Jalisco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| State of Jalisco Estado de Jalisco |
|||
| — State — | |||
|
|||
| Motto: Jalisco es México | |||
 |
|||
| Coordinates: 20°34′00″N 103°40′35″W / 20.566667°N 103.67639°W | |||
| Country |  Mexico |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | .svg){kind=small} Guadalajara |
||
| Municipalities | 125 | ||
| Largest City | Guadalajara | ||
| Government | |||
| - Governor | Emilio González Márquez (PAN) | ||
| - Federal Deputies | PAN: 18 PRI: 1 |
||
| - Federal Senators | Eva Contreras (PAN) Héctor Pérez (PAN) Ramiro Hernández (PRI) |
||
| Area Ranked 6th | |||
| - Total | 79,085 km2 (30,534.9 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2005) | |||
| - Total | 7,000,000 (Ranked 4th) | ||
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) | ||
| HDI (2004) | 0.8097 - high Ranked 13th |
||
| ISO 3166-2 | MX-JAL | ||
| Postal abbr. | Jal. | ||
| - State flag adopted in 2007[1] | |||
| Website | www.jalisco.gob.mx | ||
Jalisco (Spanish pronunciation: [xalisko]) is one of the 31 Mexican states that, together with the Mexican Federal District, conform the 32 federal entities of Mexico.
Jalisco is located in central-western Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Nayarit to the northwest, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosí to the north, Guanajuato to the east and Colima and Michoacán to the south. To the west, Jalisco has a significant share of coastline on the Pacific Ocean.
Jalisco is the fourth most populated federal entity in Mexico. It is also one of the most developed in terms of cultural, trade and economic level in the country. Some municipalities in the state have a standard of living comparable to the one found in countries like Spain and Italy, but, like in the rest of Mexico, these living standards are not representative of all of the state's municipalities due to the widespread economic inequalities found in the state. The capital of Jalisco is the city of Guadalajara, whose metropolitan area includes the municipalities of Guadalajara, Juanacatlán, El Salto, Tlaquepaque, Tonala, Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos and Zapopan, forming the second largest metropolitan area in Mexico after Mexico City.
Contents |
[edit] Etymology
The state's name, meaning "sandy plain," derives from the Nahuatl words xalli (meaning "sand" or "gravel") and ixtli (meaning "face," or, by extension, "plain") with the suffix -co (place).
[edit] Geography
Jalisco is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the state of Nayarit to the northwest, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes to the north, Guanajuato to the east, and Colima and Michoacán to the south. It has an area of 80,386 km2 (31,037 sq mi), which constitutes about 4% of the total territory of Mexico.
The state is formed by four characteristic physiographic regions, which are the Mexican Plateau, Sierra Madre Occidental, Sierra Madre del Sur, and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt.
Mexico's largest freshwater lake, Lake Chapala, lies within the boundaries of Jalisco.
[edit] Government and politics
The Constitution of the State of Jalisco provides that the government of Jalisco, like the government of every other state in Mexico, formally consists of three branches: the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.
Executive power rests with the Governor of Jalisco, who is directly elected through secret ballot to a 6-year term, with no possibility of reelection. Legislative power rests with the Congress of Jalisco which is a unicameral legislature composed of 40 deputies. Judicial power is invested in the Superior Court of Justice of Jalisco.
[edit] Municipalities and regions
Like the rest of Mexico, the state of Jalisco is divided into municipalities (communes), most of which are named after the town that serves as the municipal seat. Unlike English-language municipalities, Mexican municipalities (or municipios) include both a central city or town and surrounding villages, towns and rural land. Each municipio has a municipal president. The largest municipio in Jalisco is Mezquitic.
The municipalities are grouped into the following regions (regiones):[2]
- Altos Norte
- Altos Sur
- Centro
- Ciénega
- Costa Norte
- Costa Sur
- Norte
- Sierra de Amula
- Sierra Occidental
- Sur
- Sureste
- Valles
[edit] Demography
The population of Jalisco is around 6,753,114 inhabitants according to the 2005 INEGI census. The 2000 INEGI census indicated that at that time there were about 4,000,000 people in the greater Guadalajara metropolitan area. The overall population growth rate for Jalisco in the 2000-2005 period was 1.8%, and it is estimated that the economically active population is 1,756,501 [3]
[edit] Tequila
Jalisco is the center of the Mexican tequila industry, and the town of Tequila, Jalisco, which gave its name to the famous liquor, is located there. The volcanic soil covering much of the state of Jalisco is particularly well suited for the cultivation of the blue agave plant, which is used as the base for tequila.
[edit] Mariachi
There are many hypotheses about where this lively music originated from, but most people agree that Cocula, Jalisco was its birth place. Today, Mariachis are seen as a symbol of the Mexican Revolution and as the Mexican pride. Mariachi groups are usually hired for festive occasions, such as birthday parties, quinceañera (traditional parties for women who are turning 15 years of age), and weddings.
[edit] Huichol people
In the north of Jalisco, the indigeneous Huichol people live in towns that are difficult to access due to their relative isolation in mountainous areas. They call themselves wixarica, "The People," in their own language. The name "Huichol" is dervived from the name that was given to them by Nahuatl speakers.
Related to Nahuatl, the Huichol language belongs to the Coracholan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Ley sobre el Escudo, Bandera e Himno del Estado de Jalisco" (in Spanish) (Word Document). Congreso del Estado de Jalisco. 2007-02-22. Page 2. http://www.congresojal.gob.mx/Servicios/BibVirtual/busquedasleyes/archivos/Ley%20sobre%20el%20Escudo,%20Bandera%20e%20Himno%20del%20Estado%20de%20Jalisco.doc. Retrieved on 2008-12-08.
- ^ Municipios de Jalisco
- ^ Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México
[edit] External links
- (Spanish) State Government
- (Spanish) Congress of the State
- (Spanish) Supreme Court of Jalisco
- Jalisco Mexico
- (Spanish) Jalisco Social Site
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jalisco |
|
||||||||||
