Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas is a state in the northeast of Mexico. Tamaulipas borders on the Mexican states of Veracruz to the south, San Luis Potosí to the southwest, and Nuevo León to the west. To the east Tamaulipas fronts the Gulf of Mexico; to the north Tamaulipas borders Texas, USA. According to the 2000 census, Tamaulipas had a population of some 2,750,000 people.

The capital of Tamaulipas is Cd. Victoria. Also in Tamaulipas are the cities of Altamira, Cd. Madero, Cd. Mante, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Tampico.

Then name of the state is derived from Tamaholipa which is a Huastec term, where the tam- prefix signifies "place where". As yet, there is no scholarly agreement on the meaning of holipa, but "high hills" is a common interpretation (however, a native population of Tamaulipas, now extinct, was referred to as the "Olives" during the early colonial period, which is a likely Spanish transformation on holipa).

The first permanent Spanish settlement in the area was Tampico in 1554. What is now Tamaulipas was first incorporated as a separate province of New Spain in 1746 with the name Nuevo Santander.

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