Cananea is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the northern portion 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 ...

, on the U.S. border. Its municipal seat is the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Cananea Cananea is a city in the Mexican state of Sonora, Northwestern Mexico. It is the seat of the Municipality of Cananea, in the vicinity of the U.S−Mexico border. The population of the city was 31,560 as recorded by the 2010 census. The po ...

, located at .

Population

The population of the municipality of Cananea was 35,892. Most of the population lives in the municipal seat, which had 31,560 inhabitants. This represented over 95.8% of the total. *Population in 1980: 25,327 *Population in 1990: 26,931 *Population in 2000: 32,061 *Population in 2010: 32,936

Towns and villages

The largest localities (cities, towns, and villages) are:

History

The territory now occupied by the municipality was originally a rancheria inhabited by the Pima Indians, who had been pacified by the Spanish in the seventeenth century. According to local information, the word Cananea comes from two Apache words: “can” which means "meat" and “efa” which means "horse". The colonial development of Cananea was influenced by the nearby missions of

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

, Santa María and Cocóspera. In the middle of the nineteenth century Cananea became part of the province of

, becoming a "real de minas". On 8 November 1901, Cananea was raised to municipal status, after having been part of the municipality of Fronteras. In 1906 the site was stage to perhaps the most famous strike in Mexican history, the "huelga de Cananea". This strike was against the American owned mining company and was put down by forces brought across the border from the United States with considerable loss of life on the part of the striking miners. This strike is considered to be one of the precursors to the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...

of 1910. Cananea became a municipality in 1901. In 1937 the territory of Naco separated and it became municipality of Naco. On 31 October 2001, the city of Cananea temporarily became the capital of the state of

during the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the municipality.

Geography

This ''

municipio A ' () or ' () is an administrative division in several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. It is often translated as "municipality." It comes from ''mūnicipium'' (), meaning a township. In English, a municipality often is define ...

'' borders

Cochise County, Arizona Cochise County ( ) is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The count ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to the north, and the municipalities of

(south), Naco and Bacoachi (east) and

Ímuris Imuris is the municipal seat of Imuris Municipality in the north of the Mexico, Mexican Mexican State, state of Sonora. Location Imuris is located along Mexican Federal Highway 15, Federal Highway 15 - the long highway between Nogales at the US ...

and Santa Cruz (west). Its total area is 4,414.1 square kilometers and its average elevation is 1,500 meters above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. In addition to the municipal seat there are several small communities: ejido Morelos, Emiliano Zapata, Zaragoza and Vicente. Cananea has a relatively high altitude. The most important mountain peaks are Manzanal, Los Ajos, Cananeita, Magallanes, Azul and la Mariquita (2,480 m), which is the site of the Guillermo Haro Observatory, an astronomical observatory of the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM). The most important rivers are: Sonora, Bacanuchi and San Pedro; other streams are: Jaralito, Río Claro, Santa Bárbara, Los Difuntos, El Sauz, El Berrendo, El Álamo, Villa Verde, El Chiflón, Cuitaca, Cocóspera, El Anillo and San Antonio. There were 34 wells (2000), of which 20 were for irrigation, 11 for water supply for the Compañía Minera de Cananea, and four for drinking water for Cananea and ejido Zaragoza. The climate is semihot subhumid with an average monthly maximum temperature of 23.5 °C in the months of June to September and an average monthly minimum temperature of 7.4 °C in December and January; the average annual temperature is 15.3 °C. The vegetation is pasture in almost all of the area, while there are still stands of oak pine in the higher elevations. The areas that can be irrigated are scarce.

Adjacent municipalities and counties

Naco Municipality Naco is a municipality in the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, an ...

- northeast * Fronteras Municipality - east * Bacoachi Municipality - southeast * Arizpe Municipality - south * Ímuris Municipality - southwest * Santa Cruz Municipality - northwest *

- north

Economy

Mining is still very important, with copper mines in the municipal seat. Cattle raising is also widely practiced. The main agricultural products are corn, beans, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and apples. In the municipal seat there are manufacturing companies that operate under the system called

maquila A (), or (), is a factory that is largely duty free and tariff free. These factories take raw materials and assemble, manufacture, or process them and export the finished product. These factories and systems are present throughout Latin Amer ...

, assembling products for re-export to the United States.

Government

The current

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Cananea is Jesus Reginaldo Moreno Garcia, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and his term expires in 2012. He is a retired teacher.

References

External links

*
Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México
Populated places established in 1901 Municipalities of Sonora * {{commonscat