Sierra Madre Occidental Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through Northwestern and Western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica. The Spanish name "sierra madre" means "mother mountains" and "occidental" means "western" in English, with these being the "Western Mother Mountains". To the east, from the Spanish "oriental" meaning
Name of Mexico of the country is the "United Mexican States" (), since it is a federation of thirty-two states. The official name was first used in the Constitution of 1824, and was retained in the constitutions of 1857 and 1917. Informally, "Mexico" is used along with "Mexican Republic" ("República Mexicana"). On 22 November 2012, outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderón proposed changing the official name of the country to "México". Anahuac (meaning land surrounded by water) was the name in Nahuatl given to what is now Mexico during Pre-Hispanic times. When the Spanish conquistadors besieged México-Tenochtitlan in 1521, it was almost completely destroyed.