Tuxtla Gutiérrez
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, or Tuxtla, is the capital and the largest city of the Mexican southeastern state of Chiapas. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name, which is the most developed and populous in the state. A busy government, commercial and services-oriented city, Tuxtla had one of the fastest-growing rates in Mexico over the last 40 years. Unlike many other areas in Chiapas, it is not a major tourist attraction, but a transportation hub for tourists coming into the state, with a large airport and a bus terminal.
History
The Zoques made the first pre-Hispanic settlement at the site. They named the valley area name Coyatoc, which means 'land or house of rabbits'. The Aztecs intruded into the area between 1486 and 1505 and named it Tuchtlan, which means the same thing in their language.After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and the subjugation of the local Chiapan people in 1528, the Dominicans constructed a monastery in nearby Tecpatán. There is no official founding date for Tuxtla, but it is known that the Dominican monks gathered dispersed Zoques into communities organized around churches in the 16th century. A church dedicated to San Marcos was founded by the Dominicans for one of these communities in 1560. While Tuxtla is less discussed in regional history as compared to Comitán Domínguez and San Cristóbal, it boasts a large number of adobe houses, including Spanish colonial buildings in the downtown and western areas around the Señor del Cerrito Hermitage, from the 19th century within the downtown area and far southern and northern areas, and vestiges of Zoquean migration during the 19th century in the western and far southwestern areas. Tuxtla is home to around 800 adobe houses, many times much more than any officially declared historic site in Chiapas.
The existence of the town of San Marcos Tuxtla was first recorded in 1748, and by 1768 it became the seat of a mayoralty in Chiapas.
The village was officially recognized as a villa by King of Spain in 1813 with a population of about 5,000, three quarters of whom were Zoques. In 1821, the authorities of the villa proclaimed independence from both Spain and the regional colonial government of Guatemala, along with other areas in what would become Chiapas. However, this declaration was not accepted by either Guatemala or Mexico. Tuxtla, along with the state of Chiapas, became part of Mexico by popular vote on.
Tuxtla was officially renamed as Tuxtla Gutiérrez on by governor Fernando Nicolás Maldonado to honor Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez, a former governor of Chiapas that promoted the state's annexation to Mexico. The municipality was first incorporated as a departamento on. It replaced San Cristóbal de las Casas as the capital of Chiapas on. The first library in the state was founded in Tuxtla in 1910.
During the Mexican Revolution, a battalion called "The Sons of Tuxtla" was formed in 1911, and its member Captain Julio Miramontes was assassinated in 1912. Troops supporting Venustiano Carranza took over in 1914, led by Agustín Castro. Chiapas was reorganized into the municipality system in 1915, with Tuxtla Gutiérrez becoming the head of a municipality and Noé Vázquez the first municipal president. The city remained the state capital. The reaction against Carranza's policies was headed by the Mapaches, a group of landholders in the state who objected to the loss of their privileges and the redistribution of their lands. They burned the state government building, destroying its archives in 1915. General Salvador Alvarado and 2500 troops fought the Mapaches commanded by General. Catholic churches were closed and images of saints were burned in the city in 1934.
In 1941, the municipal government moved from the old building on El Triunfo Street in the Santo Domingo neighborhood to the corner of Avenida Central and Calle 2ª Poniente on lands that belonged to the city's first municipal president. A new municipal palace was built there in the Neoclassical style. However, the municipal palace was moved again to its current location in 1982, and the Neoclassical building was given to the Federación de Trabajadores del Estado de Chiapas.
The Diocese of Tuxtla was created in 1965, which elevated the parish of San Marcos to a cathedral. It was subsequently elevated to an archdiocese in 2010. The city experienced high rates of population growth from the 1970s, resulting in the annexation of the municipality of Terán in 1973. The first Feria Chiapas was held in 1980, and Pope John Paul II visited the city in 1990.
During the 1990s, some areas of the state of Chiapas were affected by the EZLN or Zapatista uprising. While most of this group's activity was in rural areas of the state, Tuxtla was also affected by it. As many as 10,000 Zapatista sympathizers protested in the city in 1998 to push federal officials to honor the 1994 San Andrés Accords and to push for new gubernatorial elections and other demands. The political instability pushed many indigenous into the municipality from more rural areas in the latter half of the decade. In 1998, PRD politician, EZLN activist and leader of the Asamblea Estatal Democrática del Pueblo Chiapaneco Rubicel Ruiz Gamboa was assassinated in the city. It is thought the act was in response to Ruiz Gamboa's work in land redistribution in the state's region.
In the 1990s, Mexicana Airlines stopped service to Tuxtla, and a major crash killing nineteen people led to protests and the reinstatement of service to the city by Mexicana in 2000. In 2011, the government of Guatemala announced that it would open a consulate in the city to support its nationals who cross through Mexican territory or reside there. The government noted the problems that many Guatemalans, especially those who enter Mexico illegally, have had in the country. A tractor trailer with 219 illegal immigrants was stopped in the municipality in early 2011. Most were Guatemalan and almost all from Central America, but there were also people from Sri Lanka and Nepal. The migrants were detected by using portable X-ray on the passing truck.
The city
Tuxtla is the largest and most developed city in the state of Chiapas, and has an accelerated population growth rate. It is clean and mainly business oriented. The city has wide busy avenues, filled with cars, taxis, and buses. Shopping ranges from modern commercial plazas and malls to popular markets and open air tianguis.In 2011, the city was the first in Mexico to be certified as a "safe city" by the federal government and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm due to its very low crime rate, crime prevention programs and other factors. According to the Financial Times and FDi magazine, Tuxtla is one of a number of cities worldwide considered to be "cities of the future." It was evaluated based on its economic potential, human resources, cost-benefit ratio, quality of life, infrastructure and business environment.
