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// ** 1.* Physical Map ** – A.) Student projects feature a physical map that features all locations on the student journey (minimum of two). B.) Students will highlight the locations on the map and state the names of the selected locations on their journey. If students are focusing on a time other than the present, they should clearly indicate that. // // *1. **Connecting geography to culture** - Students analyze the geography of their selected locations, reporting relevant geographical features and their connection to cultural realities of the past or the present. //

// ** Connecting geography to history ** – Students with an established connection between their journey and historical information will provide the following: A.) a clear description of how, when, and where geographical factors impacted culture; and B). a connection between the historical circumstances and the present day. // Only 11% of Mexico's land area is arable, of which less than 3% is irrigated. In total, agriculture accounted for only 4.3% of GDP (gross domestic product) in 2008, and agricultural employment accounted for only about 15% of total employment.

Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world. There are approximately 11,285,654 million people living in Mexico today. The metropolitan population of Mexico City grew from 3.1 million in 1950 to 5.5 million in 1960, and it skyrocketed to 14 million by 1980. By the early 21st century the metropolitan area was home to some 20 million people, with more than half of them living outside the boundaries of the city itself.

The geographical conditions described above, especially the scarcity of farmable land, make it impossible to employ many Mexicans in agriculture. This has resulted in the waves of migration to large industrialized Mexican cities, including Mexico City, one of the largest cities in the world. People came to seek work, but there were always too few jobs for the number of people flocking to the large cities. To make matters worse, Mexico City experienced large-scale factory closings and layoffs in the 1980's.

More and more people turned to the North (El norte) to make a living for their families.

// ** 1.* Photographs of locations ** – A.) Students include photos of the locations on the journey that feature relevant geographical features of the location. B.) Students describe the photos with detailed information about the relevant geographical features. //


 * 1) // ** Connecting geography to literature ** – Students with an established connection between their journey and a work of literature will detail the connection, providing the following: A.) a brief summary of how and why the book’s action took place in the given locations; and B.) a brief summary of how the geographical features of the location impacted the book’s setting.  //


 * 1) // ** Connecting geography to personal experience – ** Students with a connection between their locations and personal experiences provide a detailed description of the personal connection to the locations. Students are encouraged to gather information from family or community members and to report that information (attributed to those individuals) in their projects.  //


 * 1) // ** * Challenges – ** A.) Students identify past or present challenges or threats to the well-being of the inhabitants of the locations on their journey and indicate whether or not these challenges or threats are related in any way to the geography of the locations. B.) Students will report what efforts are being made to confront these challenges.  //

// **Artwork – **A.) Students include an image (e.g. photograph, work of visual art, etc.) that is symbolic of each location of their journey. B.) Students provide analysis of the image //

// (e.g. artist information, medium, year created, artist commentary). If the image is the work of an IAMS art student, commentary about the artwork by the student artist is included.\ //

= Mexico City's population =


 * Mexico City’s continued rapid growth in the second half of the 20th century was largely the result of internal migration from the countryside and small towns. xxx
 * The metropolitan population grew from 3.1 million in 1950 to 5.5 million in 1960, and it skyrocketed to 14 million by 1980. xxx
 * By the early 21st century the metropolitan area was home to some 20 million people, with more than half of them living beyond the boundaries of the city proper. xxx
 * Mexico City experienced large-scale factory closings and layoffs as well as a decline in rural –to-urban migration.
 * Confidence in local and federal government also declined as a result of their responses to major disasters, including a powerful earthquake in 1985 that killed thousands of residents and left more than 100,000 homeless.

= Mexico =


 * Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and the second most populous country in Latin America after portuguese-speaking Brazil. xxxx
 * About 76% of the people live in urban areas. Many Mexicans emigrate from rural areas that lack job apportunities such as the underdeveloped southern states and the crowded central plateau to the industrialized urban centers and the developing areas along the U.S. Mexico border.
 * According to some estimates, the population of the area around Mexcio City is nearly 22 million, which would make it the largest concentration of population in the Western Hemisphere.
 * Cities bordering on the United States such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez and cities in the interior such as Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Puebla have undergone sharp rises in population in recent years.

= Mexico's Agriculture =
 * Only 11% of Mexico's land area is arable, of which less than 3% is irrigated. xxxxx
 * Top revenue producing crops include corn, tomatoes, sugar cane, dry beans, and avocados.
 * Mexico also generates significant revenue from the production of beef, poultry, pork, and dairy products.
 * In total, agriculture accounted for 4.3% of GDP in 2008, and agricultural employment accounted for about 15% of total employment.

= Connection between Geography and Literature = Book: Crossing the wire Author: Will Hobbs In the book Crossing the wire, the story starts in central Mexico, in a poor town named Los Arboles. Many people have moved from Los Arboles to go to the United States without the benefit of documention to get better jobs. Many years ago Victor's father died while working on a construction site in the U.S so now Victor has been making a living by farming in Los Arboles ever since. Then his best friend Rico has a plan to run away to the U.S for a better life, Victor learns that he might not be able to sell his corn this year because the Americans keep selling cheap corn in Mexico. When its about to get worse Victor heads north to go into the States, find work, and send money home. //This book can relate to my mother because they were offering a better life and better jobs. My mom had to// //move from Mexico because there wasn't any good jobs there. My mom arrived in Chicago in three days.//

= Challenges = The reason my mom left Mexico city was because my mom and her family believed they would all have a better life in the United States. My grandpa came Chicago first, working here for a few years and sending money back to Mexico to support my mom and her family. After arriving my family members did not know any English so it was very difficult to do anything. My mom and her other siblings went to a catholic school which was all English so it was hard to get a good education. Another problem was that it was really hard to get a passport. When you want to apply for a passport you have to go through a interview visa and it takes a few months to get passports and visa. My mom and her family left to the United States in June, 19XX. =Connection between Geography and a personal experience= My mom had a personal experience with new cultures, languages, people. It was all very new to my mom when she came to the United States, even though Mexico and United States are right next to each other both of them are very different in many ways like different cultures, languages and different people. My mom was very surprised how clean it was because there was no garbage on the floors and everything was amazing to her. One of her biggest surprises was that there were African American people in the United States not because she is racist because from when she was very young all she heard was that people in the United States were tall blond and blue or green eyes and also to find so many people from Mexico living in here too. =**Artwork**= A world famous painting made by Diego Rivera