To begin, Style: 
If you fell out of the sky over Mexico, before you hit the ground, you 
would know what country you were in. Every area had its dress and its 
pottery and its toys  and if you had been around you not only would know 
that you were in Mexico you would know what part of Mexico.  That is not the case anywhere south of Guatemala. South of Guatemala you would be hard put to quickly recognize if the country you landed in was Honduras or Panama or Colombia or Ecuador (unless you landed in Otavalo), let 
alone what district you were in. This Mexican sense of style penetrates 
everyone and often converts them. Diego Rivera was a Mexican but he went to Paris to study art and he became a fine painter, a recognized Cubist, he returned to Mexico and became one of the great painters of this century working in a style that was totally Mexican, to the point that 
you could hardly see the influence of Cubism even if you looked for it. 
At the same time there were half a dozen other painters and Muralists 
approaching his quality and most of them had never been to Paris. This 
uniqueness was in art and music. The Mariachis where not just a 
superficial fad popular among intellectuals, they were and are a vital 
part of the culture instantly recognizable. Where else is the Day of the 
Dead quite like the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Where else do they make 
Skulls of sugar with your name on them and sell them in bakeries on the 
Day of the Dead. Where else have they created an artist like Frieda 
Kahlo. 

Pride: 
 I know of no other country in this hemisphere where true and honest 
nationalism was so powerful. During my first year in Mexico I never 
heard a Mexican criticize Mexico in front of a foreigner (this changed 
during the Olympics). The Pride was not simply in ones country but it 
was also pride in ones village and ones local history. One comparison, a 
Somosa wife in Nicaragua a first  a cousin of her husband and she was 
also an American Citizen. During an election campaign she was asked if 
she was planning to vote for her husband and she replied no, because if 
she voted she might lose her American Citizenship. Anyone who was in 
Mexico when I was there would know what an explosion of outrage that 
would have caused if a Mexican politicians wife had said such a thing. 
But let me continue: There is no comparable monument in this hemisphere 
to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico and no collection of 
such a size with such a uniform level of  artistic quality in any other 
country. There is no other entrance, to my knowledge, to any Museum with  a huge lintel having written on it "Mexican enter here and see the 
greatness of your past, Foreigner enter here and see the greatness of 
the History of Mexico. (That is a crude approximation of what is written 
but the meaning is accurate) there is no other university quite like the 
National University of Mexico as a monument to an intellectual history. 

Abuse: 
Much about Mexico is not pretty, there is a tradition of abuse of 
government power, there is a tradition of the Government officials 
living off of bribes or mordidas or direct service fees, and there is a 
lesser known tradition of police brutality that approaches the worst in 
the hemisphere. There was not a tradition of assassination as an 
instrument of government policy, expulsion yes, but assassination no, 
Never the less, for a Mexican to get jailed was for him to have his life 
threatened. But few went to jail, except for political reasons, unless 
the crime was serious and the criminal broke.  When I was in Mexico 
there was a feeling that the Aztecs were still in power with a six-year 
absolute monarch chosen in a totally impenetrable fashion, and a 
military that was never mentioned in public. 

The Epiphanies: 
Linda Schele has many times mentioned the profundity of Mexico's effect 
on her. Sam Edgerton has written about his epiphany on his visit to 
Monte Alban. John Carr has written elegies to his stay in Oaxaca. I have mentioned what my first visit to Chichenitza and Villahermosa did to me. I know there are people who have been a deeply affected by the ruins in South America, particularly Machu Pichu but I don't believe any other country has had the power to affect people as deeply as Mexico has affected the people I have mentioned and a large lot of others. 

The Food: 
Mexican food has been listed with Chinese and  French as the greatest 
culinary traditions. I am not talking about the #1 plate in a northern 
border-style cafe nor am I talking about places, no, palaces, like San 
Angel Inn in Mexico City. But I am talking about the infinite variety of 
complex sauces, sauces which have the same name in many places but like 
french wines or cheeses no two preparations are exactly the same. I mean 
the many varieties of Mole, only one of which is the world famous Mole 
Poblano. I mean the Pipian sauces and the Nogado sauces and the family 
of Adobo sauces and the various Adobados. I am talking about the Guisos and the Carne Guisados. Mexican sauces like Indian curries and some 
French sauces take more than a day to make what with charring and 
grinding and peeling and steaming until everything is ready to go 
together. I had a mole in Oaxaca, not too long ago, that among dozens of 
ingredients had charred avocado skin as a minor component. In the market where they sold that Mole they had one stall with twenty varieties of 
dried chilies and they had a young lady and her mother selling Quesadillas, a large tortilla folded over with a local white cheese and pumpkin blossoms inside, heated until the cheese was melted. With all of this I haven't even mentioned the seafood stews and the seviches. 

When Mexico city has begun to look like the twin of Los Angeles and all 
the people in the markets are dressed in blue jeans  and tee shirts and 
all the young men are wearing tennis shoes endorsed by Michael Jordan or his successor those sauces will still be there and the tourists both foreign and national will be going on guided cuisine trecks searching for the perfect Pipian and the smoothest Mole. 

The changes: 
 The changes in Mexico are the changes taking place all over the world 
and I suspect they are the changes that must be made if a country is to 
have a modern industrial economy and move to the next (and more fragile) level of capacity to sustain a larger population. Please remember, I am 
fairly long in the tooth and perhaps because of this I am saying change 
not progress. With all of the changes however, I expect that there will 
still be the style, the pride, the food and probably the corruption and 
one hopes that forever there will be retained that power to transform 
whoever gets close. Monte Alban is not going away, Santo Domingo in 
Qaxaca is not going away, and the sense of style which started with the 
Olmecs is not going away.