THE 30 MOST IMPORTANT MEXICAN INVENTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The Mexican inventions such as color television, chocolate or pill demonstrate the talent and creativity of Mexicans, despite the economic and historical difficulties experienced by the country.

Some technological and scientific discoveries carried out in Mexico have had international influence, despite the few resources that their inventors had.

Often when you have less, you are more likely to invent something, as your ingenuity is sharpened to use the few resources that exist. In fact, it is a technique that great artists have used to make their works.

Here is a list of the main inventions of Mexican people and that are used both in Mexico and internationally. Most were patented, although the patent expired over the years.

Great current and ancient inventions of Mexican inventors

Color TV

In 1940, at the age of 22, Guillermo González Camarena developed a color image transmission system for television: the STSC System.

He financed it with the royalties they paid him for a song he had written: "Río Colorado." In 1942, he got the patent, and four years later he made the first color broadcast from some offices in Mexico City.

He also founded the Majestic brand of televisions. Camarena's legacy lives on in the initials of the station he founded in 1952: XHGC, Channel 5.

Chocolate

As everyone knows, chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown preparation that comes from the seeds of Theobroma cacao, roasted and ground.

It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as an ingredient to flavor other foods.

What not many know is that cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica.

The earliest evidence of use dates back to Mokaya (Mexico and Guatemala), with evidence of chocolate drinks dating back to 1900 BC. In fact, most of the people of Mesoamerica made drinks from chocolate, including the Mayans and Aztecs, and turned them into a drink known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word that means "bitter water."

Tortilla machines

At first it was a head with laminated rollers and a conveyor chain that worked to transfer the product to a griddle.

Everardo Rodríguez Arce and Luis Romero created it in 1904 and produced 16,000 tortillas a day. In 1947, Fausto Celorio developed a model that carried out the entire process automatically, allowing the industrialization of production.

The «automatic shutter

In 1790, philosopher, priest, theologian, astronomer, cartographer, historian, naturalist, botanist, geographer and journalist José Antonio de Alzate invented the "automatic shutter", which prevents overflow in water tanks, cisterns and toilets.

A true character in his time, religion and scientific research were vital to Alzate.

Anticonceptive pill

In 1951, as a young chemist, Luis Ernesto Miramontes was invited to synthesize a progesterone that could replace injections for women who suffered spontaneous abortions.

He achieved norethindrone, a substance extracted from the Mexican tubercle dioscorea, capable of stopping ovulation. It was the basis of the contraceptive pill.

Although he worked with George Rosenkran (laboratory director) and Carl Djerassi (research director), Miramontes was the one who synthesized the complex.

Tridylose

In 1962, the engineer and famous leftist politician Heberto Castillo created a three-dimensional steel and concrete structure that can support extremely heavy roofs.

The inexpensive building system also works well as thermal and acoustic insulation. The Chapultepec Tower and the WTC (previously Gran Hotel de México) were built with this system.

Anti-graffiti paint

Deletum 3000, a trademark for paint that makes spray paint glide off any surface, has been manufactured industrially since 2002.

Developed by the UNAM Center for Advanced Technology and Physics, on its campus in Juriquilla, Querétaro, the biodegradable product helps to combat graffiti.

Indelible ink

This substance, which is absorbed by skin cells and remains for up to 24 hours, has helped prevent voter fraud.

It is believed that its creator was Filiberto Vázquez Dávila, an engineer from the National School of Biological Sciences of the National Polytechnic Institute, who received various recognition for this development.

The indelible ink was used for the first time in the elections of 1994, its success caused that this substance was quickly acquired by other countries to ensure electoral transparency. Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador, were the first interested parties.

Sound 13

Sound 13 is also a Mexican creation of the musician Julián Carrillo, who in 1926 wanted to break with music theory. His goal: to experiment with new sounds and transcend the musical scale of 12 notes, five flats and seven pure, separated by half a tone.

Carrillo then created what he called microtons or sound 13, which represent non-traditional units within the musical scale and are located between the traditional semitones.

