mexico

there was this story on npr this morning about flooding and landslides in mexico caused by hurricane carl. the reporter named two mexican states where the flooding hit hardest. i was like, mexico has states? then i was like, gah - you are a eejit!! of course mexico has states. so i decided that today we should all learn more about mexico and its states. for starters, i guessed this morning that mexico has 7 states. ppfahahaha!! eejit. mexico has 31 states. 31!! who knew? probably you. you probably knew that mexico has 31 states and 1 federal district, or districto federale.

did you know the real name of mexico is "united mexican states"? there are 31 united mexican states -- Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave, Yucatan, Zacatecas. (thank you, cia world factbook!)

one thing you'll notice is that in mexico they like to name their states after things that already exist such as foods (tabasco SAUCE) and big screen movies (hidalgo) and dog breeds (chihuahua) and cowboy boot brands (durango). so - points off for plagiarism there.

the entire country of mexico is reportedly a sort of giant warzone of drug lords, so i don't know where are the safe places to live, but based solely on names, i'd choose quintana roo or san luis potosi because they are funny. "where do you live?" "quintana rooooooooo!" if i lived in san luis potosi, i'd call it potosi because who needs the san luis and pluswise, potosi sounds like a dance step. "where do you live?" "poh-poh-poh-toh-SEE! poh-poh-poh-toh-SEE! la la la la la la... poh-poh-poh-toh-SEE! poh-poh-poh-toh-SEE! la la la la la la... " yes, i would say it like that every. single. time.

mexico declared independence on 16 september 1810 and spain deigned to recognize mexican independence on 27 september 1821. 11 freakin years spain held onto the mexican dream! 16 sept is the day they celebrate their independence. i wonder - do they have big parties and shoot fireworks and eat bompops? of course, their bompops would be red, white, and green - their national colors - not red, white, and blue like ours, so their bompops would look like xmash pops so maybe they don't eat them on independence day because that would just be confusing. all the kids might think it's xmash or something.

the cia world factbook says the legal system in mexico is mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations and i am not sure what all that means, but i am pretty sure that "drug warlord" is the basic legal entity in mexico. maybe that's what the factbook stuff means. who knows.

their president is called President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa (ibid). why is CALDERON in big letters? i don't understand mexican names. i know they take their mom's name and their dad's name but i don't know which is where or how they name their kids - seems it would be confusing with everyone having so many last names coming into any kid production situation. maybe one of you kind readers will explain this to me. thanks.

that's really all i have time for tonight. if you're good, maybe tomorrow we will learn about the great white north.