Ciudad del Carmen is a city in the southwest of the Mexican state of Campeche. Ciudad del Carmen is located at on the southwest of Carmen Island, which stands in the Laguna de Términos on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. , Ciudad del Carmen had a population of 169,466, up from the 2005 census of 154,197. In July 2006, Ciudad del Carmen celebrated its 150th anniversary as a city.
The city is nicknamed "The Pearl of the Gulf". Ciudad del Carmen was a small city mostly devoted to fishing until the 1970s when oil was discovered in the region; since then it has grown and developed substantially. To this day Carmen is known as one of the best locations to find seafood in Mexico. As late as the early 1980s the city could long be reached only by ferry boats called "pangas" or small motorboats ("lanchas") operating between Ciudad del Carmen and Zacatal; this changed with the construction of a causeway bridge to the mainland in the 1980s (eastbound) and another one in 1994 (westbound). The construction of the first bridge was motivated by the sinking of one of the island's pangas which resulted in the death of nearly everyone on board. The bridge Puente El Zacatal, constructed in 1994, is one of the longest in Latin America.
This border area at the western edge of the Yucatán Peninsula was previously part of the state of Yucatán, then of Tabasco; since 1863 it has been part of the state of Campeche. In 1840 the city had a population of about 7,000.
The city is also the seat of the state of Campeche's Carmen municipality, which includes the city and the surrounding area. The 2010 census population of the municipality of Carmen was 221,094 people, second only to the capital municipality of Campeche.
The main university in Ciudad del Carmen is the Universidad Autónoma del Carmen (UNACAR).
Nomenclature
Toponymy
The city takes its name from July 16 of 1717, Virgen del Carmen day, when pirates were defeated and expelled from the island by Alonso Felipe de Andrade in the fort of San Felipe.
Shield
The Carmen shield is an oval limited by a gray periphery that has the name of the city and the state to which it belongs. In the center of the oval is the Laguna de Términos and on it the Isla del Carmen.
The lion symbolizes the European siege of Mexico during Spanish rule and French intervention, it is on the island and an eagle wounds it with its beak and claws. The eagle symbolizes the Carmelite people, preventing a foreign country from intervening in its territory and the nation.
The original shield of Ciudad del Carmen has the legend "The lagoon by Yucatán and both by the Mexican Republic". At the beginning of the 19th century, During the first years of Mexico as an independent country, the Carmen region was known as La Laguna and until the first years of the 20th century it was called that. The reason for the motto is that when it was created in 1828 the current state of Campeche had not yet been separated from Yucatán. It should be remembered that the island was part of the Captaincy General of Yucatán during the Spanish domination and in 1828 the Mexican nation was in formation after the territories that formed it gained their independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821.
History
Founded in the pre-Hispanic era, Ciudad del Carmen was known as Xicalango and served as a city state and port, and as an important connection between the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Between the 16th and 18th centuries when the city of Campeche was a trade hub between Spain and New Spain (Mexico), Ciudad del Carmen was inhabited by pirates and served as a port for repairing ships and planning attacks against the Spanish. A 1699 map of the Bay of Campeche indicates Isla del Carmen as two islands: Triest I and Port Royal I. On the opposite side of the lagoon there is a waterway marked as Logwood Creek; this indicates that the residents were probably English and logging was another of their activities.
The city got its current name on July 16, 1717, in honor of the Virgin of Carmen, believed to be the protector of the island, when the Spanish forces, commanded by Alonso Felipe de Andrade evicted the pirates from the island and took control the city after a long period of occupation. Since then, every year at the end of July, Ciudad del Carmen turns into the very center of the regional social, cultural and religious festivities, on the fair that celebrates the island's protector virgin.