Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas ( listen), officially Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is one of the thirty-one states that, together with Mexico City, form the United Mexican States. Its capital is Ciudad Victoria and its most populous city is Reynosa. It was founded on February 7, 1824.

It is located in the northeast of the country, bordered to the north by the Rio Grande that separates it from the United States, to the east by the Gulf of Mexico (Atlantic Ocean), to the south by Veracruz, to the southwest by San Luis Potosí and to the west with Nuevo León. It has a territory of 80,175 km². It is the sixth largest state, with 4.1% of the total area of the country. It is divided into 43 municipalities.

It has a population of 3,527,735. It is the thirteenth most populous state and the eleventh least densely populated with 44 inhabitants / km². It has four metropolitan areas, three of which are international because they are divided between Mexico and the United States.

In addition to Ciudad Victoria and Reynosa, other important towns are: Tampico, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Madero, Altamira, Aldama, Río Bravo, Ciudad Mante, Xicoténcatl and Valle Hermoso.

Toponymy

The name Tamaulipas is thought to come from the Huastec Tamholipa: "place where one prays a lot", where the prefix tam means "place where". Although there is no agreement about the meaning of the word holipa, it seems that the most common interpretation is “to pray a lot”, which, joining both words, would give rise to the meaning of “place where you pray a lot”. ”.

The name was taken from the town of the mission of the Purísima Concepción de la Tamaholipa built by the expert linguist missionary Andrés de Olmos in Villa del Paso del Cántaro (now Ciudad Mier), in the which welcomed the Indians that he called "olives" because of the color of their skin, the name was chosen to replace that of "Nuevo Santander" for trying to reverse a supposed cultural colonization, although probably the place name would still end up being syncretic and also stealthily Catholic for what it means in Huastec

History

Pre-Hispanic period

According to paleontological and archaeological records, the first human settlements in Tamaulipas date back to twelve thousand years BC. C., and are identified in the so-called "Devil Complex", alluding to a canyon in the Sierra de Tamaulipas. Later, at the level of the Tropic of Cancer, the first manifestations of indigenous civilizations appear, linked to the discovery and domestication of the maize and, with it, at the beginning of agricultural life and the grouping of permanent settlements. Consequently, in this period one of the manifestations of Mesoamerican culture began to settle in this region.

There were three cultural areas of Mesoamerica in Tamaulipas: the towns of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the towns of the Sierra de Tamaulipas and the Huasteca. It was in this last area where the Mesoamerican cultural pattern was more clearly defined and whose legacy has been transmitted to the present day in the Huastec indigenous communities, although they did not survive in Tamaulipas and did in other entities such as San Luis Potosí and Hidalgo.

In this entity, the Huastecs settled mainly along the lower basin of the Guayalejo-Tamesí River and in the mountainous valleys of Tanguanchín (Ocampo) and Tammapul (Tula). Politically they did not constitute a State, but rather were integrated as a group of manors. They were skilled craftsmen and had a complex religious cosmogony, to the extent that the concept of the god Quetzalcóatl arose in the Huasteca. As a town located in a peripheral space of nuclear Mesoamerica, they maintained a long autonomy until in the late postclassic the Mexicas subjected a portion of the Huasteca to their domination.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, successive waves of nomads from the north made the Huastecas withdraw towards the Pánuco River, in such a way that at the time of the Spanish Conquest, they practically no longer occupied their territory. Regarding the groups of the Sierra Madre Oriental, although we have archaeological investigations, we do not have much information on the cultural identification of the pre-Hispanic peoples who occupied it.

Towards the southern part, in the Ocampo region, indigenous societies arose that had significant agricultural diversification, while in the northern part, between the edges of the mountain range, there were settlements with great construction work, as is evident in the Balcony of Montezuma, an archaeological zone located near the current state capital. By the 17th century, at the time of the first encounter with Western culture, the Sierra Madre was occupied by the so-called Pisones Indians. In the case of the Sierra de Tamaulipas and as mentioned, there are very old historical references to it, as well as multiple examples of the subsequent evolution of the indigenous peoples who inhabited it.

