title: Common snapping turtle

text: In 2002, a study done in the "Journal of Evolutionary Biology" found that the common snapping turtle ("Chelydra serpentina") registered between 208 and 226 Newtons of force when it came to jaw strength. In comparison, the average bite force of a human (molars area) is between 300 and 700 Newtons. Another non-closely related species known as the alligator snapping turtle has been known to bite off fingers, and at least three documented cases are known.


title: Common snapping turtle

text: In recent years in Italy, large mature adult "C. serpentina" turtles have been taken from bodies of water throughout the country. They were most probably introduced by the release of unwanted pets. In March 2011, an individual weighing was captured in a canal near Rome; another individual was captured near Rome in September 2012.


title: Common snapping turtle

text: In Japan, the species was introduced as an exotic pet in the 1960s; it has been recorded as the source of serious bite injuries. In 2004 and 2005, some 1,000 individuals were found in Chiba Prefecture, making up the majority of individuals believed to have been introduced.


title: Common snapping turtle

text: The species is currently classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, but has declined sufficiently due to pressure from collection for the pet trade and habitat degradation that Canada and several U.S. states have enacted or are proposing stricter conservation measures. In Canada, it is listed as "Special Concern" in the Species at Risk Act in 2011 and is a target species for projects that include surveys, identification of major habitats, investigation and mitigation of threats, and education of the public including landowners. Involved bodies include governmental departments, universities, museums, and citizen science projects.


title: Common snapping turtle

text: Although Common snapping turtles are listed as a species of least concern, anthropogenic factors still may have major effects on populations. Decades of road mortality may cause severe population decline in common snapping turtle populations present in urbanized wetlands. A study in southwestern Ontario monitored a population near a busy roadway and found a loss of 764 individuals in only 17 years. The population decreased from 941 individuals in 1985 to 177 individuals in 2002. Road mortality may put common snapping turtle populations at risk of extirpation. Exclusion fencing could aid in decreasing population loss.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: Laura Whitmore (born 4 May 1985) is an Irish media personality and model based in London. She was a video jockey for MTV in 2008, and has since presented television shows, such as "This Morning" (2014), "Survival of the Fittest" (2018) and "Love Island" (2020–2022). In 2016, she appeared on the fourteenth series of "Strictly Come Dancing" with dance partner Giovanni Pernice. In 2020, Whitmore was a team captain on the comedy panel show "Celebrity Juice".


title: Laura Whitmore

text: Whitmore was born in Dublin on 4 May 1985. She has two half-brothers. She grew up in Bray, County Wicklow, where she attended Loreto Secondary School, before studying journalism at Dublin City University.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In April 2008, MTV Networks Europe launched a campaign "Pick Me MTV" where Whitmore competed against other contestants to become the face of MTV News in MTV Europe. Between 2008 and 2015, she hosted news bulletins for MTV in Ireland, the UK and pan-European MTV channels. She was regularly seen on MTV News hosting special events in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: For five series from 2011, Whitmore hosted "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!" on ITV2 airing immediately after "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" . Whitmore announced on 14 April 2016 that she was leaving the show.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In the summer of 2012, she appeared on the RTÉ television talk show, "Saturday Night with Miriam", after carrying the 2012 Summer Olympics torch.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: A pilot episode of songwriting-based talent show "The Hit" aired in September 2012 on RTÉ Two, hosted by Whitmore. On 15 March 2013, RTÉ announced that the show had been ordered for a full series which was broadcast in the summer, but Whitmore would not host due to conflicting schedule in London. Aidan Power and Nicky Byrne presented the full series.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In 2014, she joined the BBC Eurovision team as a commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 semi-finals in Copenhagen, Denmark alongside Scott Mills on BBC Three. She replaced Ana Matronic in the role, but did not return in 2015. In 2014, she was an occasional presenter of "The Hub" section on ITV's "This Morning".


title: Laura Whitmore

text: On 24 October 2014, she appeared in Channel 4's "The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night" to raise awareness of testicular cancer.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In February 2015, Whitmore left MTV News after seven years on the channel, but continued to present irregular segments and specials. Her last bulletin with the station was recorded on 26 February 2015.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: On 10 August 2016, Whitmore took part in the fourteenth series of "Strictly Come Dancing", beginning September 2016. She was partnered with Italian dancer Giovanni Pernice and was the sixth contestant to be voted out, on 5 November 2016, following a dance off with eventual series champions Ore Oduba and Joanne Clifton.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In 2018, she presented "Survival of the Fittest", a reality series for ITV2, alongside comedian Brennan Reece.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: On 20 December 2019, it was announced that Whitmore would host the sixth series of ITV2's "Love Island" in 2020 after Caroline Flack was arrested for assaulting her partner Lewis Burton. Following Flack's death while that was airing, Whitmore returned for the seventh series in June 2021.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: On 23 August 2022, it was announced that Whitmore will step down from hosting Love Island. One of the reasons for stepping down was Whitmore's new projects that were conflicting with her commitment to Love Island.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In 2003, Whitmore was a contestant in a modelling talent search on RTÉ One's "The Late Late Show", reaching the final 15 of the competition.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: She collaborated with Daisy London on a jewellery collection in October 2015. The collection was inspired by music and features the recurring shape of the plectrum throughout.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In October 2014, she launched Misstache for Movember, a campaign for women to support and raise awareness of the men's health charity.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: She features in the music video for "Skip to the Good Bit", a song by Rizzle Kicks and the music video for "Mark My Words" by The Coronas. In 2017, she played Cleo Morey alongside Shane Richie, Bill Ward and Stephen Billington in the stage adaptation of the Peter James book "Not Dead Enough".


title: Laura Whitmore

text: In September 2020, she was announced by Nintendo UK as a brand ambassador for the Nintendo Switch game "Ring Fit Adventure" and began appearing in a TV advertisement for the game.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: On 4 March 2021, Whitmore's first book titled "No One Can Change Your Life Except For You" was released. In August 2022, it was announced that Whitmore would be joining the cast of "" on West End.


title: Laura Whitmore

text: As of 2018, Whitmore lived in the Camden area of London. She married Scottish comedian Iain Stirling in a private humanist ceremony in 2020 at Dublin City Hall. Whitmore gave birth to their daughter, Stevie Ré, in late March 2021.


title: Mexicans

text: The most spoken language by Mexicans is Spanish, but some may also speak languages from 68 different Indigenous linguistic groups and other languages brought to Mexico by recent immigration or learned by Mexican expats residing in other countries. In 2015, 21.5% of Mexico's population self-identified as being Indigenous. There are about 12 million Mexican nationals residing outside Mexico, with about 11.7 million living in the United States. The larger Mexican diaspora can also include individuals that trace ancestry to Mexico and self-identify as Mexican yet are not necessarily Mexican by citizenship, culture or language. The United States has the largest Mexican population after Mexico in the world at 37,186,361 (2019).


title: Mexicans

text: The modern nation of Mexico achieved independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, after a decade long war for independence starting in 1810; this began the process of forging a national identity that fused the cultural traits of Indigenous pre-Columbian origin with those of Spanish ancestry. This led to what has been termed "a peculiar form of multi-ethnic nationalism".


title: Mexicans

text: The Mexican people have varied origins and an identity that has evolved with the succession of conquests among Amerindian groups and later by Europeans. The area that is now modern-day Mexico has cradled many predecessor civilizations, going back as far as the Olmec which influenced the latter civilizations of Teotihuacan (200 BC to 700 AD) and the much debated Toltec people who flourished around the 10th and 12th centuries AD, and ending with the last great indigenous civilization before the Spanish Conquest, the Aztecs (13 March 1325 to 13 August 1521). The Nahuatl language was a common tongue in the region of modern Central Mexico during the Aztec Empire, but after the arrival of Europeans the common language of the region became Spanish.


title: Mexicans

text: After the conquest of the Aztec empire, the Spanish re-administered the land and expanded their own empire beyond the former boundaries of the Aztec, adding more territory to the Mexican sphere of influence which remained under the Spanish Crown for 300 years. The Spaniards enslaved millions of Africans in South America. Slavery in Mexico did not end until 1888. Cultural diffusion and intermixing among the Amerindian populations with African and the Europeans created the modern Mexican identity which is a mixture of regional indigenous, European, and African cultures that evolved into a national culture during the Spanish period. This new identity was defined as ""Mexican"" shortly after the Mexican War of Independence and was more invigorated and developed after the Mexican Revolution when the Constitution of 1917 officially established Mexico as an indivisible pluricultural nation founded on its indigenous roots.


title: Mexicans

text: "Mexicano" (Mexican) is derived from the word "Mexico" itself. In the principal model to create demonyms in Spanish, the suffix "-ano" is added to the name of the place of origin. However, in Nahuatl language, the original demonym becomes Mexica.


title: Mexicans

text: It has been suggested that the name of the country is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Mexicas, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means "Place where Huitzilopochtli lives". Another hypothesis suggests that "Mēxihco" derives from the Nahuatl words for "Moon" ("Mētztli") and navel ("xīctli"). This meaning ("Place at the Center of the Moon") might then refer to Tenochtitlan's position in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans pareidolically associated with the Moon. Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mēctli, the goddess of maguey.


