in the deserts and steppes,
larger animals such as deer, pumas, and coyotes are found mainly in isolated or mountainous areas.
Numerous marine species live along Mexico’s coastlines. In parts of the Gulf of Mexico and off the
eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, clear waters teem with tropical fish.

Mexico is central to the migratory patterns of many species. Countless ducks and geese fly annually
into the northern part of the Sierra Madre Occidental. In addition, millions of endangered monarch
butterflies (Danaus plexippus) migrate annually between regions of the United States and Mexico’s
western Mesa Central to overwinter on about a dozen forested peaks, particularly in eastern
Michoacán state. That state’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve was designated a UNESCO World
Heritage site in 2008. However, smog from the Mexico City metropolitan area and extensive logging
activities threaten the butterflies and their roosting trees.
Cuba lies in the tropics. Because it is located on the southwestern periphery of the North Atlantic
high atmospheric pressure zone, its climate is influenced by the northeast trade winds in winter and
by east-northeast winds in summer. The warm currents that form the Gulf Stream have a moderating
influence along the coasts.

The annual mean temperature is 79 °F (26 °C), with little variation between January, the coolest
month, at 73 °F (23 °C) and August, the warmest month, at 82 °F (28 °C). The November–April dry
season abruptly changes to the May–October rainy season. Annual precipitation averages 54 inches
(1,380 mm). From June to November the country is often exposed to hurricanes, whose strong winds
and heavy rains can cause widespread damage and suffering.

Plant and animal life

Politics

Mexico is a federal republic composed of 31 states and the Federal District. Governmental powers
are divided constitutionally between executive, legislative, and judicial branches, but, when Mexico
was under one-party rule in the 20th century, the president had strong control over the entire
system. The constitution of 1917, which has been amended several times, guarantees personal
freedoms and civil liberties and also establishes economic and political principles for the country.

he legislative branch is divided into an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the Chamber of
Deputies. Senators serve six-year terms and deputies three-year terms; members of the legislature
cannot be reelected for the immediately succeeding term. Three-fifths of the deputies are elected
directly by popular vote, while the remainder are selected in proportion to the votes received by
political parties in each of five large electoral regions.

Popularly elected and limited to one six-year term, the president is empowered to select a cabinet,
the attorney general, diplomats, high-ranking military officers, and Supreme Court justices (who
serve life terms). The president also has the right to issue reglamentos (executive decrees) that have
the effect of law. Because there is no vice president, in the event of the death or incapacity of the
president, the legislature designates a provisional successor. The executive branch has historically
dominated the other two branches of government, although the Congress has gained a larger share
of power since the late 20th century.

The federal constitution relegates several powers to the 31 states and the Federal District (Mexico
City), including the ability to raise local taxes. Moreover, state constitutions follow the model of the
federal constitution in providing for three independent branches of government—legislative,
executive, and judicial. Most states have a unicameral legislature called the Chamber of Deputies,
whose members serve three-year terms. Governors are popularly elected to six-year terms and may
not be reelected. Because of Mexico’s tradition of highly centralized government, state and local
budgets are largely dependent on federally allocated funds. Under PRI rule, Mexican presidents
influenced or decided many state and local matters, including elections. Although such centralized
control is no longer generally accepted, Mexico’s principal political parties maintain locally dominant
power bases in various states and cities.
At its most basic level, local government is administered by more than 2,000 units called municipios
(“municipalities”), which may be entirely urban or consist of a town or central village as well as its
hinterland. Members of municipio governments are typically elected for three-year terms.

Most passengers and freight are transported via Mexico’s highway system, notably by interstate
buses and cross-country trucking, respectively. Trucks also carry most of the exports from Mexico’s
maquiladoras to U.S. markets. As with the railroad, all major highways lead to Mexico City. Several
link northern border cities to the capital, and others connect the Yucatán Peninsula and the
Guatemalan border with the Mesa Central. The Pan-American Highway runs from Ciudad
Cuauhtémoc, on the border with Guatemala, to Nuevo Laredo, on the border with the United States,
passing through Mexico City. Although many highways have been improved, Mexico’s roads are
barely adequate to serve national needs. In addition to traffic hazards such as potholes and a
shortage of guardrails on mountain roads, many roads have a dangerous traffic mix of overladen
trucks, cars, pedestrians, bicycles, buses, and, in some areas, grazing animals. Traffic mortality rates
are also affected by drunk driving, mechanical problems (notably poor brakes and nonfunctioning
headlights), and a disregard for pedestrian safety.