The above is visible in the numerous ruins scattered throughout this almost impenetrable mountain range, as is the case of El Sabinito, a site currently under investigation, vestiges of a Mesoamerican-type organized society. However, there is evidence that during the Postclassic this cultural model was exhausted, leaving the mountains inhabited by various groups of farmers, but with a lower level of civilization. In contrast to the Mesoamerican world, in the north of the state and throughout the northeast of Mexico and south of Texas, a cultural pattern of multiple nomadic tribal groups (the Chichimecas) prevailed in antiquity and until the arrival of the Spanish.), among which the predominant linguistic trunk was the Coahuiltecan language.

This vast northern space was part of the cultural area of Aridoamérica or “arid America”. It was about the presence of numerous bands of hunter-gatherer Indians, who roamed the plains, especially in the vicinity of the river currents, who possessed a reduced material culture and very elementary structures of social organization. To mention a few, it would be worth mentioning the reeds on the banks of the Rio Grande, the pintos on the banks of the Conchas or the janambres from the center of Tamaulipas.

Ravaged by slave raids from La Huasteca or the Nuevo Reino de León during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Indians of Tamaulipas offered fierce resistance to the New Spanish occupation. In addition, this coastal space became a refuge for ethnic groups from neighboring entities, identified as "apostates", that is, they had renounced Christianization. With the colonization of Tamaulipas from the second half of the 18th century, an attempt was made to settle the Chichimeca Indians in missions run by Franciscan friars.

However, there was very little indigenous roots in these missions and the various groups that roamed their territory ended up becoming extinct. War, the imbalance of their ancient habitats and hunting and gathering customs, epidemics, and their unwillingness to assimilate to the colonial order acted in this process. Some groups survived until the middle of the 19th century, until they finally disappeared as distinct ethnic groups.

Modern Period

Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, the territory of Tamaulipas was occupied by various ethnic groups, among which the Huastecos stand out. Américo Vespucci, the famous Italian cartographer who named the continent, visited Tamaulipas territory at the beginning of the 16th century and in his correspondence with Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco mentioned that the natives called the territory Lariab . During the viceregal era it was known as: Guasteca Kingdom, Province of Amichel and Tierra Garayana, Province of Pánuco, Region of Paul, Alifau and Ocinan, Médanos de la Magdalena, Costa del Seno Mexicano, New Kingdom of León and New Santander. The current name comes from the founding of the town of Tamaholipa by Fray Andrés de Olmos in 1544.

The first permanent Spanish settlement in the area was Tampico in 1554. What is now Tamaulipas was incorporated as a province of New Spain in 1746 under the name Nuevo Santander. This represented the conception of the territorial form of the state.

During most of the colony, the population suffered the attacks of the rebellious indigenous groups, which in turn were enslaved or murdered. In 1732 José de Escandón arrived in the territory and developed an aggressive program of colonization and pacification that would extend to the neighboring Nuevo Reino de León. After the call for independence made by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara, originally from Revilla (today Nva. Cd. Guerrero, Tam.), joined the insurgent ranks and won important victories in San Antonio Béjar (today San Antony).

Tamaulipas in Mexico of 1824.

On April 17, 1817, Francisco Xavier Mina, a Spanish rebel who arrived in the territory to fight the imperial army of his country, landed on the Tamaulipas coast. In the middle of the century, after the consummation of independence, the struggle between liberals and conservatives and the invasion of the United States greatly affected the region, which acquired a strong sense of autonomy.

After the abuses generated by the presidency of Antonio López de Santa Anna, in 1840 he decided to become independent from Mexico and join the Republic of the Río Grande along with the states of Nuevo León and Coahuila. The fledgling republic was put down by the Mexican army. During the Reform War and the Mexican Revolution, important battles were fought in Tamaulipas territory and at the beginning of the 20th century Emilio Portes Gil, a native of the state, would become interim president of Mexico.

Politics and Government

The State Government is divided into three powers:

Executive Branch

He is represented by the state governor and is elected by vote for a 6-year term with no possibility of re-election.

