Pictorial Tour of Mexico City, Mexico

Introduction: Many people think of Mexico as a backwards third world country with extreme poverty everywhere, and not much "advanced civilization". Nothing could be farther than the truth. Mexico is a country of contrasts, both rich and poor, advanced technology as well as simple old technology. To get a grasp of how great Mexico City really is, its importance, its centrality in the scheme of things, etc., try to image the U.S. moving all of Hollywood to Washington, D.C., as well as Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, and New York all moving to be placed within the confines of Washington, D.C. This is the situation with Mexico City.

(Caption: downtown Mexico City cityscape, you can see the smog and pollution as a grey-white haze)

Mexican President Vicente Fox

All federal government is seated in Mexico City. The Mexican Senate, House of Representatives, and Congress are all in downtown Mexico City. The President of Mexico also lives here in the presidential palace. All of the Mexican film industry is in Mexico City. Mexico City is Federal District like the District of Columbia, (hence most here refer to it as "D.F.", "Districto Federal"), so it is not really a city in state, but a like a state in itself.

This is inside of the Mexican Congress in downtown Mexico City.

All of the major TV, News, broadcast networks, and movie industry is here. (Mexican movies, TV programs, and soap operas are widely shown all around the Spanish speaking world, and are very popular for some reason in the former western European countries.) Mexican TV news networks broadcast all over Mexico, but the rest of the country see events, local news, and weather of downtown Mexico City!

Business is centered in Mexico City also. Although Mexico boasts several very large, powerful, and competing Mexican cities, Mexico City still dominates the business scene. To do business, most permits, permissions, licenses, and other official paperwork has to go through Mexico City somehow. Most businessmen in other Mexican cities come regularly to Mexico City to do business related work.

On the education scene, the Mexican government passed a law providing for all Mexicans regardless of economic resources the availability of a university education. This practically worked out to a mega-university directly under the auspices of the Mexican Congress, the UNAM (National University of Mexico), which is located in southern Mexico City. UNAM has over 125,000 students usually. By no means is it the only University in Mexico City, there are literally dozens of large universities here competing for the best of each discipline.

On the medical scene, most of the pharmaceutical companies from the United States and Europe have laboratories in Mexico City where they both do research and do production. The best of many different branches of medical schools are located in Mexico City, and many foreigners from third world countries who cannot afford to study in the United States come to Mexico City to study or specialize in a specific branch.

Mexico City is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The valley of Mexico is in a high mountain valley, where thermal inversions are daily, trapping the pollution in the valley.