The proliferation of trade and tourism between Mexico and the United States is reflected in the high
volume of border crossings. Indeed, at the turn of the 21st century, more than one million people
crossed the U.S.-Mexican frontier legally every day, in both directions. Moreover, each year tens of
thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans make illegal attempts to enter the United States,
largely in search of jobs and better opportunities.

Air travel has become a major mode of transportation for upper- and middle-class Mexicans.
Domestic and international airports have been built throughout the country, largely to serve the
growing tourist trade. In the 1990s the government began to privatize the airline industry. By the
early 21st century the former national airlines, Aeroméxico and Mexicana, had been sold to private
investors, and a number of new companies and increased competition resulted. Air service now
reaches all tourist locations and most of the country’s small- and medium-sized urban centres.

The vast majority of Mexican households own one or more radios, and about three-fourths own a TV
set. Cellular phone use increased rapidly since the mid-1990s. Personal computers and Internet use
also rose in popularity and affordability, although not as rapidly as in the wealthier United States.
Internet cafes are now found in nearly all major towns and cities.

Mexico has had difficulty creating an integrated transportation network because of the country’s
diverse landscape and developing economy. As a result, several parts of Mexico lack good rail and
road connections, especially from east to west across the northern part of the country. Although
Mexico was one of the first countries in Latin America to promote railway development, the
extensive formerly state-owned railway system remains inefficient; however, significant
improvements were initiated after the government privatized the system. Major rail routes extend
outward from Mexico City northwestward along the Pacific coast to Mexicali, northward through the
Central Plateau to El Paso and Laredo, Texas, eastward via the Gulf Coastal Plain to the Yucatán
Peninsula, and southeastward to Oaxaca.

Tourism information and attractions.

SPOTLIGHT ON CUBA

Demographics
The Guanahatabey and Ciboney peoples were among the original hunter-gatherer societies to
inhabit Cuba by about 4000 bce, the former living in the extreme west of the island and the latter
mainly on the cays to the south, with limited numbers in other places. The Taino (Arawakan Indians)
arrived later, probably about 500 ce, and spread throughout Cuba, the rest of the Greater Antilles,
and the Bahamas. They developed rudimentary agriculture and pottery and established villages that
were unevenly distributed but mainly concentrated in the western part of the island. By the time of
the Spanish conquest, the Taino constituted nine-tenths of Cuba’s inhabitants. Estimates of the total
indigenous population at the beginning of the 16th century vary widely and range as high as
600,000; however, the most likely total was about 75,000. By the 1550s only some 3,000 scattered
individuals remained, their communities having been wiped out by European diseases, severe
treatment and unhealthy working conditions (particularly in the Spanish gold mines), starvation
resulting from low agricultural productivity, and suicides. Their only surviving descendants today may
be a few families based in the Sierra del Purial of easternmost Cuba.

Diverse ethnic groups have been settling in Cuba since the time of European contact—including
Spaniards and Africans and smaller groups of Chinese, Jews, and Yucatecan Indians (from the
Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico)—who have created a heterogeneous society by superimposing their
cultural and social characteristics on those of earlier settlers.

About one-fourth of Cubans are mulattoes (of mixed European and African lineage), and some two-
thirds are descendants of white Europeans, mainly from Spain. Whites have been the dominant
ethnic group for centuries, monopolizing the direction of the economy as well as access to education
and other government services. Although mulattoes have become increasingly prominent since the
mid-20th century, some mulattoes and blacks (of African heritage) still face racial discrimination.

Blacks make up about one-tenth of the population. In the early 16th century, Spaniards began to
import African slaves as a substitute for the drastically reduced supply of Indian labourers. As many
as 800,000 Africans eventually arrived to work on sugar plantations, the vast majority during the late
18th and 19th centuries. They were shipped mainly from Senegal and the Guinea Coast but
originated in such diverse groups as the Yoruba and Bantu peoples. During the period 1906–31 tens
of thousands of black Antillean labourers, nine-tenths of whom were Haitian or Jamaican, arrived as
contract labourers. However, many returned home or were expelled by 1931. Blacks and mulattoes
have had a considerable influence on Cuban culture, especially in music and dance.