Governors of Tamaulipas
Period	Governor	Party
1981 - 1987	Emilio Martínez Manatou
1987 - 1993	Américo Villarreal Guerra
1993 - 1999	Manuel Cavazos Lerma
1999 - 2005	Thomas Yarrington
2005 - 2011	Eugenio Hernández Flores
2011 - 2016	Egidio Torre Cantú
2016 - 2022	Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca

Legislative Branch

It is represented by the Tamaulipas State Congress, made up of 36 deputies, of which 22 are directly elected by the citizens in each of the various state electoral districts and 14 are distributed among the various parties that competed in the elections. elections based on the number of votes obtained.

Judicial Branch

Judicial Branch of the State of Tamaulipas

Political division

The state of Tamaulipas is divided into 43 municipalities. The most important cities in the state are Reynosa, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Victoria, Tampico, Altamira and Ciudad Madero.

Geography

The state of Tamaulipas is crossed by the Tropic of Cancer south of the capital, Ciudad Victoria, and the climate varies according to the area; in the south and southeast it is humid, in the highlands and mountains it is dry and in the center and northwest it is semi-warm, with little rain; the average temperature of Matamoros in January (15 °C) and in July (28.5 °C), of Tampico in January (18 °C) and in July (28.5 °C). The average annual precipitation is 891 mm and the average relative humidity is 67.5%.

Its main rivers are the Rio Grande, the Conchas River, the Purificación River, and the Guayalejo River, which flow from west to east and flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Tamaulipas has a total of 16 dams, being the Falcón International Dam the largest in the state in the municipality of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero.

The 43 municipalities are divided into 6 large regions: La Frontera, La Sierra de San Carlos, Los Llanos de San Fernando, La Cuenca Central, Antiguo IV District and La Huasteca Tamaulipeca.

In the southwest of its territory is the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (UNESCO).

In its territory there are four main types of vegetation communities: subdeciduous tropical forest, cloud forest, pine and oak forests, and xeric scrub and chaparral. Due to the variety of its ecosystems, El Cielo presents very diverse flora and fauna species, such as: the black bear, the lynx, the jaguarundi, the ocelot, the green macaw and the collared peccary. It is a resting point for migratory birds and the monarch butterfly during its journey through Mexico (see the image).

Flora and fauna of Tamaulipas
Jaguar	Puma	Ardilla	Red fox	Royal Eagle	Loro tamaulipeco
Tortuga carey	Cayman	Pecarí	White tail veneer	Zarigüeya de Virginia	Green macaw
Arce	Nopal	Erizo cactus	Cardón	Pino	Totora

Economy

The main economic activity is the manufacturing industry and minor activities include the services sector and especially commerce. Through the 15 border crossings between the United States of America and Tamaulipas and its two seaports (Tampico, Altamira), 30 percent of Mexico's international trade moves, which exceeds 280 billion dollars a year in both directions, the largest Import and export activity occurs on the border between Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and Laredo, Texas, where 28 percent of the commercial traffic of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes. The state's economic growth in the third quarter of 2021 was 5.74%, according to the Quarterly Indicator of State Economic Activity based on 2013.

Industry

Services are followed by activity in the manufacturing plant, especially in the Maquiladora Export Industry in the border cities, and petrochemicals in the Industrial Port of Altamira, Ciudad Madero and Tampico. The manufacturing industry in this entity reports 8,143 economic units, among which are: soft drink and purified water bottling plants, automotive electrical system manufacturing industries and other parts thereof; They also appear scattered in neighborhoods and towns: tortillerías and bakeries.

In the state of Tamaulipas, 98,610 economic units operated during 1998 and commercial establishments stand out for their greater number with more than 47,200, most of them carry out their activities in retail trade. Those dedicated to providing private services are 34,727 (35.2%) and of these, restaurants, inns, specialized automotive repair shops and customs agencies stand out.

In Tamaulipas there is agriculture and livestock; where there are more agricultural fields and those of cattle are to the north and center of Tamaulipas.

Agriculture

Agriculture. In the north, sorghum, corn, cotton and wheat are grown. In the center, mainly sorghum, corn, citrus and wheat. And in the south, which is where there is the greatest variety of crops, sorghum, corn, safflower, citrus, sugar cane and cotton.

