NATIONAL LEADERS Rev. Estaben Martinez & Lupita Martinez CHURCH STATISTICS 15 established churches; 8 missions Work was organized in 1963.

NEEDS
www.pfwb.org/worldwitness/projects.htm#Mexico

PEOPLES

Mexicans are the result of cultural and ethnic integration between predominant Meso-American native groups and Spanish colonizers. Of the 56 native American groups that live in Mexico today, the most important are the Tarahumara, Nahua, Huichole, Purepecha, Mixteco, Zapoteca, Lacandone, Otomie, Totonaca and Maya. Approximately seven million Mexicans live in the south of the United States.

RELIGIONS
Mainly Catholic.

LANGUAGES

Spanish (official). One million Mexicans speak indigenous languages.

POLITICAL PARTIES

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) founded in 1929; the National Action Party (PAN), conservative, founded in 1939; the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD); the Party of the Cardenista Front for National Reconstruction (PFCRN); the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM); the People's Socialist Party (PPS); the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN) arose in 1994, in the state of Chiapas, as a political-civic alternative promoted by the Zapatista National Liberation Army; the Revolutionary People's Democratic Party, of the Revolutionary People's Army (PDPR-EPR), underground.

THE STATE

OFFICIAL NAME

Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

ADMINISTRATION

31 states and a federal district.

CAPITAL
Mexico City

OTHER CITIES

Guadalajara 1,650,000 people; Netzahualcóyotl 1,250,500; Monterrey 1,069,000; Puebla 1,007,200; Ciudad Juárez 789,500 (1990).

GOVERNMENT

Vicente Fox President since December 2000. The system is both federal and presidential. Congress of the Union: Chamber of Senators (128), Deputies (500).

NATIONAL HOLIDAY

September 16, Independence Day (1810).

ENVIRONMENT

The country occupies the southern portion of North America. It is mostly mountainous, with the Western Sierra Madre range on the Pacific side, the Eastern Sierra Madre on the Gulf of Mexico, the Southern Sierra Madre and the Sierra Neovolcánica Transversal along the central part of the country. The climate varies from dry desert wasteland conditions in the north to rainy tropical conditions in southeastern Mexico, with a mild climate in the central plateau, where the majority of the population live. Due to its geological structure, Mexico has abundant hydrocarbon reserves, both on and off shore. The great climatic diversity leads to very varied vegetation. The rainforests in the southeastern zone and the temperate forests on the slopes of the Sierra Neovolcánica are strategic economic centers. The river system is scanty and unevenly distributed throughout the country. Air, water and soil pollution levels are high in industrial areas. Deforestation affects 6,000 sq km per year. Mexico City and its surrounding area suffers from high levels of smog and atmospheric pollution.