San Luis Río Colorado is a city and also the name of its surrounding municipality in the state of Sonora,

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 ...

. In the 2020 census, the city had a population of 176,685. The city is the fourth-largest community in the state, and the municipality is also the fourth-largest in terms of population. Lying in the northwestern corner of Sonora, the city marks the state border with

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. It also stands on the

international border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

with the United States, adjacent to

San Luis, Arizona San Luis is a city in Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The population was 25,505 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Yuma Metropolitan Statistical Area. San Luis, located in the southwest corner of the state directly adjacent to Mexico's ...

. It is located about 75 km from

Mexicali Mexicali (; ) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California. The city, seat of the Mexicali Municipality, has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the Calexico–Mexicali metropolitan area is home to 1,000,0 ...

. The municipality covers an area of 8,412.75 km² (3,248.2 sq mi) in the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...

History

Awarded city status in July 1958, San Luis Río Colorado serves as the administrative center for the surrounding municipality of the same name. The city is located on a mesa, characterized by a flat and sandy terrain. San Luis Río Colorado was once an important inland port for steamers traveling the

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

from the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

. Since the early 1900s the Colorado has been completely or nearly completely drained for irrigation. The once-formidable Colorado is usually dry or a small stream. On Easter Sunday 2010, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the region. The

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

department store (formerly

Dorian's Dorian's was a department store chain based in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Dorian's was established in Downtown Tijuana in 1959. On November 9, 1977, a fire ripped through the block where Dorian's was located, however after only 17 worki ...

) and 5 schools were destroyed, affecting approximately 30,000 people in the region. San Luis Río Colorado is home to four regional medium-wave radio broadcast stations, among them 1350 XELBL-AM, all of which are popular long-distance reception targets for medium wave DX radio enthusiasts. Josse, a Mexican Latin beat singer recorded a song called "San Luis Río Colorado" as a tribute to the river.

Climate

San Luis Río Colorado has a

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in deser ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''BWh''), with extremely hot summers and mild winters; it is one of the hottest and driest cities in Mexico. The record high temperature is , recorded on 25 June 1951. The record low temperature is , recorded on 2 January 1950.

Economy

Maquila A (), or (), is a word that refers to factories that are largely duty free and tariff-free. These factories take raw materials and assemble, manufacture, or process them and export the finished product. These factories and systems are present t ...

factories in San Luis Río Colorado include TSE Brakes,

Daewoo Electronics Winia Electronics, formerly named Daewoo Electronics, is a South Korean home appliances company and a member of South Korean Winia Group. Established in 1971, it has since grown into a global business with more than 64 production sites, research ...

, Bose, Flextronics, Yazaki, SANA International, and Gaming Partners International.

Transportation

San Luis Río Colorado Airport is the

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

airport serving this city. The nearest International airport to San Luis Río Colorado is General Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada International Airport near

. San Luis Río Colorado has highway connections to other parts of Mexico (State highway 40 and

Mexican Federal Highway 2 Federal Highway 2 ( es, Carretera Federal 2, Fed. 2) is a free part of the Mexican federal highway corridors () that runs along the U.S. border. The highway is in two separate improved segments, starting in the west at Tijuana, Baja Califor ...

). There is a border crossing with San Luis, Arizona. Several intercity bus companies (including TUFESA) stop at the San Luis Río Colorado bus station.

Notable people

* Alfredo Aceves, professional baseball player for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

. * Paty Díaz, telenovela actress. *

Efrain Escudero Efraín Escudero (born January 15, 1986) is a Mexican mixed martial artist. He trains under Drew Fickett and competes in the 155 lb (70.3 kg) weight class. Efrain was the winner of season eight of Spike TV's reality show ''The Ultimate ...

, MMA fighter for the

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

. * Jorge Páez, former WBO and IBF Champion. * Azriel Páez, undefeated

Welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

prospect and the son of former Champion Jorge Páez. * Carlos Palomino, former WBC

Champion and member of the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...

. * Rogelio Medina, boxing Middleweight contender. * Ignacio Mondaca Romero, writer, author of ''Relatos de Ocio'' among other books. *

Jesús Sánchez García Jesús Enrique Sánchez García (born 31 August 1989), also known as Chapito, is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Liga MX club Guadalajara. Club career Guadalajara Sánchez joined Guadalajara's youth academy in ...

, professional footballer for

Club Deportivo Guadalajara Club Deportivo Guadalajara (); often simply known as Guadalajara () and their nickname ''Chivas'' (), is a Mexican professional football club based in Zapopan, Jalisco. Guadalajara is one of the ten founding members of the Mexican First Divisi ...

References

Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática

External links

*
La Cronica.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Luis Rio Colorado . Populated places in Sonora Populated places in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico Populated places on the Colorado River