title: Mexicans

text: The term "Mexicano" as a word to describe the different peoples of the region of Mexico as a single group emerged in the 16th century. At that time, the term did not apply to a nationality nor to the geographical limits of the modern Mexican Republic. However, the term was used for the first time in the first document printed in Barcelona in 1566 which documented the expedition launched from the port in Acapulco to find the best route that would favor a return journey from the Spanish East Indies to New Spain. The document stated: ""el venturoso descubrimiento que los Mexicanos han hecho"" (the venturous discovery that the Mexicans have made). That discovery led to the Manila galleon trade route and those "Mexicans" referred to Criollos, Mestizos, and Amerindians alluding to a plurality of persons who participated for a common end: the conquest of the Philippines in 1565. (Gómez M., et al. 56)


title: Mexicans

text: The majority of Mexicans have varying degrees of Spanish and Native Mesoamerican ancestry and have been classified as "Mestizos". In the modern meaning of the term this means that they identify fully neither with any indigenous culture nor with a Spanish cultural heritage, but rather identify with the uniquely Mexican identity which incorporates elements from both Spanish and indigenous traditions. By the deliberate efforts of post-revolutionary governments the "Mestizo identity" was constructed as the base of the modern Mexican national identity, through a process of cultural synthesis referred to as "mestizaje" . Mexican politicians and reformers such as José Vasconcelos and Manuel Gamio were instrumental in building a Mexican national identity on the concept of mestizaje.


title: Mexicans

text: Since the Mestizo identity promoted by the government is more of a cultural self-identity, it has achieved a strong influence in the country, with many people who may be considered "White" identifying with it. This has caused many people who may not qualify as "Mestizos" in its original sense to be counted as such in Mexico's demographic investigations and censuses.


title: Mexicans

text: A similar situation occurs regarding the distinctions between Indigenous peoples and Mestizos: while the term "Mestizo" is sometimes used in English with the meaning of a person with mixed indigenous and European blood, this usage does not conform to the Mexican social reality where a person of pure Indigenous genetic heritage would be considered Mestizo either by rejecting his indigenous culture or by not speaking an indigenous language, and a person with none or a very low percentage of indigenous genetic heritage would be considered fully indigenous either by speaking an indigenous language or by identifying with a particular indigenous cultural heritage.


title: Mexicans

text: In the Yucatán peninsula the word Mestizo has a different meaning, with it being to refer to the Maya-speaking populations living in traditional communities, because during the caste war of the late 19th century those Maya who did not join the rebellion were classified as Mestizos. In Chiapas the word "Ladino" is used instead of mestizo.


title: Mexicans

text: Cultural policies in early post-revolutionary Mexico were paternalistic towards the indigenous people, with efforts designed to "help" indigenous peoples achieve the same level of progress as the rest of society, eventually assimilating indigenous peoples completely to Mestizo Mexican culture, working toward the goal of eventually solving the "Amerindian problem" by transforming indigenous communities into Mestizo communities.


title: Mexicans

text: Given that the word Mestizo has different implications in certain areas in Mexico, estimates of the Mexican Mestizo population vary widely. According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica", which uses a biology-based approach, between one half and two thirds of the Mexican population is Mestizo. A culture-based estimate gives the percentage of Mestizos as high as 90%. Paradoxically, the word Mestizo has long been dropped from popular Mexican vocabulary, with the word even having pejorative connotations further complicating attempts to quantify Mestizos via self-identification. Recent research based on self-identification indeed, observing that many Mexicans do not actually identify as mestizos and would not agree to be labeled as such, with "static" racial labels such as White, Indian, Black etc. being more commonly used.


title: Mexicans

text: While for most of its history the concept of Mestizo and Mestizaje has been lauded by Mexico's intellectual circles, in recent times the concept has been target of criticism, with its detractors claiming that it delegitimizes the importance of race in Mexico under the idea of "(racism) not existing here (in Mexico), as everybody is Mestizo." In general, the authors conclude that Mexico introducing a real racial classification and accepting itself as a multicultural country opposed to a monolithic Mestizo country would bring benefits to the Mexican society as a whole.


title: Mexicans

text: White Mexicans are Mexican citizens who trace all or most of their ancestry to Europe. Europeans began arriving in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire; and while during the colonial period most European immigration was Spanish, in the 19th and 20th centuries European and European-derived populations from North and South America did immigrate to the country. According to 20th- and 21st-century academics, large scale intermixing between the European immigrants and the native indigenous peoples would produce a Mestizo group which would become the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population by the time of Independence. However, according to church registers from the colonial times, the majority of Spanish men married with Spanish women. Said registers also put in question other narratives held by contemporary academics, such as European immigrants who arrived to Mexico being almost exclusively men or that "pure Spanish" people were all part of a small powerful elite, as Spaniards were often the most numerous ethnic group in the colonial cities and there were menial workers and people in poverty who were of complete Spanish origin.


title: Mexicans

text: Estimates of Mexico's white population differ greatly in both, methodology and percentages given, extra-official sources such as the World Factbook and Encyclopædia Britannica, which use the 1921 census results as the base of their estimations calculate Mexico's white population as only 9% or between one tenth to one fifth (the results of the 1921 census, however, have been contested by various historians and deemed inaccurate). Surveys that account for phenotypical traits and have performed actual field research suggest rather higher percentages: using the presence of blond hair as reference to classify a Mexican as white, the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico calculated the percentage of said ethnic group at 23%. With a similar methodology, the American Sociological Association obtained a percentage of 18.8% having its higher frequency on the North region (22.3%–23.9%) followed by the Center region (18.4%–21.3%) and the South region (11.9%). Another study made by the University College London in collaboration with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History found that the frequencies of blond hair and light eyes in Mexicans are of 18% and 28% respectively, surveys that use as reference skin color such as those made by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination and Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported a percentages of 47% in 2010 and 49% in 2017 respectively. Another survey published in 2018 reported a percentage significativelly lower at 29%, this time however, the surveying of Mexicans from "vulnerable groups" was prioritized, which among other measures meant that states known to have high numbers of people from said groups surveyed more people.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest percentages of European population, with the majority of the people not having native admixture or being of predominantly European ancestry, resembling in aspect that of northern Spaniards. In the north and west of Mexico, the indigenous tribes were substantially smaller than those found in central and southern Mexico, and also much less organized, thus they remained isolated from the rest of the population or even in some cases were hostile towards Mexican colonists. The northeast region, in which the indigenous population was eliminated by early European settlers, became the region with the highest proportion of whites during the Spanish colonial period. However, recent immigrants from southern Mexico have been changing, to some degree, its demographic trends.


title: Mexicans

text: The white population of central Mexico, despite not being as numerous as in the north due to higher mixing, is ethnically more diverse, as there are large numbers of other European and Middle Eastern ethnic groups, aside from Spaniards. This also results in non-Iberian surnames (mostly French, German, Italian, and Arab) being more common in central Mexico, especially in the country's capital and in the state of Jalisco.


title: Mexicans

text: The 2003 General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples recognizes 62 indigenous languages as "national languages" which have the same validity as Spanish in all territories in which they are spoken. The recognition of indigenous languages and the protection of indigenous cultures is granted not only to the ethnic groups indigenous to modern-day Mexican territory, but also to other North American indigenous groups that migrated to Mexico from the United States in the 19th century and those who immigrated from Guatemala in the 1980s.


title: Mexicans

text: The category of "indigena" (indigenous) in Mexico has been defined based on different criteria through history, this means that the percentage of the Mexican population defined as "indigenous" varies according to the definition applied. It can be defined narrowly according to linguistic criteria including only persons that speak an indigenous language, based on this criterion approximately 5.4% of the population is Indigenous. Nonetheless, activists for the rights of indigenous peoples have referred to the usage of this criterion for census purposes as "statistical genocide".


title: Mexicans

text: Other surveys made by the Mexican government do count as Indigenous all persons who speak an indigenous language and people who do not speak indigenous languages nor live in indigenous communities but self-identifies as Indigenous. According to this criterion, the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas, or CDI in Spanish) and the INEGI (Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography), state that there are 15.7 million indigenous people in Mexico of many different ethnic groups, which constitute 14.9% of the population in the country.


title: Mexicans

text: According to the latest intercensal survey carried out by the Mexican government in 2015, Indigenous people make up 21.5% of Mexico's population. In this occasion, people who self-identified as "Indigenous" and people who self-identified as "partially Indigenous" were classified in the "Indigenous" category altogether.


title: Mexicans

text: The absolute indigenous population is growing, but at a slower rate than the rest of the population so that the percentage of indigenous peoples is nonetheless falling. The majority of the indigenous population is concentrated in the central-southern and south-eastern states, with the majority of the indigenous population living in rural areas. Some indigenous communities have a degree of autonomy under the legislation of "usos y costumbres", which allows them to regulate some internal issues under customary law.


title: Mexicans

text: According to the CDI, the states with the greatest percentage of indigenous population are Yucatán, with 62.7%, Quintana Roo with 33.8% and Campeche with 32% of the population being indigenous, most of them Maya; Oaxaca with 58% of the population, the most numerous groups being the Mixtec and Zapotec peoples; Chiapas has 32.7%, the majority being Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya; Hidalgo with 30.1%, the majority being Otomi; Puebla with 25.2%, and Guerrero with 22.6%, mostly Nahua people and the states of San Luis Potosí and Veracruz both home to a population of 19% indigenous people, mostly from the Totonac, Nahua and Teenek (Huastec) groups.