Cubans of Asian descent now account for only a tiny fraction of the population and are largely
concentrated in Havana’s small Chinatown district. When Great Britain disrupted the transatlantic
slave trade in the 19th century, Hispano-Cuban landholders imported indentured Chinese labourers,
nearly all of them Cantonese. Some 125,000 arrived during the period 1847–74, but, because of
harsh living conditions, many left for the United States or other Latin American countries or returned
to China after their contracts expired; by 1899 only 14,000 remained in Cuba. In the 1920s an
additional 30,000 Cantonese and small groups of Japanese also arrived. The immigrants, who were
overwhelmingly male, readily intermarried with white, black, and mulatto populations. Significant
Chinese immigration continued until 1945; however, many middle- and upper-class Asians left the
country after the revolution of 1959, as did other relatively affluent people.

Geography

Cuba, country of the West Indies, the largest single island of the archipelago, and one of the more
influential states of the Caribbean region.

The domain of Taino-speaking American Indians who had displaced even earlier inhabitants, Cuba
was claimed by Christopher Columbus in 1492. It became the Spanish empire’s most important
source of raw sugar in the 18th century and later earned the sobriquet “Pearl of the Antilles.” Though
Spain had to fight several difficult and costly campaigns against independence movements, it
retained rule of Cuba until 1898, when it was defeated by the United States and Cuban forces in the
Spanish-American War. Cuba soon gained formal independence, though it remained overshadowed
by the nearby United States.

On New Year’s Day, 1959, revolutionary forces led by Fidel Castro overthrew the government of
dictator Fulgencio Batista. Two years later Castro proclaimed the Marxist-Leninist nature of the
revolution. Cuba became economically isolated from its northern neighbour as it developed close
links to the Soviet Union. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s isolated Cuba
still further, bringing on what Cubans euphemistically call the período especial (“special period”), a
time of widespread shortages and financial uncertainty. By the early 21st century, Cuba had
loosened some of its more restrictive economic and social policies, but the United States continued its
decades-long economic embargo against the Castro regime, assuring that economic hardships would
persist.

Life in contemporary Cuba is thus challenging, given the limited access to food, transportation,
electrical power, and other necessities. Even so, many Cubans show a fierce pride in their
revolutionary society, the only one of its kind in Latin America. The protagonist of anthropologist
Miguel Barnet’s novel Canción de Rachel (1969; Rachel’s Song, 1991) describes it thus:

Cuba is a multicultural, largely urban nation, although it has only one major city: Havana (La
Habana), the capital and commercial hub of the country, on the northwestern coast. Handsome if
rather run-down, Havana has a scenic waterfront and is surrounded by fine beaches, an attraction
for increasing numbers of visitors from abroad. Cuba’s other cities—including Santiago, Camagüey,
Holguín, and, especially, Trinidad—offer a rich legacy of colonial Spanish architecture to complement
contemporary buildings.

Cuba is situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer at the intersection of the Atlantic Ocean (north and
east), the Gulf of Mexico (west), and the Caribbean Sea (south). Haiti, the nearest neighbouring
country, is 48 miles (77 km) to the east, across the Windward Passage; Jamaica is 87 miles (140 km)
to the south; the Bahamas archipelago extends to within approximately 17 miles (28 km) of the
northern coast; and the United States is about 90 miles (150 km) to the north across the Straits of
Florida.

The country comprises an archipelago of about 1,600 islands, islets, and cays with a combined area
three-fourths as large as the U.S. state of Florida. The islands form an important segment of the
Antilles (West Indies) island chain, which continues east and then south in a great arc enclosing the
Caribbean Sea. The island of Cuba itself is by far the largest in the chain and constitutes one of the
four islands of the Greater Antilles. In general, the island runs from northwest to southeast and is
long and narrow—777 miles (1,250 km) long and 119 miles (191 km) across at its widest and 19
miles (31 km) at its narrowest point.

Groups of mountains and hills cover about one-fourth of the island of Cuba. The most rugged range
is the Sierra Maestra, which stretches approximately 150 miles (240 km) along the southeastern
coast and reaches the island’s highest elevations—6,476 feet (1,974 metres) at Turquino Peak and
5,676 feet (1,730 metres) at Bayamesa Peak. Near the centre of the island are the Santa Clara
Highlands, the Sierra de Escambray (Guamuhaya), and the Sierra de Trinidad. The Cordillera de
Guaniguanico in the far west stretches from southwest to northeast for 110 miles (180 km) and
comprises the Sierra de los Órganos and the Sierra del Rosario, the latter attaining 2,270 feet (692
metres) at Guajaibón Peak. Much of central-western Cuba is punctuated by spectacularly shaped,
vegetation-clad hillocks called mogotes. Serpentine highlands distinguish northern and central La
Habana and Matanzas provinces, as well as the central parts of Camagüey and Las Tunas.