The city is centered on a large square called the Plaza Cívica, which is surrounded by government buildings such as the municipal and state government offices . On one side of this plaza is the city's most important landmark, the Catedral de San Marcos, named after the patron saint of the city, Mark the Evangelist. The church was founded in the second half of the 16th century, as a Dominican parish and has had significant changes to the structure since it was built. Its apse is the only one conserved in Chiapas from the colonial era, on which remnants of frescos can be seen. The current interior is Neoclassical. It has a single nave with a Latin cross layout with two side chapels. Its current façade and tower is modeled somewhat along colonial lines, with Doric columns. The structure's current appearance, mostly in plain white, is a result of its last remodeling which was done in the 1980s. The best known feature of this church is the forty eight bells that ring out each hour, accompanied by a "parade" of statues of the Apostles that appear on the bell tower.
The city has a number of notable parks and other green spaces. Madero Park is located on 5a Norte Avenue where it crosses Calzada de Sumidero about six blocks from the Plaza Cívica. It is a green area which is cut by a street called Paseo de los Hombres Ilustres. Along this corridor, there are various museums and cultural centers which include the Dr. Faustino Miranda Botanical Garden, which occupies four hectares along the Sabinal River. Across from the garden is the botanical museum which has a large exhibition of the various wood trees of the state. There is also a natural history museum with a number of preserved species of animals and plants as well as artifacts and maps of the historical indigenous peoples of the state. Parque Jardín de la Marimba is located is eight blocks from the First Square on Central West Avenue and Octave North West Street and named after the most characteristic musical instrument of the state. The park was established in 1993 to be a meeting place for families with numerous trees, colonial style benches, lighting at night and a central kiosk. Here, marimba bands play, which often attracts older couples who come to dance. It also hosts larger musical and other events, usually related to the marimba.
On the edge of the city is the El Zapotal Ecological Reserve, best known as the home of the Zoológico Miguel Alvarez del Toro Zoo, often referred to as the ZooMAT. The zoo covers 100 hectares and was founded by Miguel Alvarez del Toro in 1942. He was also the director for over fifty years. ZooMAT is considered to be one of the best zoos of its kind in Latin America. It exhibits, studies, protects and preserves the native species of Chiapas, which have suffered severe stress due to human activities. The zoo has programs for research, environmental education and wildlife conservation. The zoo is especially known for its work in preserving the quetzal, being the first to breed the bird in captivity in the 1970s. The design of the zoo respects the topography of the zone and only exhibits regional wildlife. It contains 1,400 animals from 220 species including jaguars, tapirs, macaws, spider monkeys, howler monkeys and quetzals. Over 150 of the species freely roam in natural enclosures and in some areas, animals such as deer, iguanas, small reptiles and birds come very close to the areas where humans pass. Sixty of the species exhibited here are in danger of extinction, including the jaguar, the ocelot, the macaw, the quetzal, and howler monkey.
The largest museum in the city is the Museo Regional de Antropología e Historia, which one of the most important of its kind in Mexico. The building was constructed in modern style between 1979 and 1982, designed by architect Juan Miramontes Nájera. This design received first prize at the Third Biennial Architecture Contest in Bulgaria in 1985. Its permanent collection covers the history of the state and is divided into two halls: one for archeology and the other for history starting from the Spanish conquest. Next to it, there is the Museo de Paleontología "Eliseo Palacios Aguilera" which was inaugurated in 2002 and is the only museum of its type in the state. It contains exhibits of over 200 fossils, all from Chiapas, with range in age from 300 million to 10,000 years old. The main hall is centered on a reconstruction of a Megatherium. There is also a display dedicated to the amber of the state with pieces containing insects and spiders.
The Chiapas Museum of Science and Technology is an interactive museum for children and adults demonstrating advances in modern times in three halls: Earth and Universe, Life and Humans, and Communications and Tools.
The Mercado de los Ancianos is a large traditional market southeast of the center of the city near the zoo. It offers fresh flowers, meat, seafood, clothes, household goods and more. It has an outdoor café under a big red tent, and serves its dishes prepared from the items available in the market. These include shrimp dishes, chicken, fried whole fish, carne asada and tacos. The Instituto de las Artesanias y Productos de Chiapas, also called the Casa de Artesanías, opened in 1980, is a large purple building on the main boulevard of the city, run by the government to promote the state's traditional products. These include the best of Chiapas handcrafts including textiles, clothing, toys, ceramics and wood sculptures as well as genuine amber jewelry. It also contains an Ethnographic Museum which shows scenes representing the lifestyles of the various indigenous groups of Chiapas with dioramas of rural villages and how crafts are made. There are also mannequins displaying indigenous dress. It also sells coffee and regional candies from the state. In his time, was a great museum that stored the largest collection of photos, crafts and recreations of life of native villages in the depths of the state, but was almost entirely consumed by fire in 2001.
The Casa de la Cultura of the city is located at Avenida 1a Ponente Norte. Two other important churches are the Santo Domingo Parish and the Santo Niño de Atocha Temple.
The city is the local government authority for eighty three other communities which cover a territory of 334.90 km2. It borders the municipalities of San Fernando, Osumacinta, Chiapa de Corzo, Suchiapa, Ocozocoautla and Berriozábal.