Chihuahua (state)
Chihuahua, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chihuahua, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, are the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is located in the northwestern part of Mexico and is bordered by the states of Sonora to the west, Sinaloa to the southwest, Durango to the south, and Coahuila to the east. To the north and northeast, it shares an extensive border with the U.S. adjacent to the U.S. states of New Mexico and Texas. The state was named after its capital city, Chihuahua City; the largest city is Ciudad Juárez. In 1864 the city of Chihuahua was declared capital of Mexico by Benito Juárez during the Reform War and French intervention until 1867. The city of Parral was the largest producer of silver in the world in 1640. During the Mexican War of Independence, Miguel Hidalgo was executed on July 30, 1811, in Chihuahua city.
Although Chihuahua is primarily identified with its namesake, the Chihuahuan Desert, it has more forests than any other state in Mexico, aside from Durango. Due to its varied climate, the state has a large variety of fauna and flora. The state is mostly characterized by rugged mountainous terrain and wide river valleys. The Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, part of the continental spine that also includes the Rocky Mountains, dominates the state's terrain, and is home to the state's greatest attraction, Las Barrancas del Cobre, or Copper Canyon, a canyon system larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon. The state also has the largest crystal cave in Mexico known as the Naica cave discovered in 2001. Chihuahua is also home to the archaeological site of Paquimé in Casas Grandes that was created by the people of the Mogollon culture of Northern Mexico and is recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage site. Chihuahua is the largest state in Mexico by area, with an area of, it is slightly larger than the United Kingdom, and slightly smaller than Wyoming, the tenth largest US state by area. The state is consequently known under the nickname El Estado Grande.
The famous Mexican train Ch-P, the "Chepe", starts from Chihuahua, calle Mendez, and reaches the Pacific Ocean, through the Sierra Madre and the Copper Canyon.
On the slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains, there are vast prairies of short yellow grass, the source of the bulk of the state's agricultural production. Most of the inhabitants live along the Rio Grande Valley, and the Conchos River Valley. The etymology of the name Chihuahua has long been disputed by historians and linguists. The most accepted theory explains that the name was derived from the Nahuatl language meaning "the place where the water of the rivers meet".
Chihuahua has a diversified state economy. It is the top exporting state in the country due its manufacturing in electronics and transportation equipment. The three most important economic centers in the state are: Ciudad Juárez, an international manufacturing center; Chihuahua, the state capital; and Cuauhtémoc, the state's main agriculture hub and an internationally recognized center for apple production. The capital city, Chihuahua, is ranked by IMCO among some of the most competitive cities in Mexico. The city's municipality's HDI is 0.842 among the highest in the country after Monterrey and Mexico City. Today, Chihuahua serves as an important commercial route prospering from billions of dollars from international trade as a result of NAFTA. The state also suffers the fallout of illicit trade and activities from drug cartels, especially at the border. The state is also home to inventors; Victor Leaton Ochoa, Rafael Mendoza Blanco and Luis T. Hernandez Terrazas.
History
Prehistory
The earliest evidence of human inhabitants of Chihuahua was discovered in the area of the Samalayuca Dune Fields and Rancho Colorado. Clovis points have been found in northeastern Chihuahua that have been dated from 12,000 to 7000 BCE. It is thought that these inhabitants were hunter-gatherers.Inhabitants of the state later developed farming with the domestication of maize. An archeological site in northern Chihuahua known as Cerro Juanaqueña revealed squash cultivation, irrigation techniques, and ceramic artifacts dating to around 2000 BCE.
File:Cueva de las Jarillas.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Cliff dwellings at Las Jarillas Cave, part of the Cuarenta Casas archeological site.
Between 300 and 1300 in the southern part of the state, in a region known as Aridoamerica, groups survived by hunting, gathering, and farming. Nahuan speakers referred to these groups as the Chichimeca. They are the ancestors of the Tepehuán, speakers of the Piman subfamily of the Uto-Aztecan languages.