Livestock

Livestock. Cattle serve several purposes, producing meat and milk and serving as draft animals. An important part of the production of beef is sent to other parts of the Republic and to the United States of America. Pigs, sheep, goats and poultry are also raised, such as chickens, hens and turkeys, as well as bees that produce wax and honey.

Export and investment

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the state of Tamaulipas represented 8% of exports by federal entity at the national level with an increase of 19.4% of the percentage variation compared to the same quarter of 2020, only behind Chihuahua, Coahuila, Baja California, Nuevo Leon.

In the period January to September 2021, the state attracted 1.123 Million dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI), most of the origin of the FDI came from the United States and Spain.

Demographics

Population

According to the data provided by the II Population and Housing Census carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) in 2020, the state of Tamaulipas had up to the year 2020 a total of 3,527,735 inhabitants, of said amount, 1,736,140 were men and 1,791,595 were women. In 2020 in Tamaulipas, 67.9% of the population is Catholic, 17.4% Protestant, Evangelical Christian and in third place are people without religion with 12.4% of the population. population.

Important cities

• Victoria: it is the capital of the state and the headquarters of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the State of Tamaulipas. It is located at the junction of two troncale roads, Monterrey-Tampico and Mexico-Nuevo Laredo (Carretera Federal 85). It also holds a prominent place in the educational field, being the headquarters of the rectory and the main campus of the largest public educational institution of higher level in the entity, the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas. It also has important health care centres, such as the Regional Hospital of High Speciality.
• Reynosa: it is the most populous city in the state and forms the metropolitan area of Reynosa-Río Bravo-McAllen, in addition, it is border with Hidalgo, Mission and Pharr, Texas. It has the largest maquiladora industry plant in northeast Mexico and the third of the entire Mexico-United States border. And it has a Complex Processor of Mexican Petroleum Gas (PEMEX) absorption plant, with capacity for almost 8.5 hm3 (300 million cubic feet) of gas a day.
• Matamoros: it is a border town that forms the metropolitan area of Matamoros-Brownsville, Texas, and in 1955 it was called the “Gran Puerta de México”. Officially, the city has three titles that are: heroic, undefeated and loyal. It has the second most important plant in the maquiladora industry in Tamaulipas. In the south of the municipality is located the Port of Matamoros, whose transformation of port of cabotage to Puerto de Altura, began in 2007.
• New Laredo: it is part of the metropolitan area with Laredo, Texas. Considered the “Customary Capital of Hispanic America”. It is the most important land border in Mexico and in 2009 the foreign trade movement in both ways was estimated at $250 billion^{[chuckles]required]}.
• Tampico: headquarters city cluster the most important port of the state and the Gulf of Mexico, is the part of the most populous metropolitan area of the state of Tamaulipas, in addition to being important commercial, educational, hospital and services center of the Huasteca region.
• Ciudad Madero: is part of the metropolitan area of Tampico, it has the only refinery of the state (Francisco I. Madero) (PEMEX).
• Altamira: it is located in the metropolitan area of Tampico and houses one of the most important industrial ports in Mexico, is the first port at the national level in the management of petrochemical fluids and the fourth in the handling of cargo.
• Mante: is located in the southern part of the state of Tamaulipas. The economy of the municipality revolves around agriculture, livestock, small and medium-sized industry and trade. The sugar industry is one of the main economic activities of the municipality. Mante City remains the main city in the southern part of the state only behind the metropolitan area of Tampico and is also a pillar that drives the development of the nearby municipalities.

Metropolitan areas

The state of Tamaulipas has four metropolitan areas, of which three are bi-national and one is bi-state. The Reynosa-McAllen metropolitan area is made up of said municipalities in the state of Tamaulipas and Hidalgo County in the state of Texas and in 2010 had a total of 1,383,660 inhabitants. The other two binational metropolitan areas are the Heroica Matamoros-Brownsville Metropolitan Area with 895,413 inhabitants and the Nuevo Laredo–Laredo Metropolitan Area with 636,516 inhabitants. The bi-state metropolitan area is the Tampico Metropolitan Area, which is made up of the municipalities of Tampico, Altamira and Madero in the state of Tamaulipas and those of Pueblo Viejo and Pánuco in the state of Veracruz, which together have a total of 859,419 inhabitants.

