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The majority (60%) of Mexicans today are Mestizos - the descendants of mixed
indigenous Amerindian and Spanish ancestry. An estimate of unmixed Native
American peoples numbers around 30% of the population. Most of these indigenous
people speak Mexican rather than their indigenous language as a result of the
ongoing government's policy to implement cultural and linguistic assimilation.
There are various indigenous minorities in Mexico, such as the Nahua, Tarasca,
Mixtec, Tarahumara, and the Yaqui. A large number of these peoples live in the
central and southern regions of Mexico whereas only a small number live in the
north.
Only a small number of Mexicans are of unmixed European descent. These
European-descended Mexicans were historically referred to as Creoles, and their
ancestors came from Spain, French and German during the Mexican Empire and
Porfirio Diaz periods. During the 1930s Mexico embraced a large number of
Spanish refugees who fled the Spanish Civil War as well as other immigrants from
Poland and Russia whose members included the Ashkenazic Jews. The rest of
Mexican population includes a substantial number of the Lebanese and Asians.
The population of Mexico has risen steadily since the 1960s, and has slowed
down only recently due to a high number of Mexicans migrating abroad. Mexico
City is by far the largest and most crowded city in the country, following by
Guadalajara and Monterrey. Cities on the border with the US such as Ciudad
Juarez, Tijuana, and Matamoros have been experiencing rapid growth in population
recently as they are the sites of maquiladoras employed to produce goods for
export.
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