Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano) is both a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

and

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

located in the Mexican state of

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

. The population of the city was 78,523 and of the municipality was 134,394 inhabitants, according to the INEGI census of 2005, residing in a total area of . The municipality includes many smaller outlying communities, the largest of which are Alto Lucero and Santiago de la Peña. A local beachside community is also nearby.

Overview

Tuxpan or Túxpam, pronounced in Nahuatl, the language of the ancient

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

s, literally means "Place of Rabbits", a compound of ''tochtli'' "rabbit" and ''-pan'' "place". La asunción

The city is located on the banks of the Tuxpan River, which reaches the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

downstream . Being the nearest port to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, Tuxpan is an important commercial link for Mexican imports and

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

s. Tuxpan is now primarily a grain port, with emphasis on soybeans and

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

. Off-shore links to oil pipelines are used to transfer petroleum products to and from tanker ships operated by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company. As part of the Pemex operations and infrastructure in the city, a facility on the river manufactures and maintains oil rigs for use in the Gulf of Mexico. Calle Tuxpan

In the 1870s, a small colony of some hundreds of former Confederate (Southern U.S.) officers, soldiers and diplomats was established.

Climate

Tuxpan experiences a

tropical climate Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...

with warm winters and hot summers.

Transport

Port of Tuxpan

Sometimes referred to as the "Puerto de Tuxpan", the port is able to handle

supertanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined ...

-sized cargo ships. Due to increasing

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

shipping traffic in the city of

, Tuxpan is now the headquarters for the

Mexican Navy The Mexican Navy is one of the two independent armed forces of Mexico. The actual naval forces are called the ''Armada de México''. The ''Secretaría de Marina'' (''SEMAR'') (English: Naval Secretariat) includes both the ''Armada'' itself and ...

's Gulf fleet. As such, it is the home port for several warships including three frigates named , and . These ships were originally s built in the 1960s. They were purchased from the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in the mid to late 1990s after their decommissioning. Tuxpan was also the port of departure for the yacht ''Granma'' that was used to transport Fidel Castro, his brother

Raúl Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph. They are cognates of the French Raoul. Raul, Raúl or Raül may re ...

, Che Guevara and other fighters of the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...

from Mexico to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

in 1956 for the purpose of overthrowing the regime of

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

. A small museum near the river has photographs and other related memorabilia.

Education

Facultad de Ciencias Biologicas y Agropecuarias

Universidad Veracruzana Universidad Veracruzana (Spanish for ''University of Veracruz'') is a public autonomous university located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Established in 1944, the university is one of the most important in the southeast region of México. Its ...

maintains two campus in the city. The first, the Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias was opened in 1975 and offers careers related to the fields of Biology, Veterinary and Agriculture. The second one, the Contaduría Faculty offers careers related to administration and was opened in 1990.

Twin towns

Niquero Niquero is a municipality and town in the Granma Province of Cuba. It is located in the coastal region of the province, bordering the Gulf of Guacanayabo. Cape Cruz (''Cabo Cruz''), the westernmost point of the province is located in this munici ...

( Granma,

)

References

Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
Veracruz
Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México

Notes

External links

Tuxpan municipal governmentDIF Tuxpan
*
Municipal Official InformationEnciclopedia de los Municipios de Mexico
{{Authority control Populated places in Veracruz