The plains covering about two-thirds of the main island have been used extensively for sugarcane
and tobacco cultivation and livestock raising. The coastal basins of Santiago de Cuba and
Guantánamo and the extensive Cauto River valley lie in the southeast. The Cauto lowland adjoins a
series of coastal plains that continue across the island from east to west, including the Southern
Plain, Júcaro-Morón Plain, Zapata Peninsula (Zapata Swamp), Southern Karst and Colón Plain, and
Southern Alluvial Plain. Cuba’s most extensive swamps cover the Zapata Peninsula and surround the
Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos). The Las Villas Plain of the North, Las Villas Plain of the Northeast,
andNorthern Plain stretch across much of the opposite coast.

Cuba’s approximately 3,570 miles (5,745 km) of irregular, picturesque coastline are characterized by
many bays, sandy beaches, mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and rugged cliffs. There are also some
spectacular caverns in the interior, notably the 16-mile- (26-km-) long Cave of Santo Tomás in the
Sierra Quemado of western Cuba. The main island is surrounded by a submerged platform covering
an additional 30,000 square miles (78,000 square km).

Among the extensive cays and archipelagoes ringing the main island are Los Colorados, to the
northwest; Sabana and Camagüey, both off the north-central coast; the Jardines de la Reina
(“Queen’s Gardens”), near the south-central coast; and Canarreos, near the southwest coast.
Juventud Island (Isla de la Juventud; “Isle of Youth”), formerly called Pinos Island (Isla de los Pinos;
“Isle of Pines”), is the second largest of the Cuban islands, covering 850 square miles (2,200 square
km). It is technically a part of the Canarreos Archipelago. Hills, dotted with groves of pine and palm,
characterize much of the island’s northwest and southeast. Sand and clay plains cover parts of the
north, a gravel bed takes up most of the southern part of the island, and bogs dominate the coasts
and sparsely inhabited interior.

Cuban rivers are generally short, with meagre flow; of the nearly 600 rivers and streams, two-fifths
discharge to the north, the remainder to the south. The Zapata Peninsula is the most extensive of
Cuba’s many coastal wetlands.

The main island’s heaviest precipitation and largest rivers are in the southeast, where the Cauto, at
230 miles (370 km) the country’s longest river, lies between the Sierra Maestra and the smaller Sierra
del Cristal. The Cauto and its tributaries, notably the Salado, drain the Sierra Maestra and lesser
uplands in the provinces of Holguín and Las Tunas. Other rivers in this region include the
Guantánamo, Sagua de Tánamo, Toa, and Mayarí. To the west the most important southward-
flowing rivers are the Sevilla, Najasa, San Pedro, Jatibonico del Sur, Zaza, Agabama, Arimao, Hondo,
and Cuyaguateje. Northward-flowing rivers include the Saramaguacán, Caonao, Sagua la Grande,
and La Palma.

Cuban lakes are small and more properly classified as freshwater or saltwater lagoons. The latter
include Leche (“Milk”) Lagoon, which has a surface area of 26 square miles (67 square km). It is
technically a sound because several natural channels connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. Sea
movements generate disturbances in the calcium carbonate deposits at the bottom of the lake to
produce the milky appearance of its waters.

Politics

Cuba is a unitary socialist republic. The government is totalitarian, exercising direct control or
influence over most facets of Cuban life. From 1959 to 2008, Fidel Castro was the chief of state and
head of government. He also served as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and
commander in chief of the armed forces. In February 2008 he formally relinquished power to his
brother, Raúl Castro. The country is governed under the constitution of 1976, which superseded
revolutionary legislation that was enacted after the constitution of 1940 had been suspended. The
1976 constitution was slightly amended in 1992 and 2002.

nder the constitution, legislative authority rests with the National Assembly of People’s Power,
whose more than 600 members serve five-year terms. The number of seats in the assembly has
grown steadily, corresponding to the population of the provinces and municipalities. The National
Assembly in its brief, twice-yearly sessions appoints a 31-member Council of State, which is headed
by the president. The Council of State remains in session throughout the year and issues laws in the
form of decrees. The president also appoints and presides over a Council of Ministers (cabinet), which
carries on the daily administration of the country.

Tourism information and attractions.

