Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Zacatecas, city (1990 pop. 100,051), capital of Zacatecas state, N central Mexico. With an altitude of more than 8,000 ft (2,438 m), it is situated in a deep ravine surrounded by arid hills. The clima...

(Encyclopedia) Rulfo, Juan hwän ro͞olˈfō [key], 1918–86, Mexican writer. In his fiction he recreates the desolation of his native southern Jalisco and brings to life its simple people in a harsh and tragic man...

(Encyclopedia) San Mateo săn mətāˈō [key], city (1990 pop. 85,486), San Mateo co., W Calif., on San Francisco Bay; inc. 1894. It is a commercial and retail center with some high-technology manufacturing. San Ma...

(Encyclopedia) Álvarez, Juan hwän älˈvärās [key], 1780–1867, Mexican general of indigenous descent, president of Mexico (1855). He distinguished himself in battle under Morelos y Pavón and was later the fir...

(Encyclopedia) Anderson, Robert, 1805–71, American army officer, defender of Fort Sumter, b. near Louisville, Ky., grad. West Point, 1825. He fought in the Black Hawk, Seminole, and Mexican wars and was promoted t...

(Encyclopedia) Mexico, Gulf of, arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.700,000 sq mi (1,813,000 sq km), SE North America. The Gulf stretches more than 1,100 mi (1,770 km) from west to east and c.800 mi (1,290 km) from north t...

(Encyclopedia) Carrington, Leonora, 1917–2011, English-born Mexican surrealist painter, novelist, and eccentric, studied art at Ozenfant Academy, London (1935–38). From a wealthy Anglo-Irish family, she traveled...

(Encyclopedia) Fox Quesada, Vicente vēsānˈtā fōks kāsäˈᵺä [key], 1942–, Mexican political leader, president of Mexico (2000–6). Raised on a ranch in rural central Mexico's Guanajuato state, he became ...

(Encyclopedia) gopher or pocket gopher, name for the burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae, found in North America and Central America. The gopher is gray, buff, or dark brown. Its combined head and body length ...

(Encyclopedia) Perry, Matthew Calbraith, 1794–1858, American naval officer, b. South Kingstown, R.I.; brother of Oliver Hazard Perry. Appointed a midshipman in 1809, he first served under his brother on the Reveng...