ABSTRACT
Mexico’s middle class represents about 45 percent of the population according to generally agreed upon formulas and statistics. Some estimates suggest that about 10 million people joined the middle class each year during the decade in question. The rapacious world-wide consumption of Latin American primary exports—oil, copper, iron, soy and beef—helped generate the wealth that pushed people into the middle class in the region. This growth occurred during a time of economic expansion led by China, which was registering unprecedented growth rates of 5–6 percent annually. Mexico, perhaps more than other nations of Latin America, has built a strong, vibrant middle class; there are historic reasons for this, dating back to the nation’s ten-year revolution which began in 1910. The Revolution forged an alliance between the political and economic sector, promoting policies that were nationalist, progressive and designed to allow all Mexicans to receive their fair share from the nation’s abundant natural resources.
