Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "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. Portions of the city also extend into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. It is southeast of San Antonio and 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 317,863 in 2020, making it the eighth-most populous city in Texas. The Corpus Christi metropolitan area had an estimated population of 442,600. 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.
History
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.
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.
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 west. 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.
In November 1873, seven Mexican shepherds were lynched by a mob near the city. The crime was never solved.
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.
The Port of Corpus Christi was opened in 1926, and the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station was commissioned in 1941.
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, DC.
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. 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.