Mexico is a country undergoing significant social, economic and political changes. Mexico today must contend with the social and economic effects of rapid population growth, accelerated urbanization, a young and growing labor force characterized by increasing levels of female participation, and a developing economy undergoing significant transformations in its agricultural and industrial structures. These changes, together with a continuing high level of poverty, present Mexico with serious challenges in such areas as health, education, employment, population growth and environmental protection. Efforts to address these economic and societal changes are being accompanied by changes in the nature and degree of political participation, manifest both in the growing role of minority parties as well as in popular mobilization around issues such as environment, neighborhood improvement and education. Mexican national identity reflects a strong and enduring sense of history.
Mexican culture is a unique blend of thousands of years of human interaction.
Advanced indigenous civilizations produced highly-organized empires characterized by large cities and impressive achievements in art, architecture, science and social organization. This heritage played an important role in the subsequent development of Mexican culture, despite the dramatic demographic decline and the subjugation of indigenous peoples in the years following European contact. The formative significance of the colonial period was reinforced by Mexico's role as Spain's most important colony in the Western Hemisphere, serving for 400 years as a colonial center of trade and Hispanic civilization. The Mexican colonial period produced some of the oldest educational institutions in the Americas, exceptional secular and religious architecture, and gave rise to a long tradition of literary, artistic and intellectual accomplishment that continues today in internationally acclaimed modern art, mural painting, architecture, literature and philosophy. The initial encounter of indigenous and European populations as well as the subsequent Colonial Period were fundamentally dissimilar in the two countries.