Index to the “Mexico: Did you know?” series

Our “Mexico: Did You Know” series

offers lots of not-so-well-known but interesting facts about Mexico’s contributions to the world.

Here is the list (most recent at the top):

1. First scientific account of Lake Chapala was in 1839.
2. Mexico’s vultures have very different eating habits.
3. Los Mochis and Topolobampo are both examples of “new towns”.
4. The world’s oldest railway station building is at Cuautla in central Mexico.
5. Despite its name, the turkey originated in Mexico”
6. One of Mexico’s earliest cartographers was the first European to explore the Georgia Strait between Vancouver and Vancouver Island in British Columbia “
7. Many common garden flowers were developed from samples collected in Mexico by a German botanist financed by Britain’s Horticultural Society”
8. Mexico has more World Heritage sites than any other country in the Americas”
9. “There’s gold in them there hills, and diamonds in that there tequila”
10. Mexico was once the world’s major source of pearls
11. An early story by Jules Verne, the science fiction and travel author, was set in Mexico
12. The introduction of sheep to Mexico had serious environmental consequences
13. The deepest water-filled sinkhole in the world is in Tamaulipas
14. Sinaloa has the most beautiful women in Mexico
15. Steamboats once regularly plied the waters of Lake Chapala
16. Oaxaca is the most culturally diverse state in Mexico
17. November 7, 2007, marks the centenary of the death of Jesús García, the “Hero of Nacozari”
18. An unusual Mayan pyramid in Tabasco suggests possible links to the Romans
19. Mexico once tried hard to prevent Americans from migrating to Texas
20. Mexico has more than thirty UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserves
21. The world’s first aerial bombing of a warship was during the Battle of Topolobampo
22. What the Spanish Conquistadors thought was gold was often only an alloy called tumbaga
23. A miraculous birth and a miraculous re-birth featured in the life and work of the first Archbishop of Oaxaca
24. Organic farming has helped some indigenous peoples in Mexico to reinvent themselves
25. A young couple who became famous artists were pioneers in the San Miguel de Allende foreign community
26. Blacks outnumbered Spaniards in Mexico until after 1810
27. A charwoman-actress once captivated Mexican high society in her alter ego as Don Carlos Balmori
28. Mexico’s equivalent of the Domesday book was compiled in the sixteenth century
29. A popular Mexican children’s chorus features cockroaches and pot smoking
30. Father Alonso Ponce and Friar Antonio de Ciudad Real were probably Mexico’s first ever tourists
31. Mexico has more World Heritage sites than any other country in the Americas
32. Some tequila is priced at 225,000 dollars a bottle
33. Most “bark paper” comes from wild fig trees
34. Five places in Mexico are on the list of the world’s 100 most endangered heritage sites
35. Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is celebrated much more widely in the U.S. than in Mexico
36. Different traffic whistles mean very different things
37. One of the oldest printing presses still in operation anywhere in the world is in Tacámbaro, Michoacán
38. One of the most interesting nineteenth century books about Mexico was written by a Frenchman
39. The American White Pelican is Mexico’s largest bird, while its relative the Brown Pelican is one of the most fun to watch
40. Tequila dates from the sixteenth century
41. Comprehensive guide books to Mexico have existed for more than 120 years
42. The oldest winery in the Americas is in Parras de la Fuente
43. Scientists first explored El Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest peak, as long ago as 1838
44. A young Belgian botanist established a business exporting Mexican cacti to Europe back in the 1840s
45. This year is the centenary of the birth of Mexican artist Juan O’Gorman
46. Thousands of dinosaur bones have been found in northern Mexico
47. Lake Chapala is under attack (again) from the beautiful and exotic water hyacinth
48. Voladores and Vanilla vie for attention at the Vanilla Festival in Veracruz
49. The song “Bésame mucho” (Kiss me a lot) was written by a young Mexican woman who had never been kissed
50. Mexico’s national flower is the humble dahlia
51. January’s weather serves as a forecast for the year
52. Tlacuaches (opossums) are short-lived but smarter than most people imagine
53. Mexico was a very different place fifty years ago
54. Some national symbols are not what they appear to be
55. Mayan architects may be responsible for the world’s oldest sound recording
56. Mexican kapok trees once helped the U.S. war effort
57. Dancers performing the Quetzal Dance wear headdresses up to five feet across
58. An indigenous community in Michoacán won the 2004 United Nations Development Program Equator Prize
59. An enchanted lake in Veracruz rises every dry season, but falls again during the rainy season
60. Pre-Columbian astronomers agreed how to “fix” the calendar at a congress held in Xochicalco in 765 A.D.
61. The world’s smallest volcano is in Puebla
62. Thousands of Mexican secondary school students receive all their classes by TV
63. Archaeologists have found fifteen-hundred-year-old kitchens
64. The world’s first patent for a color TV was granted to a Mexican inventor
65. Mexico has more World Heritage sites than any other country in the Americas
66. Mexico has many “Est”raordinary places
67. The famous poem, “The Bells of San Blas”, was written by someone who had never ever visited the town
68. There is a village in Mexico with the unlikely name of Honey
69. Agaves can be thought of as Mexico’s “7-Elevens”
70. The world’s largest natural crystals (of selenite, said to enhance sex drive) have been discovered in caverns in Chihuahua
71. An entire island has been constructed, not by Bob the Builder, but by Richie the Recycler
72. The birth control pill came from Mexican yams
73. Studies of the Mexican wave may suggest how to control unruly mobs
74. A small church in Michoacán has been called the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas”
75. Mexico has more than one geographic center
76. El Arbol de Tule, the biggest tree in the world (Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico)
77. Many museums have the map of one of Mexico’s most famous battlefields upside down
78. Rubber balls wouldn’t bounce very high if it wasn’t for some Mexican ingenuity
79. Baseball is not the oldest ballgame in the Americas
80. The oldest indigenous American domesticated dog breed is native to Mexico
81. A Mexican who tried to revolutionize the world of classical music was once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics
82. As many as 62 indigenous languages are still spoken in Mexico
83. Several famous Mexican artists had serious physical disabilities
84. Mexico is home to more than 50 species of hummingbirds
85. The first Whitbread Round-The-World Yacht Race was won by a Mexican
86. Three thousand people died during a cholera epidemic in Guadalajara in 1833
87. Even “Microwaves” (with a view!) are signposted along Mexican Highways
88. More Mexican Guinness Records . . .
89. Puerto Vallarta is ‘soon’ to become an Island
90. Mexico features several times in the Guinness Book of World Records
91. There wouldn’t be many Irish people in the United States if it wasn’t for a Mexican fungus
92. Cats have 7 lives, Tuesday the 13th, and April Fool’s Day on December 28th
93. At one time Alaska was part of Mexico
94. Mexican Jumping Beans – “Frijoles Saltarines”
95. Tobacco – Xigar
96. Arteplumaria
97. Pyramid Power
98. Amalla – A Sacred Game
99. Henequén – Sisal
100. Nochebuena
101. Peanuts
102. Pineapples & Papayas
103. Vanilla
104. Chocolate.
105. Chewing Gum and Mr Wrigley.