Sinaloa, Mexico
According to THESCIENCETUTOR, Sinaloa is a state in northwestern Mexico. It shares a northern border with the Mexican state of Sonora, northeast Chihuahua, east Durango and south Nayarit. West of Sinaloa lies the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, also known as the Cortez Sea.
The state capital is called Culiacán. Other major cities are the tourist resort of Mazatlán and Los Mochis. Unofficially, Culiacán is a center for cocaine smuggling from South America, primarily from Colombia, to the United States, something that leads to both great wealth and many gang conflicts.
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Sinaloa was populated by six large tribes of hunters and gatherers; Cahita, Tahue, Totorame, Pacaxee, Acaxee and Xixime. Before 1529, the area was part of the unexplored Spanish province called Nueva Vizcaya, which also included present-day Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, and Coahuila.
In terms of agriculture, Sinaloa is the most important state in Mexico, and it also has one of the largest fishing fleets. Opium poppies are also grown in Sinaloa province. The state is also called “Mexico’s bread basket” because three quarters of its land is set aside for agricultural production. It is the country’s leading producer of rice and vegetables, and the second largest producer of wheat and beans. Fisheries and livestock also provide additional income, as well as Mazatlán’s canning facility, the largest in Latin America.
Culturally, Sinaloa is the only place in Mexico where the old ball game, Ulama, is still played. It is also home to i.a. Banda music, Damiana (popular herbal spirit), boxer Julio Cesar Chavez and footballer Angel Eduardo Ochoa Uriarte.
TIMELINE:
1529 – Spanish captain Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, the most bloodthirsty of the conquistadors, fights his way through central Mexico to the Pacific coast with an army of 300 Spaniards and 10,000 native warriors. When they reached the Culiacán River, they met and defeated a force of 30,000 Cahita warriors. At this time, the Cahita people were the largest language group in northern Mexico, with about 115,000 in Sinaloa and Sonora. Many of Guzman ‘s troops succumbed to an epidemic when they were in Sinaloa, but he still managed in 1531 to found the city of Culiacán., which exists today, as he named San Miguel de Culiacán.
1533-1929 – The Yaqui War is a series of conflicts between New Spain and Mexico and the Yaqui Indians. The war, which resulted in several serious battles and infamous massacres over 400 years, is one of the last of the Mexican Indian War, which began in 1519, until 1933.
1563 – The city of El Fuerte is founded by Francisco de Ibarra, the first explorer in the high Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. For years, the city served as the gateway to the vast borders of the northern areas of Sonora, Arizona, and California, all of which were sparsely populated by unshakable Native American tribes.
1824 – After Mexican independence, Sonora and Sinaloa are united under the name Estado de Occidente (Western State), with El Fuerte as its capital. In 1830, the state was divided into present-day Sonora and Sinaloa.
1893 – The town of Los Michos is founded by Benjamin F. Johnston and a group of American utopian socialists who are supporters of Albert Kimsey Owen, an American civil engineer who built the first irrigation ditches in the valley.
1800 – Late in the century, Sinaloa a major source of cultivation of poppy ( opium ) due. Influx of Chinese settlers. Sinaloa’s short distance to the United States yielded a large market for opium, which was legal at the time.
1980 – On February 5, boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Gonzalez made his 17-year-old debut against Andres Felix, who he knocked out in the 6th and final round. Today (2016) he is considered the greatest Mexican fighter and one of the best boxers of all time. Chavez also held the record for being unbeaten for 13 years until he ran into his first title defeat to Frankie Randall in January 1994. In May, Chavez got his rematch and won his title back from Randall. By then, he had won 87 games in a row until his meeting with Pernell Whitaker in 1993, which ended in a draw. The two never met again in the ring. On September 17, 2005, his 115th and final boxing match was a tko defeat (hand injury) against the unknown Grover Wiley. His defeat was avenged by his son Julio César Chávez, Jr., two years later that knocked Wiley out in the third inning.
1989 – The Sinaloa cartel ( Cártel de Sinaloa ) is a Mexican criminal drug trafficking organization. The organization was established in Culiacán, and is located in central Mexico in Baja California, Sinaloa, Durango, Sonora and Chihuahua. The cartel is believed to be the largest in Mexico. The leader, Chapo Guzman, is the most wanted drug baron in the world until he was caught again on January 8, 2016, after several months on the run. More about the drug war in Mexico here.
2006 – Although the violence between the drug cartels began long before the war began, the government generally had a passive attitude to the violence in the 1990s and early 2000s. This changed when newly elected President Felipe Calderón sent 6,500 federal soldiers to the state of Michoacán to end the drug violence there. Calderón has continued its anti-drug troops, which number about 45,000 troops along with state and federal police forces, so far.
2008-2012 – Work on the Baluerte Bridge, started on February 21, 2008 and opened on January 5, 2012. With a length of 1124 meters and 402.6 meters high, it is one of the world’s highest suspension bridges that stretches across the gorge between Durango and Sinaloa.
