1897 Garcia Cubas and Vega Map of Chiapas, Mexico

A rare 1897 color lithograph map of Chiapas by Antonio García Cubas, published by Vega y Cie for the Atlas Geográfico de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. It depicts the state as it was transitioning towards cash crop production on large plantations, fundamentally altering the region's economy and society.

A Closer Look

The entire state of Chiapas is displayed, divided into departamentos. This and other maps by García Cubas are notable for employing Mexico City as the Prime Meridian. Rivers, lakes, mountains, roads, administrative boundaries (including the border with Guatemala, only finalized in 1882), cities, pueblos, ranchos, haciendas, and 'abandoned places' are indicated. The road from San Cristobal to Oaxaca was a recent construction, providing the first reliable land route between the two states.

Land and Labor in Chiapas

Chiapas was undergoing drastic changes at this time, under the administration of Governor Emilio Rabasa (1891 - 1895) and other reformists of the Porfiriato era. The capital was moved to Tuxtla (now Tuxtla Gutiérrez) in 1892, a change not reflected here as García Cubas' original map was produced in 1887. Additional highways, port facilities (at Tonalá), and other infrastructure were built, education expanded, and policies put in place to consolidate and rationalize agricultural production, with coffee becoming a major export in these years.

However, these reforms - especially increased agricultural production on large plantations - relied on the inexpensive labor of indigenous peoples, who worked in inhumane conditions and were often lured into debt bondage or unfair contracts (in the mid-19th century, most communally-held indigenous lands and Church property were sold off and transferred to cash crop production). Local uprisings followed, and the continued struggle between landowners and agricultural laborers (generally paralleling conflict between indigenous people on the one hand and whites and mestizos on the other, and between left-wing and right-wing political movements) defined politics in the state for decades afterwards, arguably down to the present.

Publication History and Census

This map was published in Mexico City in 1897 by Vega y Cie and was printed by Lit. Montauriol Sucs., Mexico City. It is based on the 1887 work of Antonio García Cubas and was updated with additional border work for the 1897 issue of the Atlas Geográfico de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. As with other maps in the 1897 reissue, the original publication information just outside the neatline has been obscured by a thick black border. The atlas is represented in several institutional collections but is extremely scarce on the market. The individual maps, likewise, are scarce to the market.