SPOTLIGHT ON COSTA RICA

Demographics

Nearly four-fifths of Costa Rica’s population is of European descent; as a result, Costa Rica has the
largest percentage of people of Spanish descent in Central America. The Valle Central, with more
than half the country’s population, is the most predominantly Spanish region in both its manner of
living and its ancestry. The next largest group consists of mestizos (people of mixed European and
Indian ancestry), who constitute close to one-fifth of the country’s inhabitants.

The roughly one-tenth of the country’s inhabitants who live in Guanacaste provincia (province) are a
blend of the descendants of colonial Spanish, Indian, and African peoples; the Spanish they speak is
more like that of Nicaragua than that of the Valle Central.

People of African ancestry, who comprise an even smaller percentage of the total population, live
mostly in the Caribbean lowland of Limón province. The descendants of workers brought from the
West Indies (mainly from Jamaica) in the 19th century to build the Atlantic Railroad and work on
banana plantations, they were the targets of racism, and for many years residence laws restricted
them to the Caribbean coast. Moreover, in the late 1930s, when Panama disease hit the banana crop
on the Atlantic coast and operations shifted to the Pacific coast, forcing many of Limón’s inhabitants
to seek work elsewhere, some Costa Ricans lobbied for laws barring the employment of blacks. Costa
Rica’s president signed a law in 1935 prohibiting banana plantation owners on the Pacific coast to
employ “coloured” people, claiming that their relocation would upset the racial balance of the
country. It was not until 1949 that the government abolished what was in effect Costa Rica’s version
of apartheid and allowed black residents of Limón to travel, enter the Valle Central region, and
become citizens. Discrimination is still present in Costa Rica (though less obvious than before); many
among the country’s Spanish-descended majority consider blacks inferior owing to economic,
cultural, and perceived “racial” differences. Because of these circumstances, the black community
remains isolated from the national culture and faces many economic and social barriers.

There is a small Chinese population, many of whom are also the descendants of imported labourers.
Although it has assimilated into mainstream culture, the Chinese community has its own social clubs.
Many Costa Ricans of Chinese descent own businesses in the retail and hospitality industries.

Less than 1 percent of Costa Rica’s population today is Indian. Although estimates indicate that
about 400,000 Indians lived in what is now Costa Rica before the Spanish conquest, that number was
drastically reduced by the conquest itself, disease, and slave-raiding expeditions. The Bribrí and
Cabécar reside in the Cordillera de Talamanca, and the Boruca (Brunca) and Térraba live in the hills
around the Valle del General. A small number of Guatuso reside on the northern plains in Alajuela
province. Most of Costa Rica’s Indians are rapidly becoming assimilated, but those on the Caribbean
side in the southern Talamanca region maintain their separate ways, including their animistic
religions. Although Costa Rica’s Indian groups are legally assigned to protected reserves, the land is
infertile and most survive through subsistence agriculture. They are among the country’s poorest
people.

Geography

Costa Rica, country of Central America. Its capital is San José.

Of all the Central American countries, Costa Rica is generally regarded as having the most stable and
most democratic government. Its constitution of 1949 provides for a unicameral legislature, a fair
judicial system, and an independent electoral body. Moreover, the constitution abolished the
country’s army, gave women the right to vote, and provided other social, economic, and educational
guarantees for all of its citizens. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s Costa Rica managed to stay
relatively peaceful compared with its war-torn neighbours. It has one of the highest literacy rates
(more than nine-tenths) in the Western Hemisphere and a solid educational system from the primary
grades through the university level. Several renowned universities and an active network of
bookstores and publishing houses tend to make San José the nucleus of intellectual life in Central
America. Because of the country’s peaceful reputation and its commitment to human rights, several
nongovernmental organizations and pro-democracy foundations have their headquarters in San
José. Costa Rica is also known for its strong commitment to the environment and for protecting its
numerous national parks. These factors, along with an established ecotourism industry, have
attracted foreign investment, which shifted the country’s once agriculture-based economy to one
dominated by services and technology by the late 20th century.

Ticos, as the people of Costa Rica are called, use the phrase pura vida (“pure life”) in their everyday
speech, as a greeting or to show appreciation for something. Ticos are generally proud of their
political freedoms and their relatively stable economy.

Costa Rica’s well-populated heartland, formed in and around the upland basin known as the Valle
Central or Meseta Central, is devoted to the cultivation of coffee, one of the country’s most
important exports. In the region’s outlying reaches, bananas—the principal export—are grown.
Pineapples have become a significant export, surpassing coffee as the number two export by the late
20th century.

