The city of Chihuahua or Chihuahua City (Spanish: Ciudad de Chihuahua [sjuˈða(ð) ðe tʃiˈwawa]; Lipan: Ją’éłąyá) is the state capital of the Mexican state of Chihuahua.[4][1] As of 2020[update], the city of Chihuahua had a population of 925,762 inhabitants.[2] while the metropolitan area had a population of 988,065 inhabitants.[2]
Among cities in Mexico, the city of Chihuahua is highly ranked in human and social development. According to a UNDP[5] report on human development, Chihuahua municipality's HDI is 0.842 as of 2020 – among the highest in the country, only after municipalities in the Monterrey and Mexico City areas. IMCO ranks Chihuahua as one of the six cities with very high urban competitiveness [6]
The predominant activity is industry, including domestic heavy, light industries, consumer goods production, and to a smaller extent maquiladoras. The city is served by the General Roberto Fierro Villalobos International Airport.
It has been said that the name derives from the Nahuatl language, meaning "between two waters", other accepted definitions are "place of the holed-rock"[7] or from Tarahumara, "dry and sandy place".[8] The name itself is older than the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The city was founded on October 12, 1709, by Blas Cano de los Rios and Antonio Deza y Ulloa, a Spanish explorer, as El Real de Minas de San Francisco de Cuéllar.[9][10] Don Ildefonso de Irigoyen donated the land for the city foundation.[8] The town was erected a Villa in 1718 (or 1715)[1] with the name of San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua, and the name was shortened in 1823.
The location was chosen because it is the intersection of the rivers Chuviscar and Sacramento. It is also the midpoint between the Río Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande) and the then-important mining city of Hidalgo del Parral. For much of the 18th century, Chihuahua served as the de facto capital of Nueva Vizcaya because most governors preferred to reside there rather than in Durango, the capital of the province at that time.[11]
Just as in other parts of Northern Mexico, Roman Catholic missionaries were an important influence during the colonial era, and the city became a meeting point for missionaries heading to and from the 'sierra', the mountainous region in western Chihuahua State where the native Tarahumara still live.
During the War of Independence, the city saw little action. However, it was in Chihuahua where Miguel Hidalgo, considered the Father of the Country, was held prisoner in the Federal Palace of Chihuahua and executed in 1811 at the nearby Government Palace by the Spaniards.
During the Mexican–American War, Chihuahua fell to U.S. forces in 1847, after the Mexican Army was defeated at the Battle of the Sacramento, 15 miles (24 km) north of the city.
During the French invasion, President Benito Juárez made the city the seat of his government-in-exile from 1864 to 1867. During the presidency of Porfirio Díaz the city experienced explosive growth and became one of the most important cities in Mexico. The city became the seat for important banks and wealthy families.
The city was more involved during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917), for it became at times the operations base for the División del Norte, the army led by Pancho Villa. Many sites and memories remain of the Revolutionary era; the most important of these is the Historical Museum of the Mexican Revolution at Villa's former estate house near downtown Chihuahua. La Quinta Luz was turned into a museum by his widow, Sra. María Luz Corral de Villa, and is now managed by the federal government.
During the 20th century, the city grew in population and learned to take advantage of its proximity with the U.S. border. Until the establishment of foreign manufacturing plants in the 1970s, the city was largely a trade post for cattle and agricultural products. During the 1990s the city grew dramatically economically, becoming the third wealthiest municipality (per capita) in the republic, after Benito Juárez borough of the Federal District (Mexico City), and San Pedro Garza García in Nuevo León.
In 2002, Mayor Jorge Barousse Moreno from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) died and was succeeded by Alejandro Cano Ricaud. During Cano's administration, the city experienced dramatic growth in the security sector when the Police Department was certified by the ISO and surveillance aircraft bought.
Between 2002 and 2005, the city experimented with the introduction of certain new commercial innovations, like the first large mall in the city, Plaza del Sol, and the rise of the commercial Zone of the Sun, all along the Periférico de la Juventud, one of the main thoroughfares in the city.
In 2004 Juan Blanco Zaldívar, of the National Action Party (PAN), won the election for mayor (municipal president) of the city for the term 2004–2007. Since 2005, the International Festivals of Chihuahua have been celebrated by both the state and city governments during the months of September/October with art shows, plays, stage presentations and concerts by such bands as America, Foreigner, Creedence and Los Lobos being held at venues throughout the city.
Elections for mayor for the term 2007–2010 were held at the beginning of July 2007; Carlos Borruel Baquera of the PAN defeated former mayor Alejandro Cano Ricaud (PRI) by less than one-quarter of a percentage point of almost 200,000 votes cast. The turnout of registered voters, at about 41%, was the lowest in years.
In January, 2010, Mayor Carlos Borruel submitted his resignation in order to campaign for election to the office of Governor of Chihuahua. His deputy, Lic. Alvaro Guillermo Madero Muñoz, assumed the office of mayor for the balance of his term. On July 4, 2013, Javier Garfio Pacheco of the PRI won election for a 3-year term as mayor.
