Unlike many of the Mexican cities that began as colonial settlements, the city of Escárcega was established in the early twentieth century as a settlement for exploiting gum, rubber, and logwood. One of its camps, named ‘Kilómetro 47,’ gave it its origin, but it was the engineer Francisco Escárcega Márquez who gave it its name. With the intention of expanding the railroad from Veracruz to the Yucatán peninsula, Escárcega was responsible for connecting what would become Ferrosur, the railroad of the southeast, by land. It was not until the year 1990 that the Escárcega communal farmland became a municipality and what, today, is a city of the state of Campeche. This city currently has a population of approximately 32,000, and its strength lies in its privileged geographic location: the city works as a hub that connects Villahermosa, Tabasco (and its Connecting routes into the state of Veracruz); Chetumal, Quintana Roo to the east; and Mérida, Yucatán to the north.