Tuxtla Gutiérrez

The Zoque were the first to settle the valley, which they called Coyatoc, "land or house of rabbits"; the Aztecs, who pushed into the area between 1486 and 1505, translated the name as Tuchtlan. After the Spanish subdued the Chiapa people in 1528, Dominican friars gathered the scattered Zoque into church-centred villages, founding a church of San Marcos for one of them in 1560. The town has no official founding date. San Marcos Tuxtla is first recorded in 1748, and in 1813 the Spanish king recognised it as a villa of about 5,000 people, three-quarters of them Zoque.

Tuxtla declared independence in 1821 and, with the rest of Chiapas, joined Mexico by popular vote on 14 September 1824. In 1848 it took the name Tuxtla Gutiérrez in honour of Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez, a governor who had championed annexation to Mexico. Through the 19th century the state government moved back and forth between Liberal Tuxtla and Conservative San Cristóbal, and on 11 August 1892 Tuxtla became the capital for good. During the Revolution, landholders opposed to land redistribution burned the state government building and its archives in 1915.

The diocese of Tuxtla was created in 1965, raising San Marcos to a cathedral, and it became an archdiocese in 2010. From the 1970s the city grew faster than almost anywhere in Mexico, absorbing the neighbouring municipality of Terán in 1973. The Zapatista uprising touched it too: as many as 10,000 sympathisers marched here in 1998 to press for the San Andrés Accords, and unrest in the countryside brought many Indigenous families to the city.

Tuxtla is a mestizo city with a significant Zoque population, and its biggest traditions are Zoque. Each January the statues of the Virgin are carried down from the church at Copoya to spend two months in the valley before returning, and the city's other feasts — San Roque, San Jacinto, San Pascualito, San Francisco, Santo Domingo and the Virgin of Guadalupe — keep the old barrios' calendars. The Feria de San Marcos fills the centre each April with offerings and castillos, while the Feria Chiapas, first held in 1980, brings bullfights, horse races and exhibitions of the state's produce.

Music means the marimba. Bands play every evening in the Parque de la Marimba, opened in 1993, where older couples come to dance, and there is a museum devoted to the instrument beside it. The cathedral's tower has its own performance: 48 bells ring out each hour as figures of the Apostles process around it.

The city is also a starting point for sport: the Carrera Panamericana road race begins here, and the city was home to the Jaguares football club until the franchise dissolved. The city is not a major tourist attraction, and many travellers simply pass through its airport and bus station.

About 579,000 people lived in the city at the 2020 census, and some 848,000 in the metropolitan area that joins it to Chiapa de Corzo. The population is young and has grown quickly for five decades, with migrants arriving from rural Chiapas and from Veracruz, the State of Mexico and Mexico City. Rural migration since the 1990s has added Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Zapotec and Ch'ol speakers to the native Zoque.

Government at every level has been a main employer since the 1970s, and more than three-quarters of working people are in commerce and services. The municipality is the only one in Chiapas with a very low rate of economic marginalisation, but rapid growth has left services behind in many low-income areas, which make up about 40 per cent of the city, and thousands of illegal connections drain the water system.

The wealthier districts and shopping centres are mostly on the west side, downtown is mainly for business, and the poorest areas spread across the north and east. Daily life is shaped by the heat: most homes and offices use fans rather than air-conditioning, and many businesses close from early afternoon until about 5 pm. The polluted Sabinal river and pressure on the green reserves around the city are long-running concerns.

Tuxtla's cooking reflects the rest of the state, with a few dishes of its own. Pictes are sweet corn tamales; chispota is beef with chickpeas and cabbage; niguijuti is pork in mole; cochito is pork in an adobo sauce; and chanfaina is lamb offal cooked with rice. Sopa de pan, bread with broth and vegetables, is another local dish.

Grilled meat is a local passion: carnes parrilladas are platters of mixed grilled meats, and carne molida tártara is spicy ground meat "cooked" in lime juice with onion, tomato and coriander, usually eaten on tostadas. In the rainy season people collect nucú, an edible ant that comes out at night, rich in protein.

Local drinks include pozol, a maize and cacao drink typical of Chiapas, taxcalate, agua de chía, tashiagual and pinole. Coffee from the state's highlands is served across the city, and the coffee museum offers tastings. The Mercado de los Ancianos and the stalls around the central square are the places for everyday food.