title: Mexicans

text: A Jewish, specifically Sephardic, population has existed in Mexico since the conquest. The current Jewish population in Mexico mostly consists of those who have descended from immigrants from the 19th and early 20th centuries with nationwide totals estimated between 80,000 and 90,000, about 75% of whom are in Mexico City. The exact numbers are not known. One main source for figures is the Comité Central Israelita in Mexico City but its contact is limited to Orthodox and Conservative congregations with no contact with Jews that may be affiliated with the Reform movement or those who consider themselves secular. The Mexican government census lists religion but its categories are confusing, confusing those of some Protestant sects which practice Judaic rituals with Jewish groups. There is also controversy as to whether to count those Crypto-Jews who have converted (back) to Judaism. Sixty two percent of the population over fifteen is married, three percent divorced and four percent widowed. However, younger Jewish women are more likely to be employed outside the home (only 18% of women are housewives) and fertility rates are dropping from 3.5 children of women over 65 to 2.7 for the overall population now. There is a low level of intermarriage with the general Mexican population, with only 3.1% of marriages being mixed. Although the Jewish community is less than one percent of Mexico's total population, Mexico is one of the few countries whose Jewish population is expected to grow.


title: Mexicans

text: German Mexicans (German: "Deutschmexikaner" or "Deutsch-Mexikanisch", Spanish: "germano-mexicano" or "alemán-mexicano") are Mexicans of German descent or origin.


title: Mexicans

text: Most ethnic Germans arrived in Mexico during the mid-to-late 19th century, spurred by government policies of Porfirio Díaz. Although a good number of them took advantage of the liberal policies then valid in Mexico and went into merchant, industrial and educational ventures, others arrived with no or limited capital, as employees or farmers. Most settled in Mexico City, Veracruz, Yucatán, and Puebla. Significant numbers of German immigrants also arrived during and after the First and Second World Wars. The Plautdietsch language is also spoken by the Mexican Mennonites, descendants of German and Dutch immigrants in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes. Other German towns lie in the states of Nuevo León, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Yucatán, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, and other parts of Puebla, where the German culture and language have been preserved to different extents.


title: Mexicans

text: The German Mexican community has largely integrated into Mexican society as a whole whilst retaining some cultural traits and in turn exerted cultural and industrial influences on Mexican society. Especially after the First World War intense processes of transculturation can be observed, particularly in Mexico City, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Puebla and, notably, with the Maya in Chiapas. These include social, cultural and identity aspects.


title: Mexicans

text: An Arab Mexican is a Mexican citizen of Arabic-speaking origin who can be of various ancestral origins. The vast majority of 450,000 Mexicans who have at least partial Arab descent trace their ancestry to what is now Lebanon and Syria.


title: Mexicans

text: The interethnic marriage in the Arab community, regardless of religious affiliation, is very high; most community members have only one parent who has Arab ethnicity. As a result of this, the Arab community in Mexico shows marked language shift away from Arabic. Only a few speak any Arabic, and such knowledge is often limited to a few basic words. Instead the majority, especially those of younger generations, speak Spanish as a first language. Today, the most common Arabic surnames in Mexico include Nader, Hayek, Ali, Haddad, Nasser, Malik, Abed, Mansoor, Harb and Elias.


title: Mexicans

text: Arab immigration to Mexico started in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Roughly 100,000 Arabic-speakers settled in Mexico during this time period. They came mostly from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq and settled in significant numbers in Nayarit, Puebla, Mexico City and the Northern part of the country, mainly in the states of Baja California, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango, as well as the city of Tampico and Guadalajara. The term "Arab Mexican" may include ethnic groups that do not in fact identify as Arab.


title: Mexicans

text: During the Israel-Lebanon war in 1948 and during the Six-Day War, thousands of Lebanese left Lebanon and went to Mexico. They first arrived in Veracruz. Although Arabs made up less than 5% of the total immigrant population in Mexico during the 1930s, they constituted half of the immigrant economic activity.


title: Mexicans

text: Immigration of Arabs in Mexico has influenced Mexican culture, in particular food, where they have introduced Kibbeh, Tabbouleh and even created recipes such as "Tacos Árabes". By 1765, Dates, which originated from the Middle East, were introduced into Mexico by the Spaniards. The fusion between Arab and Mexican food has highly influenced the Yucatecan cuisine.


title: Mexicans

text: Another concentration of Arab-Mexicans is in Baja California facing the U.S.-Mexican border, esp. in cities of Mexicali in the Imperial Valley U.S./Mexico, and Tijuana across from San Diego with a large Arab American community (about 280,000), some of whose families have relatives in Mexico. 45% of Arab Mexicans are of Lebanese descent.


title: Mexicans

text: The majority of Arab-Mexicans are Christians who belong to the Maronite Church, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. A scant number are Muslims as well as indigenous muslims which are most common in southern states like Chiapas or Oaxaca. And Jews of Middle Eastern origins.


title: Mexicans

text: The first wave of Roma arrived in Mexico in the 1890s, when they came to the Americas from Hungary, Poland and Russia and mainly settled in the United States and Brazil, but also in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela. There are Romani communities in the cities of Mexico City, Veracruz, Puebla, Guadalajara and Monterrey. There is also a large Romani community in San Luís Potosí.


title: Mexicans

text: Afro-Mexicans were brought to Mexico during the slave trade. Afro-Mexicans are an ethnic group that predominate in certain areas of Mexico. Such as the Costa Chica of Oaxaca and the Costa Chica of Guerrero, Veracruz (e.g. Yanga) and in some towns in northern Mexico. The existence of blacks in Mexico is difficult to assess for a number of reasons: their small numbers, heavy intermarriage with other ethnic groups and Mexico's tradition of defining itself as a "mestizaje" or mixing of European and indigenous. Mexico did have an active slave trade since the early Spanish period but from the beginning, intermarriage and mixed race offspring created an elaborate caste system. This system broke down in the very late Spanish period and after Independence the legal notion of race was eliminated. The creation of a national Mexican identity, especially after the Mexican Revolution, emphasized Mexico's indigenous and European past actively or passively eliminating its African one from popular consciousness.


title: Mexicans

text: The majority of Mexico's Afro-descendants are "Afromestizos", i.e. "mixed-race". Individuals with significantly high amounts of African ancestry make up a very low percentage of the total Mexican population, the majority being recent black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the Americas. According to the Intercensal survey carried out by the Mexican government, Afro-Mexicans make up 1.2% of Mexico's population, the Afro-Mexican category in the Intercensal survey includes people who self-identified solely as African and people who self-identified as partially African. The survey also states that 64.9% (896,829) of Afro-Mexicans also identified as indigenous, with 9.3% being speakers of indigenous languages.


title: Mexicans

text: Asian Mexicans make up less than 1% of the total population of modern Mexico. The term "Asian" in Mexico is typically associated with the Far East rather than the Near East. As such, this group may refer to Mexicans of East and Southeast Asian descent, as well as those of South Asian origin. Mexicans of West Asian descent may sometimes be considered to be part of the group.


title: Mexicans

text: Asian immigration began with the forced arrival of people from the jurisdictions of the Spanish East Indies during Mexico’s viceregal period. For two and a half centuries, between 1565 and 1815, the Philippines, Guam, and Marianas islands, etc., were ruled from Mexico City for the Spanish crown. During this period, the Manila-Acapulco Galleon assisting Spain in its trade between Asia and the Americas was formed. Thousands of Filipinos were brought on these voyages to Mexico as slaves and were called "Chino", which meant Chinese. Some were also ship crew members and prisoners. In with the groups of Filipinos, there were, in reality, many diverse Asians, including Malays, Javanese, Cambodians, Timorese, and people from Bengal, India, Ceylon, Makassar, Tidore, Terenate, and China. All of these were referred to as ‘chino’. A notable example is the story of Catarina de San Juan (Mirra), an Indian girl captured by the Portuguese and sold into slavery in Manila. She arrived in New Spain and eventually she gave rise to the "China Poblana".


title: Mexicans

text: These early individuals are not very apparent in modern Mexico for two main reasons: the common practice of "Chino" slaves to "pass" as "Indios" (the indigenous people of Mexico) in order to attain freedom and also the widespread "mestizaje" of Mexico during the Spanish period. The indigenous people of Mexico were legally protected from chattel slavery, and by passing and being recognized as part of this group, Asian slaves could claim they were wrongly enslaved. As had occurred with a large portion of Mexico's black population, over generations the small Asian populace was absorbed into the general population through this miscegenation.


title: Mexicans

text: Later groups of Asians, predominantly Chinese, became Mexico's fastest-growing immigrant group from the 1880s to the 1920s, exploding from about 1,500 in 1895 to more than 20,000 in 1910, but also met with strong anti-Chinese sentiment, especially in Sonora and Sinaloa, which led to deportations and illegal expulsions of many of them and their descendants.


title: Mexicans

text: Ethnic relations in modern Mexico have grown out of the historical context of the arrival of Europeans, the subsequent Spanish period of cultural and genetic miscegenation within the frame work of the castas system, the revolutionary periods focus on incorporating all ethnic and racial group into a common Mexican national identity and the indigenous revival of the late 20th century. The resulting picture has been called "a peculiar form of multi-ethnic nationalism".


title: Mexicans

text: Very generally speaking ethnic relations can be arranged on an axis between the two extremes of European and Amerindian cultural heritage, this is a remnant of the Spanish caste system which categorized individuals according to their perceived level of biological mixture between the two groups. Additionally the presence of considerable portions of the population with partly African and Asian heritage further complicates the situation. Even though it still arranges persons along the line between indigenous and European, in practice the classificatory system is no longer biologically based, but rather mixes socio-cultural traits with phenotypical traits, and classification is largely fluid, allowing individuals to move between categories and define their ethnic and racial identities situationally.


title: Mexicans

text: Historically, population studies and censuses have never been up to the standards that a population as diverse and numerous such as Mexico's require. The first racial census was made in 1793, being also Mexico's (then known as New Spain) first ever nationwide population census. Of it, only part of the original datasets survive. Thus most of what is known of it comes from essays made by researchers who used the census' findings as reference for their own works. More than a century would pass until the Mexican government conducted a new racial census in 1921 (some sources assert that the census of 1895 included a comprehensive racial classification, however according to the historic archives of Mexico's National Institute of Statistics that was not the case). While the 1921 census was the last time the Mexican government conducted a census that included a comprehensive racial classification, in recent time it has conducted nationwide surveys to quantify most of the ethnic groups who inhabit the country as well as the social dynamics and inequalities between them.