Extending from northwest to southeast, Costa Rica is bounded by Nicaragua to the north, by the
Caribbean Sea along the 185-mile (300-km) northeastern coastline, by Panama to the southeast, and
by the Pacific Ocean along the 630-mile (1,015-km) southwestern coastline. At the country’s
narrowest point, the distance between the Pacific and the Caribbean is only about 75 miles (120 km).

Thermal convection and onshore breezes bring abundant rains to the Pacific coast in the wet season,
generally May to October in the north and April to December in the south. Northeasterly trade winds
on the Caribbean provide ample year-round precipitation for the country’s east coast, with the
heaviest amounts occurring in the Barra del Colorado region. The higher mountain ranges have
warm temperate climates, and the Pacific slopes have alternating wet and dry seasons.

Situated in the Valle Central at an elevation of 3,800 feet (1,160 metres), San José enjoys moderate
temperatures and ample rainfall. Average monthly rainfall there ranges from well under 1 inch (25
mm) in February to more than 12 inches (300 mm) in September, with a yearly average of more than
70 inches (1,800 mm). Temperatures vary with elevation. San José has a mean temperature of 69 °F
(21 °C), while means of 59 °F (15 °C) and 80 °F (27 °C) have been reported at stations located at 7,665
feet (2,340 metres) and 682 feet (210 metres), respectively.

Dense broad-leaved evergreen forest, which includes mahogany and tropical cedar trees, covers
about one-third of Costa Rica’s landscape. On the Talamanca range grow numerous evergreen oaks
and, above the timberline, mountain scrub and grasses. The northwest, with the longest dry season,
contains open deciduous forest. Palm trees are common on the Caribbean coastline, and mangroves
grow on the shallow protected shores of the Nicoya and Dulce gulfs along the Pacific. Mosses,
orchids, and other tropical plants are abundant. Many of the world’s tropical biologists have carried
out studies at the various research stations of the Organization for Tropical Studies, which has its
headquarters in San Pedro, a suburb of San José, as well as at the Tropical Agricultural Research and
Higher Education Centre (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza; CATIE) in
Turrialba.

Costa Rica’s numerous and varied life zones make the country attractive to biologists. Mammalian
life is both abundant and varied and has major ties to South and North American populations. The
South American species include monkeys, anteaters, and sloths; the North American species include
deer, wildcats, weasels, otters, coyotes, and foxes. There is a wide variety of tropical birds in the
lowlands, and reptiles, such as snakes and iguanas, and frogs are common.

Politics

The hub of Costa Rican transportation is in the Valle Central. A highway extends west from San José
to beyond San Ramón. Additional highways, completed in the 1980s and ’90s, have greatly reduced
distance and travel time between San José and the Caribbean lowlands. Elsewhere in the Valle
Central are narrow, often tortuous, paved routes, with few interconnections, that reach the many
valley and mountain communities in the immediate area. The Northern Pacific Railroad, which
connected San José to the Caribbean coast, suffered severe damage from floods and was abandoned
in 1991. The electric rail line from San José to Puntarenas discontinued long-distance service at about
the same time but continues to operate locally. The Inter-American Highway connects Costa Rica
with Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south.

Limón and Puntarenas have port facilities constructed at nearby Moín and Caldera, respectively.
These facilities are equipped to handle containerized cargo and, in the case of Moín, petroleum
shipments. The southern Pacific port of Golfito, once an important banana-shipping centre, handles
little trade since the decline of banana production there. Limón is the busiest of the three ports.

Juan Santamaría Airport, about 15 miles (24 km) west of San José, is Costa Rica’s main international
airport. There is also an international airport in Liberia, a gateway to many Pacific coast beach
resorts. Lineas Aereas Costarricenses (LACSA), the Costa Rican national airline, maintains regular
service to Central American and Caribbean locations as well as to the United States. Elsewhere in the
country are smaller airports, some with paved and some with gravel strips, that are used by small
planes and offer local service.

Telecommunication services have been provided through the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity
(Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad; ICE), a state-owned monopoly since 1949. In 2008 Congress
approved a bill to end the ICE’s monopoly and to open the cellular phone and Internet service
markets to competition, reforms that were required for compliance with the terms of CAFTA–DR.
Attempts to privatize the industry had been deterred by widespread strikes and protests beginning in
1999. Costa Rica has some of the highest rates of Internet and cellular phone usage in Central
America. Because of the excess demand for cellular phones, paging services have become popular,
and there are several in the country. The broadcasting sector also has been privatized.