In December 2015, Eugenio Baeza Fares assumed office as mayor of the City of Chihuahua, after Javier Garfio Pacheco requested licence to pursue the possibility to become the candidate for the political party PRI to Governor of the State of Chihuahua.[12] After Garfio lost his bid for Governor Candidate, he returned and ended his period as mayor.[13]
In July 2016, María Eugenia Campos Galván (PAN) was elected mayor.[14] Her term started on October 10, 2016, and is expected to last for two years, with the possibility of reelection for three more years.[15]
The origin of the city of Chihuahua begins with the discovery of the nearby mines and foundation of the population of Santa Eulalia in 1652 by Spanish captain Diego del Castillo, however; due to the climate and constant attacks of the indigenous people the exploitation was suspended and Santa Eulalia remained several years uninhabited. Some fifty years later, in 1707, more wealthy mining discoveries were made, leading to the immediate population of Santa Eulalia and its prosperity.
However, Santa Eulalia is located in the middle of a mountain range and the difficult terrain hindered the construction and expansion of the city; because of this, when in 1709 the governor of Nueva Vizcaya, Antonio de Deza y Ulloa, with the instruction to found the head of the Real de Minas visited the population, decided to convene 16 notable neighbors (miners, traders, government officials and priests) to resolve with them the desirability of setting up Santa Eulalia herself at the head of the Royal de Minas or founding for them a new population in the nearby valley where the rivers converged Rio Chuvíscar' Chuvíscar and Sacramento.
On 12 October 1709[16] the vote of the notables was held on the founding of the Royal de Minas, eight of them voted for establishment in Santa Eulalia itself, while the remaining eight did so for foundation in the valley. Faced with the tie, the governor Deza and Ulloa intervened with his deciding vote for foundation in the valley of the junta de los ríos; this is what is seen as the official foundation of Chihuahua and Antonio Deza and Ulloa as its founder. The new Real de Minas was founded under the name of Real de Minas de San Francisco de Cuéllar in honor of the then Viceroy of New Spain, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva Enríquez, 10th. Duke of Alburquerque and Marquis de Cuéllar.
The growth of the Real de Minas, driven by mines and activity of the surrounding farms continued during the colony; because of this on October 1, 1718, it stands at the Royal of San Francisco de Cuéllar in Villa, with the name of San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua'; Saint Philip in honor of the king Felipe V of Spain and being used for the first time the name of Chihuahua. At this time it is also solved the construction of a parish temple worthy for the village, to that end, the city council decided to impose a special tax on silver extracted from the mines of Santa Eulalia and with it was built the temple that today is the Catedra Scun. By the year 1786 the Villa de Chihuahua was a Mayor's and on April 1, 1797, the first census was lifted in the city of Chihuahua by Don Fructuoso Simón de Herrera with the following summary: 324 men, 396 women, total 720 inhabitants.
In the 18th century, an aqueduct with quarry arches pouring water into a fountain in the main square was built in the city. Then elegant houses appeared, some with wooden floors worked with rich woods brought from the mountains; these houses had orchards with fruit trees and vegetables, chicken coops and smaller cattle. Wealthy miners like the Irigoyen and Carbonel decorated their mansions with luxurious furniture, magnificent paintings, silverware and beautiful porcelain. In the name of the king of Spain came the "visitors" to investigate the morality and justice of the kingdoms and to collect taxes. They read heralds through the streets, which enacted good treatment of indigenous people; Despite this they were confined and restricted by their freedom, always being under the rule of the Spaniards, Creoles and mestizos. With this mixture of races he was writing, over the centuries, the history of the capital. As in other parts of northern Mexico, the peregrinos Catholicism greatly influenced the colonial era, and the city became a meeting point for pilgrims on their way to "La Sierra", a mountainous region in which the indigenous people had not yet converted to Catholicism.
Also built in the city was a college run by the Society of Jesus, which built a solid building on the east end of the village, later and after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the school building was used as a barracks, prison and mint.
The information on the beginning of the Independence of Mexico movement took a long time to reach the then Villa de Chihuahua, where in practice it had no effect, because of this The Realists decided that the trial of the insurgents apprehended in Acatita de Baján will be held in Chihuahua. On April 23 the prisoners entered Chihuahua to be tried and on June 26 the insurgents Ignacio Allende, Mariano Jiménez, Juan Aldama and Manuel Santamaría are shot in the convent of San Francisco. On 30 July, don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was shot in the courtyards of the military hospital, a place formerly the convent of Loreto. During the rest of the war of independence the situation in Chihuahua was practically identical and without any shock.
Once independence was consummated through the Treaties of Cordoba, and after the ephemeral First Mexican Empire, on 19 July 1823 the Union Congress issued a decree dividing the former province of the New Biscay in two, the Province of Durango and the Province of Chihuahua, and pointed by capital of the latter to the Villa of San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua, which from that moment was erected in city, and was called Chihuahua'.[17]
