The Nazas River is a river located in northern Mexico, in the states of

Coahuila Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico. Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...

and

Durango Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...

. It is part of the endorheic Bolsón de Mapimí. It is only long, but irrigates an area of in the middle of the desert. The Nazas is also nurtured by the San Juan, Ramos, Potreritos, del Oro, Nazas, Santiago, Tepehuanes and Peñón Blanco rivers. The river starts at the Sierra Madre Occidental. The aboriginal title for this stream is ''Tlahualilo'', coming from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

words ''tlalli'' meaning "fertile land" and ''ahualila'', meaning "water for irrigation".

Etymology

The Nazas took its name when the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance peoples, Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of National and regional identity in Spain, national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex Hist ...

, during the

conquest of Mexico The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the eve ...

in the early 1500s, saw the original inhabitants on the shore of the river fishing with some artifacts similar to baskets, whose Spanish name is 'nasa', for that reason it became known as the 'river of nazas'.

Ecology

The Nazas watershed contains considerable desertic habitat, outside of the immediate riparian zone. A large variety of flora and fauna populate the Nazas Basin, with a variety of succulent native plants. One of the widespread flora is the ocotillo. A number of freshwater fishes are found in the Nazas River, including '' Notropis nazas''.

Geography and economy

The river acts as a geographic division between the cities of Gómez Palacio in Durango and Torreón in Coahuila. The city of Torreón is named after a tower that was built in the area to monitor the water level of the Nazas from afar.''Torreon''
/ref> The Nazas has served as one of the most important natural resources enabling development in the Laguna Region since the middle of the 19th century. All of its waters are locked in Francisco Zarco and Lázaro Cardenas dams, both located in Durango, which have significantly reduced the once mighty flow of the river. However, Coahuila receives an annual share by mutual agreement between the state governments. Indeed, on its course, the Nazas fills smaller water bodies like the Palmito dam (in Torreón) and the Santiaguillo lagoons. The river ends in the now-drained Mayrán Lagoon and the Caimán Lakes in the Tlahualilo region. The river was an important shooting location for the film '' The Wild Bunch'' (1969). In the celebrated scene where a bridge is dynamited, the Nazas stands in for the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

. There is an amateur annual

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

competition on the Nazas River between the cities of

Rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

and Lerdo in Durango.

Notes

External links

Río Nazas at Torreon government site
{coord, 25, 36, 34, N, 105, 00, 40, W, region:MX_source:kolossus-ruwiki, display=title Rivers of the Sierra Madre Occidental Rivers of Coahuila Rivers of Durango

Etymology

Ecology

Geography and economy

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links