Múzquiz is one of the 38

municipalities of Coahuila Coahuila is a state in Northeast Mexico that is divided into 38 municipalities. According to the 2020 Mexican Census, Coahuila is the 15th most populous state with inhabitants and the third largest by land area spanning . Municipalities in Coa ...

, in north-eastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The municipal seat lies at

Santa Rosa de Múzquiz Melchor Múzquiz (also: Ciudad Melchor Múzquiz, Ciudad Múzquiz, or simply Múzquiz) is a city and seat of the municipality of Múzquiz, in the north-eastern Mexican state of Coahuila. The city is named for Melchor Múzquiz, President of the ...

. The municipality covers an area of . As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 62,710. Of these, 242 spoke an

indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples. This language is from a linguistically distinct community that originated in the area. Indigenous languages are not neces ...

, primarily

Kickapoo Kickapoo may refer to: People * Kickapoo people, a Native American nation ** Kickapoo language, spoken by that people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, a federally recognized tribe of Kickapoo people ** Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recog ...

and

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

. It is named for

Melchor Múzquiz Melchor de Eca y Múzquiz (5 January 1790 – 14 December 1844) was a Mexican soldier and politician. He was named interim president of Mexico during the Plan of Veracruz which had the aim of overthrowing President Anastasio Bustamante. T ...

, President of the Republic in 1832, born in Santa Rosa in 1790. Besides the seat, other towns of note include the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

town of

Palaú Palaú is a town in the Mexican state of Coahuila. It is located on the eastern boundary of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the municipality of Múzquiz. Temperatures in the summertime can easily reach 45 degrees Celsius and the winters are mild but w ...

(pop 16,000).

Communities originating in the United States

The town of El Nacimiento is home to the

and the

Mascogos The Mascogos (also known as ''negros mascagos'') are an Afro-descendant group in Coahuila, Mexico. Centered on the town of El Nacimiento in Múzquiz Municipality, the group are descendants of Black Seminoles escaping the threat of slavery in the ...

, both of whom originated in the eastern United States. The Mascogos ( es, Negros Mascogos) are descendants of

Black Seminoles The Black Seminoles, or Afro-Seminoles are Native American-Africans associated with the Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma. They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people, free Africans, and escaped slaves, who allied with Seminol ...

who had fled to

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

following the

Seminole Wars The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Geography of Florida, Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native Americans in the United States, Native American nation whi ...

. Both the Kickapoo and the Mascogos later left Indian Territory and settled in Mexico. Locals in El Nacimiento celebrate

Juneteenth Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Deriving its name from combining "June" and "nineteenth", it is celebrated on the anniversary of General Order No. 3, i ...

, known locally as "Day of the Blacks" ( es, Día de los Negros).

2021 mining accident

A mine in Las Rancherías collapsed on June 4, 2021, killing seven. The miners who died were identified as: Mauricio Cortés (from La Cuchilla), Humberto Rodríguez (from La Mota), Damián Ernesto Robles Arias, 27 (from Las Rancherías), Gonzalo Cruz Marín, 53 (from Las Rancherías), Leopoldo Méndez Sánchez, 20, (proveniente from La Mota), and Francisco Briseño, (“Chicano”). The collapse was due to recent heavy rains. 43 safety violations were detected during the last inspection in July 2004, and 48 urgent recommendations were made; however, there was no follow-up. The organization ''Pasta de Conchos'' complained of the dangerous conditions in the mine in September 2020, but nothing was done to improve the situation. The complaints included a lack of drinking water, the lack of safety equipment (gas meter, first-aid kit, fire extinguishers), poor ventilation, a lack of self-rescue equipment, and a lack of clarity if the workers were registered to receive benefits from the

Mexican Social Security Institute The Mexican Institute of Social Security ( es, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, IMSS) is a governmental organization that assists public health, pensions and social security in Mexico operating under the Secretariat of Health. It also forms ...

(IMSS). The bodies of the seven miners were removed on June 10. 66 soldiers and 21 members of the National Guard participated in the rescue. The rescue effort took 150 hours of work.

References

Municipalities of Coahuila {{Coahuila-geo-stub

Communities originating in the United States

2021 mining accident

See also

References