Tehuantepec, Isthmus of

Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 137 miles wide, is located between the Bay of Campeche on the north and the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the south. Described by Miguel Covarrubias as "a bottleneck of jungle and brush," the isthmus is the natural frontier between North and Central America. Its territory is shared almost equally by the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, and it separates the southern states of Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas from the rest of Mexico. Its geography is extremely diverse, ranging from the isolated Chimalapa Mountains to the fertile plains and tropical grasslands on the Gulf coast, and to the arid Pacific lowlands. Its indigenous inhabitants (Nahuas, Popolocas, Mixes, Zoques, Huaves, Chontales, and both valley and isthmus Zapotecs) have maintained a diverse linguistic and cultural heritage despite numerous conquests, colonizations, and intrusions from pre-Columbian to modern times. Despite that diversity, however, the region is known for its matriarchal society and distinctive female costumes and hairstyles, often worn and depicted by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

The geography and strategic location of the isthmus made it the favored site of numerous international schemes to construct interoceanic communication between the Gulf and the Pacific. Hernán Cortés first referred to that possibility in his fourth letter to King Charles V, and the first detailed survey was performed in 1771. Between 1842 and 1894 more than nine different foreign promoters were granted concessions and generous subsidies to complete the route, all of which failed.

President Porfirio Díaz inaugurated the Tehuantepec Railroad and the modern port facilities at Coatzcoalcos and Salina Cruz in 1907. The railway was immensely profitable until 1914, when the combination of the Mexican Revolution, World War I, and the inauguration of the Panama Canal severely limited its usefulness. In recent decades, the Mexican government has invested substantially in local infrastructure to support the petroleum and tourism industries, but the area remains underdeveloped.

See alsoKahlo, Frida .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles Étienne Brasseur De Bourbourg, Voyage sur l'Isthme de Tehuantepec, dans l'état de Chiapas et de la République de Guatemala (1861), translated into Spanish by Elisa Ramírez Castañeda as Viaje al istmo de Tehuantepec (1981).

Miguel Covarrubias, Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec (1946).

Edward B. Glick, "The Tehuantepec Railroad: Mexico's White Elephant," in Pacific Historical Review 22 (1953): 373-382.

Additional Bibliography

Mecott Francisco, Mario. Tehuantepec insurgente. Oaxaca: Instituto Oaxaqueño de las Culturas: CONACULTA: H. Ayuntamiento de Tehuantepec, 2002.

Miano Borruso, Marinella. Hombre, mujer, y muxé en el Istmo de Tehuantepec. México, D.F.: Plaza y Valdés: CONACULTA, INAH, 2002.

Schade, Robert C. Mexico's Tehuantepec Canal Controversy: A Lesson in American Diplomacy. Méxicali: J. Issachtts Corrales, 1999.

Zeitlin, Judith Francis. Cultural Politics in Colonial Tehuantepec: Community and State among the Isthmus Zapotec, 1500–1750. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005.

                                        Paul Garner