Sonora

Sonora, state in northwestern Mexico. Sonora is one of the largest and most economically diversified states in Mexico. It shares its northern boundary with the United States—bordering Arizona and a tiny section of New Mexico—and is bordered by the Mexican state of Chihuahua on the east, by the state of Sinaloa on the south, by the state of Baja California on the northwest, and by the Gulf of California on the west.

Sonora is the second largest of the 31 Mexican states, after Chihuahua. Much of the state is covered by a coastal plain extending eastward to the Sierra Madre Occidental range. Rainfall and temperatures vary considerably between the mountainous regions and the plains, but the state is generally hot and dry. Its northern territory has major desert regions, including a portion of the Sonoran Desert known as the Gran Desierto (Great Desert) along the upper Gulf of California. Many major rivers cross the state, beginning deep in the Sierra Madre and running southwest to the coast. Some of the most important rivers have been dammed for irrigation and hydroelectric power, including the Sonora, which is dammed near the state capital of Hermosillo; the Yaqui, which forms a reservoir behind the Alvaro Obregón dam; and the Mayo, which has been dammed to form the Mocuzari reservoir. The state has an area of 180,833 sq km (69,820 sq mi).

Sonora has long been home to a number of indigenous peoples, many of whom are also native to the southwestern United States. These include the Tohono O’Odham (or Papago), the Akimel O’Odham (or Pima), and the Seri. Two of the state’s largest communities—Nogales and Agua Prieta—border cities in the U.S. state of Arizona and are important points of entry into Mexico. Other major communities include Ciudad Obregón, a commercial center at the southern end of the state; Guaymas, a port on the Gulf of California; Navojoa, a farming and ranching hub just south of Ciudad Obregón; and San Luis Río Colorado, a fishing center in the northwest corner of the state. The state’s population in 2005 was 2,394,861.

Economically, Sonora is a leading producer of cotton and grains, as well as winter vegetables for export to the United States. A number of food processing and assembly plants are located along the border with Arizona. The state’s fishing industry is one of the most developed in the country, with a fleet of more than 3000 vessels that harvests large volumes of shrimp, sardine, sea bass, sole, and tuna. Sonora is also Mexico’s most important copper-mining center and produces a significant amount of other minerals, including silver, graphite, zinc, gold, and tungsten. Major highways and railroads cross the entire state running north to south, connecting Mexicali, in the neighboring state of Baja California, with Mexico City, far to the south. In the mid-1990s Sonora’s literacy rate and standard of living ranked among the highest in the country.

During the colonial era, Sonora was part of the northern frontier of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and played an important role in Spanish military conquests. The region was also a center for Spanish missionary activities, the most famous being those of the Jesuit priest Francisco Eusebio Kino. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Native Americans known as the Yaqui rebelled against exploitation by mestizos (Mexicans of mixed European and Native American descent) and were suppressed violently. The Cananea mining strike in 1906, at a copper mine near the U.S. border, was a precursor to the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). Sonora played a leading role in the revolution, producing many of the prominent figures collectively known as the Sonoran Dynasty, who dominated national politics in the 1920s. Among the state’s most important native sons are Alvaro Obregón, a notable revolutionary general and Mexico’s first postrevolutionary president (1920-1924), and Plutarco Elías Calles, a president (1924-1928) and major architect of Mexico’s political and public financial institutions.