Cananea

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 city 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 approximately 1,600 square miles or 4,141 square kilometers.

This is the location where the company the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company controlled by Col. William Cornell Greene of Green Consolidated Copper Mining was founded in 1899 and was one participant in the Cananea Strike of 1906 that resulted in the death of 23 people in a fight between the strikers and a posse led by Arizona Rangers from the United States. A corrido titled La cárcel de Cananea ("Cananea jail") written in 1917 and commemorating the incident has since become famous. At the time of the strike the population of 23,000 included 7,000 Americans and 5,000 Chinese.^[1]

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", 9,327 feet or 2,843 meters above sea level) in her honor. The other peak is named La Mariquita ("The Little Mary", 8,123 feet or 2,476 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.

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 of a man accused of murdering Chinese immigrants 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.

Climate

The municipality of Cananea has a semi-hot subhumid climate, with an average monthly maximum temperature of 74.3°F (23.5 °C) in the months of June to September and an average monthly minimum of 45.3° F (7.4 °C) in December and January; the average annual temperature is 59.5°F (15.3 °C).

The rainy season is in summer in the months of July to September, with an average annual rainfall of 21.5 inches (545 millimeters). In the months of February, March, and April there are frequent frosts, hailstorms, and occasional snowstorms. In winter the rains are less intense, but of longer duration. Called “equipatas”, they can fall in the form of snow.

Economy

Mining is and will be the main source of revenue for Cananea for the foreseeable future. Eighty percent of the population is directly and/or indirectly supported by mining companies in Cananea. The first and most important mining company is Mexicana de Cananea, S.A. de C.V. owned by Southern Copper Corporation. (NYSE: SCCO) and still shares ownership with Grupo Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: GMEXICO). The Mining Operations Director assigned to Cananea is Isaac López Arzola. The miner's National Union of Mining and Metallurgical Workers Sindicate, Section No.65 (Labor Union), have as their General Secretary, since 2001, es:Napoleón Gómez Urrutia. Cananea produced 163,804 tons of copper in 2006. It is among the world's largest copper mines in terms of reserves. The company plans to invest $1.14 billion over the next five years in a major expansion which will more than double Cananea's production capacity. The Cananea mine has a long history of labor problems, the most recent being an ongoing strike since June 2007.

The second and smaller active copper mine is "Minera Maria", owned by Empresas Frisco, a division of Grupo Carso, and located west of Cananea.

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 53 acres (21.5 hectares). There are several companies operating as maquiladoras. The most important are Stewart Connector Systems de México, S.A.; Fundidora de Cananea, S.A. and Road Machinery Company de México, S.A. which together provide 600 jobs and are involved in diverse activities, from cable assembly to production of steel.

Cattle raising is important and there were approximately 16,000 head in the last census.

Farming consists mainly of corn, potatoes, beans, sorghum, alfalfa, barley, and apples. Most of these crops are used for local consumption and cattle fodder. The infrastructure consists of 30 wells, equipped with a system of electrical motors, and 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) of reinforced canals used for irrigation.

Twin towns

• Sierra Vista, USA
• Radebeul, Germany

Notable residents

• William Cornell Greene - Founder of modern Cananea, The Greene Consolidated Copper Company and The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company.
• Aurelio Rodríguez - Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
• Francisco "Chico" Rodríguez - Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
• Jaime Corella - Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
• Raul Hector Castro - 14th Governor of The State of Arizona
• Claudio X. González - CEO Kimberly-Clark de México, S.A.B. - Director Kimberly-Clark

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
• (Spanish) http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Noticias/28052007/242450.aspx
• (Spanish) Sindicato Minero Seccion 65 of Cananea

References

1. ^ "WENT AGAINST ORDERS; Governor of Arizona Warned Capt. Rynning and Other Americans", New York Times, June 3, 1906.

External links

• (Spanish) Cananea.com, a site with information on the city
• Cananea.net, official site of The Cananea Consolidated Company.

Categories: 1906 in Mexico | Populated places in Sonora | Mining communities in Mexico