Río Grande is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the Mexican state of

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

Geography

The municipality of Río Grande is located in northern Zacatecas. It borders the municipalities of Miguel Auza,

Juan Aldama Juan Aldama (January 3, 1774 in San Miguel el Grande, Guanajuato – June 26, 1811 in Chihuahua) was a Mexican revolutionary rebel soldier during the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. Biography He was also the brother of Ignacio Aldama ...

, and General Francisco R. Murguía to the north, Villa de Cos to the east, Cañitas de Felipe Pescador to the southeast,

Fresnillo Fresnillo (/fres'nijo/), founded in 1554 by Francisco de Ibarra, is the second largest city in Zacatecas state, north central Mexico and the seat of Fresnillo municipality. As a rail and highway junction, Fresnillo is the center of a rich mining ...

and Saín Alto to the south, and

Sombrerete Sombrerete () is a town and municipality located in the northwest of the Mexican state of Zacatecas, bordering the state of Durango. It was founded in 1555 by Spanish conquistador Juan de Tolosa as a mining center, due to the wealth that the mine ...

to the west. It covers an area of and comprises 2.4% of the state's area. Over 96% of the municipality's area lies in the drainage basin of the

Aguanaval River The Aguanaval River is a river located in northeastern Mexico. Geography It originates in the southern Sierra Madre Occidental range of Zacatecas state, and flows generally north through Zacatecas and Durango states to empty into the endorheic B ...

, the main watercourse in the area which flows south to north through the municipality. This river was known as the Río Grande in the 16th and 17th centuries despite its modest size. The highest point in the municipality is the Cerro Tetilla Grande located at with an elevation of above sea level. Río Grande's climate is

semiarid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...

temperate with an average annual temperature of . Average annual precipitation ranges between 300 and 600 millimetres.

History

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Río Grande area was inhabited by

Chichimeca Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajio region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" that d ...

peoples such as the

Guachichil The Guachichil, Cuauchichil, or Quauhchichitl, are an Indigenous people of Mexico. Pre-contact, they occupied the most extensive territory of all the indigenous Chichimeca Nations tribes in pre-Columbian Central Mexico. The Guachichiles roamed t ...

and . Oral history holds that a Spanish settlement was founded at Río Grande on 18 August 1562. The town was recognized by the

Royal Audiencia of Guadalajara The Real Audiencia of Guadalajara (or Real Audiencia de Nueva Galicia), was the highest tribunal of the Spanish crown in what is today northern Mexico and the southwestern United States in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was created by royal decre ...

on March 5, 1689 under the name Santa Elena de Río Grande. Río Grande was first incorporated as an ''

ayuntamiento ''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain: * ca, ajuntament (). * gl, concello (). * eu, udaletxea (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin Amer ...

'' in the ''partido'' of

Nieves Nieves is a Spanish surname and a female given name from the title of the Virgin Mary ''Nuestra Señora de las Nieves,'' meaning "Our Lady of the Snows." There is also a Scottish Nieves surname that originated in Nevay, located in Angus, Scotland ...

in Zacatecas on 29 October 1833. It became a free municipality on 19 August 1916.

Administration

The municipal government comprises a president, a councillor (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''síndico''), and fourteen trustees (''regidores''), eight elected by

relative majority A plurality vote (in American English) or relative majority (in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth) describes the circumstance when a party, candidate, or proposition polls more votes than any other but does not receive more than half of all vote ...

and six by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. The current president of the municipality is Julio César Ramírez López.

Demographics

In the 2010 Mexican Census, the municipality of Río Grande recorded a population of 62,693 inhabitants living in 15,628 households. It recorded a population of 63,880 inhabitants in the 2015 Intercensal Survey. There are 58 localities in the municipality, two of which are classified as urban: *Río Grande, the municipal seat located on the Aguanaval River, which recorded a population of 32,944 inhabitants in the 2010 Census; and *Loreto, a suburb of the municipal seat located to its northeast, which had 2637 inhabitants in 2010.

Economy

The main economic activity in Río Grande is agriculture. Beans are its main crop; the municipality is located in the middle of Mexico's main bean-producing region. The

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...

of the municipality was unofficially estimated at 2655.8 million Mexican pesos in 2010.

References

{{Zacatecas Municipalities of Zacatecas 1833 establishments in Mexico States and territories established in 1833