From “lord” to tributary: Brief history of the great mazapa

Abstract

This article succinctly narrates the history of the lower basin of the Mazapa river, that together with the Usumacinta and the Grijalva, formed the Golf of Mexico’s alluvial plain, located in the state of Tabasco, in southeastern Mexico. I will briefly review, following the different names given to the river from Conquest to the twentieth century, the events that left a mark on human and hydraulic history, emphasizing the diversion of the river’s principal course in the seventeenth century, and the disruptive consequences on natural and historical memory in the lower basin, origin that gave rise to the present-day river known as the Grijalva Mexcalapa.