墨西哥讓人驚歎的10件事(上)

Mexico's international reputation isn't exactly the greatest. Plagued by drug violence, hampered by poverty, and constantly getting bashed by US politicians, it can seem like a scary, far-away place where bad things happen. Even in the carefree days before the drug war, lots of Americans just saw it as the land of tequila, siestas and rowdy spring breakers.

墨西哥在國際上並不是特別有名。它充滿毒品暴力，貧困，還不斷被美國政治家攻擊，似乎是一個可怕而遙遠的滋生壞事的搖籃。即使是在毒品戰爭前無憂無慮的日子，很多的美國人也認爲這個國家只有龍舌蘭酒、午睡和喧鬧的春假。

Well, we're here to tell you that there's a lot more to Mexico than its popular reputation suggests. A lot more. Stretching over nearly 2m km2, and with a history that goes back to the Aztecs and ancient Mayans, Mexico is a place of endless fascination. It has dozens of indigenous peoples. Its capital has more museums than any other city on Earth. It's a place of culture, history, and great, historic achievements. Here are ten fascinating facts about North America's only Spanish-speaking nation that you rarely hear north of the border:

那麼，我們就要告訴你，除了這些，墨西哥還有很多很多。墨西哥魅力無窮，國土面積近2000平方公里，歷史可以追溯到阿茲特克和瑪雅人。這裏有很多土著民族，首都的博物館比地球上其他任何城市都多。這個地方充滿文化、歷史和偉大的歷史成就。下面就是十個關於這個北美洲唯一西語國家的、你在邊境以北都極少耳聞的有趣事實：

10. It Used to be the 5th Biggest Nation on Earth

10．曾是地球上第五大國

Modern Mexico is a big place. While it might pale beside Canada and the USA, it dwarfs the nations of Europe, and is bigger than all but one of Africa's countries. Ranked, it would be the 13th biggest nation on Earth. But that's just modern Mexico. The Mexico of the 19th century used to be much, much bigger. Go back to 1821, and you'd find yourself standing in one of the biggest countries in the world.

今天的墨西哥很大。雖然在加拿大和美國面前可能相形見絀，但對歐洲國家來說它已經很大了，整個非洲也只有一個國家比它大。它是地球上第13大的國家。但這只是現在。19世紀的墨西哥還要大得多。在1821年，它是世界上最大的國家之一。

That map there is independent Mexico at its fullest extent. As you probably remember from history class, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and California were all once part of the US's southern neighbor. But Mexican territory extended further south, too. Modern Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Costa Rica and Nicaragua were all part of Mexico. Taken altogether, the Mexico that existed at independence was larger than the entire European Union. If it existed today, it would be the 5th largest nation on Earth.

地圖上的墨西哥是所有獨立了的地區。如果你還記得歷史課，德克薩斯、亞利桑那、新墨西哥、猶他州、內華達和加州都曾是美國這個南部鄰居的一部分。但往南去，墨西哥的領土也比現在大。危地馬拉、洪都拉斯、薩爾瓦多、伯利茲、哥斯達黎加和尼加拉瓜都曾是墨西哥的一部分。全都算上的話，剛獨立時的墨西哥獨立比整個歐盟都大。如果持續到今天，它將是世界上第五大國家。

This super-Mexico didn't last long. Before the 1820s were out, it had lost most of the nations that now make up Central America. About 25 years after that, the Mexican-American War eliminated its territory in the modern US.

巨無霸墨西哥並沒有存在多久。在19世紀20年代結束之前，它已經失去了現在中美洲的大部分國家。25年後，美墨戰爭更使美國奪走了它在今天屬於美國的領土。

9. It Has the Oldest University in North America

9．北美最古老的大學

Quick, what's the oldest university in North America? A good number of you just yelled 'Harvard!' at your tablet screens. Sure, Harvard is pretty old; it was founded in 1636. But even that august institution is a baby compared to its Mexican equivalent. The National Autonomous University of Mexico, based in Mexico City, was opened in 1553.