Between 300 and 1300 in the northern part of the state, along the wide, fertile San Miguel Valley, the Casas Grandes "Big Houses" culture developed into an advanced civilization. The Casas Grandes civilization is part of a major prehistoric archaeological culture known as Mogollon culture, which is related to the Ancestral Puebloans. Paquimé was the center of the Casas Grandes civilization. Extensive archaeological evidence shows commerce, agriculture, and hunting at Paquimé and Cuarenta Casas "Forty Houses".
Cueva de las Ventanas "Cave of Windows", a series of cliff dwellings along an important trade route and Las Jarillas Cave that scramble along the canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental in northwestern Chihuahua, date between 1205 and 1260 and belong to the Paquimé culture. Cuarenta Casas is believed to have been a branch settlement from Paquimé, established to protect the trade route from attack. Archaeologists believe the civilization began to decline during the 13th century, and by the 15th century, some Paquimeros sought refuge in the Sierra Madre Occidental while others emigrated north and joined the Ancestral Puebloans there. According to anthropologists, current natives peoples–the Uto-Aztecan-speaking Yaqui, Mayo, Opata, and Rarámuri–are descended from the Casas Grandes culture.
During the 14th century in the northeastern part of the state, the Conquistadores referred to Plains Indians of the region as Jumanos. They hunted bison along the Rio Grande who left numerous rock paintings throughout the northeastern part of the state. The Suma and Manso peoples are indigenous peoples of the region who are descended from Jumano and post-Casas Grandes peoples.
Colonial era
was the first province of northern New Spain to be explored and settled by the Conquistadores. Around 1528, a group of Spaniards led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca first entered what is now Chihuahua. The conquest of the territory lasted nearly a century and the Spaniards encountered fierce resistance from peoples they called La Junta Indians, but the colonial desires of Habsburg Spain to transform the region into a bustling mining center led to a strong strategy to control the area.File:Deza y Ulloa.jpg|thumb|upright|Antonio de Deza y Ulloa the founder of Chihuahua, Chihuahua
In 1562, Francisco de Ibarra headed a personal expedition in search of the mythical cities of Cíbola and Quivira; he traveled through Chihuahua. Francisco de Ibarra is thought to have been the first European to see the ruins of Paquimé. In 1564, Rodrigo de Río de Loza, a lieutenant under Francisco de Ibarra, stayed behind after the expedition and found gold at the foot of the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental; he founded the first Spanish city in the region, Santa Bárbara in 1567 by bringing 400 European families to the settlement.
A few years later, in 1569, the Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition, consisting of Franciscan missionaries led by Agustín Rodríguez from the coast of Sinaloa and Durango, founded the first Spanish missions in the state in Valle de San Bartolomé. Agustín Rodríguez evangelized the native population until 1581. Between 1586 and 1588, an epidemic caused a temporary exodus of the small population in the territory of Nueva Vizcaya.
Santa Bárbara became the launching place for expeditions into New Mexico by Spanish conquistadors like Antonio de Espejo, Gaspar Castaño, Antonio Gutiérrez de Umaña, Francisco Leyba de Bonilla, and Vicente de Zaldívar. Several expeditions were led to find a shorter route from Santa Bárbara to New Mexico. In April 1598, Juan de Oñate found a short route from Santa Bárbara to New Mexico which came to be called El Paso del Norte. The discovery of El Paso del Norte was important for the expansion of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro to link Spanish settlements in New Mexico to Mexico City; El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro facilitated transport of settlers and supplies to New Mexico and Camargo.
In 1631, Juan Rangel de Biezma discovered a rich vein of silver and subsequently established San José del Parral near the site. Parral remained a vital economic and cultural center for the next three centuries. On December 8, 1659, Fray García de San Francisco founded the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Mansos del Paso del Río del Norte and founded the town El Paso del Norte in 1667.
