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Hispanic Heritage
 Living in Mexico

Living in Mexico
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.1

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    outdoor, commonly, rectangular, social, entire, emit, guadalajara, jams, marketplace, running, colonial, artwork, tile, than, schools, jobs
     content words:    Mexico City, On Sunday

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Living in Mexico
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     More than one or two generations commonly live in Mexican households. The Mexican people value their families. Finding grandparents living with their children and their grandchildren is not uncommon. City life can be quite different from life in the country or rural areas. Let's take a look at what you might see on a tour of Mexico's cities and villages.
 
2     Most Mexicans live in cities. Three of every four citizens can be found living in a town of at least 2,500 people. The largest city in the country is Mexico City. If you count all the people who live inside the city limits and all the people who live in towns which have grown up around the city, you would find almost 15 million citizens. Mexico City stands on the very place that the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan stood.
 
3     There are five other cities in Mexico with populations of more than one million. Guadalajara and Monterrey are two of those five.
 
4     Mexican cities have similarities, no matter how large they are. In all of the cities, churches and government buildings are constructed around a plaza. The plaza may have a fountain or a statue, or it may have a garden at its center. Space is left around the center of the plaza so that people have room to walk or sit or just stand and visit with friends. On Sunday afternoons¸ you will find the plaza filled with people of all ages enjoying the beauty and social time.
 
5     The heart of the city contains skyscrapers and apartment buildings. You will usually find an older part of town which will have a type of home called Spanish colonial. These homes are made of stone or adobe, which is sun-dried clay. Most of these older homes will have an outdoor living space. A patio is built for the entire family to enjoy. Plants, fountains, and flowers create a welcome space for the family to sit and talk.

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