如果搶答一個問題，北美最古老的大學是哪個？很多人馬上就喊“哈佛！”哈佛當然很老，成立於1636年。但即使這樣，它與墨西哥同行相比也只是嬰兒。墨西哥國立自治大學NAUM位於墨西哥城，開放於1553年。

To demonstrate just how mind-blowingly old that is, consider this: NAUM was opened when Mexico was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. It was given its charter by Emperor Charles V, who headed both the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire (dynasty was a complicated thing back then). At that time, Shakespeare was still over a decade away from being born. Isaac Newton was over a century away. Right now, you are closer in time to George Washington's last breath than NAUM was at its founding.

想理解它到底有多老，想想看：NAUM成立時，墨西哥正被神聖羅馬帝國統治。批准它的皇帝查理五世同時領導着神聖羅馬帝國和西班牙帝國（當時的王朝很複雜）。當時離莎士比亞出生還有十多年，艾薩克·牛頓更是要到一個多世紀以後纔出生。比起NAUM的誕生，喬治·華盛頓辭世的時間離你更近。

Not that it was called NAUM back then. It was the Royal and Pontifical University of New Spain. Unlike Harvard, it also hasn't been in continuous operation. The dictatorship closed it down in 1867, and it wasn't reopened until the Revolution.

那時NAUM還不叫這個名字，而是新西班牙皇家和主教大學。與哈佛大學不同的是，它沒有一直運作，在1867年被獨裁統治者關閉，直到革命時期才重新開放。

8. There are Over 60 Official Languages

8．60多種官方語言

Ask most people to name the official language of Mexico, and they'll say 'Spanish'. And they'd be right… to a degree. See, while Spanish is the most widely-spoken official language in Mexico, it's not the only one. Ever since the government enacted the Law of Linguistic Rights, over 60 indigenous tongues have been recognized as co-official languages.

大多數人都會說，墨西哥的官方語言是西班牙語。其實，也沒錯。不過西班牙語雖然是墨西哥使用最廣泛的官方語言，卻不是唯一。政府頒佈語言權利法後，超過60種土著語言被承認爲官方語言。

The largest of these is Nahuatal. About 1.3 million people speak the language, roughly equivalent to the entire population of New Hampshire. This is the language of the Aztec Empire, the language that once dominated the whole of Mexico. But it's far from being the only one. Over 700,000 people speak the Yucatec Maya language, and another half a million or so speak Mixtec. Over all, nearly 7 million Mexicans speak a language other than Spanish (although most are bilingual).

這其中，使用人數最多的是Nahuatal，大約有130萬人，大致相當於整個新罕布什爾州人口。這是阿茲特克帝國的語言，曾經統治整個墨西哥。但它遠不是唯一的一個。還有超過700000人說尤卡坦人瑪雅語，以及50萬左右的人說的Mixtec。總體來說，近700萬墨西哥人使用西班牙語之外的語言（不過他們大多懂雙語）。

Interestingly, not all co-official languages are so widely-spoken. While the next 30 most popular are all spoken by between 10,000 – 400,000 people, some like Aguacatec are spoken by less than 30.

有趣的是，並非所有官方語言都廣泛使用。接下來的30種最常見語言的使用者都在10000 – 400000之間，而Aguacatec之類的語言，使用者不超過30。

7. They Had the Shortest Presidency in World History

7．世界歷史上任期最短的總統

William Henry Harrison is famous in the US for his horrendously short presidency. The 9th President contracted pneumonia on Inauguration Day and died a single month later. But even WHH's reign lasted longer than that of Mexico's 34th president. By one count, it lasted nearly three thousand times longer. Pedro Jose Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascurain Paredes was President of Mexico for anywhere from an hour to just 15 minutes. So basically he was president just long enough for someone to get through his name.

