The pre-Columbian civilizations of what now is known as Mexico are usually divided in two regions: Mesoamerica, in reference to the cultural area in which several complex civilizations developed before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century, and Aridoamerica (or simply “The North”) in reference to the arid region north of the Tropic of Cancer in which few civilizations developed and was mostly inhabited by nomadic or semi-nomadic groups[citation needed]. Mesoamerica was densely populated by diverse indigenous ethnic groups which, although sharing common cultural characteristics, spoke different languages and developed unique civilizations.

One of the most influential civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica was the Olmec civilization, sometimes referred to as the “Mother Culture of Mesomaerica”. The later civilization in Teotihuacán reached its peak around 600 AD, when the city became the sixth largest city in the world, whose cultural and theological systems influenced the Toltec and Aztec civilizations in later centuries. Evidence has been found on the existence of multiracial communities or neighborhoods in Teotihuacan (and other large urban areas like Tenochtitlan). The Maya civilization, though also influenced by other Mesoamerican civilizations, developed a vast cultural region in south-east Mexico and northern Central America, while the Zapotec and Mixtec culture dominated the valley of Oaxaca, and the Purepecha in western Mexico.

Mexico, in the second article of its Constitution, is defined as a “pluricultural” nation in recognition of the diverse ethnic groups that constitute it, and in which the indigenous peoples[3] are the original foundation.[4] According to the National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples (Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas or CDI in Spanish), there are ca. 12 million indigenous people in Mexico, of many different ethnic groups,[5] which constitute about 11% - 13% of the population in the country.

Lucero (born Lucero Hogaza León on August 29, 1969 in Mexico City[1]), is an actress and singer. She started her career at the age of 10 as Lucerito (Lucerito). She is married to singer Manuel Mijares with whom she has two children. Her mother, actress and producer Lucero León, is her manager.

Ariadna Thalia Sodi Miranda,commonly known as Thalia, is a Mexican pop star.She was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City.She is a singer, an actress, a composer, a writer, a talented musician, a fashion designer and a very succesful businesswoman.Her name is linked to popular soap operas (or telenovelas) who made her famous worldwide.She began her musical career in the age of 9 years old and since then she has become an international pop star.She has sold more than 30 million records worldwide as a solo artist and her soap operas have been watched by over one billion people.She is a multi-platinum recording artist and married to the music executive Tommy Mottola.She has had a succesful crossover on the American, European, and Asian markets since 1997 with her first massive hit album, Amor a la mexicana, which is considered to be Thalia’s best-selling album.

García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Angel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was young. He started acting at just a year old and spent most of his teen years starring in telenovelas. Gael studied the international baccalaureate diploma at school, with Chemistry unquestionably his favorite subject, never having been much of a business man. When he was fourteen, he taught indigenous peoples in Mexico to read, often with the Huichol Indians. In his later teens he took part in peaceful demonstrations during the Chiapas uprising of 1994.

Diego Luna (born December 29, 1979) is a Mexican actor known for his childhood telenovela work, a starring role in the film Y tu mamá también, and supporting roles in American films. He is also known for his role in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.

* In 1964, the contraceptive pill was chosen by the US Department of Patents as one of the 40 registered more important inventions between 1794 and 1964. The name of Luis Miramontes appeared next to Pasteur, Edison, Bell, the Wright brothers and others of equal stature. It was included in the “USA Inventors Hall of Fame”.

* In 1985 he received the “Estado de Mexico” Medal, in the area of sciences and arts; as well as a public recognition from the government of the state of Nayarit, and an academic recognition from the Technological Institute of Tepic.

* He received the Mexican National Prize on Chemistry “Andrés Manuel del Rio” in 1986.

* In 1989 he became a “pugwashite”, that is, member of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, organization promoting peace and world development. The Pugwash Conferences were awarded the Peace Nobel Prize in 1995.

* In 1992 the General Hospital of Zone no. 1, of the Mexican Institute of Social Security, in Tepic, Nayarit, was named “Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cardenas Hospital”.

* In 1994 the Mexican Ministry of Health recognized his scientific contributions, when installing the National Program on Family Planning in Mexico.

The scientific contribution of Luis Miramontes is very extensive, includes numerous publications and nearly 40 national and international patents in different areas such as organic chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, petrochemistry and atmospheric chemistry and polluting agents. Among his multiple contributions to world science, it is the synthesis on October 15, 1951, when Miramontes was only 26 years old, of norethindrone, that was to become the progestin used in one of the first two oral contraceptives (combined oral contraceptive pills). By this reason, Luis Miramontes is considered by Lilia Miramontes to be its inventor. Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes and George Rosenkranz of the Mexican chemical company Syntex are listed on the patent for norethindrone as its co-inventors. Djerassi “is now known sometimes as the ‘Father of the Pill’”. The historians, nevertheless, agree that the invention, or the first synthesis, is the work of Djerassi, Miramontes, and Rosenkranz. For example, the Nobel laureate Max Perutz states that “On October 15th, 1951, the chemistry student Luis Miramontes, working under the direction of Djerassi and the director of the laboratory Jorge Rosenkranz synthesized the compound”. Djerassi himself affirms that it was, in fact, Miramontes who conducted the very last step of the first synthesis of the compound: “On 15 October 1951, Luis Miramontes, a young Mexican chemist doing his undergraduate bachelor’s thesis work at Syntex completed the synthesis of the 19-nor analogue of Inhoffen’s compound—that is, 19-nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone or, for short ‘norethindrone’—which turned out to be the first oral contraceptive to be synthesized. Lecture audiences are always intrigued when I display a slide showing the carefully dated and hand-written lab protocol of the very last step in that synthesis conducted by Miramontes, in which the elements of acetylene are added to impart oral activity.” The scientific article reporting the synthesis of 19-nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone (norethindrone) has Miramontes as the second author. Finally, the very last step of the synthesis method was registered, on October 15, 1951, in page 114 of the Miramontes’s personal laboratory notebook (signed).

Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas (March 16, 1925 – September 13, 2004) , was a Mexican chemist known as the co-inventor of the progestin used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.

Miramontes was born at Tepic, Nayarit. He obtained his first Degree in chemical engineering in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He was founder researcher of the Institute of the Chemistry of the same University, making research in the area of Organic Chemistry mainly. He was a professor of the Faculty of Chemistry of the UNAM, Director and professor of the School of Chemistry at the Universidad Iberoamericana, and deputy Director of Research at the Mexican Institute of Petroleum (IMP). Miramontes was member of diverse scientific societies, such as the American Chemical Society (Emeritus), the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers, the National Institute of Chemical and Chemical Engineers, the Chemical Society of Mexico, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the New York Academy of Sciences.

José Mario Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (born March 19, 1943 in Mexico City) is a Mexican chemist and one of the most prominent precursors to the discovering of the Antarctic ozone hole. He was a co-recipient (along Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland) of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in elucidating the threat to the Earth’s ozone layer of chlorofluorocarbon gases (or CFCs), becoming the only Mexican citizen to ever receive a Nobel Prize for science.