{"id":5666,"date":"2026-10-18T04:52:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T04:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/?p=5666"},"modified":"2026-10-18T06:02:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T06:02:33","slug":"mexicos-main-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/18\/mexicos-main-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico’s Main Companies and a Defunct Airline Named After a Fictional Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stats Globe has published a map on Twitter X entitled “The Main Companies of Mexico”. Here is the map, you can see how many companies you are familiar with: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Source: Stats Globe <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There’s Soriana (a Wal-mart style chain), LaLa (a milk company), Oxxo (convenience store chain), Coppel (department stores, finance), Pe\u00f1oles (mining and metallurgy), Cin\u00e9polis (movie theater chain), Chilchota (cheese), Cemex (cement), Grupo Bimbo<\/a> (bakery company), PEMEX (government oil company) and many others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about Calafia, in the southern part of the Baja California peninsula? As some commenters in the thread<\/a> point out, Calafia Airlines no longer exists. It ceased operations in 2023 and its permits were revoked in 2025.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Source: Calafia Airlines<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, there’s an interesting history behind the name “Calafia”. It goes back to a work of fiction by Garci Rodr\u00edguez de Montalvo published in Spain between 1492 and 1510, entitled Las sergas de Esplandi\u00e1n<\/em>.
<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Las sergas de Esplandi\u00e1n<\/em>, 1526 edition
Source: google.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This fictional book describes an island inhabited only by women, dark-skinned Amazons, and the name of that island was California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Spaniards were exploring western Mexico they discovered a peninsula which for a time they believed was an island. They called that land California after the island in the book. Eventually they discovered it wasn’t an island but a peninsula, but the name stuck, even being applied to the region north of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, Alta California (Upper California) is the U.S. state of California, while Baja California (Lower California) is the Mexican peninsula. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So California and Baja California are named after a fictional land from a Spanish fiction book. And the Calafia Airlines were named after Calafia, the fictional queen of California in that book.
<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"

Queen Calafia Rendition, 1937
On Mural by Lucile Lloyd
in California State Capitol
Source: California Capitol Museum<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Too bad about the airline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stats Globe has published a map on Twitter X entitled “The Main Companies of Mexico”. Here is the map, you can see how many companies you are familiar with: There’s Soriana (a Wal-mart style chain), LaLa (a milk company), Oxxo … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,381,102],"tags":[1135,1143,1137,33,1139,1142,1138,1136,618,840,830,1140,803,152,711,1141],"class_list":["post-5666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-economy","category-history","tag-baja-california-peninsula","tag-calafia","tag-calafia-airlines","tag-california","tag-cemex","tag-chilchota","tag-cinepolis","tag-garci-rodriguez-de-montalvo","tag-grupo-bimbo","tag-grupo-coppel","tag-industrias-penoles","tag-lala","tag-mexican-companies","tag-oxxo-convenience-stores","tag-pemex","tag-soriana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5666"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5683,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666\/revisions\/5683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexiconewsreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}