Most populated cities

Most populated municipalities

The cultural regions of Tamaulipas are traditionally divided into north, center, southwest, and south coast or Huasteca region. In all those regions of Tamaulipas, the Creole and mestizo culture led to various cultural manifestations. In the north there are cultural characteristics similar to those of the entities of the Mexican northeast: the polka, the redova, the chotis, European rhythms that arrived there during the Century XIX and who have taken "naturalization cards" in the region. Currently, the fusion of norteño music with other modern rhythms such as cumbia, banda music, and the post-revolutionary corrido have spread throughout the country, giving rise to what is now known as the “música pillion".

In the center of the state, within the mountain area of San Carlos, the traditional music of the pillory is preserved, accompanied by dances and performed to the sound of the tambora and the clarinet.

In the southwestern region, a semi-desert area where the first missions in the state were established, religious dances "on foot and on horseback" are still preserved, as well as processional dances that entail a complex community organization for their organization.

In the Huasteca region there is the tradition of the huapango, which is generally performed by local troubadours, who usually represent the state in cultural festivals related to that musical genre.

Starting in the year 2000, then-governor Tomás Yarrington instituted several cultural festivals that have been maintained over time and that today have earned a place among the most recognized in the entire country. The most important of them is the Tamaulipas International Festival, which takes place parallel to the Guanajuato International Cervantino Festival, and which takes place according to the traditional October festivities in honor of the creation of the state capital. Within the framework of this festival, every year, in all regions of the state, an extensive program of activities is carried out with hundreds of artistic and cultural events, presenting local, national and international artists, offering opera concerts, classical dance, theater, popular music, exhibitions, among other artistic manifestations.

Another of the cultural traditions of the state is the Conjunto Típico Tamaulipas, which is a group made up of musicians and dancers, who are responsible for keeping the music and dance representative of the entity current. It was founded in 1958 under the then Governor Norberto Treviño Zapata. Today, he is considered the greatest expositor of the customs and traditions of the state of Tamaulipas. The music and dances of each of the regions of the state are executed by professional artists, who bring the joy and traditions that distinguish the people of Tamaulipas to each of the corners of the state and the country.

The state of Tamaulipas has an important cultural infrastructure and is the Mexican state with the highest number of theaters per inhabitant.

In the capital, Ciudad Victoria, highlights include the Tamaulipas Cultural Center, the “Tamux” Natural History Museum (whose name means meeting in “tenek”, the Huastec language), the Tamaulipas Regional History Museum located in the Ex Asylum Vicentino, the House of Art, the Planetarium “Dr. Ramiro Iglesias Leal” and the Roundabout of Illustrious Tamaulipas.

In Tampico, it is essential to mention the Metropolitan Cultural Space, which houses the Museum of Huasteca Culture, the House of Culture and the Maritime Customs building. It is also the provisional headquarters of the prestigious Symphony Orchestra of the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas, one of the finest musical ensembles in the country.

In Matamoros, the Teatro de la Reforma, a centenary cultural venue, the Historic Museum of Fort Casa Mata, the Olympic Cultural Space, the Albertina Gallery, the Tamaulipas Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Juan Siglo XXI Music Conservatory and the Museum of Mexican Agrarianism, on the site where the first agrarian distribution was made by General Lucio Blanco during the time of the Mexican Revolution.

This city is different from the others due to the European and North American influence in terms of physiognomy, since you can notice different features of these cultures, which arrived by maritime means.

Matamoros, is currently one of the cities with the greatest economic, industrial and commercial boom derived from the multiple companies that have settled within this city, in addition to the fact that this city is known as the "Athena Tamaulipeca" due to the various exhibitions of the different artistic aspects that are presented there.

In Nuevo Laredo, the Nuevo Laredo Cultural Center, which houses the "José Reyes Meza" Museum and the Nuevo Laredo Natural History Museum, the Regional Center for the Promotion of Literature, "Gabriel García Márquez" Word Station, are important.