title: Mexicans

text: Also known as the "Revillagigedo census" due to its creation being ordered by the Count of the same name, this census was Mexico's (then known as the Viceroyalty of New Spain) first ever nationwide population census. Most of its original datasets have reportedly been lost, thus most of what is now known about it comes from essays and field investigations made by academics who had access to the census data and used it as reference for their works such as Prussian geographer Alexander von Humboldt. Each author gives different estimations for each racial group in the country although they don't vary much, with Europeans ranging from 18% to 22% of New Spain's population, Mestizos ranging from 21% to 25%, Amerindians ranging from 51% to 61% and Africans being between 6,000 and 10,000, The estimations given for the total population range from 3,799,561 to 6,122,354. It is concluded then, that across nearly three centuries of colonization, the population growth trends of Europeans and Mestizos were even, while the total percentage of the Indigenous population decreased at a rate of 13%-17% per century. The authors assert that rather than Europeans and mestizos having higher birthrates, the reason for the Indigenous population's numbers decreasing lies on them suffering of higher mortality rates, due living in remote locations rather than on cities and towns founded by the Spanish colonists or being at war with them. It is also for these reasons that the number of Indigenous Mexicans presents the greater variation range between publications, as in cases their numbers in a given location were estimated rather than counted, leading to possible overestimations in some provinces and possible underestimations in others.


title: Mexicans

text: Regardless of the possible imprecisions related to the counting of Indigenous peoples living outside the colonized areas, the effort that New Spain's authorities put on considering them as subjects is worth mentioning, as censuses made by other colonial or post-colonial countries did not consider Amerindians to be citizens/subjects, as example the censuses made by the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata would only count the inhabitants of the colonized settlements. Other example would be the censuses made by the United States, that did not include Indigenous peoples living among the general population until 1860, and indigenous peoples as a whole until 1900.


title: Mexicans

text: Made right after the consummation of the Mexican revolution, the social context on which this census was made makes it particularly unique, as the government of the time was in the process of rebuilding the country and was looking forward to unite all Mexicans under a single national identity. The 1921 census' final results in regards to race, which assert that 59.3% of the Mexican population self-identified as Mestizo, 29.1% as Indigenous and only 9.8% as White were then essential to cement the "mestizaje" ideology (that asserts that the Mexican population as a whole is product of the admixture of all races) which shaped Mexican identity and culture through the 20th century and remain prominent nowadays, with extraofficial international publications such as "The World Factbook" and Encyclopædia Britannica using them as a reference to estimate Mexico's racial composition up to this day.


title: Mexicans

text: Nonetheless in recent times the census' results have been subjected to scrutiny by historians, academics and social activists alike, who assert that such drastic alterations on demographic trends with respect to the 1793 census are not possible and cite, among other statistics, the relatively low frequency of marriages between people of different continental ancestries in colonial and early independent Mexico. It is claimed that the "mestizaje" process sponsored by the state was more "cultural than biological" which resulted on the numbers of the Mestizo Mexican group being inflated at the expense of the identity of other races. Controversies aside, this census constituted the last time the Mexican Government conducted a comprehensive racial census with the breakdown by states being the following (foreigners and people who answered "other" not included):


title: Mexicans

text: When the 1921 census' results are compared with the results of Mexico's recent censuses as well as with modern genetic research, high consistence is found in regards to the distribution of Indigenous Mexicans across the country, with states located in south and south-eastern Mexico having both, the highest percentages of population that self-identifies as Indigenous and the highest percentages of Amerindian genetic ancestry. However this is not the case when it comes to European Mexicans, as there are instances on which states that have been shown to have a considerably high European ancestry per scientific research are reported to have very small white populations in the 1921 census, with the most extreme case being that of the state of Durango, where the aforementioned census asserts that only 0.01% of the state's population (33 persons) self-identified as "white" while modern scientific research shows that the population of Durango has similar genetic frequences to those found on European peoples (with the state's Indigenous population showing almost no foreign admixture either). Various authors theorize that the reason for these inconsistencies may lie in the Mestizo identity promoted by the Mexican government, which reportedly led to people who are not biologically Mestizos to identify as such.


title: Mexicans

text: The following table is a compilation of (when possible) official nationwide surveys conducted by the Mexican government who have attempted to quantify different Mexican ethnic groups. Given that for the most part each ethnic group was estimated by different surveys, with different methodologies and years apart rather than on a single comprehensive racial census, some groups could overlap with others and be overestimated or underestimated.


title: Mexicans

text: Of all the ethnic groups that have been surveyed Mestizos are notably absent, which is likely due to the label's fluid and subjective definition, which complicates its precise quantification. However, it can be safely assumed that Mestizos make up at least the remaining 30% unassessed percentage of Mexico's population with possibilities of increasing if the methodologies of the extant surveys are considered. As example the 2015 intercensal survey considered as Indigenous Mexicans and Afro-Mexicans altogether individuals who self-identified as "part Indigenous" or "part African" thus, said people technically would be Mestizos. Similarly, White Mexicans were quantified based on physical traits/appearance, thus technically a Mestizo with a percentage of Indigenous ancestry that was low enough to not affect his/her primarily European phenotype was considered to be white. Finally, the remaining ethnicities, for being of a rather low number or being faiths have more permissive classification criteria, therefore a Mestizo could claim to belong to one of them by practicing the faith, or by having an ancestor who belonged to said ethnicities.


title: Mexicans

text: Nonetheless, contemporary sociologists and historians agree that, given that the concept of "race" has a psychological foundation rather than a biological one and to society's eyes a Mestizo with a high percentage of European ancestry is considered "white" and a Mestizo with a high percentage of Indigenous ancestry is considered "Amerindian", a person that identifies with a given ethnic group should be allowed to, even if biologically he doesn't completely belong to that group.


title: Mexicans

text: Genetic studies in Mexico can be divided on three groups: studies made on self-identified Mestizos, studies made on Indigenous peoples and studies made on the general Mexican population. Studies that focus on Mexicans of predominantly European descent or Afro-Mexicans have not been made. Mexicans who self-identify as Mestizos are primarily of European and Native American ancestry. The third largest component is African, in coastal areas this is partly a legacy of the slavery in New Spain (which saw the importation of some 100,000 to 200,000 black slaves). However, the authors of this study state that the majority of African ancestry in Mexicans is of North African origin and was brought by the Spaniards themselves as a diluted part of their genetic ancestry.


title: Mexicans

text: Those DNA studies on Mexicans show a significant genetic variation depending on the region analyzed, with the central region of Mexico showing a balance between indigenous and European components, and the latter gradually increasing as one travels northwards and westwards, where European ancestry becomes the majority of the genetic contribution up until cities located at the Mexico–United States border, where studies suggest there is a significant resurgence of indigenous and also African admixture. In southern Mexico there is prevalent indigenous Meso-American, but also European admixture, and a small but higher than average African genetic contributions.


title: Mexicans

text: According to numerous studies, on average, the largest genetic component of Mexicans who self-identify as being Mestizos is indigenous; although the difference in incidence between the indigenous and European composites is relatively small, both representing well over 40% of the genetic composition of Mestizos.


title: Mexicans

text: In two studies of Mexicans from Mexico City and the United States, researchers noted that Mexicans had mostly European ancestry, with Native American ancestry making up 44% of the general ancestry of Mexicans. However, Native American X chromosomal ancestry exceeded 50%, and other studies found that approximately 90% of Mexicans carried a Native American maternal haplogroup. The authors suggest that this is consistent with the ethnogenesis of Latinos, through intermarriages that mostly involved European men and Native American women.


title: Mexicans

text: Extant research suggests that geographic location plays a more significative role on determining the genetic makeup of the average Indigenous person than cultural traits do, an example of this is the indigenous population of Tlapa in the state of Guerrero that despite for the most part speaking Spanish and having the same cultural customs non-indigenous Mexicans have, shows an indigenous ancestry of 95%. In contrast, Nahua-speaking Indigenous peoples from the state of Veracruz have a mean European ancestry of 42% and an African ancestry of 22%.


title: Mexicans

text: The Mestizaje ideology, which has blurred the lines of race at an institutional level has also had a significative influence in genetic studies done in Mexico: As the criterion used in studies to determine if a Mexican is Mestizo or indigenous often lies in cultural traits such as the language spoken instead of racial self-identification or a phenotype-based selection there are studies on which populations who are considered to be Indigenous per virtue of the language spoken show a higher degree of European genetic admixture than the one populations considered to be Mestizo report in other studies. The opposite also happens, as there instances on which populations considered to be Mestizo show genetic frequencies very similar to continental European peoples in the case of Mestizos from the state of Durango or to European derived Americans in the case of Mestizos from the state of Jalisco.


title: Mexicans

text: A 2006 study conducted by Mexico's National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), which genotyped 104 samples, reported that mestizo Mexicans are 58.96% European, 35.05% "Asian" (primarily Amerindian), and 5.03% Other. Of the six states that participated in the Study, the state of Sonora showed the highest European ancestry being approximately 70% while the State of Guerrero presented the lowest European ancestry, at around 50%.


title: Mexicans

text: According to a 2009 report by the Mexican Genome Project, which sampled 300 Mexicans who self-identified as Mestizos from six Mexican states and one indigenous group, the gene pool of the Mexicans population was calculated to be 55.2% percent indigenous, 41.8% European, 1.0% African, and 1.2% Asian.


