Villahermosa

Spanish settlers fleeing pirate attacks on the coastal town of Santa María de la Victoria moved up the Grijalva in 1557 to a place called Tres Lomas, and on 24 June 1564 Diego de Quijada founded the town officially. In 1598 King Philip II granted it the title of Villa Hermosa de San Juan Bautista and a royal coat of arms, still the shield of Tabasco. It first became the provincial capital in 1641, but pirates kept attacking: in 1677 they drove the authorities out, and in 1711 English raiders burned the royal warehouse. Only after 1785, when Tabasco militias finally expelled them, did the town settle, and it became the capital again in 1795. Its oldest quarter grew around the hill of Esquipulas and its black Christ.

The 19th century brought war after war. Cholera killed about 2,500 people in 1833–34, civil conflicts between 1833 and 1841 left the city heavily damaged, and in 1846 and 1847 US naval forces under Matthew Perry bombarded and occupied it, until local guerrillas forced them out. French troops took it in 1863 and were driven out in 1864 after weeks of fighting.

During the Revolution the city changed hands several times, and in 1916 its name was fixed as Villahermosa. Under Governor Tomás Garrido Canabal from 1928, churches were closed and later demolished, and religious life almost disappeared for years. From the 1940s the city spread onto former farmland, grassland and forest, and with oil from the 1970s it was remade: the Tabasco 2000 district rose in the west, and the city grew over lagoons and swamps. In October 2007 Villahermosa suffered the worst flood in its recorded history, which displaced several hundred thousand people.

The poet Carlos Pellicer Cámara is Villahermosa's great cultural figure. He campaigned from 1951 to move the Olmec monuments of La Venta, threatened by oil works nearby, to Villahermosa and to set them in a forest park by the Laguna de las Ilusiones arranged as they had been found. The city's anthropology museum and the house where he lived carry his name, and each February an Ibero-American poetry gathering in his honour brings writers from several countries. The Esperanza Iris theatre is the state's most important stage, and the José María Pino Suárez library is considered one of the most important in Mexico.

The year's great event is the Feria Tabasco, among the most important fairs in the country, held at the large Parque Tabasco fairground since 1998. Carnival brings costumed troupes and floats from the Malecón through the city, with groups from neighbouring states. Baseball is followed closely: the Olmecas de Tabasco, Mexican League champions in 1993, play at the Estadio Centenario.

Religious life took a long time to recover from the Garrido years. Most people are Catholic, around a quarter Protestant, and the Cathedral of the Lord of Tabasco, finished in 1970, stands where the old church of the black Christ of Esquipulas once did.

In the 2020 census the city of Villahermosa had about 340,000 people and its metropolitan area about 834,000. The municipality, called Centro, takes in the city, several villas and dozens of rural communities.

Oil and gas dominate. The city is the hub of operations in southern Mexico, the "Energy City of Mexico", with the regional operations centre of the state oil company Pemex, and it hosts major petroleum conferences. Commerce follows: large national chains and malls such as Galerías Tabasco serve the whole region, and the city is one of the main commercial points between Mexico City and Cancún. Cacao, sugar cane and bananas are grown in the surrounding countryside.

Life is shaped by heat and water. Days start early and slow at midday, and evenings bring families to the Malecón, the lagoon parks and air-conditioned malls. The floods of 2007 left a deep mark: building on low and flood-prone land is now restricted, which has pushed new housing developments to the outskirts. The fortunes of the oil industry remain the other constant concern.

Tabasco's cooking draws on Maya and Chontal traditions and on its rivers. Pejelagarto, the armoured tropical gar, is the emblem: grilled over charcoal or wood and served with amashito chilli, salt and lime, or shredded into empanadas and tamales. Shrimp-filled empanadas, river fish and seafood fill the menus, and turtle in blood with green plantain was long a traditional dish. Local seasonings include achiote, chipilín and banana leaves.

Tamales come in many forms: manea with pork or chicken, colado with turkey or pork, and bean tamales with pork or with momo, the local name for hoja santa. Corn and beans are the base of most meals.

Cacao has been grown in Tabasco since before the Spanish arrived, and chocolate is still drunk in preparations that have changed little since then. The everyday drink is pozol, a mix of ground maize and cacao, drunk through the working day. Horchata and other aguas frescas are sold everywhere against the heat, and the cacao farms around Comalcalco show how the bean becomes chocolate.