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 31,560 as recorded by the 2010 census. The population of the municipality, which includes rural areas, was 32,936. The total area of the municipality is approximately 4100 km2.

This is the location where the company the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company controlled by Col. William Cornell Greene of Greene 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.

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 (mountain range) 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). In June 1906, a labor dispute erupted into the violent cross-border Cananea strike, leaving more than 20 dead and dozens injured.

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 510 mm. 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 the main source of revenue for Cananea and will be for the foreseeable future. Eighty percent of the population is directly or indirectly supported by mining companies in Cananea. The first and most important mining company is Buenavista del Cobre, S.A. de C.V. (formerly 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. Grupo Mexico plans to invest $3.7 Billion US Dollars at the Cananea Mine. This program is expected to increase Buenavista´s production capacity from 180,000 tons of copper per year to over 450,000 tons. During 2Q11, Buenavista reached its full capacity and produced 45,588 tons of copper: 15,170 tons of copper cathode at its SX/EW Plant and 30,417 tons of copper concentrate at the Concentrator Plant. Cananea is among the world's largest copper mines in terms of reserves.

A strike at the mine lasting almost three years was broken on the night of June 6, 2010, when Mexican police dispersed striking workers. On June 6, 2011, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (“CTM”) was granted the collective bargaining agreement for the Buenavista union, replacing the miner's National Union of Mining and Metallurgical Workers Sindicate, Section No.65 (Labor Union), headed by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia. The second and smaller active copper mine is "Minera Maria", owned by Minera Frisco, S.A.B. de C.V. a Mexican company controlled by Mr. Carlos Slim Helú and family, including Inmobiliaria Carso, S.A. de C.V. and located west of Cananea. The plant has an installed monthly production capacity of 2,500 tons of copper cathode.

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 acre. 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 10 kilometers (6 mi) 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