威廉·亨利·哈里森因爲極短暫的任期聞名美國。這名第9任總統在就職日感染肺炎，一個月後就死了。但他的統治時間還是比墨西哥的第34任總統長。據統計，持續時間長了近3000倍。佩德羅·何塞·多明戈·德·拉·卡爾薩達·曼努埃爾·瑪麗亞·拉斯喀瑞·裴瑞茲當墨西哥總統僅15分鐘。基本上他當總統的時間，只夠別人讀一遍他的名字。

The reason for this was the crazy politics of Revolution-era Mexico. General Victoriano Huerta had just overthrown President Madero in a coup. Under Mexico's constitution, power of a deposed president automatically passed to either his vice-president, attorney general, foreign minister or interior minister. At the time, Lascurain was foreign minister. To make his coup look less like a coup, Huerta convinced the government to appoint Lascurain president. The two men then cut a deal, and he moment he was sworn in Lascurain appointed Huerta his interior minister and then resigned. Power automatically, and legally, passed onto Huerta.

這隻會發生在大革命時代墨西哥的瘋狂政治中。Huerta將軍剛剛在一次政變中推翻Madero總統。根據墨西哥憲法，總統被罷免後，他的權力就自動傳遞給副總統、司法部長、外交部長或內政部長。當時拉斯喀瑞是外交部長。爲了讓政變看起來不那麼像政變，Huerta說服政府任命拉斯喀瑞爲總統。兩人達成協議，拉斯喀瑞宣誓就職時，任命Huerta爲內政部長，然後辭職。權力就自動合法地傳遞給了Huerta。

To date, no other world leader has ruled for such a short time. The closest is Diosdado Cabello, who ruled Venezuela for around six hours in 2002. His reign was still over twenty times longer than Lascurain's.

到目前爲止，再沒有其他世界領袖只統治了這麼短時間。最接近的是Diosdado Cabello，2002年統治委內瑞拉6小時左右。他的統治時間仍比拉斯喀瑞長了二十倍。

6. In Some States, There are Three Genders

6．一些州有3種性別

Mexico's relationships with LGBT rights is… complicated, to say the least. While drugs gangs have been known to shoot up gay bars in some states, places like Mexico City have legalized same-sex marriage. Then there's Oaxaca. The southern state has an approach to trans-people that is possibly unique in North America. Among the indigenous Zapotec people, they're legally recognized as a third gender.

墨西哥和LGBT（（女同（Lesbians）、男同（Gays）、雙性戀者（Bisexuals）與跨性別者（Transgender））權利的關係，至少可以說很複雜。雖然一些州有販毒團伙攻擊同性戀酒吧，墨西哥城之類地方已經宣佈同性婚姻合法。還有南部的瓦哈卡州，他們對變性人的一種態度可能全北美獨有。在土著Zapotec人中，他們被法律承認爲第三性別。

Known as Muxes (Moo-Shays), the third gender are people born as men, who choose to live instead as women. Concentrated around the town of Juchitan, they're treated as a fact of life, in the same way men and women are. They own businesses, are admired for their cookery skills, and even have a yearly ball which the mayor of Juchitan attends. For American readers, this might seem like PC gone mad. But the Muxes are far from a modern invention. They've been around as long as the Zapotec themselves.

這個性別稱爲mux（Moo-Shays），出生時是男性，但是選擇作爲女性生活。他們集中在Juchitan鎮，被視爲生命的事實，和男人女人一樣。他們有自己的生意，做飯很好吃，甚至每年還有一場鎮長都會參加的舞會。在美國讀者看來，似乎是電腦發瘋了。但mux遠不是現代發明。他們和Zapotec本身一樣古老。

Pre-Columbian societies in Mexico tended to have a third gender of men who lived as women. While most traditions died off with the coming of the Spanish, among the Zapotec it thrived. In short, the Muxes have been around since long before anyone could say what the acronym LGBT stood for.

哥倫布發現美洲大陸前，墨西哥社會傾向於承認第三性別，即生爲男性卻作爲女性生活。雖然西班牙人來後大多數傳統消亡了，Zapotec人中它卻蓬勃發展。簡而言之，在有人知道LGBT是什麼的縮寫之前，mux已經存在了很久很久。