Costa Rica is governed by its constitution of November 1949, the 10th in its history. A president, two
vice presidents, and a unicameral Legislative Assembly are elected at the same time for a term of
four years, the assembly by proportional representation. Presidents may not run for immediate
reelection, though they are eligible to serve again after sitting out two successive presidential terms.

Since the adoption of the constitution of 1949, Costa Rica has given an unusual degree of power to
autonomous agencies, including state-financed universities and regional development institutes such
as the National Insurance Institute, the Social Security Institute, and the Costa Rica Tourist Institute.
These agencies provide additional opportunity for participation in government, but because of
powers independent of the central administration they have made central planning more
challenging.

The country’s seven provinces are administered by governors appointed by the president. The
provinces represent judicial and electoral jurisdictions; most government agencies with their own
administrative branches may not account for provincial boundaries. Each province is divided into
cantones (cantons), and each canton is divided into distritos (districts). Councilmen for the cantons
are elected locally, but budgets for all political units are approved by the national government, which
controls nearly all the funds available to local governments.

All citizens over age 18 are obliged to register to vote and to participate in elections. Voter turnout
has traditionally been high, averaging about four-fifths of eligible voters from the 1960s through
1994, before falling thereafter. Costa Rica has a stable democratic government. The fairness of
national elections has been indicated by the fact that almost every four-year period since the mid-
20th century has seen a change in the party winning the presidency. Two parties have traditionally
dominated: the National Liberation Party (Partido Liberación Nacional; PLN), which since 1949 has
controlled the National Assembly more often than not, and the Social Christian Unity Party (Partido
Unidad Social Cristiana; PUSC). The former, founded by the moderate socialist José Figueres Ferrer in
1948, was largely responsible for establishing the health, education, and welfare reforms for which
Costa Rica is noted. The PUSC, a four-party coalition formed in 1977, is more conservative and
business-oriented than the PLN. In 2000 the Citizen Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana; PAC)
was founded as an alternative.

Tourism information and attractions.

Spotlight on the Bahamas

Demographics

Most of the population of The Bahamas is of African descent. There is a small but significant minority
of mixed European and African heritage and a similar number of descendants of English pioneer
settlers and loyalist refugees from the American Revolution. English is the only language native to
Bahamians, although, because of the influx of Haitian immigrants since the mid-20th century, French
or its Haitian Creole dialect is spoken. A high percentage of Bahamians are members of Christian
churches; the majority of them are non-Anglican Protestants, with smaller proportions of Roman
Catholics and Anglicans.

The centres of population are widely distributed on each island. Some are located leeward, where it
is calm and sheltered—for example, Cat Island. Others face the north and northeastern sides, where
they are exposed to the northeast trade winds—as in the case of the Abaco Cays (the cays off Abaco
and Little Abaco islands). Main settlements usually occur where there is a natural harbour or at least
accessibility for shipping. There has been a marked shift of population from fishing and farming
villages to the centres of tourist and commercial activity. Most of the population movement has been
to the islands of New Providence, Grand Bahama, and Abaco (Great Abaco). About two-thirds of the
Bahamian population is concentrated on New Providence Island, which, with Grand Bahama and
Abaco, has received the most internal migration.

The country’s rate of population increase is much higher than the Caribbean average, primarily
because of immigration from the United States and other West Indian islands. The rate of natural
population increase is about average for the Caribbean region, but both the birth and death rates are
less than the average for the West Indies as a whole.

Geography

The Bahamas, archipelago and state on the northwestern edge of the West Indies. Formerly a British
colony, The Bahamas became an independent country within the Commonwealth in 1973.

The name Bahamas is of Lucayan Taino (Arawakan) derivation, although some historians believe it is
from the Spanish bajamar, meaning “shallow water.” The islands occupy a position commanding the
gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the entire Central American region. Their
strategic location has given the history of The Bahamas a unique and often striking character. It was
there that Christopher Columbus made his original landfall in the Americas. The subsequent fate of
the peaceful original inhabitants remains one of the more tragic episodes in the development of the
entire region, while the early attempts at European-dominated settlement were marked by intense
national rivalries, interspersed with long periods of lawlessness and piracy. As a result, the society
and culture that has evolved in The Bahamas is a distinctive blend of European and African heritages,
the latter a legacy of the slave trade and the introduction of the plantation system using African
slaves. The islands, lacking natural resources other than their agreeable climate and picturesque
beaches, have become heavily dependent on the income generated by the extensive tourist facilities
and the financial sector that have been developed, often as a result of the injection of foreign capital.
The continued popularity of the islands with tourists, largely from North America, has helped to
maintain a relatively high standard of living among the population, most of whom are of African
descent. The capital, Nassau, is located on small but important New Providence Island

