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 Name of Mexico The name of Mexico has several hypotheses that entail the origin, history, and use of the name "Mexico", which dates back to 14th century Mesoamerica. The Nahuatl word "Mexico" means "place of the Mexica" but the ethnonym "Mexicatl" itself is of unknown etymology. An alternate possibility is that the name may come from the word "mexixin", a cress that grew in the swamplands of Lake Texcoco. It was an edible grass that the Aztecs or Mexica survived on as they settled where today lies México City. The country México did not name its capital after itself, as