Arizpe (or Arispe) is both a small
townA town is a type of settlement ranging from a few hundred to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition...
and a
municipalityMunicipalities are the second-level administrative division in Mexico . There are 2,438 municipalities in Mexico...
in the north of the Mexican state of
SonoraSonora is a state in northwestern Mexico with an area of 182,052 square kilometers, making it around the size of Syria. It is surrounded by the states of Baja California and the Sea of Cortez to the west, Chihuahua to the east, Sinaloa to the south, and Arizona to the north.The capital is...
. It is located at 30°20'"N 110°09'"W. The area of the municipality is 2,806.78 sq.km. The population in 2005 was 2,959 of which 1,743 lived in the municipal seat as of the 2000 census.
The region of Arizpe was occupied by the Opata people. The name is a common Basque last name meaning "under the oak", from the root Aritz meaning "oak" (Ariz on the spelling of the time) and "pe" (a common suffix meaning "underneath" in the original language).
Arizpe was founded in 1646 by the Jesuit
missionaryA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
Jerónimo de la Canal as a
missionA Christian mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a theologically imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the...
.
Arizpe (or Arispe) is both a small
townA town is a type of settlement ranging from a few hundred to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition...
and a
municipalityMunicipalities are the second-level administrative division in Mexico . There are 2,438 municipalities in Mexico...
in the north of the Mexican state of
SonoraSonora is a state in northwestern Mexico with an area of 182,052 square kilometers, making it around the size of Syria. It is surrounded by the states of Baja California and the Sea of Cortez to the west, Chihuahua to the east, Sinaloa to the south, and Arizona to the north.The capital is...
. It is located at 30°20'"N 110°09'"W. The area of the municipality is 2,806.78 sq.km. The population in 2005 was 2,959 of which 1,743 lived in the municipal seat as of the 2000 census.
History and origin of the Name
The region of Arizpe was occupied by the Opata people. The name is a common Basque last name meaning "under the oak", from the root Aritz meaning "oak" (Ariz on the spelling of the time) and "pe" (a common suffix meaning "underneath" in the original language).
Arizpe was founded in 1646 by the Jesuit
missionaryA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
Jerónimo de la Canal as a
missionA Christian mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a theologically imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the...
. In 1776 Arizpe was made the capital of the
Commandancy General of the Provincias InternasThe Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North or Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas del Norte was an administrative district of colonial Spain, created in 1776 to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces of Viceroyalty of New Spain...
, with jurisdiction over
Nueva VizcayaNueva Vizcaya was the first province in the north of the Viceroyalty of New Spain to be explored and settled by the Spanish. It consisted mostly of the area which is today the states of Chihuahua and Durango.-Early exploration and the Viceroyalty:...
(today
DurangoDurango is one of the constituent states of Mexico, with a population of 1,509,118. It has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja California Sur...
and Chihuahua),
ArizonaIn the late 1700s, colonists began steadily entering the region of northern New Spain that is the modern-day U.S. state of Arizona. They were attracted by reports of the discovery of deposits of silver around the Arizonac mining camp. Most of the colonists left after Juan Bautista de Anza...
,
Las CaliforniasLas Californias was the name given by the Spanish to the area comprised of the modern states of Baja California and Baja California Sur in Mexico, and the modern state of California and part of the state of Nevada in the United States of America. Administratively, it was part of the Viceroyalty of...
,
Sonora y SinaloaSonora y Sinaloa was one of the constituent states of the Mexican Republic under its Constitution of 1824. Whereas the federal constitution used the name "Sonora y Sinaloa", the state constitution, adopted on 31 October 1825, used the name Estado de Occidente...
and
CoahuilaCoahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , is one of Mexico's 31 component states. It is located in the north of the country.To the north, Coahuila accounts for a stretch of the U.S. - Mexico border, adjacent to the U.S...
and
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
. The capital of the Intendencia was here and Arizpe was already a city by the end of the eighteenth century, the first in Sonora. In 1775 an expedition of settlers was formed, headed by captain
Juan Bautista de AnzaJuan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto was a Novo-Spanish explorer and Governor of New Mexico for the Spanish Empire.-Life:...
, which explored and opened one of the routes to
Alta CaliforniaAlta California was formed when Spain separated the Dominican Missions from the Franciscan Missions in approximately 1769 with the founding of the first Alta California mission in San Diego...
, establishng the city of San Francisco,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. Juan Bautista de Anza's remains lie in the main church at Arizpe.
Rivers
The area of the municipality is crossed by the
Sonora RiverSonora River is a 402-kilometer-long river of Mexico. It lies on the Pacific slope and it runs into the Gulf of California.-External links:* http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/kids/explora/html/sonora/orografia.html Sonora* http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2006/5022/...
from north to south. This river rises near
CananeaCananea 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...
and flows into the Abelardo L. Rodríguez reservoir near
HermosilloHermosillo, formerly named Santísima Trinidad del Pitic is the largest city and capital of the Mexican state of Sonora, and is located in the center of the state, 167 miles from the border with the United States. Hermosillo is known for its extreme hot weather because it is located in the Sonoran...
.
Economy
AgricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
is the main economic activity, with farms lying in the valley of the Sonora River. Most of the crops are grasses used for the raising of
cattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
. There were over 40,000 head in 2000.
Tourist attractions
The municipal seat has a very attractive church and there are gardens with palm trees. The main church, Templo de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, was built around 1756 and preserves retablos with oil paintings of saints and wooden and plaster sculptures.
Sources consulted
External links