ATDTDA (14) references p 376

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

Mexico has had a _lot_ of revolutions!   *** see below for
long verbatim Wikipedia quote ***

http://reference.allrefer.com/gazetteer/B/B00891-bajio.html
the Bajio - "Bajio (bah-HEE-o), region, Mexico, 
in Queretaro and Guanajuatos. This area is the 
most important agr. region in the country and 
is considered the breadbasket of the republic. 
It covers the Mex. high plateau N to the sierra 
of Guanajuato; S to the volcanic foothills; 
E to the heights separating the Celaya valley 
from Queretaro. The Lerma R. has produced a series 
of lakes located at the foot of the central volcanic 
area. The soil is very fertile with water from the 
Lerma R. and its tributaries. 
Temperate and sub-humid climate." 

"They crossed the border at El Paso, came in to
Guanajuato by train, Torreon, Zacatecas, Leon,
and changing finally at Silao..."
http://tinyurl.com/2e7obx (mapquest map of Mexico, zoomable, screwable with)

"field-shirts stained as if ominously with
the juice of local strawberries"
- messy eaters, then?

tlachiqueros - "Pulque. Fermented Mexican drink, 
made from the maguey or Century plant. The maguey 
is milked daily by a tlachiquero to obtain the 
aguamiel sap using a gourd or acocote. Pulque is 
slightly foamy and mildly alcoholic."
http://www.itequila.org/glossary.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Agave_americana_a-m.jpg

Vera Cruz puros - cigars.  
puros is Spanish for "pure" - none of the otherwise
fascinating cigar info I've found explains what exactly
makes a cigar a "puro"

galvanized - "Hot-dip galvanized steel has been 
effectively used for more than 150 years. The value 
of hot-dip galvanizing stems from the relative 
corrosion resistance of zinc, which, under most 
service conditions, is considerably better than 
iron and steel. In addition to forming a physical 
barrier against corrosion, zinc, applied as a hot-dip 
galvanized coating, cathodically protects exposed 
steel. Furthermore, galvanizing for protection of 
iron and steel is favored because of its low cost, 
the ease of application, and the extended 
maintenance-free service that it provides."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanization

"couple pesos worth of zinc could've squared 
this away, 's the thing"
sort of an oblique comment on colonial practices
and how foreign ownership of resources siphons away
profits to the detriment of local infrastructure...
also, cool the way the comma separator doesn't
interfere with the sense of the contraction "away, 's"
and in fact reflects natural speech

-----------------------
***long Wikipedia quote on Mexican history***
"On September 16, 1810, independence from Spain 
was declared by Miguel Hidalgo in the small town of Dolores, 
Guanajuato state, causing a long war that eventually 
led to recognized independence in 1821 and the creation 
of an ephemeral First Mexican Empire with Agust?n 
de Iturbide as first and only emperor, deposed in 1823 
by the republican forces. In 1824, a republican constitution 
was drafted creating the United Mexican States with 
Guadalupe Victoria as its first President. 

The first four decades of independent Mexico 
were marked by a constant strife between federalists 
(those who supported the federal form of government 
stipulated in the 1824 constitution) and centralists 
(who proposed a hierarchical form of government 
in which all local authorities were appointed 
and subject to a central authority). 

General Antonio L?pez de Santa Anna 
was a strong influence in Mexican politics, 
a centralist and a two-time dictator. 
In 1836, he approved the Siete Leyes, 
a radical amendment to the constitution 
that institutionalized the centralized 
form of government, after which Texas declared 
independence from Mexico, obtained in 1836. 

The annexation of Texas by the United States 
created a border dispute that would cause 
the Mexican-American War. Santa Anna played a big role 
in trying to muster Mexican forces 
but this war resulted in the resolute defeat 
of Mexico and as a result of the Treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Mexico lost one third 
of its surface area to the United States.

Dissatisfaction with Santa Anna's return to power, 
and his unconstitutional rule, led to the 
liberal Revolution of Ayutla, which initiated 
an era of liberal reforms, known as La Reforma, 
after which a new constitution was drafted 
that reestablished federalism as the form of government 
and first introduced freedom of religion. 

In the 1860s the country again underwent 
a military occupation, this time by France, 
which established the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand 
Maximilian of Austria on the Mexican throne 
as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico with support 
from the Catholic clergy and the conservative 
Mexicans. This Second Mexican Empire was victorious 
for only a few years, when the previous president 
of the Republic, the Zapotec Indian Benito Ju?rez, 
managed to restore the republic in 1867.

Porfirio D?az, a republican general during 
the French intervention, ruled Mexico from 1876?1880 
and then from 1880?1911 in five consecutive reelections. 
The period of his rule is known as the Porfiriato, 
which was characterized by remarkable economic achievements, 
investments in art and sciences, 
but also of huge economic inequality and political repression. 
An obvious and preposterous electoral fraud 
that led to his fifth reelection sparked 
the Mexican Revolution of 1910, 
initially led by Francisco I. Madero. 

D?az resigned in 1911 and Madero was elected president 
but overthrown and murdered in a coup d'?tat in 1913 
led by a conservative general named Victoriano Huerta 
after a secret council held with the American ambassador 
Henry Lane Wilson. *

This re-ignited the civil war, 
with participants such as Pancho Villa 
and Emiliano Zapata who formed their own forces. 
A third force, the constitutional army led by 
Venustiano Carranza, managed to bring an end to the war, 
and radically amended the 1857 Constitution 
to include many of the social premises and 
demands of the revolutionaries into what was 
eventually called the 1917 Constitution. 

Carranza was killed in 1920 
and succeeded by another revolutionary hero, 
?lvaro Obreg?n, who in turn was succeeded by 
Plutarco El?as Calles. Obreg?n was reelected 
in 1928 but assassinated before he could assume power. 

Shortly after, Calles founded the National 
Revolutionary Party (PNR), later renamed the 
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) 
which became the most influential party during the next 70 years."
 
*(US tradition of supporting freedom worldwide)