Sánchez Magallanes
Sánchez Magallanes is a small fishing town and port located in the far northwest of the state of Tabasco, Mexico in the municipality of Cárdenas.
[3] The patron saint is honored from the 24th to 26 July with religious activities as well as sporting and cultural events, a beauty pageant and exhibition of regional products.
[2] The town has a Virgin Mary statue called “Madre Patria” (Mother of Country) because at her feet is a serpent being devoured, similar to that of the national seal.
The sculpture is made of black volcanic stone and part of a series of seven Virgin Mary statues that define the “Chinandega Route” from Tenosique to Sánchez Magallanes.
According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Juan de Grijalva,[6]: 35 and Hernán Cortés passed an indigenous settlement here, then called Ayagualulco or Agualulco.
The current name was declared in 1909 by state Governor Abraham Bandala in honor of Coronel Andrés Sánchez Magallanes, who fought against the French in the 19th century.
[4] Sánchez Magallanes is located on a small peninsula which has the Gulf of Mexico on its north side and the Del Carmen Lagoon to its south.
The area’s climate is heavily affected by cold fronts from the north in the winter, which push temperatures down, bringing rain and wind that can be strong.
[9] A study in 1998 by the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco stated that economic activities such as farming and grazing, construction and lack of planning had produced grave environmental damage in the coastal areas of Sánchez Magallanes.
[8][11] Waves during storms now can reach the inland lagoons and causing higher salinity in the ground and water, killing plant and animal species.
[11] In 2010, the area’s beaches were closed by the state Secretary of Tourism before the Holy Week vacation period because of severe erosion.
The Sociedades Cooperativas Acuícolas del Golfo states that fishing yields have dropped from 500 tons per year to 300 since drilling began off the Tabasco coast and the pollution also damages boats and other equipment.
[16] In 2005, PEMEX cleaned twelve tons of tar and other material contaminated by hydrocarbons from the beaches of Tabasco, including those of Sánchez Magallanes.
[17] Sánchez Magallanes is one of the beach areas regularly monitored for oil related pollution, especially before the vacation season of Holy Week.
[18] It is an area that the municipality promotes for tourism because of its beaches, the Del Carmen Lagoon and the El Pajaral Island, on which live a wide variety of bird species.
[19] The Ensueño del Trópico Water Park is located on the Gulf coast on a beach which is four km long and sixty meters wide.