This new music theory had great expansion and influenced mainly musicians from Belgium, Germany, France and Switzerland. The Prelude to Columbus is the first composition that shows a new musical theory.

Catalytic nanomedicine

Tessy López Goerne, a physical chemist from the Metropolitan University, applied nanotechnology to the treatment of brain cancer, with amazing results.

Using microscopic particles filled with titanium and zirconium drugs, he engineered therapies to target brain tumors without the need for surgery or chemotherapy.

Dr. López Goerne's research has created a whole school of medical, technological and chemical research: catalytic nanomedicine.

Breakwater

The Mexican engineer Mauricio Porras invented a fast and inexpensive system of piers, piers and breakwaters, based on filling bags in the sea with sand and cement.

3D television

Viewing 3D images on a television or computer is possible thanks to the work of the Mexican engineer Manuel R. Gutiérrez Novelo.

In 2003, the Mexican created a device called TD Vision, with which it is possible to view images in three dimensions.

From the beginning, companies like Texas Instruments, Microsoft, Motorola, and even NASA showed an interest in the invention, which has been used in a wide variety of fields, from military industry to medicine, as well as for architecture, engineering. civil, space industry and video games.

The guitarró

It is a deep-bodied six-string cello traditionally played in mariachi groups.

Although similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instrument, but was developed independently. Because its large size gives it volume, it does not require electrical amplification for small venue performances.

Popcorn

Popcorn was invented by the Zapotec people and was later presented to Hernán Cortés by the Aztecs.

Chewing gum or gum

The Aztecs used chewing gum as a base to make a substance that was used to glue everyday objects. Women, in particular, used this gum to cool their mouths.

Molcajete

It is a stone tool, the traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle, similar to the South American fuller. It is used to grind various food products.

Gnome

What would an operating system be without a graphical environment? Miguel de Icaza, together with the support of the Mexican Federico Mena, founded the GNOME project, seeking to create a graphical desktop environment with a free software license.

At first it was called GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) and was released in 1999, becoming one of the most popular free interfaces.

Kahlúa

It is a coffee-flavored liquor from Mexico. The drink contains rum, corn syrup and vanilla. Pedro Domecq began producing Kahlúa in 1936. It was named Kahlúa, which means "House of the Acolhua people" in the Nahuatl Veracruz language spoken before the Spanish conquest.

Kahlúa was Hispanized as Ulúa, forming the name of the modern fortress of San Juan de Ulúa.

The company merged in 1994 with Allied Lyons to become Allied Domecq. In turn, this company was partially acquired in 2005 by Pernod Ricard, the largest distributor of spirits in the world since its merger with Vin & Sprit in March 2008.

Since 2004, the alcoholic content of Kahlúa is 20.0%. Previous versions had 26.5%. In 2002, a more expensive, high-end product called "Kahlúa Especial" became available in the United States, Canada, and Australia after previously being offered only in duty-free markets.

Made with premium Arabica beans grown in Veracruz, Mexico, Kahlúa Especial has an alcohol content of 36%, a lower viscosity, and is less sweet than the regular version.

Daisies

The margarita is a drink that is made of tequila, triple sec, and lemon or lime juice, and is often served with salt or sugar on the rim of the glass.

The drink can be prepared in several ways: it can either be shaken with ice, mixed with ice (the so-called frozen margarita), or served without ice.

Although it has become acceptable to serve a margarita in a wide variety of glass types, ranging from cocktails and wine glasses to pint glasses and even large schooners, the drink is traditionally served in the eponymous margarita glass, a variant staggered diameter for a cocktail glass or champagne glass.

The nachos

Nachos are a Texan-Mexican dish from northern Mexico. The dish is comprised of tortilla chips (or tortilla chips) topped with cheese or cheese-based sauce, and is often served as an appetizer. More elaborate versions add more ingredients and can be served as a main dish.

Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya is credited with creating the dish in 1943. The original nachos consisted of fried corn tortillas topped with melted cheese and sliced ​​jalapeno peppers.

paddle

Paddle tennis is a racket sport that, in the United States and Canada, is known as Paddle.

Paddle tennis should not be confused with so-called platform tennis, a winter sport typically played in clubs in the US and Canada. The court, the rules and the styles of play are very different.

The sport was created in Acapulco, Mexico, by Enrique Corcuera, in 1969. It is currently more popular in Latin American countries such as Argentina and Mexico, as well as in Spain and Andorra, although it is now beginning to spread rapidly throughout Europe and other continents.

The silhouette meta

The metallic silhouette is a descendant of an old Mexican sport, dating back to the early 1900s, where live game animals were drawn at varying distances as targets.

In 1948, metal cutouts of animals were used in place of live animals, and the first metal silhouette match was held in Mexico City.

Due to the sport's Mexican roots, silhouettes in the United States are often referred to by terms of several varieties of American Spanish, namely Gallina, Jabalí, Guajalote, and Borrego.

The Three Card Mount

Also known as the three-card trick, it is a "trust" game in which the victim, or spectator, is tricked into betting a sum of money, assuming they can find the "money" between three face-down playing cards.

Continuous flow intersection

Also called a left shift, it is an alternate design for a highway grade crossing.

Vehicles attempting to cross the opposite direction of traffic (left in right-hand driving jurisdictions) cross before entering the intersection. No left turn signal is needed at the intersection.

Instead, vehicles traveling in both directions can continue, including through vehicles and those turning right or left, when a traffic sign allows it.

Amparo appeal

The remedy of amparo is a resource for the protection of constitutional rights, which is found in certain jurisdictions.

In some legal systems, predominantly those of the Spanish-speaking world, the remedy of amparo or action is an effective and cheap instrument for the protection of individual rights.

The amparo, generally granted by a supreme or constitutional court, has a dual protective purpose: it protects the citizen and his basic guarantees, and protects the constitution itself by ensuring that its principles are not violated by statutes or actions of the State that undermine the basis of the rights enshrined in the constitution.

It resembles, in some respects, constitutional resources such as the Mandado de Seguridad (Mandado de Segurança) available in Brazil and the constitutional complaint procedure (Verfassungsbeschwerde) available in Germany.

Ball game

The Mesoamerican ball game was a sport with ritual associations played by the pre-Columbian peoples of ancient Mesoamerica.

The sport had different versions in various places over the millennia, and a more modern version of the game, ulama, which is still played in some places by the indigenous population.

The rules of the game are not known, but judging from their descendant, ulama, they were probably similar to racquetball, where the goal is to keep the ball in play.

A metate

A metate is a type or variety of hand grinder, a soil stone tool used to process grain and seeds.

In traditional Mesoamerican culture, metates were typically used by women who ground corn treated with lime and other organic materials during food preparation (for example, making tortillas). Similar artifacts are found all over the world, including China.

Pulque

Pulque is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant (agave). It is traditional in central Mexico, where it has been produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, a somewhat slimy consistency and a sour yeast flavor.

The history of the drink dates back to Mesoamerican times, when it was considered sacred, and its use was limited to certain classes of people.

Vulcanization

Although vulcanization is a 19th century invention, the history of rubber cured by other means dates back to prehistoric times.

The name of the first important civilization in Guatemala and Mexico, the "Olmec," means "rubber people" in the Aztec language. Ancient Mesoamericans, ranging from the ancient Olmecs to the Aztecs, extracted latex from Castilla elastica, a type of rubber tree in the area.

The juice of a local vine, Ipomoea alba, was then mixed with this latex to create processed rubber as early as 1600 BC.

In the western world, rubber was still a curiosity, although it was used to produce waterproofed products, such as the Mackintosh raincoat.

Guacamole

Known worldwide, guacamole is an avocado or salad created by the Aztecs in what is now Mexico.

In addition to its use in modern Mexican cuisine, it has also become part of North American cuisine as an ingredient, condiment, or salad.