Mexico Key Terms

Mestizo
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Terms in this set (25)
Mestizo
A person of mixed white, indigenous (Amerindian), and sometimes African descent.
Amerindian
Original peoples of North and South America; indigenous people.
Maquiladoras
Factories that produce goods for export, often located along the US-Mexican border.
Ejidos/Ejidatarios
land granted by Mexican government to an organized group of peasants/ recipient of an "ejido" land grant in Mexico.
Clientelism
A process whereby the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or a small group in return for public support
Camarilla
a small group of people, especially a group of advisers to a ruler or politician, with a shared, typically nefarious, purpose
Origin mid 19th century: from Spanish, diminutive of camara 'chamber.'
Corporatist State
A state in which interest groups become an institutionalized part of the state structure.
import substitution
a government policy that uses trade restrictions and subsidies to encourage domestic production of manufactured goods
Sexenio
The six-year administration of Mexican presidents.
Parastatal
A company, agency, or intergovernmental organization, that possesses political clout and is separate from the government, but whose activities serve the state, either directly or indirectly
PEMEXMexico's powerful state-owned oil monopoly.Accommodationadapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new informationPorfiriatothe long period of rule by Mexico's Porfirio Diaz, 1876-1911, often cited as a prime example of neocolonialism in Latin America. Diaz imposed strict political control, encouraged European and US investment, and gave special influence to a group of positivist thinkers called Cientificos.Mexico Revolution(1910-1920) long and bloody war in which Mexican reformers from the middle class joined with workers and peasants to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Diaz and create a new, much more democratic political orderMexican Constitution of 1917Promised land reform, limited foreign ownership of key resources, guaranteed the rights of workers, and placed restrictions on clerical education; marked formal end of Mexican Revolution.AnticlericalismOpposition to the power of churches or clergy in politics. In some countries, for example, France and Mexico, this opposition has focused on the role of the Catholic Church in politics.NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)An agreement for free trade between the United States and Canada and MexicoZapatistasGuerrilla movement named in honor of Emiliano Zapata; originated in 1994 in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas; government responded with a combination of repression and negotiation.Election of 2000Mexican politics saw change in 2000 when the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) candidate Vicente Fox won the presidential election.Election of 2006It was a close call between PAN's Calderon and PRD's Obrador. The polls had shown Obrador was more likely to the win the presidency, but then Calderon came out and won by a small margin. This upset many citizens who claimed the election was fraud. While fraud was suspected, there was never any hard evidence.PRIInstitutional Revolutionary Party: Mexican political party that dominated the country's political institutions from its founding in 1929 until the end of the 20th century.PANThe party is one of the four main political parties in Mexico, and, since the 1980s, has had success winning local, state, and national electionsPRDParty of the Democratic Revolution. Mexico's main left-of-center opposition party.Electoral Reformsnon-partisanship, separate state and national elections, at-large districtsMexican MiracleThe spectacular economic growth in Mexico from the 1940s to about 1980