Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida border the Gulf on the north, which are often referred to as the "Third Coast", in comparison with the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years
Name of Mexico piece of legislation to change the country's name officially to simply Mexico. To go into effect, the bill would have to be passed by both houses of Congress, as well as a majority of Mexico's 31 state legislatures. Coming within just a week before Calderón turned power over to then president elect Enrique Peña Nieto, many of the president's critics saw the proposal as nothing more than a symbolic gesture. According to one legend, the war deity and patron of the Mexica Huitzilopochtli possessed "Mexitl" or "Mexi" as a secret name. Mexico would then mean "Place of Mexi" or "Land