Cananea
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Cananea (from the Apache term for "horse meat") is a city in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name. The population of the town was 30,515 as recorded by the 2000 census. The population of the municipality, which includes rural areas, was 32,061. The total area of the municipality is 4,141.1 square kilometers.
This is the location where the company The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company was founded in 1899 and was the protagonist of a strike in 1906 that resulted in the death of 23 people in a fight between the strikers and a posse led by Arizona Rangers. A corrido titled La cárcel de Cananea ("Cananea jail") written in 1917 has become famous in Mexico. At the time of the strike the population of 23,000 included 7,000 Americans and 5,000 Chinese. [1]
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[edit] History
The first non-native inhabitants of the land where Cananea is now located arrived in 1760. Jesuit priests discovered and extracted gold and silver mines.
General Ignacio Pesqueira, native of nearby Arizpe retired to this area. He continually fought Apache Indians who attacked the area, and once while chasing them in the mountains he discovered the abandoned mines and by 1868 he had renewed the extraction of minerals in the Cananea mines.
General Pesqueira's wife, Elena Pesqueira Pesqueira, discovered a nearby sierra and the General named the highest peak La Elenita ("The Little Elena", 2843 meters above sea level) in her honor. The other peak is named La Mariquita ("The Little Mary", 2476 meters above sea level). In 1889 William Cornell Greene purchased the mine from General Pesqueira and founded the Nogales, Sonora-based company "The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company, S. A. (CCCC or 4C).
On October 31, 1901 the area became a municipality with Cananea town as its seat. On July 11, 1957 Cananea town became a city.
[edit] Cananea strike
By 1906, there were 5,360 Mexican workers at the mine earning 3.50 pesos per day while the 2,200 American workers were earning 5 pesos for the same job. Conditions in which the Mexican employees worked were deplorable. During the celebrations of Cinco de Mayo (May 5th), the Mexican employees made public their complaints while the local authority applied martial law to avoid further conflicts. June 1, most Mexican miners went on strike.
The company executives rejected all of the petitions and the workers decided to march and gather people from other towns in the municipality. The population supported the workers and the crowd numbered more than 3,000 people. While they were marching in front of the wood shop of the company, the American employees in charge of that department, the Metcalf brothers, threw water at them and then fired shots killing three people. The angry mob detained the brothers and lynched them by setting them on fire. When they approached the government building of the municipal president they were received by a 275 man American posse led by Arizona Rangers. Other workers were killed while the strike leaders were sent to prison. Contemporary news reports in the New York Times on June 3, 1906 reported that on June 1, 1906 strikers destroyed a lumber mill and killed two brothers who were defending the mine. Eleven casualties were reported among the Mexican "rioters". Responding to a telegraphed plea from Colonel Greene of the Greene Consolidated Copper Company, a posse of 275 volunteers from Bisbee, Douglas and Naco Arizona, commanded by Captain Thomas H. Rynning of the Arizona Rangers, entered Mexico against the orders of Joseph Henry Kibbey Governor of Arizona Territory, and at the invitation of Rafael Yzabel, the Governor of Sonora reinforced the Sonoran rurales. Mexican troops were reported en route to the city. Four troops of the Fifth Cavalry en route from Fort Huachuca were held at Naco, Arizona on the border on the orders of President Taft. According to Colonel Green the "trouble was incited by a Socialistic organization that has been formed [in Cananea] by malcontents opposed to the Diaz government." [2] [3] [4] [5]
Although the workers were forced to return to their positions with no demand being met, the action was a key event that prefigured the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
[edit] Cananea jail
The Cananea jail was built in 1903 and is located in downtown Cananea. It was the first public jail of the city and is currently a museum Museo de la Lucha Obrera with exhibitions of photographs and instruments used in mining.
The Cananea Jail song is a corrido that has become part of the culture of Cananea and the state of Sonora. It describes the experiences a man accused of murdering Chinese immigrants went through while at this jail. According to historian Rodolfo Rascón, a man called Francisco, nicknamed "El Cucharón de Batuc" ("The Big Spoon of Batuc") wrote the song in 1917.
[edit] Climate
The municipality of Cananea has a semi-hot subhumid climate, with an average monthly maximum temperature of 23.5° C in the months of June to Semptember and an average monthly minimum of 7.4° C in December and January; the average annual temperature is 15.3°C.
The rainy season is in summer in the months of July to Semptember, with an average annual rainfall of 545 milimeters. In the months of February, March, and April there are frequent frosts, hailstorms, and occasional snowstorms. In winter the rains are of less intensity, but of longer duration. Called “equipatas” they can fall in the form of snow.
[edit] Economy
The main crops are: corn, potatoes, beans, sorghum, alfalfa, barley, and apples. Most of the production of these crops is used for self-consumption and for the feeding of cattle. The hydraulic infrastructure consists of 30 wells, equipped with a system of electrical motors; reinformed canals with a length of 10 kilometers used for irrigation.
Cattle raising is important and there were approximately 16,000 head in the last census.
Industry is the second most important activity in the local economy, generating around 3,100 jobs. There is a modest industrial park situated north of the town with an area of 21.5 hectares. There are several companies operating as maquiladoras. The most important are Microsistemas, S. A., Stewart Connector Systems de México, S. A., Ken Can, S. A., R. K. Electrónica, S. A., Fundidora de Cananea, S. A., Muebles Marc and Road Machinery Company de México S. A., which together provide 1,100 jobs and are involved in diverse activities, from assembling cables and clothing manufacture to production of steel for use in industry.
Historically mining has always been important but has declined in recent years. The main raw material is copper, which is processed and converted into sheets.
In the mining sector important companies are Mexicana de Cananea, S. A. de C. V. and Minera María, S. A. de C. V.
[edit] Sources
- (Spanish) Site of the presidency of the municipality of Cananea
- (Spanish) Cananea at the site of the Government of Sonora
- (Spanish) The Cananea Strike at the Universidad Obrera de México
- (Spanish) Cananea at La Jornada
- ^ "WENT AGAINST ORDERS; Governor of Arizona Warned Capt. Rynning and Other Americans" New York Times, June 3, 1906
- ^ "ARMED AMERICANS AT GREENE'S MINE; Rushed Into Mexico from Arizona Against Gov. Kibbey's Orders. TAFT HOLDS UP U.S. TROOPS Cavalry from Huachuca Stopped at the Frontier -- Only Two Americans Killed in Riots" New York Times June 3, 1906 Greene Consolidated Copper Company, Cananea, Mexico
- ^ New York Times report from Mexico City giving the viewpoint of the Mexican government, June 2, 1906
- ^ "WENT AGAINST ORDERS; Governor of Arizona Warned Capt. Rynning and Other Americans" New York Times, June 3, 1906
- ^ "MEXICANS RESENT INVASION.; Charges Against Gov. Yzabel, Who Let in Arizona Rangers" New York Times October 12, 1906
[edit] External links
- (Spanish) Cananea.com, a site with information on the city
- Cananea.net, official site of The Cananea Consolidated Company.
