Geo-Mexico, the geography of Mexico

This Chiapas map and index page lists the most interesting posts on Geo-Mexico related to the southern state of Chiapas, and also links to a selection of articles about agriculture and poverty that place Chiapas in the national context.

Geological background

• The eruption of El Chichón volcano in 1982

Indigenous communities:

About 20% of the 4.8 million people living in Chiapas belong to one or other of the state’s numerous indigenous groups. Development and cultural issues relating to indigenous communities in Chiapas are many and varied as can be seen in the following articles:

• Organic farming helps the Mam of Chiapas regain their cultural identity (Apr 2010)
• Resistance to government-sponsored change in Chiapas, Mexico (Oct 2010)
• Chiapas: carbon capture program or indigenous people? (Aug 2011)
• Video documentation of the Lacondon Indians in Chiapas (Jan 2015)
• Musical instruments in Mexico: indigenous and introduced (Marimba in Chiapas) (Oct 2014)

Tourism:

Chiapas has huge tourism potential, apart from the Mayan site of Palenque, the state capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and the beautiful colonial city of San Cristóbal de las Casas (the former capital).

Mexico’s list of Magic Towns has long included the San Cristóbal de las Casas, but now boasts two more recent additions in Chiapas:

• Chiapa de Corzo,
• Comitán de Domínguez

Chiapas is also the site for a (proposed) different type of tourist development:

• Will the southern state of Chiapas become a haven for ecotourism based on mangrove swamps? (Oct 2014)

Agriculture in Chiapas:

Posts which refer to Chiapas in the context of national data on agricultural production include:

• The geography of banana production in Mexico (Mar 2014)
• The geography of cacao production in Mexico (Feb 2014)
• Mexico’s Fair Trade coffee faces an uncertain future (Aug 2011)
• The pros and cons of floriculture in Mexico (Mar 2012)
• The geography of honey production in Mexico (Oct 2011)
• The geography of Mexico’s sugarcane industry (Sep 2011)

Poverty and inequality in Chiapas

Chiapas is recognized as one of the poorest states in Mexico: Articles containing recent data on this topic:

• The pattern of severe poverty within Mexico (Jul 2014)
• Is there a connection between farm size and marginalization? (Mar 2014)
• Poverty on the rise in some states in Mexico…but stable in Chiapas see map (Jan 2014)
• An update on the Human Development Index in Mexico (Mar 2015)

Other topics:

• 6.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Chiapas and Guatemala (7 July 2014) (Jul 2014)
• Four new municipalities change the map of Chiapas (Jan 2012)
• Uninhabited new houses in Mexico in Santiago el Pinar (Apr 2013)