Education

According to the II Population and Housing Census of the year 2020 of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, in Tamaulipas the average level of education of the population aged 15 and over is 10.1 years, which means a little more than the first year of high school. At the national level, the average is 9.7 years of age, completed the equivalent of high school.

In Tamaulipas, 3 out of every 100 people aged 15 and over cannot read and write. The highest percentage of the illiterate population in Tamaulipas is among people aged 75 and over with 16.3%.

The state also has private and public universities, the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas is the highest study house in the state, it maintains 26 campuses in different cities of the state of Tamaulipas, which are located in Ciudad Victoria, Reynosa, Río Bravo, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Tampico, Ciudad Mante and Valle Hermoso. The Autonomous University of the Northeast is a private institution with regional coverage that provides upper secondary and higher education. The Universidad del Noreste is a private Mexican university founded in 1970; It was the first private higher education institution established in the state of Tamaulipas. The Institute of Higher Studies of Tamaulipas, takes part in the actions that the country carries out to improve the quality of life of all Mexicans. Valle Del Bravo University This University, founded in 1976 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas; It was the first private institution of higher education in the State.

Sports

In the state of Tamaulipas there is a wide diversity of sports that are practiced with great relevance.

	Sports	Competitions	Stadium	Creation
UAT corridors	Football	Ascenso MX	Mars Stadium R. Gómez	1980
Tampico Madero Football Club	Football	Second Division of Mexico	Tamaulipas Stadium	1982
UAT Victoria Corridors	Basketball	National League of Professional Basketball of Mexico	Multidisciplinary gym UAT Victoria	2000
Bulls of New Laredo	Basketball	National League of Professional Basketball of Mexico	Dr. Rodolfo Torre Cantú	2007
Hurricanes of Tampico	Basketball	National League of Professional Basketball of Mexico	Expo Tampico	2009
UAT corridors	American College Football	ONEFA
North UAT Corridors	American College Football	ONEFA
Atletico Reynosa	Football	Second Division of Mexico	Reynosa Stadium	2017
Bravos de Nuevo Laredo	Football	Third Division of Mexico	Benito Juárez Sports Unit	2001
Tecolotes of the 2 Laredos	Baseball	Mexican League of Baseball	Estadio Nuevo Laredo	2018

Crafts

The official page of the Government of the State of Tamaulipas in 2014 says that it has important communities that specialize in the manufacture of diverse objects, using different materials such as clay, wood, suede, vegetable fibers and marine elements, among others.. Tamaulipas crafts are nourished by the need and imagination of those who give shape and life to these products, which are acquired for their quality and beauty.

The following are handicrafts made particularly in the Sierras del Suroeste: pottery, wooden barrels, wooden carts for yokes, otate cane basketry, wooden and saddles, saddlery, cutting and making Tamaulipas leather, artisan products with thin and manageable skin, artisan products with drumsticks, ixtle or lechuguilla weaves, maguey weaves, ixtle de sotol weaves, ixtle de somate weaves, rosita weaves, and tule weaves.

Traditional clothing

There is a garment with which the people of Tamaulipas can be distinguished throughout Mexico, the “cuera”. This garment is an item that is used throughout the state as a gala outfit to attend a festive event, such as dancing, playing music or for a parade. He can be seen both in Ocampo and in Tampico, Ciudad Victoria, Matamoros, Reynosa or in Nuevo Laredo; It is, par excellence, the typical Tamaulipan dress.

Ramón Mendoza, an artisan from Tula, tells us about the origin of this unique garment, with leather filigree and beards on the sleeves, chest and back: “Previously it was called cotón; it was a plain, floor-length jacket, exclusively for cowboys. They made it out of deer chamois but they made it for the fields, to protect themselves from the branches, and from there the idea of making one for General Alberto Carrera Torres was born, but with some decorations; At that time they didn't wear the beards we wear now. That first leather was made by my father-in-law's father, Captain Rosalío Reina, who was a fellow revolutionary of the general; My wife says that she did it in the middle of the mountains: where she was, they loaded the machine. The drawings were taken from the wild flowers of the field and from there to here it has been stylized through so much time. I don't have an exact date, it was between 1915 and 1917."

