Corpus Christi (/ˌkɔːrpəs ˈkrɪsti/ KOR-pəs KRIS-tee; Latin for 'Body of Christ') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County[5] with portions extending into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. It is 130 miles (210 km) southeast of San Antonio and 208 miles (335 km) southwest of Houston. Its political boundaries encompass Nueces Bay and Corpus Christi Bay. Its zoned boundaries include small land parcels or water inlets of three neighboring counties.
The city's population was 316,239 in 2022, making it the eighth-most populous city in Texas. The Corpus Christi metropolitan area had an estimated population of 442,600.[1] It is also the hub of the six-county Corpus Christi–Kingsville combined statistical area, with a 2013 estimated population of 516,793. The Port of Corpus Christi is the fifth-largest in the United States. The region is served by the Corpus Christi International Airport.
The city's name means body of Christ in Ecclesiastical Latin, in reference to the Christian sacrament of Holy Communion. The name was given to the settlement and surrounding bay by Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519, as he discovered the lush semitropical bay on the Western Christian feast day of Corpus Christi.
Corpus Christi is home to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, one of two locations training primary student pilots and advanced multiengine pilots of the US Navy, US Marine Corps, and US Coast Guard.
Spaniard Alonso Alvarez de Pineda traveled in 1519 to this bay on the day of the religious Feast of Corpus Christi, so named the semitropical bay Corpus Christi.[6]
Cabeza de Vaca may have passed through Corpus Christi in the 1500s, but the first European to study the Nueces River and Corpus Christi Bay was Joaquín de Orobio y Basterr in 1747. A few years later, José de Escandón organized a colony of about 50 families to settle the head of the bay, though this was short-lived.[7]
In 1839, the first known permanent settlement of Corpus Christi was established by Colonel Henry Lawrence Kinney and William P. Aubrey as Kinney's Trading Post, or Kinney's Ranch. It was a small trading post that sold supplies to a Mexican revolutionary army camped about 25 mi (40 km) west.[8]In July 1845, U.S. troops commanded by General Zachary Taylor set up camp there in preparation for war with Mexico, where they remained until March 1846. About a year later, the settlement was named Corpus Christi and was incorporated on September 9, 1852.[9]
The Battle of Corpus Christi was fought between August 12 and August 18, 1862, during the American Civil War. United States Navy forces blockading Texas fought a small land and sea engagement with Confederate forces in and around Corpus Christi Bay and bombarded the city. Union forces defeated Confederate States Navy ships operating in the area, but were repulsed when they landed on the coast.[10]
In November 1873, seven Mexican shepherds were lynched by a mob near the city. The crime was never solved.[11]
The Port of Corpus Christi was opened in 1926, and the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station was commissioned in 1941.[8]
In February 1929, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was founded in Corpus Christi. This organization was created to battle racial discrimination against Hispanic people in the United States. Since its founding, LULAC has grown and now has a national headquarters in Washington, D.C.[12]
In March 1949, the American GI Forum (AGIF) was founded in Corpus Christi. Currently, AGIF focuses on veteran's issues, education, and civil-rights issues. This organization was founded after concerns over the segregation of Mexican-American veterans from other veterans groups and the denial of medical services based on race by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
The 1919 Storm devastated the city, killing hundreds on September 14. Only three structures survived the storm on North Beach.[13] To protect the city, the seawall was built. The city also suffered damage from Hurricane Celia in 1970 and Hurricane Allen in 1980, but little damage from Hurricane Ike in 2008. In 2017, the city was affected by Hurricane Harvey, then by Hurricane Hanna in 2020. Rough surf from Hurricane Laura caused one death and one injury at a beach in the city in late August 2020, just a month after Hanna.[14]
Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District (1970) was the first case to extend the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision (1954) to Mexican Americans. It recognized them as a minority group that could be and was frequently discriminated against. Such segregation and discrimination were ruled unconstitutional. Judge Woodrow Seals found that the school board consciously fostered a system that perpetuated traditional segregation. This included a system that bused Anglo students to schools out of their neighborhoods, renovated old schools in black and Mexican-American neighborhoods rather than building new ones, assigned black and Hispanic teachers to segregated schools, and limited hiring of such teachers at other schools; the school board also lacked a majority-to-minority busing system.[15]
In 2012, Corpus Christi was ranked as the second-least literate city in the U.S. in a study by Central Connecticut State University.[16]
Corpus Christi is situated on fluvial deposits that are of Holocene—Pleistocene age. Although no solidified rock occurs naturally at the surface,[17] the Deweyville Formation of sand, silt, clay, and gravel, is locally indurated with calcium carbonate (caliche) deposits. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey's storm surge eroded down to shale bedrock at a depth around 40 feet in Packery Channel, an artificial pass cut between North Padre and Mustang Islands. This feature has become a gathering place for game fish, and can be identified from the surface by its whirlpool-like current. The large, shallow bay makes Corpus Christi an ideal feeding place for birds, which is one reason why Corpus Christi is known as the "Bird Capital" of North America.[citation needed] Consequently, the San Diego Audubon Society has designated Corpus Christi as "America's birdiest place".[18]
According to the United States Census Bureau, Corpus Christi has a total area of 460.2 square miles (1,192.0 km2), of which 154.6 mi2 (400.5 km2, 33.60%) are land and 305.6 mi2 (791.5 km2, 66.40%) are covered by water.
Since its founding, the city has annexed nearby lands and waters for growth and development purposes. The original area encompassed several city blocks in present-day downtown Corpus Christi with the majority of city expansion occurring in the 20th century.[19]
Corpus Christi has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa), with hot and humid summers, and short mild winters. The period from November through February is the coolest time of year in the city, while June through September is the hottest. October is still hot, but not as hot as the summer months. Rainfall is spread throughout the year, and there is rarely ever snow or ice.
The city's record high temperature is 109 °F (43 °C), on September 5, 2000, and the hottest month August 2012 with an average of 88.3 °F (31.3 °C). Average night-time winter lows in January, the coldest month, are a little less than 50 °F (10 °C) and its record low is 11 °F (−12 °C) on February 12, 1899. The coldest maximum of 26 °F (−3 °C) occurred on five occasions, the most recent being on January 30, 1951.[nb 1] Winter and early spring are generally dry, and average monthly precipitation is highest in September, when the threat from hurricane