Pre-Hispanic Amerindian civilizations, Reformation and Renaissance Spain, the Catholic church and present-day global trends have all contributed strongly to Mexican culture.  As is the case in many western hemisphere countries, Mexico’s culture is still developing.  Over the past 125 years, however, the country has stamped its identity on many facets of culture.

As an ethnically diverse country in which, for the most part, the only connecting element amongst the inhabitants was Catholicism, Mexicans recognized and accepted that their cultural identity had its base in the “mestizaje”, the mixed race population that by 1900 had a three century history.  Author Jose Vasconcelos attempted to describe this foundation in his 1925 book, La Raza Cosmica (The Cosmic Race), and thus placed Mexico on a similar footing with its northern neighbors as a “melting pot” society.  The difference being that Mexico strongly supported the inclusion of its native population as the root its cultural identity, rather than a mixture and offshoot of a pot pourri of European identities.

The fine arts, music, literature, cinema, architecture and sports all contribute to the Mexican cultural identity.  It is fascinating to delve into any one of these art forms and begin to understand the passion and energy that Mexican artists have devoted to interpreting not just their own society and history, but the world, at large, and humanity, in general.