Gastronomy

The gastronomy of this region is rich and varied, in which products such as corn stand out, meats where we must mention the famous kid, dried meat, pork, chicken and venison, and fish and shellfish where the bold, sea bass or red snapper.

Among its typical dishes, it is worth highlighting the kid al pastor, kid in the oven, grilled meat, stuffed gorditas, pork tamales, roast pork, tampiqueña-style roast beef, dried meat with egg, tortas de la barda, migadas, zacahuil. In addition, excellent dishes with fish and shellfish such as ceviche, seafood soups, stuffed crabs, crab salpicón, shrimp prepared in many different ways such as marinated shrimp or shrimp in their juice, in addition to the previously named fish, are prepared. the bold, sea bass and red snapper.

As for the desserts, the pemole stands out, which are cornmeal donuts, gorditas sweetened with piloncillo, sweet potato with pineapple, crystallized fruits and cocada with pineapple and walnuts.

Typical drinks from this region are jobito water, huapilla water and mezcal.

Festivities

Every year, in different municipalities, the ExpoFeria is held, which covers the largest cities in the state during the year.

Also every year, in the month of October, the Tamaulipas International Festival is celebrated, which takes place in all corners of the state, with artists of national and international stature.

In the Port of Tampico, every year it holds its carnival, prior to 40 days before Holy Week and days before Ash Wednesday at Paso Fidel Velázquez (Boulevard Perimetral) next to Laguna del Carpintero. In addition, during the Easter holiday period, the Expo Fair, April Fiestas Tampico, is held on the grounds of the Convention and Exhibition Center and the Metropolitan Cultural Space.

Since 2008, the Tamaulipas State Fair has been held in the state capital, Ciudad Victoria, where each of the 43 municipalities has spaces for participation. This fair offers various exhibition areas that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, which include a circus, dolphinarium, rides, town theater, rodeo, palenque, and many more. All this is done in the so-called "fairground" within the Bicentennial Park.

On October 3, the celebration in honor of San Francisco de Asís is held and large parties are organized in the vast majority of the police stations in the towns of Tamaulipas, giving rise to large quermeses organized by members of groups belonging to the Catholic Church.

Violence

The state of Tamaulipas is one of the states most affected by violence in the country, mainly caused by organized crime. In February 2010, an armed conflict was provoked between the criminal groups known as the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, resulting in numerous border cities becoming "ghost towns", such is the case of the strip known as "La Frontera Chica" made up of the cities of Miguel Alemán, Mier, Camargo and Nueva Ciudad Guerrero.

In November 2010, the Mexican army, together with the Federal Police and the Navy, launched an operation around the north of the state of Tamaulipas, allowing hundreds of families to return to their homes after months of exile in other states, mainly in municipalities such as Mier, where around 4,000 people have returned.

According to INEGI, in 2012 Tamaulipas contained 9 municipalities with a homicide rate of more than 100 per 100,000 inhabitants: Cruillas (106), San Fernando (175), Llera (159), Mier (156), Güémez (141), Hidalgo (135), Nuevo Laredo (134), González (109) and Soto la Marina (100). On the other hand, the municipalities that had the most intentional homicides in 2012 were Nuevo Laredo (536 homicides), Victoria (165) and San Fernando (102).

In 2013, there were 880 homicides in the state, giving a rate of 25 per 100,000 inhabitants. This placed it that year in the 9th position of the federal entities with the most homicides in Mexico. In 2013, Tamaulipas reached the first national place in kidnappings with 275 known cases and ninth place in violent highway robbery (68 cases).

Currently Tamaulipas continues to be affected by violence, this being one of the factors that have greatly hindered the economic and social activity of the state. In 2014, it was estimated that the losses due to violence for each company in Tamaulipas reached an average of 95,000 pesos per year (fourth highest in the country). This placed it above the national average in terms of cost of crime for each company (13,600 pesos against the national average of 12,800).

Featured Characters

Geographic location

Northwest: Texas	North: Texas	Northeast: Gulf of Mexico
West: Nuevo León		This: Gulf of Mexico
Southwest: San Luis Potosí	South: San Luis Potosí Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave	Sureste: Gulf of Mexico