Tula

History

The Franciscan friar Juan Bautista de Mollinedo explored this region from 1607 and found a community of Pisón people at the Tula lagoon. On July 22, 1617, he founded the town on the southern slope of the hill now called La Cruz, saying Mass in a thatched church the Pisones had built. Tula became a villa in 1744 during the visit of José de Escandón, who had the present street grid laid out and brought settler families from Querétaro and San Luis Potosí. It joined Nuevo Santander in 1747.

Locals rose for independence in December 1810 and were defeated the following May by royalist troops whose ranks included a young cadet, Antonio López de Santa Anna. For decades afterward Tula was the most important town in Tamaulipas, called the key to Mexico's great central plain. It became a city in 1835 and briefly served as state capital during the United States invasion of 1846 and 1847. Republican forces won a major battle here in 1865.

Under Porfirio Díaz the city thrived on ixtle, a fiber from the lechuguilla plant exported through Tampico, and was known for its schools. Carmen Romero Rubio, Díaz's wife, was born here. The Revolution brought repeated attacks between 1911 and 1913.