Lying to the north of Cuba and Hispaniola, the archipelago comprises nearly 700 islands and cays,
only about 30 of which are inhabited, and more than 2,000 low, barren rock formations. It stretches
more than 500 miles (800 km) southeast-northwest between Grand Bahama Island, which has an
area of 530 square miles (1,373 square km) and lies about 60 miles (100 km) off the southeastern
coast of the U.S. state of Florida, and Great Inagua Island, some 50 miles (80 km) from the eastern
tip of Cuba. The islands other than New Providence are known collectively as the Out (Family)
Islands. They include Grand Bahama, which contains the major settlements of Freeport and West
End; Andros (2,300 square miles [6,000 square km]), the largest island of The Bahamas; Abaco, or
Great Abaco, (372 square miles [963 square km]); and Eleuthera (187 square miles [484 square km]),
the site of one of the early attempts at colonization.

The Bahamas occupies an irregular submarine tableland that rises out of the depths of the Atlantic
Ocean and is separated from nearby lands to the south and west by deepwater channels. Extensive
areas of flatland, generally a few feet in elevation, are the dominant topographic features of the
major islands; the Bimini group (9 square miles [23 square km]), for example, has a maximum
elevation of only 20 feet (6 metres). A number of islands fronting the Atlantic have a range or series
of ranges of hills on the northeastern side that parallel the longer axes of the islands. These ranges
are formed of sand washed ashore and blown inland by the trade winds. The newer hills adjacent to
the seashore are normally sand dunes. Solidity increases toward the interior, where the particles
become cemented to form Bahama limestone. Eleuthera and Long Island (230 square miles [596
square km]) have the greatest number of hills exceeding 100 feet (30 metres). The highest point in
The Bahamas, Mount Alvernia, at 206 feet (63 metres), is on Cat Island (150 square miles [388
square km]). Beneath the soil, the islands are composed of limestone rock and skeletal remains of
coral fossils and other marine organisms. There are no rivers, but several islands—particularly New
Providence, San Salvador (63 square miles [163 square km]), and Great Inagua—have large lakes.
There is abundant fresh water on Andros Island.

The Bahamian climate, mild throughout the year, is one of the great attractions of the area. The
average temperature varies from the low 70s F (about 21 °C) during the winter to the low 80s F
(about 27 °C) during the summer, and extremes seldom fall below the low 60s F (about 16 °C) or rise
above the low 90s F (about 32 °C). The average annual rainfall is about 44 inches (1,120 mm),
occurring mostly during the summer months. Prevailing winds, coming from the northeast in winter
and from the southeast in summer, lend a cooling influence to a generally humid atmosphere.
Tropical cyclones (hurricanes) pose a threat during the period from June to November and have
occasionally caused great destruction.

Politics

The constitution of The Bahamas, adopted upon independence in 1973, is patterned on the
Westminster model—i.e., that of the United Kingdom. The bicameral parliament comprises the
House of Assembly and the Senate, whose powers are relatively restricted compared with those of
the House. The formal head of state is the British monarch, who is represented by a governor-
general. The head of government is the prime minister, who is formally appointed by the governor-
general. The prime minister must be a member of the House of Assembly and must be able to
command a majority of its votes. House members are elected by universal adult suffrage; the
members of the Senate are appointed by the governor. The term of parliament is five years, but
elections may be held sooner if the prime minister is unable to retain a majority in the House or
dissolves the House and calls early elections. Judicial power on the islands resides in the Court of
Appeal, the Supreme Court, and magistrates’ courts.

All Bahamian citizens 18 years of age and older can vote. Bahamians, women in particular, generally
remained unpoliticized until the early 1950s. Women did not obtain the franchise until 1962. Great
changes also came with increased educational opportunities after the 1960s. The first female
member of parliament was elected in 1982. Since that time there have been female cabinet
ministers, legislators, and Supreme Court justices. The main political parties are the Progressive
Liberal Party (PLP; founded 1953), which led the movement for government by the majority in the
1950s and ’60s, and the Free National Movement (FNM; 1972), which grew out of the PLP.

Tourism information and attractions.