The Spanish society that developed in the region replaced the sparse indigenous population with an absence of slaves and indentured servants. In 1680, settlers from Santa Fe sought refuge in El Paso del Norte for twelve years after fleeing the attacks from Pueblo peoples, but returned to Santa Fe in 1692 after Diego de Vargas recaptured the city and vicinity. In 1709, Antonio de Deza y Ulloa founded the state capital of Chihuahua City; shortly after, the city became the headquarters for the regional mining offices of the Spanish Empire known as Real de Minas de San Francisco de Cuéllar in honor of the Viceroy of New Spain, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque.
Mexican War of Independence
During the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a progressive Catholic priest, declared Mexican independence in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato on September 16, 1810, with a proclamation known as the "Grito de Dolores".Hidalgo built a large support among intellectuals, liberal priests, and many poor people. He fought to protect the rights of the poor and indigenous populations. He started on a march to Mexico City, but retreated back north when faced with the elite of the royal forces at the outskirts of the capital. He established a liberal government in Guadalajara, but was soon forced to flee north by the royal forces that recaptured the city. Hidalgo attempted to reach the United States and gain American support for Mexican independence. Hidalgo reached Saltillo, Coahuila, where he publicly resigned his military post and rejected a pardon offered by Viceroy Francisco Javier Venegas in return for Hidalgo's surrender. A short time later, he and his supporters were captured by royalist Ignacio Elizondo at the Wells of Baján on March 21, 1811 and taken to the city of Chihuahua.
Hidalgo forced the Bishop of Valladolid, Manuel Abad y Queipo, to rescind the excommunication order he had circulated against him on September 24, 1810. Later, the Inquisition issued an excommunication edict on October 13, 1810, condemning Miguel Hidalgo as a seditionary, apostate, and heretic.
Hidalgo was turned over to the Bishop of Durango, Francisco Gabriel de Olivares, for an official defrocking and excommunication on July 27, 1811. He was then found guilty of treason by a military court and executed by firing squad on July 30 at 7 am. Before his execution, he thanked his jailers, Privates Ortega and Melchor, in letters for their humane treatment. At his execution, Hidalgo placed his right hand over his heart to show the riflemen where they should aim. He also refused the use of a blindfold. His body, along with the bodies of Allende, Aldama and José Mariano Jiménez were decapitated, and the heads were put on display on the four corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato. The heads remained there for ten years, until the end of the Mexican War of Independence, to serve as a warning to other insurgents.
Hidalgo's headless body was first displayed outside the prison but then buried in the San Francisco Temple in Chihuahua. Those remains would later be transferred, in 1824, to Mexico City.
Hidalgo's death resulted in a political vacuum on the insurgent side until 1812. The royalist military commander, General Felix Calleja, continued to pursue rebel troops. Insurgent fighting evolved into guerrilla warfare, and eventually the next major insurgent leader, José María Morelos, who had led rebel movements with Hidalgo, became head of the insurgents.
Hidalgo is hailed as the Father of the Nation even though it was Agustín de Iturbide and not Hidalgo who achieved Mexican Independence in 1821. Shortly after gaining independence, the day to celebrate it varied between September 16, the day of Hidalgo's Grito, and September 27, the day Iturbide rode into Mexico City to end the war. Later, political movements would favor the more liberal Hidalgo over the conservative Iturbide, so that eventually September 16, 1810 became the officially recognized day of Mexican independence. The reason for this is that Hidalgo is considered to be "precursor and creator of the rest of the heroes of the Independence."
Hidalgo became an icon for Mexicans resisting tyranny. Diego Rivera painted Hidalgo's image in half a dozen murals. José Clemente Orozco depicted him with a flaming torch of liberty and considered the painting among his best work. David Alfaro Siqueiros was commissioned by San Nicolás University in Morelia to paint a mural for a celebration commemorating the 200th anniversary of Hidalgo's birth. The town of his parish was renamed Dolores Hidalgo in his honor and the state of Hidalgo was created in 1869. Every year on the night of September 15–16, the president of Mexico re-enacts the Grito from the balcony of the National Palace. This scene is repeated by the heads of cities and towns all over Mexico. The remains of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla lie in the column of the Angel of Independence in Mexico City. Next to it is a lamp lit to represent the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for Mexican Independence.