Founding
city in Mexico, Sonora state capital
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Hermosillo (Latin American Spanish: [eɾmoˈsiʝo] ⓘ), formerly called Pitic (as in Santísima Trinidad del Pitic and Presidio del Pitic), is the capital and largest city of the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, and the municipal seat of the municipality of Hermosillo. It also is the primary economic center for the state and the region. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 936,263, making it the 18th largest city in Mexico. The recent increase in the city's population is due to expanded industrialization, especially within the automotive industry.
In 2013 and 2018, Hermosillo was ranked as one of the top cities in Mexico for quality of life by the Strategic Communications Cabinet of the Mexican Federal Government.
Hermosillo was also ranked in 2016 as the seventh most competitive city in the country according to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), based on factors such as its economic diversification, geographical location, access to education, government, innovation and international relations. The major manufacturing sector has been the production of automobiles since the 1980s. It is one of the richest cities in Mexico by GDP per capita.
Hermosillo has a subtropical hot desert climate (BWh). Temperatures have been as high as 49.5 °C (121.1 °F) in the summer months, making it one of the hottest cities in the country.
Evidence from a site called the San Dieguito Complex, located in the El Pinacate Zone, suggests the area has been inhabited by humans for about 3,000 years. Evidence of agriculture dates back 2,500 years. In the pre-Hispanic era, this area was inhabited by the historic Seri, Tepoca, and Pima peoples.
The first encounter between the Spanish and the indigenous peoples of the area occurred in the middle of the 16th century, when European explorers came in search of gold. The Spanish explorers were followed by Jesuit missionaries in the state of Sonora around 1614. Eusebio Francisco Kino arrived in 1687, founding a mission in nearby Cucurpe. The present-day states of Sonora and Sinaloa were loosely organized as the provinces of Sonora, Ostimuri, and Sinaloa.
In 1700, three small Spanish villages were founded in what is now the outskirts of Hermosillo: Nuestra Señora del Pópulo, Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles, and la Santísima Trinidad del Pitic. The native peoples here soon became hostile to the colonists and repeatedly drove them out in the early 18th century. In 1716, the Spanish offered irrigated lands for farmers to the native peoples, who agreed to abide by Spanish law. Around 1726, a fort named the Presidio of Pitic was constructed to stop the domination of this area by the natives, especially the Seri. However, the situation remained contentious. The first church was not built until 1787, and the first formal parish was not established until 1822.
During the Mexican War of Independence, Sonora and the town of Pitic stayed loyal to the Spanish Crown. Local general Alejo García Conde defeated insurgent José María González Hermosillo, who had been sent by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Following independence from Spain, in 1825 the village of Pitic was made the seat of the department of the same name. In 1828, the settlement changed its name to Hermosillo to honor the insurgent leader José María González de Hermosillo.
The first native Spanish speakers to convert to Mormonism were baptized in Hermosillo in 1877. A Latter Day Saints branch was formed there in 1879, and there continues to be a community of Latino Mormons in the area to this day.
A battle between imperial and republican forces occurred in 1866 during the French Intervention in Mexico. In 1879, the capital of the state of Sonora was moved from Arizpe to Hermosillo. In 1881 the railroad linking Hermosillo with Guaymas and Nogales was finished, allowing for economic expansion in the area by bringing in mining equipment and modern agricultural equipment. Since then, the city has been an economic center for northwest Mexico.
During the Mexican Revolution, beginning in 1910, forces loyal to Pancho Villa were expelled from the city by General Manuel M. Diéguez. After the assassination of Francisco I. Madero in 1913, Venustiano Carranza, then governor of Coahuila, sought refuge in Hermosillo. Here, Carranza began the Constitutionalist Movement. As a result, Hermosillo is nicknamed the "revolutionary capital of the country."
From the late 19th century, until around 1920, Chinese immigrants entered the state of Sonora as laborers. A significant number settled in the city of Hermosillo. Some of these immigrants established businesses, especially shoe manufacturing and clothing. Some of the most successful Chinese-owned businesses in Sonora were based in Hermosillo, and sold their merchandise to other parts of the country. But by the 1920s, anti-Chinese sentiment had become strong in Sonora state, and many Chinese left for Mexico City or the United States.
In the 1980s, Ford Motor Company built a plant. This strongly influenced the city and state economy.
Hermosillo was the site of a tragic fire, at the ABC Child Care Center, on June 5, 2009. According to the Procuraduría General de Justicia en el Estado (State Attorney General Office) de Sonora, the fire resulted in 49 deaths at the center; nearly half of them were children. The fire is believed to have started at an adjacent automobile shop, before spreading to the child care center. Most of the children died of asphyxiation. There were about a hundred children inside the building. Firefighters had to smash holes in the walls to rescue the children, who ranged in age from six months to five years.
The origin of Hermosillo dates to the 1700s, when the mission villages of Our Lady of The Populace, Our Lady of Angels, and the Holy Trinity of Pitic were founded. They collected members of the Yaqui, Seri, Tepoca, and Pima Bajo peoples.
Years earlier, internal difficulties had occurred between the Tepoca and the Bajo Pima peoples. The Spanish wanted to bring them into the mission villages to have more control over their work.
The villages and city were intended to contain the Seri and Tepoca Indians, to protect the Hispanic expansion. It was called the Real Presidio de San Pedro de la Conquista, named after Viceroy Don Pedro de Castro y Figueroa, Duke of the Conquest and Marquis of Grace. The explorer in charge of the foundation of the peoples was Juan Bautista de Escalante, who pacified tensions.