title: Mexicans

text: A 2017 study reported highly variable ancestry in Mexican Mestizos, ranging from 70.2%-46.2% Amerindian; 25.4%-48.7% European; 5.2%-2.8% African (Martínez-Cortés et al., 2017).


title: Mexicans

text: A 2014 genetic study gave results of 56.0% Amerindian; 37.0% European; and 5.0% African for Mexican Mestizos. The authors reported similar findings of geographical variation, as in other studies. Native American ancestry is lower in northerly regions of Mexico, and higher in the south. African ancestry is generally quite low across most of Mexico, with the exception of a small number of coastal communities.


title: Mexicans

text: An autosomal study performed in Mestizos from Mexico's three largest cities reported that Mestizos from Mexico city had an average ancestry of 50% European, 1% African and 49% Amerindian whereas Mestizos from the cities of Monterrey and Guadalajara had both a European ancestry of 60% and an indigenous ancestry of 40% in average.


title: Mexicans

text: An autosomal study performed in Mexicans from the states of Nuevo Leon, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí found the average indigenous ancestry to be 22% while 78% of the genetic ancestry was of Spanish/European origin.


title: Mexicans

text: An autosomal study performed in Mexico City reported that Mexican mestizos' mean ancestry was 57% European, 40% Amerindian and 3% African.


title: Mexicans

text: Additional studies suggests a tendency relating a higher European admixture with a higher socioeconomic status and a higher Amerindian ancestry with a lower socioeconomic status: a study made exclusively on low income Mestizos residing in Mexico City found the mean admixture to be 0.590, 0.348, and 0.062 for Amerindian, European and African respectively whereas the European admixture increased to an average of around 70% on mestizos belonging to a higher socioeconomical level.


title: Mexicans

text: An autosomal genetic study which included the states of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, Queretaro and Mexico City determined the average ancestry of the central region of Mexico to be 52% European 39% Amerindian, and 9% African.


title: Mexicans

text: An autosomal genetic study performed in the town of Metztitlan in the state of Hidalgo reported that the average genetic ancestry of the town's autochthonous (indigenous) population was 64% Amerindian, 25% European and 11% African.


title: Mexicans

text: A 2012 study published by the "Journal of Human Genetics" Y chromosomes found the deep paternal ancestry of the Mexican mestizo population to be predominately European (64.9%), followed by Amerindian (30.8%) and Asian(1.2%). The European Y chromosome was more prevalent in the north and west (66.7-95%) and Native American ancestry increased in the center and southeast (37-50%), the African ancestry was low and relatively homogeneous (0-8.8%). The states that participated in this study where Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Veracruz and Yucatán. The largest amount of chromosomes found were identified as belonging to the haplogroups from Western Europe, East Europe and Eurasia, Siberia and the Americas and Northern Europe with relatively smaller traces of haplogroups from Central Asia, South-east Asia, South-central Asia, Western Asia, The Caucasus, North Africa, Near East, East Asia, North-east Asia, South-west Asia and the Middle East.


title: Mexicans

text: Depending on the region, some may have small traces of Asian admixture due to the thousands of Filipinos and "Chinos" (Asian slaves of diverse origins, not just Chinese) that arrived on the "Nao de China". More recent Asian immigration (specifically Chinese) may help explain the comparatively high Asian contribution in Northwest Mexico (i.e., Sonora).


title: Mexicans

text: Albeit not as numerous or with a history as long as genetic research in the country, studies regarding the presence of different phenotypical traits (hair color, hair shape, eye color etc.) in Mexicans have been made. Those studies have recently gained the attention of Mexico's government which has begun conducting its own nationwide investigations, with the aim of document dynamics and inequalities on interactions between Mexicans of different ethnicities/races as well as to have a more concise idea of the ethnic composition of the country (a field that has been long neglected at an institutional level in Mexico). The results of these studies effectively refute misconceptions regarding Mexico's population, showing that Mexico is an exceptionally diverse country, where any color or type of trait can be found with ease in any region.


title: Mexicans

text: Some studies, such as the one published by the American Sociological Association refute misconceptions that are very prevalent even among Mexicans themselves, as it found the differences in the frequencies of phenotypical traits such as blond hair between the population of the Northern regions of Mexico (where this trait has a frequency of 22.3% - 23.9%) and the population of the Central regions of Mexico (with a frequency of 18.9% to 21.3%) are not as pronounced as are commonly thought to be. Per the methodology of the study, the presence of blond hair was required for a Mexican to be classified as white as "unlike skin color, blond hair does not darken with sun exposure" With a similar methodology, other study, made by the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico calculated the frequency of blond hair at 23%, Mexicans with red red-hair were classified as "other".


title: Mexicans

text: A 2014 study made by the University College London analyzed the frequencies of several different phenotypical traits on populations of five different Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru). In the case of Mexico the National Institute of Anthropology and History collaborated in the investigation with the results being the following:


title: Mexicans

text: The majority of the samples (approx. 90%) hailed from Mexico City and Southern Mexican states, meaning that Northern and Western regions of Mexico were underrepresented as around 45% of Mexico's population lives there.


title: Mexicans

text: Nationwide surveys sponsored by the Mexican government that quantify the percentage of the different skin tones present on Mexico's population have been made, the first in 2010 by the CONAPRED (Mexico's National Bureau for Prevention of Discrimination) and the second in 2017 by the INEGI (Mexico's National Institute of Statistics) Each study used a different color palette, in the case of CONAPRED's study it was a palette with 9 color choices developed by the institute itself whereas in the case of the INEGI study the palette used was the palette for the PERLA (Latin American Race and Ethnicity Project) with 11 color categories.


title: Mexicans

text: As the progression from the darker tones to the lightest ones is not as uniform in the palette used by the INEGI (some tones are practically the same while there are marked differences between others) as it is in the CONAPRED's palette, two color categories ended up containing nearly 70% of surveyed Mexicans whereas there were color categories that had less than 1% of Mexicans each. Even though Mexico's government has downplayed the racial connotations of said studies by opting for using the term "light-skinned Mexican" to refer to the segment of Mexico's population who possess European physical traits/appearance and "dark-skinned Mexican" to refer the segment of Mexico's population who does not, the publication of said studies hasn't been free of controversy, specially in the case of the study published in 2017 as besides skin color it also accounted for different socioeconomic factors such as educational achievements and occupational profiles, with media outlets bringing to Mexico's mainstream opinion circles concepts such as systemic racism, white privilege, and colonialism. Nonetheless it is agreed that to acknowledge that Mexico is a diverse country constitutes a steep in the right direction to fight social inequalities.


title: Mexicans

text: In 2018, the new edition of the ENADIS was published, this time being a joint effort by the CONAPRED and the INEGI with collaboration of the UNAM, the CONACyT and the CNDH. Like its 2010 antecesor, it surveyed Mexican citizens about topics related to discrimination and collected data related to phenotype and ethnic self-identification. It concluded that Mexico is still a fairly conservative country regarding minority groups such as religious minorities, ethnic minorities, foreigners, members of the LGBT collective etc. albeit there's pronounced regional differences, with states in the south-center regions of Mexico having in general notoriously higher discrimination rates towards the aforementioned social groups than the ones states in the western-north regions have. For the collecting of data related to skin color the palette used was again the PERLA one. This time 11% of Mexicans were reported to have "dark skin tones (A-E)" 59% to have "medium skin tones (F-G)" and 29% to have "light skin tones (H-K)". The reason for the huge difference regarding the reported percentages of Mexicans with light skin (around 18% lower) and medium skin (around 16% higher) in the relation to previous nationwide surveys lies in the fact that the ENADIS 2017 prioritized the surveying of Mexicans from "vulnerable groups" which among other measures meant that states with known high numbers of people from said groups surveyed more people.


title: Mexicans

text: The following tables (the first from a study published in 2002 and the second from a study published in 2018) show the frequencies of different blood types in various Mexican cities and states, as Mexico's Amerindian/Indigenous population exclusively exhibits the "O" blood type, the presence of other blood groups can give an approximate idea of the amount of foreign influence there is in each state that has been analyzed. The results of this studies however, shouldn't be taken as exact, literal estimations for the percentages of different ethnic groups that there may be in Mexico (I.E. A+B blood groups = percentage of White Mexicans) for reasons such as the fact that a Mestizo Mexican can have "A", "B" etc. blood types or the fact that the "O" blood type does exist in Europe, with it having a frequency of 44% in Spain for example.


title: Mexicans

text: Both studies find similar trends regarding the distribution of different blood groups, with foreign blood groups being more common in the North and Western regions of Mexico, which is congruent with the findings of genetic studies that have been made in the country through the years. It is also observed that "A" and "B" blood groups are more common among younger volunteers whereas "AB" and "O" are more common in older ones. The total number of analyzed samples in the 2018 study was 271,164.


title: Mexicans

text: A study performed in hospitals of Mexico City reported that in average 51.8% of Mexican newborns presented the congenital skin birthmark known as the Mongolian spot whilst it was absent in 48.2% of the analyzed babies. The Mongolian spot appears with a very high frequency (85-95%) in Asian, Native American and African children. The skin lesion reportedly almost always appears on South American and Mexican children who are racially Mestizos while having a very low frequency (5-10%) in Caucasian children. According to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) nationwide, around half of Mexican babies have the Mongolian spot.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexicans are linguistically diverse, with many speaking European languages as well as various Indigenous Mexican Languages. Spanish is spoken by approximately 92.17% of Mexicans as their first language making them the largest Spanish speaking group in the world followed by Colombia (45,273,925), Spain (41,063,259) and Argentina (40,134,425). Although the great majority speak Spanish "de facto" the second most populous language among Mexicans is English due to the regional proximity of the United States which calls for a bilingual relationship in order to conduct business and trade as well as the migration of Mexicans into that country who adopt it as a second language.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexican Spanish is distinct in dialect, tone and syntax to the Peninsular Spanish spoken in Spain. It contains a large amount of loan words from indigenous languages, mostly from the Nahuatl language such as: "chocolate", "tomate", "mezquite", "chile", and "coyote".


