Arizpe (or Arispe) is a small town and the municipal seat of the Arizpe Municipality in the north of the

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

. It is located at 30°20'"N 110°09'"W. The area of the municipality is 2,806.78 sq.km. The population in 2020 was 1,666, with a population density of 1,365.57 habitants per square kilometer.

History

The region of Arizpe was occupied by the Opata people. The name ''Arizpe'' is a Basque word "Aritzpe"(''(H)Aritz'' meaning Oak and ''Pe'' meaning under) and translates to "Under the Oaks". Arizpe was founded in 1646 as Mission Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Arizpe by the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

Jerónimo de la Canal.

Provincias Internas

In 1776 and 1777, Arizpe was declared a city and made the capital of the Spanish colonial Comandancia y Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas. The Provincias Internas had jurisdiction over the provinces of: * Sonora and Sinaloa (present-day

and

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales. It is located in northwest Mexic ...

* Nueva Vizcaya (present-day

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

and Chihuahua) * Las Californias (present-day Baja California Peninsula and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

) *

Santa Fe de Nuevo México Santa Fe de Nuevo México (; shortened as Nuevo México or Nuevo Méjico, and translated as New Mexico in English) was a province of the Spanish Empire and New Spain, and later a territory of independent Mexico. The first capital was San Juan d ...

(present-day

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

) * Los Tejas (present-day Texas) * New Kingdom of León (present-day Nuevo Leon) * Nuevo Santander (present-day

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

and southern Texas) * Coahuila in

Nueva Extremadura Nueva Extremadura means "New Extremadura" in Spanish, and originates from Extremadura, Spain. Nueva Extremadura could refer to * a large jurisdiction in the north of New Spain, bordered in the 17th century to its west and south by Nueva Vizcaya, ...

(present-day

Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...

and Texas south of

Nueces River The Nueces River ( ; , ) is a river in the U.S. state of Texas, about long. It drains a region in central and southern Texas southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico. It is the southernmost major river in Texas northeast of the Rio Grande. ''Nu ...

). The first commandant general was Teodoro de Croix.

Juan Bautista de Anza

In 1775 an overland expedition, led by Captain

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was a Novohispanic/Mexican expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as on ...

, of colonial soldiers, missionaries, and settlers was approved by the King of Spain, for a more direct land route to and further colonization of Spanish Alta California. The De Anza Expedition reached

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

in 1776, where de Anza located sites for the

Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part ...

and Mission San Francisco de Asis (in present-day

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

). Juan Bautista de Anza died in 1788 and is buried in Arizpe, at the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Arizpe. In 1963, with the participation of delegations from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and UC San Francisco, he was disinterred and reburied in a new marble memorial mausoleum at the same church.

Economy

Agriculture is the main economic activity, with farms lying in the valley of the Sonora River. Most of the crops are

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es used for the raising of cattle. There were over 40,000 head in 2000.

Tourist attractions

The municipal seat has a church and gardens with palm trees. The main church, , was built around 1756 and preserves retablos with oil paintings of saints and wooden and plaster sculptures.

References

{{Reflist

Other sources

Enciclopedia de los Municipios de MéxicoInegi

External links

Arizpe, Ayuntamiento Digital
''(Official Website of Arizpe, Sonora)''
Article on Arispe
Spanish

English

English Populated places in Sonora Populated places established in 1646 1646 establishments in the Spanish Empire Missions in Sonora Jesuit history in North America