Things I Didn't Know About Mexico - The flags history and travel information

This is my last day editting articles at LPR before the Christmas break (back on Wednesday). The unusual number of job and marketing articles were posted during the last few days. Many of them are duplicates with just the title changed. However, the article below about how Mexico redesigned their flag and forgot about "mirror imaging" made me smile. So today's Liberated Article Award goes to:

Where did the Mexican Flag Come From?

The current flag of Mexico has three stripes. It is green, white, and red with an emblem. The overall general design of the Mexican flag has been the same since 1821, but this flag was adopted in 1968. The design in the center of the flag is the image of an eagle holding a snake. The eagle is sitting on a rock near a cactus in a lake. The Aztecs had a legend that their gods had told them to build a city where they saw an eagle with a snake. The legend says this is the city that became what is now Mexico City.

When it was originally created, the colors represented green for their independence from Spain. The color white represented the religion of Catholicism that is prominent in Mexico. The color red was intended to represent the Americas union with Europe. The meanings have changed over time and the current official definition of the flag gets around the problem by not assigning any meaning to the colors. Generally the colors are now thought to represent to be green for hope. The color white is considered to represent either unity or purity. The color red reminds the people of their religion or blood of heroes. Notice how the religion has been changed from white to red and is no longer specific to the Roman Catholic Church.

Up until 1968 Mexico used the tri-color flag without the emblem for many applications.

However when they hosted the 1968 summer Olympics, this presented a problem. The flag that they were using in many areas was identical to the Italian flag. With the large number of people visiting for the summer games, this would not have looked good and could have caused a lot of confusion. To prevent confusion the current definition was adopted that requires the emblem with the eagle. In 1995 the legal description of the Mexican flag was changed once again. The previous description stated that the eagle had to face to the left. At first this seems simple, but it does not take into account what will happen when the flag is viewed from the back.

This may have been a simple oversite in the haste to get the flag changed before the Olympic games or maybe they originally expected the flag to be printed correctly on both sides. The definition didn't allow the back side of the flag to let the eagle to face right instead of left as it is on the front of the flag. I am not sure how the prevented people from seeing the back of the flag for all those years. After the 1995 change, the flag can be officially viewed from the front and the back.

Article Republished From: Liberated Press Releases and Other FREE Information a web site that DOESN'T use Google Adspam (Adsense text links) in or around articles.

Author Resource:- The Mexico501 website offers insight into life in Mexico and tips for people looking at moving "south of the border". You can find more information about the Mexico water supply at the site as well.

Mexico Travel

Destination Guides > North America > Mexico

Mexico enjoys a cultural blend that is wholly unique: among the fastest growing industrial powers in the world, its vast cities boast modern architecture to rival any in the world, yet it can still feel, in places, like a half-forgotten Spanish colony, while the all-pervading influence of native American culture, five hundred years on from the Conquest, is extraordinary.

You have to be prepared to adapt to travel in any country that is still "developing" and where change has been so dramatically rapid. Although the mañana mentality is largely an outsiders' myth, Mexico is still a country where timetables are not always to be entirely trusted, where anything that can break down will break down (when it's most needed), and where any attempt to do things in a hurry is liable to be frustrated. You simply have to accept the local temperament - that work may be necessary to live, but it's not life's central focus, that minor annoyances really are minor, and that there's always something else to do in the meantime.

Physically, Mexico resembles a vast horn, curving away south and east from the US border with its final tip bent right back round to the north. It is an extremely mountainous country: two great ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental in the west and the Sierra Madre Oriental in the east, run down parallel to the coasts, enclosing a high, semi-desert plateau. About halfway down they are crossed by the volcanic highland area in which stand Mexico City (or México) and the major centres of population. Beyond, the mountains run together as a single range through the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Only the eastern tip - the Yucatán peninsula - is consistently low-lying and flat.

Destination Guides > North America > Mexico > Mexico City and around
At the crossroads of everything sprawls the vibrant, elegant, frenetic and fascinating Mexico City . In population one of the largest cities in the world, with more than twenty million inhabitants, its lure is irresistible. Colonial mansions and excavated pyramids vie for attention with the city's fabulous museums and galleries, while above them tower the concrete and glass of thrusting development. But above all, the city is alive - exciting, sometimes frightening, always bewildering, but boldly alive.

You can't avoid it, and if you genuinely want to know anything of Mexico you shouldn't try, even if the attraction does sometimes seem to be the same ghoulish fascination that draws onlookers to the site of a particularly nasty accident.