title: Mexicans

text: Mexico has no official "de jure" language, but as of 2003 it recognizes 68 indigenous Amerindian languages as "national languages" along with Spanish which are protected under Mexican National law giving indigenous peoples the entitlement to request public services and documents in their native languages. The law also includes other Amerindian languages regardless of origin, that is, it includes the Amerindian languages of other ethnic groups that are non-native to the Mexican national territory. As such, Mexico's National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the language of the Kickapoo who immigrated from the United States, and recognizes the languages of Guatemalan Amerindian refugees. The most numerous indigenous language spoken by Mexicans is Nahuatl which is spoken by 1.7% of the population in Mexico over the age of 5. Approximately 6,044,547 Mexicans (5.4%) speak an indigenous language according to the 2000 Census in Mexico. There are also Mexicans living abroad which speak indigenous languages mostly in the United States but their number is unknown.


title: Mexicans

text: English is also spoken. Other European languages spoken in Mexico are Plautdietsch, French, German, Romani and Venetian.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexican culture reflects the complexity of the country's history through the blending of indigenous cultures and the culture of Spain, imparted during Spain's 300-year colonization of Mexico. Exogenous cultural elements mainly from the United States have been incorporated into Mexican culture.


title: Mexicans

text: The Porfirian era ("el Porfiriato"), in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, was marked by economic progress and peace. After four decades of civil unrest and war, Mexico saw the development of philosophy and the arts, promoted by President Díaz himself. Since that time, as accentuated during the Mexican Revolution, cultural identity has had its foundation in the "mestizaje", of which the indigenous (i.e. Amerindian) element is the core. In light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican people, José Vasconcelos in his publication "La Raza Cósmica" (The Cosmic Race) (1925) defined Mexico to be the melting pot of all races (thus extending the definition of the "mestizo") not only biologically but culturally as well. This exalting of "mestizaje" was a revolutionary idea that sharply contrasted with the idea of a superior pure race prevalent in Europe at the time.


title: Mexicans

text: The literature of Mexico has its antecedents in the literatures of the indigenous settlements of Mesoamerica. The most well known prehispanic poet is Nezahualcoyotl. Modern Mexican literature was influenced by the concepts of the Spanish colonialization of Mesoamerica. Outstanding writers and poets from the Spanish period include Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Juana Inés de la Cruz.


title: Mexicans

text: In light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican people, José Vasconcelos in his publication La Raza Cósmica (The Cosmic Race) (1925) defined Mexico to be the melting pot of all races, biologically as well as culturally.


title: Mexicans

text: Other writers include Alfonso Reyes, José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz (Nobel Laureate), Renato Leduc, Carlos Monsiváis, Elena Poniatowska, Mariano Azuela ("Los de abajo") and Juan Rulfo ("Pedro Páramo"). Bruno Traven wrote "Canasta de cuentos mexicanos", "El tesoro de la Sierra Madre."


title: Mexicans

text: The National Autonomous University of Mexico was officially established in 1910, and the university become one of the most important institutes of higher learning in Mexico. UNAM provides world class education in science, medicine, and engineering. Many scientific institutes and new institutes of higher learning, such as National Polytechnic Institute (founded in 1936), were established during the first half of the 20th century. Most of the new research institutes were created within UNAM. Twelve institutes were integrated into UNAM from 1929 to 1973. In 1959, the Mexican Academy of Sciences was created to coordinate scientific efforts between academics.


title: Mexicans

text: In 1995 the Mexican chemist Mario J. Molina shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone. Molina, an alumnus of UNAM, became the first Mexican citizen to win the Nobel Prize in science.


title: Mexicans

text: In recent years, the largest scientific project being developed in Mexico was the construction of the Large Millimeter Telescope (Gran Telescopio Milimétrico, GMT), the world's largest and most sensitive single-aperture telescope in its frequency range. It was designed to observe regions of space obscured by stellar dust.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexican society enjoys a vast array of music genres, showing the diversity of Mexican culture. Traditional music includes Mariachi, Banda, Norteño, Ranchera and Corridos; on an everyday basis most Mexicans listen to contemporary music such as pop, rock, etc. in both English and Spanish. Mexico has the largest media industry in Hispanic America, producing Mexican artists who are famous in Central and South America and parts of Europe, especially Spain.


title: Mexicans

text: Some well-known Mexican singers are Thalía, Luis Miguel, Alejandro Fernández, Julieta Venegas and Paulina Rubio. Mexican singers of traditional music are Lila Downs, Susana Harp, Jaramar, GEO Meneses and Alejandra Robles. Popular groups are Café Tacuba, Molotov and Maná, among others. Since the early years of the 2000s (decade), Mexican rock has seen widespread growth both domestically and internationally.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexican films from the Golden Age in the 1940s and 1950s are the greatest examples of Hispanic American cinema, with a huge industry comparable to the Hollywood of those years. Mexican films were exported and exhibited in all of Hispanic America and Europe. "María Candelaria" (1944) by Emilio Fernández, was one of the first films awarded a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946, the first time the event was held after World War II. The famous Spanish-born director Luis Buñuel realized in Mexico, between 1947 and 1965 some of his master pieces like "Los Olvidados" (1949), "Viridiana" (1961) and "El angel exterminador" (1963). Famous actors and actresses from this period include María Félix, Pedro Infante, Dolores del Río, Jorge Negrete and the comedian Cantinflas.


title: Mexicans

text: More recently, films such as "Como agua para chocolate" (1992), "Cronos" (1993), "Y tu mamá también" (2001), and "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) have been successful in creating universal stories about contemporary subjects, and were internationally recognised, as in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Mexican directors Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Amores perros", "Babel", "Birdman"), Alfonso Cuarón ("Children of Men", "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", "Gravity", "Roma"), Guillermo del Toro ("Pacific Rim", "Crimson Peak", "The Shape of Water"), Carlos Carrera ("The Crime of Father Amaro"), and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are some of the most known present-day film makers.


title: Mexicans

text: Post-revolutionary art in Mexico had its expression in the works of renowned artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Federico Cantú Garza, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Juan O'Gorman. Diego Rivera, the most well-known figure of Mexican muralism, painted the Man at the Crossroads at the Rockefeller Center in New York City, a huge mural that was destroyed the next year because of the inclusion of a portrait of Russian communist leader Lenin. Some of Rivera's murals are displayed at the Mexican National Palace and the Palace of Fine Arts.


title: Mexicans

text: For the artistic relevance of many of Mexico's architectural structures, including entire sections of prehispanic and colonial cities, have been designated World Heritage. The country has the first place in number of sites declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the Americas.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexican cuisine is influenced by Spanish and indigenous cultures. Mole is the national dish of Mexico. Chocolate and vanilla were discovered by the Aztecs of Mexico. The indigenous peoples of Mexico introduced vanilla, corn, chocolate, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, papayas, chilies, avocados, and pineapples.


title: Mexicans

text: Day of the Dead is a important Mexican holiday observed by Mexicans. The holiday is influenced by Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture. The holiday traces its roots to the Aztecs and the tradition was first practiced thousands of years ago by indigenous peoples such as the Aztecs and the Toltecs.


title: Mexicans

text: Mexico has no official religion, but most Mexicans declare themselves Roman Catholic. Mexico is often seen as a very observant Catholic society. Most Mexicans tend to have opinions that are more in line with Catholic social teaching. Mexico has been resistant to Protestant incursion partly because Protestantism in Mexico has long been associated with the United States, which leads to the reinforcement of Catholicism as part of the Mexican identity.


title: Mexicans

text: The Constitution of 1917 imposed limitations on the church and sometimes codified state intrusion into church matters. The government does not provide financial contributions to the church, nor does the church participate in public education. However, Christmas is a national holiday and every year during Easter and Christmas all schools in Mexico, public and private, send their students on vacation.


title: Mexicans

text: In 1992, Mexico lifted almost all restrictions on the religions, including granting all religious groups legal status, conceding them limited property, and lifting restrictions on the number of priests in the country. Until recently, priests did not have the right to vote, and even now they cannot be elected to public office.


title: Mexicans

text: The Catholic Church is the dominant religion in Mexico, with about 80% of the population as of 2017, which is the world's second largest number of Catholics, surpassed only by Brazil. Movements of return and revival of the indigenous Mesoamerican religions ("Mexicayotl", "Toltecayotl") have also appeared in recent decades.


title: Mexicans

text: There is a large Mexican diaspora in the United States. They are concentrated in California and Texas. The Greater Los Angeles area is home to a large Mexican immigrant population. There is also a sizeable Mexican population in Canada is home to the next largest population of Mexican in Canada, Spain, Guatemala, and Germany.


title: Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom

text: In the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories, personal bravery, achievement, or service are rewarded with honours. The honours system consists of three types of award:


text: Appointments to the various orders and awards of other honours are usually published in "The London Gazette".


text: Although the Anglo-Saxon monarchs are known to have rewarded their loyal subjects with rings and other symbols of favour, it was the Normans who introduced knighthoods as part of their feudal government. The first English order of chivalry, the Order of the Garter, was created in 1348 by Edward III. Since then, the system has evolved to address the changing need to recognise other forms of service to the United Kingdom.


