Табаско: География, экономика и культура штата Мексики

State of Mexico
the Mexican state

Tabasco (taˈβasko), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco (lang es), is one of the 32 Federal Entities of the United Mexican States. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It is located in southeast Mexico and is bordered by the states of Campeche to the northeast, Veracruz to the west, and Chiapas to the south and the Petén department of Guatemala to the southeast. It has a coastline to the north with the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the state is covered in rainforest as, unlike most other areas of Mexico, it has plentiful rainfall year round. The state is also home to La Venta, the major site of the Olmec civilization, considered to be the origin of later Mesoamerican cultures. It produces significant quantities of petroleum and natural gas.

The state is located in the southeast of Mexico, bordering the states of Campeche, Chiapas, and Veracruz, with the Gulf of Mexico to the north and the country of Guatemala to the south and east. The state covers , which is 1.3 percent of Mexico's total. The northwestern portion is on the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico with the south and east as part of the mountain chain that extends into northern Chiapas. It is divided into seventeen municipalities. There are 36 communities designated as urban, with about 3,000 smaller towns and villages. 185 are classified as "regional development centers". Tabasco has seventeen municipalities: Balancán, Cárdenas, Centla, Centro (Villahermosa), Comalcalco, Cunduacán, Emiliano Zapata, Huimanguillo, Jalapa, Jalpa de Méndez, Jonuta, Macuspana, Nacajuca, Paraíso, Tacotalpa, Teapa and Tenosique. In 1994, the state was officially divided into two regions and five sub regions for socioeconomic development and geographic documentation. The two major regions are called the Grijalva and the Usumacinta. The Grijalva Region is named after the river on which most of the municipalities here are dependent. It is the smaller of the two regions with a territory of or 48.94 percent of the state's territory; however, it contains most of Tabasco's urban population as well as of its socioeconomic and political activity. It is divided into three sub regions called Chontalpa, Centro and Sierra; it includes the municipalities of Huimanguillo, Cárdenas, Comalcalco, Cunduacán, Paraíso, Jalpa de Méndez, Nacajuca, Centro, Jalapa, Teapa and Tacotalpa. The Usumacinta Region is named after the main river on which the Centla, Jonuta, Emiliano Zapata, Balancán and Tenosique municipalities depend. It is divided into the Pantanos and Ríos subregions, which are both more rural than the Grijalva Region. The environment of the state consists of extensive low lying floodplains, mountains and valleys. Most of the territory is covered with tropical rainforest and wetlands. There are also areas with savanna, beaches and mangrove forests. Much of the rainforest has suffered degradation due to over logging and conversion of territory into farmland. The east is formed of low humid plains formed by sediment deposited by a number of rivers. In the Chontalpa zone and in parts of the municipalities of Centla and Jonuta, there are swampy depressions extremely vulnerable to flooding from both riverflow and from excessive rainfall. Flooding is a frequent occurrence, especially in September and November. The state has of state protected lands such as the Agua Blanca waterfalls and the Sierra State Park in Teapa. The Grutas de Coconá caves are classified as a natural monument with The Centla Biosphere Reserve covers an area of The Yumká Park and Laguna de las Ilusiones Ecological Reserves have The Laguna de la Lima Reserve has The Chontalpa Ecological Park has The Laguna del Camarón Ecological Park has
The Olmec civilization dominated much of what is now Tabasco 3,000 years ago, reaching a height around 800 BC. It was the oldest Mesoamerican culture, dominating what are now the states of Mexico, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Tabasco as well as parts of Central America, and is considered the founding culture for all of Mesoamerica. The main Olmec site in Tabasco is La Venta. The site covers an area of surrounded by swamps and marshes linked to the Tonalá River, from the Gulf of Mexico. Around 300 AD, the Mayans began to dominate part of the state. Mayan sites include Comalcalco, Pomoná, El Tortuguero and Jonuta (Prehispanic). The Mayans in Tabasco reached their peak between the 6th and 7th centuries.

The state's population growth has put pressure on the educational system with about forty percent of its population school age. The average schooling in Tabasco has climbed from 2.7 years in 1970 to 6.7 years in 1995. In the same time period, the level percentage of the population which was illiterate fell from 25.7% to 11%. Today, the average schooling is 8.6 years or the third year of middle school, which is the national average. The state has sixteen major institutes of higher education, with four universities, three technological colleges, seven teachers’ colleges an "instituto de estudios superiors" and one post graduate college. These include the Escuela Normal Urbana de Balancán, Escuela Normal Justo Sierra Méndez, Escuela Normal Graciela Pintado de Madrazo, Escuela Normal Pablo García Avalos, Colegio Rosario María Gutiérrez Eskildsen, Colegio Monte Cristo, Centro de Estudios Culturales, Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, Universidad Olmeca, Institutio Tecnológico de Villahermosa, Instituto Tecnológico Agropecuario Num.28, Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Comalcalco, Centro de Estudios Universitarios de Villahermosa, Instituto de Educación Superior Alfa y Omega, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional and the Colegio de Posgraduados en Ciencias Agrícolas.

The state has thirty three radio stations and thirteen television stations, nine of which are repeaters for programs from Mexico City. The two local stations are Televisión de Tabasco and Canal 9.

The state has of federal, state and rural roads. The most important highways in the state are the Coatzacoalcos Villahermosa, Tuxtla Gutiérrez Villahermosa, Escárcega Villahermosa and Cd. Del Carmen Frontera Villahermosa. There are also of rail line which transports 523,468 tons of cargo per year as well as passengers. The C. P. A. Carlos Rovirosa International Airport is located just outside Villahermosa. It offers service to various cities in Mexico along with Habana, Cuba and Houston, Texas.