Aldama is a

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

of the northeastern

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

. According to the census of 2010, the municipality had an area of and a population of 29,470, including the town of Aldama with a population of 13,661.

History

The region of Aldama prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in the early 16th century was the northern outpost of the Huastec culture, a maize growing culture remotely related to the

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

. The first European to traverse the region was

Francisco de Garay Francisco de Garay (1475 in Sopuerta, Biscay – 1523) was a Spanish Basque people, Basque conquistador. Early life Garay was born in the Garay tower in Sopuerta, in the county of Encartaciones located in the province of Biscay. He was a companio ...

in 1523. Maize cultivation reached approximately to the

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, also known as the Northern Tropic, is the Earth's northernmost circle of latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ...

beyond which lived the hunter-gathering

Coahuiltecan people The Coahuiltecan were various small, autonomous bands of Native Americans who inhabited the Rio Grande valley in what is now northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter gatherers. First encountered by the ...

. Spanish settlement of Aldama began in 1785 when arrival of 76 families comprising 293 persons from the Mexican state later known as

Guerrero Guerrero, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guerrero, is one of the 32 states that compose the administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guerrero, 85 municipalities. The stat ...

. A

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

mission called San Vicente del Platanal was established to convert the local Indian people, wean them away from their semi-nomadic livestyle, and concentrate them into settlements. Aldama was founded on April 15, 1790, under the name of ''Villa de la Divina Pastora de las Presas del Rey''. In 1828, the municipality was renamed Aldama in honor of Ignacio Aldama, a hero of the

Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence (, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. It was not a single, coherent event, but local and regional ...

Geography

Aldama is bordered by the municipalities of Soto La Marina to the north, Altamira to the south, Casas and González to the west, and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

to the east. The northwestern corner of Aldama is at the southern extremity of the mountain range known as the

Sierra de Tamaulipas The Sierra de Tamaulipas is an isolated, semi-tropical mountain range in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Its highest point is . There are no cities or towns in the Sierra and the small population is largely agricultural. The higher elevations o ...

. The primary natural vegetation found in Aldama is tropical thorn forest (

Tamaulipan matorral The Tamaulipan matorral is an ecoregion in the deserts and xeric shrublands biome on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental range in northeastern Mexico. It is a transitional ecoregion between the Tamaulipan mezquital and the Sierra Ma ...

). At higher elevations with higher rainfall and lower temperatures, are three major vegetation types. Tropical deciduous forest is found at elevations of . The average height of this closed-canopy forest is about . Montane scrub is found in dry areas between elevation. This vegetation type consists of low thickets and

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

. Huisache is a common shrub. Pine-oak forests are found in a small area at an elevation greater than . Mexico Cenotes

Near the town of Aldama is a limestone

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

area in which many caves and

cenote A cenote ( or ; ) is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting when a collapse of limestone bedrock exposes groundwater. The term originated on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where the ancient Maya commonly used cenotes for water supplies, and ...

s (water-filled sinkholes) are found, including Zacatón which is the deepest sinkhole in the world with a depth of .http://www.ri.cmu.edu/publication_view.html?pub_id=6144; "Cenotes de Aldama: RTP-94" http://www.conabio.gob.mx/conocimiento/regionalizacion/doctos/rtp_094.pdf, accessed 26 Feb 2013 In 1994, cave-diving pioneer Sheck Exley died attempting to dive to the bottom of Zacatón.

Climate

Freezes are rare in Aldama with an all-time low temperature of

Aldama's climate borders on three different Koppen climatic classifications:: Tropical savanna (Aw), Steppe (BS), and Humid subtropical (Cwa). The higher elevations of the municipality are slightly cooler and wetter.

Hydrography

There are 3 important rivers in Aldama: the Tigre river, the Barbarena river and the Carrizal river.

Economy

Cattle are by far the most important agricultural product of the municipality. The most valuable crops grown are

chili pepper Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified ...

tomatoes The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from and was d ...

, and

soybeans The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed. Soy is a key source of f ...

. Fishing is important as a source of income and food. Among the products are

oysters Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of Seawater, salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in Marine (ocean), marine or Brackish water, brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly Calcification, calcified, a ...

huachinango The northern red snapper (''Lutjanus campechanus'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a snapper belonging to the family Lutjanidae. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico, where it inhabits e ...

(red snapper), snook,

tarpon Tarpon are fish of the genus ''Megalops''. They are the only members of the family Megalopidae. Of the two species, one (''M. atlanticus'') is native to the Atlantic, and the other (''M. cyprinoides'') to the Indo-Pacific Oceans. Species and ...

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically mos ...

, and

sea trout Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are bull trout, sewin (Wales ...

Tourism

The municipality has several natural attractions. There are pristine and undeveloped beaches among them: Barra del Tordo, Morón, and Rancho Nuevo. They are very popular among bass fishing aficionados and winter Texans. They are easily reached from

Tampico Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fif ...

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

, or Brownsville, TX. Cenotes attract sight-seers and cave divers.

External links

NASA exploration of Cenote Zacatón
– world's 2nd deepest known sinkhole

References

{{Tamaulipas Municipalities of Tamaulipas