text: As the head of state, the Sovereign is the 'fount of honour', but the system for identifying and recognising candidates to honour has changed considerably over time. Various orders of knighthood have been created (see below) as well as awards for military service, bravery, merit, and achievement which take the form of decorations or medals. Most medals are not graded. Each one recognises specific service and as such there are normally set criteria which must be met. These criteria may include a period of time and will often delimit a particular geographic region. Medals are not normally presented by the Sovereign. A full list is printed in the 'order of wear', published (infrequently) by the "London Gazette".


text: Honours are split into classes ('orders') and are graded to distinguish different degrees of achievement or service, according to various criteria. Nominations are reviewed by honours committees made up of government officials and private citizens from different fields, who meet twice a year to discuss the candidates and make recommendations for appropriate honours to be awarded by the King.


text: A list of approximately 1,350 names is published twice a year, at the New Year and on the date of the Sovereign's (official) birthday. Since decisions are inevitably subjective, the twice-yearly honours lists often provoke criticism from those who feel strongly about particular cases. Candidates are identified by public or private bodies, by government departments, or are nominated by members of the public. Depending on their roles, those people selected by the honours committee are submitted either to the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, or Secretary of State for Defence for their approval before being sent to the Sovereign for final approval. Certain honours are conferred solely at the Sovereign's discretion, such as appointments to the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle, the Royal Victorian Order, and the Order of Merit. The honour's insignias are then presented by the Sovereign or his/her designated representative. The King (while still Prince of Wales), the Prince of Wales (while still Duke of Cambridge) and the Princess Royal deputised for Queen Elizabeth.


text: By convention, a departing prime minister is allowed to nominate Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, to reward political and personal service. In recent history, only Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have not taken up this privilege (although Brown did issue the 2010 Dissolution Honours to similar effect).


text: The current system is made up of six orders of chivalry and four orders of merit. The statutes of each order specify matters such as the size of the order, the use of post-nominal letters and insignia design and display.


text: Orders were created for particular reasons at particular times. In some cases these reasons have ceased to have any validity and orders have fallen into abeyance, primarily due to the decline of the British Empire during the twentieth century. Reforms of the system have sometimes made other changes. For example, the British Empire Medal temporarily ceased to be awarded in the UK in 1993, as was the companion level award of the Imperial Service Order (although its medal is still used). The British Empire Medal was revived, however, in 2012 with 293 BEMs awarded for the 2012 Birthday Honours, and has continued to be awarded in some other Commonwealth nations.


text: The Order of St Patrick was founded in 1783 by George III for the Kingdom of Ireland, and after the Acts of Union 1800 continued for Irish peers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the Irish Free State's secession in 1922, only members of the royal family were appointed to the order, the last in 1936. The last surviving knight was Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who died on 10 June 1974. Although dormant, the order technically still exists, and may be used as an award at any time. King Charles is the current sovereign of this order.


text: These orders, relating to the British Raj or the British Indian Empire, are also dormant. The senior order, the Order of the Star of India, was divided into three grades, Knight Grand Commander, Knight Commander and Companion, of which the first and highest was conferred upon the Princes and Chiefs of Indian states and upon important British civil servants working in India. Women were not eligible to receive the award. The junior order, the Order of the Indian Empire, was divided into the same ranks and also excluded women. The third order, the Order of the Crown of India, was used exclusively to honour women. Its members, all sharing a single grade, consisted of the wives and close female relatives of Indian Princes or Chiefs; the Viceroy or Governor-General; the Governors of Bombay, Madras and Bengal; the Principal Secretary of State for India; and the Commander-in-Chief in India. Upon Indian independence in 1947, appointments to all these orders ceased.


text: The Order of Burma was created in May 1940 by King George VI of the United Kingdom to recognise subjects of the British colony of Burma (Myanmar) after it became a distinct colony, separate from British India. This order had one class which entitled the member to the postnominal letters OB but no title. It was originally intended to reward long and faithful service by military and police. In 1945 the Royal Warrant was altered to allow for membership for acts of gallantry as well as meritorious service. The Order was one of the rarest awarded with only 33 appointments by the time appointments were discontinued in 1948 when Burma declared independence.


text: The Royal Guelphic Order, also known as the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, was an honour founded by George, Prince Regent in the name of his father King George III in 1815. In the United Kingdom it was used only briefly, until the death of William IV in 1837 that resulted in the ending of the personal union with the Kingdom of Hanover due to succession to the throne of Hanover following the Salic Law, unlike in the United Kingdom where women could inherit the throne. The order continued for some time as a national order of Hanover until the defeat and forced dissolution of the kingdom by Prussia in 1866. Since then the order has been a house order to be awarded by the House of Hanover. The order's current head is Ernst August Prinz von Hanover, head of the house of Hanover. The Order includes two Divisions, Civil and Military. During the personal union of the United Kingdom and Hanover it originally had three classes, but with several reorganizations since 1841 as house order today it has four classes and an additional Cross of Merit.


text: On 1 July 2009, BBC News reported that the Queen had approved a new posthumous award, the Elizabeth Cross, to honour members of the armed forces killed in action or by terrorist attack since World War II. The cross itself is given to the family of the deceased.


text: There are five ranks of hereditary peerage: duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. Until the mid-20th century, peerages were usually hereditary, and, until the end of the 20th century, English, Scottish, British, and UK peerages (except, until very recent times, those for the time being held by women) carried the right to a seat in the House of Lords.


text: Hereditary peerages are now normally given only to members of the Royal Family. The most recent were the grants to the Queen's youngest son, the Earl of Wessex, on his marriage in 1999; to the Queen's grandson Prince William, who was made the Duke of Cambridge on the morning before his marriage to Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011; and to the Queen's grandson Prince Harry, who was made the Duke of Sussex on the morning before his marriage to Meghan Markle on 19 May 2018. No hereditary peerages were granted to commoners after the Labour Party came to power in 1964, until Margaret Thatcher tentatively reintroduced them by two grants to men with no sons in 1983: Speaker of the House of Commons George Thomas and former Deputy Prime Minister William Whitelaw. Both these titles died with their holders. She followed this with an Earldom in 1984 for former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan not long before his death, reviving a traditional honour for former Prime Ministers. Macmillan's grandson succeeded him on his death in 1986. No hereditary peerages have been created since, and Thatcher's own title was a life peerage (see further explanation below). The concession of a baronetcy (i.e., hereditary knighthood), was granted to her husband Denis following her resignation (explained below, see baronet).


text: Hereditary peerages are not "honours under the crown" and so cannot normally be withdrawn. A peerage can be revoked only by a specific Act of Parliament, and then for only the current holder, in the case of hereditary peerages. A hereditary peer can disclaim his peerage for his own lifetime under Peerage Act 1963 within a year after inheriting the title.


text: Modern life peerages were introduced under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, following a test case (the Wensleydale Peerage Case) which established that non-statutory life peers would not have the right to sit in the House of Lords. At that time, life peerages were intended only for Law Lords, there being a desire to introduce legal expertise into the chamber to assist appellate law work, without conferring rights on future generations of these early working peers because the future generations might contain no legal experts.


text: Subsequently, under the Life Peerages Act 1958, life peerages became the norm for all new grants outside the Royal Family, this being seen as a modest reform of the nature of the second legislative chamber. However, its effects were gradual because hereditary peers, and their successors, retained until recently their rights to attend and vote with the life peers. All hereditary peers except 92—chosen in a secret ballot of all hereditary peers—have now lost their rights to sit in the second chamber. All hereditary peers retain dining rights to the House of Lords, retaining its title as "the best club in London".


text: All Life Peers hold the rank of baron and automatically have the right to sit in the House of Lords. The title exists only for the duration of their own lifetime and is not passed to their heirs (although the children even of life peers enjoy the same courtesy titles as hereditary peers). Some life peerages are created as an honour for achievement, some for the specific purpose of introducing legislators from the various political parties (known as working peers) and some under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, with a view to judicial work. There is a discrete number appointed as "People's Peers", on recommendation of the general public. Twenty-six Church of England bishops have a seat in the House of Lords.


text: As a life peerage is not technically an "honour under the Crown", it cannot normally be withdrawn once granted. Thus, while knighthoods have been withdrawn as "honours under the Crown", convicted criminals who have served their sentences have returned to the House of Lords. In the case of Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, he has chosen only to exercise dining rights and has yet to speak following his release from his conviction for perjury.


text: A baronetcy is the lowest hereditary title in the United Kingdom. It carries the title sir. A Baronetcy is, in the order of precedence, below a Barony but above most knighthoods. Baronetcies are not peerages. When a baronetcy becomes vacant on the death of a holder, the heir, if he wishes to be addressed as "Sir", is required to register the proofs of succession. The Official Roll of Baronets is kept at the Ministry of Justice (transferred from the Home Office in 2001) by the Registrar of the Baronetage. Anyone who considers that he is entitled to be entered on the roll may petition the Crown through the Lord Chancellor. Anyone succeeding to a baronetcy therefore must exhibit proofs of succession to the Lord Chancellor. A person who is not entered on the roll will not be addressed or mentioned as a baronet or accorded precedence as a baronet, effectively declining the honour. The baronetcy can be revived at any time on provision of acceptable proofs of succession. As of 2017, 208 baronetcies are listed as presumedly not extinct, but awaiting proofs of succession.


text: As with hereditary peerages, baronetcies generally ceased to be granted after the Labour Party came to power in 1964. The sole subsequent exception was a baronetcy created in 1990 for the husband of Margaret Thatcher, Sir Denis Thatcher, later inherited by their son Mark Thatcher.


