Tabasco

oil refinery in Tabasco, Mexico

map showing Tabasco, Mexico

Tabasco, estado (state), southeastern Mexico. It is bounded by the Gulf of Mexico to the north, by the state of Campeche to the east, by Guatemala to the southeast, and by the states of Chiapas to the south and Veracruz to the west. Its capital city is Villahermosa.

Grijalva River

Except for some higher areas in the south, the relief is generally low and flat, and the land is largely covered with lakes, lagoons, and wetlands, including those in the extensive Centla Wetlands Biosphere Reserve in the northeast. The state is drained by the Grijalva (also known as the Tabasco) and Usumacinta rivers, which, with their tributaries, deposit fertile soils in floodplains and act as major avenues of transportation.

Olmec colossal basalt head

Comalcalco, Mexico: Mayan brick pyramid

Pre-Hispanic Indian cultures included those of the Chontal, Maya, Olmec, and Nahua—many descendants of whom still inhabit the state. In 1518 the Spanish explorer Juan de Grijalba visited the area, and the following year the conquistador Hernán Cortés clashed with the Indians, who were partly subdued by Francisco de Montejo in the 1530s and ’40s.

Nearly half the population lives in rural areas, where the chief crops are cacao, copra (from coconuts), corn (maize), sugarcane, and tropical fruits (notably papayas and bananas). Forestry (especially mahogany and red cedar), beekeeping, fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, and cattle raising are also important. Petroleum, which is extracted from several fields and refined locally, is a major source of employment and income in the state. The tabasco pepper (Capsicum frutescens, variety tabasco), a small hot red chili grown along the Gulf of Mexico and named for the Mexican state, became the basis of the world famous condiment known as Tabasco sauce. 

Tabasco became a state in 1824. Its government is headed by a governor, who is elected to a single six-year term. Members of the unicameral legislature, the State Congress, are elected to three-year terms. Tabasco is divided into local governmental units called municipios (municipalities), each of which is headquartered in a prominent city, town, or village. The state’s educational institutions include the Juárez Autonomous University of Tabasco (founded 1958, in Villahermosa) and the People’s University of Chontalpa (1998, in Cárdenas). Villahermosa is linked by highway with Cárdenas, Paraíso, and cities in neighbouring states. The principal port is Frontera. Area 9,756 square miles (25,267 square km). Pop. (2020) 2,402,598.