On May 18, 1700, he gave a speech that was documented, in part:
"Sending them to have no wars from now on, but to live as Christians and to deal with each other with fairs of the clothes of their use and seeds of their plantings, to which they responded from one and the other, which they would do thank ingsands thank ing best for the good that they made peace of way."
In 1718, on the orders of Governor Manuel de San Juan y Santa Cruz, the town of the Holy Trinity of Pitic was repopulated; on September 29, 1725, the Seri settled in the Pópulo rose in the son of war and invaded the people of Opodepe. The Seri were persecuted for the purpose of punishing them until they signed the peace in January 1726, and they were settled in the Porplo and in the points called Alares and Moraga; subsequently given the uncertainty due to the bellicoseness of the indigenous, the Pitic presidio was formed.
In June 1741, Don Agustin de Vildósola established the Presidio de San Pedro de la Conquista del Pitic. Nine years later, the troops of the Pupium were transferred to El Pópulo, in the present municipality of San Miguel de Horcasitas. As a result of this action, Pitic was left in a very precarious situation, because numerous residents emigrated for fear of the Seri.
While the Presidio's settlement was about to disappear, senior authorities ordered a group of soldiers to remain on site to ensure the safety of the settlers. In 1772, the mayor Pedro de Corbalán ordered the construction of a canal on the left bank of the Rio Sonora, to irrigate the lands and orchards.
Pitic's Villa .A. Before the end of the eighteenth century the former Presidio of San Pedro de la Conquista del Pitic became Villa del Pitic.
On February 9, 1825, the Villa del Pitic was established as the head of the party, dependent on the Department of Horcasitas. This coincided with the urbanization that the royal surveyors gave it, as it progressed steadily.
In 1827, the city had approximately eight thousand inhabitants, The houses were scattered in all directions due to its unique urbanization. The region was fertile, well-cultivated and provided many luxuries. It is still famous for its high-quality and cheap beef.
On September 5, 1828, by decree no. 77 of the H. Legislature of the State of the West, the name Villa del Pitic was deleted and the name of the City of Hermosillo was imposed, in honor of the general jalisciense José María González de Hermosillo who in the late 1810s had carried the task of the national insurrection to lands Sinaloenses, then part of the Western State as well.
On March 12, 1831, the State of Sonora was founded and Hermosillo was its first capital from 14 May of that year to May 25, 1832, when the capital powers were transferred to the city of Arizpe. In 1837, the city was erected at the head of the district of its name. On the same date, Don Pascual Iñigo began the construction of the Chapel of Our Lady of Carmen.
On October 14, 1852, in the city, a section of filibusters under the command of Gastón de Raousset-Boulbon faced and defeated the national forces, who were under the leadership of General Miguel Blanco de Estrada; this was part of a revolutionary campaign of independence that was intended however to turn Sonora and Lower California into colonial territories of France. However, Raousset remained only a few days in the city, choosing to go to Guaymas to continue his campaign where he would eventually be defeated by General José María Yáñez Carrillo in Battle of Guaymas in 1854.
On May 4, 1866, under the Second Mexican Empire of Maximilian of Habsburg, republican troops commanded by the general Ángel Martínez attacked and seized the city, which was being defended by the Second Mexican Empire under Colonel María Tranquilino Almada. However, a few hours later, it fell back into the hands of the forces of the Second Empire. On November 13, 1866, General Martinez again took the city in blood and fire, causing the imperialists to flee; but they returned and regained it eight days later.
In 1879, Hermosillo was once again the headquarters of state powers, thanks to the management of the acting governor Don Francisco Serna, at least on an interim date. However, when the new Political Constitution of the State of Sonora was issued on September 15, 1917, it was definitively confirmed that the city of Hermosillo is the headquarters of the state powers, as referred to in article 28 thereof.
On November 4 in front of the wooden station of Sonora, dozens of people gathered at the opening of the Guaymas-Hermosillo railway section. On the train came Don Carlos Rodrigo Ortiz Retes, accompanied by the commander of the Military Zone, brigadier Colonel José Guillermo Carbó. Months later, both cargo and passenger service would be established between Guaymas and the Noals.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Hermosillo had about 14,000 inhabitants. During the Mexican Revolution, forces loyal to Francisco 'Pancho' Villa were expelled from the city by General Manuel M. Diéguez. After the assassination of Francisco I. Madero in 1913, Venustiano Carranza, then governor of Coahuila sought refuge in Hermosillo. Here Carranza began the Constitutionalist Movement; because of this, Hermosillo has the nickname "the revolutionary capital of the country".
In the late 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century, Chinese immigrants arrived in Sonora. One of the settlements with a significant number was the city of Hermosillo. Some of these immigrants had money and used it to set up businesses, especially shoe and clothing manufacturing. Some of the most successful businesses with Chinese owners in Sonora were in Hermosillo and sold merchandise to other parts of the country. However, in the 1920s, sentiment against the Chinese population in Sonora grew, resulting in many fleeing to Mexico City or the United States.
In the 1980s, Ford built Hermosillo Stamping & Assembly in the city, which had a major impact on the city's economy and that of the state. A whole chain of suppliers was also developed around the assembly plant, which further contributed to economic growth in Hermosillo. Hermosillo was selected partly due to its proximity to the United States.
In 2000, the businessman Pancho Búrquez was elected as municipal president for National Action Party, in that triennium, the municipality won national awards (such as that of the Secretariat of Comptroller ship and Administrative Development of the federal government, as well as of the International City/County Management Association as one of the most transparent cities in the world. Investment grew in the early decade thanks to the ease of doing business.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Hermosillo”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.