text: Descended from medieval chivalry, knights exist both within the orders of chivalry and in a class known as "Knights Bachelor". Regular recipients include High Court judges and Chief Constables. Knighthood carries the title "sir"; the female equivalent "dame" exists only within the orders of chivalry—Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) is usually awarded as an equivalent of a Knight Bachelor.


text: Members of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (founded 1888) may wear the Order's insignia but the ranks within the Order of St John do not confer official rank in the order of precedence and, likewise, the abbreviations or postnominal initials associated with the various grades of membership in the Order of St John do not indicate precedence among the other orders. Thus someone knighted in the order does not take precedence with the knights of other British orders nor should they be addressed as "Sir" or "Dame".


text: Other British and Commonwealth orders, decorations and medals which do not carry titles but entitle the holder to place post-nominal letters after his or her name also exist, as do a small number of Royal Family Orders.


text: Until the mid-20th century, the British honours system was the primary—and generally the sole—honours system utilised across the various dominions and territories of the British Empire, which became the Commonwealth of Nations from 1949. Today, British honours and decorations continue to be awarded to citizens of Commonwealth realms and British Overseas Territories. Within the Commonwealth realms, however, the nature of the British honour or decoration awarded and the permissibility of its conferment varies from government to government. The British honours system comprises both dynastic honours, which are honours in the personal gift of the Sovereign, and British state honours or decorations (known as imperial honours or decorations outside the UK), which are not. Dynastic honours continue to be conferred by the Sovereign in her capacity across the Commonwealth realms, though outside the United Kingdom they are typically non-titular honours such as the Order of Merit or the lower grades of the Royal Victorian Order.


text: In 1917 and 1919, the government of Canada passed the Nickle Resolutions, which, despite being non-binding, gradually ended the conferment of titular honours—peerages, baronetcies and knighthoods—to Canadians. Occasional conferments of knighthoods (in 1934 and 1935) and imperial honours, notably following the Second World War, continued until 1955, when the Canadian government officially ended all awards of imperial honours to Canadians. In 1967, Canada established its own honours system with the Order of Canada and created its own system of bravery decorations in 1972, followed by its own system of military decorations for valour in 1993. Canadian service personnel remained eligible to receive the imperial Victoria Cross until 1993, when a Canadian version was instituted.


text: In 1975, the Australian government established its own honours system with the creation of the Order of Australia, also creating its own system of bravery decorations in that year. Indigenous police and fire service decorations followed from 1986, with a new system of military decorations created in 1991. Imperial honours continued to be conferred on Australians through 1989, when the last recommendations were made. With effect from 5 October 1992, the Australian government discontinued the awarding of imperial honours.


text: Also in 1975, New Zealand instituted its first indigenous honour, the Queen's Service Order, followed by the Order of New Zealand in 1987. In 1996, it replaced imperial honours with the New Zealand Order of Merit, and replaced imperial gallantry and bravery decorations with New Zealand decorations in 1999.


text: Other Commonwealth realms have continued to apply the imperial honours system together with their own honours systems. Jamaica established its own honours system in 1969 with the passage of the "National Honours and Awards Act", followed by Saint Lucia in 1980, the Solomon Islands in 1981, Belize in 1991, Antigua and Barbuda in 1998, Papua New Guinea in 2004 and Grenada in 2007. The government of the Bahamas continues to solely utilise imperial honours. In 2007, it passed a National Honours Act which established a Bahamian honours system; however, it had not come into effect as of 2015.


text: In practice, legislation across the Commonwealth realms regulating the awarding of imperial honours to citizens of a realm, including knighthoods and damehoods, does not necessarily prevent a citizen of a Commonwealth realm from receiving a substantive award of an imperial honour for service in the United Kingdom or to its government. There continue to be numerous examples of Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians who have been honoured by the British government and are permitted to use the honour or its accompanying style whether they are resident in their own nation or in the United Kingdom.


text: Citizens of countries that do not have the King as their head of state sometimes have honours conferred upon them, in which case the awards are "honorary". In the case of knighthoods, the holders are entitled to place initials after their name but not style themselves "Sir" as they are not entitled to receive the accolade. Examples of foreigners with honorary knighthoods are Billy Graham, Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Bono and Rudolph Giuliani, while Arsène Wenger and Gérard Houllier are honorary OBEs. Honorary knighthoods are of Orders of Chivalry rather than as Knights Bachelor as the latter confers no postnominal letters.


text: Recipients of honorary awards who later become subjects of His Majesty may apply to convert their awards to substantive ones. Examples of this are Marjorie Scardino, American CEO of Pearson PLC, and Yehudi Menuhin, the American-born violinist and conductor. They were granted an honorary damehood and knighthood respectively while still American citizens, and converted them to substantive awards after they assumed British nationality, becoming Dame Marjorie and Sir Yehudi. Menuhin later accepted a life peerage with the title Lord Menuhin.


text: Sir Tony O'Reilly, who holds both British and Irish nationality, uses the style "Sir", but has also gained approval from the Irish Government to accept the award as is necessary under the Irish Constitution. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, the German soprano, became entitled to be known as "Dame Elisabeth" when she took British nationality. Irish-born Sir Terry Wogan was initially awarded an honorary knighthood, but by the time he collected the accolade from the Queen in December 2005, he had obtained dual nationality and the award was upgraded to a substantive knighthood.


text: Bob Geldof is often erroneously referred to as "Sir Bob"; he is not entitled to this style as an honorary knight as he is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland (i.e., he is not a citizen of a Commonwealth realm).


text: There is no law in the UK preventing foreigners from holding a peerage (e.g., Newburgh), though only Commonwealth and Irish citizens may sit in the House of Lords. This has yet to be tested under the new arrangements. However, some other countries have laws restricting the acceptances of awards granted to would-be recipients by foreign powers. In Canada, where the House of Commons of Canada (but not necessarily the Senate of Canada) has opposed the granting of titular honours with its (non-binding) Nickle Resolution, then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien advised the Queen not to grant Conrad Black a titular honour while he remained a Canadian citizen.


text: Each year, around 2,600 people receive their awards personally from the monarch or another member of the Royal Family. The majority of investitures take place at Buckingham Palace, but an annual ceremony also takes place at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh (during Holyrood Week), and some happen at Windsor Castle. There are approximately 120 recipients at each Investiture. In recent years the King, the Prince of Wales and The Princess Royal have all held investitures.


text: During the ceremony, the monarch enters the ballroom of Buckingham Palace attended by two Gurkha orderly officers, a tradition begun in 1876 by Queen Victoria. On duty on the dais are five members of the King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, which was created in 1485 by Henry VII; they are the oldest, but not most senior, military corps in the United Kingdom. Four gentlemen ushers are on duty to help look after the recipients and their guests.


text: The King or his representative is escorted by either the Lord Chamberlain or the Lord Steward. After the National Anthem has been played, he stands to the right of the King and announces the name of each recipient and the achievement for which they are being decorated. The King or his representative is provided with a brief background for each recipient by their equerry as they approach to receive their decorations.


text: Men who are to be knighted kneel on an investiture stool to receive the accolade, which the King bestows. Elizabeth II used the sword used by her father, George VI as Duke of York and Colonel of the Scots Guards. Only men are knighted. Women receive their honours in the same fashion as men receiving decorations or medals, even if they are receiving a damehood. Occasionally an award for gallantry may be made posthumously and in this case, the King or his representative presents the decoration or medal to the recipient's next-of-kin in private before the public investiture begins. The Elizabeth Cross was created especially for this purpose.


text: After the investiture ceremony, those honoured are ushered out of the ballroom into the Inner Quadrangle of Buckingham Palace, where the royal rota's photographers are stationed. Here recipients are photographed with their awards. In some cases, members of the press may interview some of the more well-known people who have been honoured.


text: In 2003, "Sunday Times" published a list of almost 300 people who had declined an honour between 1951 and 1999. In 2020, "the Guardian" reported based on a Freedom of Information request, that the number of people refusing an honour had more than doubled in the previous nine years.


text: Honours are sometimes revoked (forfeited), for example if a recipient is subsequently convicted of a serious criminal offence. The Honours Forfeiture Committee is an "ad hoc" committee convened under the chairmanship of the Head of the Home Civil Service, to consider cases where information has been received which indicates an individual is unsuitable to hold an award. Sometimes the original decision to grant an honour was made on the basis of inaccurate information (including through manipulation of the public nominations system), but normally cases relate to actions that took place after the award was made. Recommendations are made to the monarch of the United Kingdom, who has the sole authority to rescind an honour.


text: In 2009, Gordon Brown confirmed that the process remains as set out in 1994 by the then Prime Minister John Major in a written answer to the House of Commons:


text: In October 2016, the House of Commons approved a motion to ask the Honours Forfeiture Committee to strip Sir Philip Green of his knighthood for his role in the downfall of British Home Stores. It was the first time MPs voted to recommend rescinding a knighthood.


text: Honours, decorations and medals are arranged in the "Order of Wear", an official list which describes the order in which they should be worn. Updates to the Order of Wear are published in "The London Gazette" when necessary. The current Order of Wear was published on 11 January 2019. Additional information on the social events at which an award may be worn is contained in the insignia case given to each recipient.


text: The list places the Victoria Cross and George Cross at the top, followed by the orders of knighthood arranged in order of date of creation. Below the Knights of the Garter and Thistle, individuals of a higher rank precede those of a lower rank. For instance, a Knight Grand Cross of any order precedes any Knight Commander. For those of equal rank, members of the higher-ranked Order take precedence. Within the same Order, precedence is accorded to that individual who received the honour earlier.