Sain Alto is a

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

in the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

state of

Zacatecas Zacatecas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Zacatecas, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 31 states of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Zacatecas, 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas City, Zacatec ...

, located approximately northwest of the state capital of

Zacatecas City Zacatecas () is the principal city within the municipalities of Mexico, municipality in Mexico of the same name, and the capital of the state of Zacatecas. Located in north-central Mexico, the city had its start as a Spanish mining camp in the ...

Geography

The municipality of Sain Alto is located at an elevation between on the

Mexican Plateau The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano (), is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau that occupies much of northern and central Mexico. Averaging above sea level, it extends from the United States border in the north to the T ...

in northwestern Zacatecas. It borders the municipalities of

Río Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Me ...

to the north,

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

to the south, and

Sombrerete Sombrerete () is a town and Municipalities of Zacatecas, municipality located in the northwest region of the Mexico, Mexican state of Zacatecas. It was founded in 1555 by Spanish conquistador Juan de Tolosa as a mining center. Due to the wealth th ...

to the west. The municipality covers an area of and comprises 1.9% of the state's area. As of 2009, the land cover in Sain Alto comprises grassland (51%), forest (23%), and

matorral 300px, Springtime in Santiago.html" ;"title="Chilean matorral a few kilometers north of Santiago">Chilean matorral a few kilometers north of Santiago along the Pan-American Highway Matorral is a Spanish language, Spanish word, along with ''tomil ...

(6%). Another 19% of the land is used for agriculture. The municipality lies in the

endorheic basin An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

of the

Aguanaval River The Aguanaval River is a river located in northcentral 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 ...

, which flows south to north through the eastern part of the municipality. A portion of the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American C ...

known as the Sierra de Chapultepec runs through the southwestern part of the municipality. The range contains small deposits of mercury and tin, which were exploited between the 1940s and 1970s.

Climate

Apart from the mountains in the south where the climate is classified as temperate, Sain Alto has a semi-arid climate with dry winters. Average temperatures in the municipality range between , and average annual precipitation ranges between .

History

The name of the municipality derives from the spanish word Saín, a group of

Zacateco The Zacatecos (or Zacatecas) are an indigenous group, one of the peoples called Chichimecas by the Aztecs. They lived in most of what is now the state of Zacatecas and the northeastern part of Durango. They have many direct descendants, but most ...

people who established the settlement of Sain Alto sometime around 1535–1540. These people were led by a ''

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

'' named Saín Alonso. The town's full name was originally "San Sebastián con el renombre de Saín", but it eventually became known as San Sebastián de Sain Alto and later just Sain Alto. The earliest Spanish ''conquistadors'' to come into contact with the people of Zaín were in 1552 and 1553, and

Francisco de Ibarra Francisco de Ibarra (1539 –June 3, 1575) was a Spanish-Basque explorer, founder of the city of Durango, and governor of the Spanish province of Nueva Vizcaya, in present-day Durango and Chihuahua. Biography Francisco de Ibarra was born a ...

in September 1554. The first Zacatecas state constitution of 1825 named Sain Alto as a municipality within the ''partido'' of Sombrerete, later the district of Sombrerete. Sain Alto became a free municipality on 19 August 1916. Mercury mining began in the municipality in 1934, and accounted for 12% of Mexico's mercury production in the years of 1939 and 1940.

Administration

The municipal government of Saín Alto 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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

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

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

and five by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

. The current president of the municipality is José Luis Salas Cordero.

Demographics

In the 2020 Mexican Census, the municipality of Sain Alto recorded a population of 21,844 inhabitants living in 5504 households. The 2010 Census recorded a population of 21,533 inhabitants in Saín Alto.

INEGI The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI from its former name in ) is an autonomous agency of the Government of Mexico, Mexican Government dedicated to coordinate the National System of Statistical and Geographical Information ...

lists 53 localities in the municipality, of which only the municipal seat, also called Sain Alto, is classified as urban. It recorded a population of 5295 inhabitants in the 2020 Census.

Economy and infrastructure

The main crops grown in Sain Alto are corn and beans. Livestock ranching is another important agricultural activity, cattle, goats and horses being the commercially most important animals. Federal Highway 45 runs through the municipality, connecting it to Sombrerete and

Durango City Durango (, ) is the capital and largest city of the northern Mexican state of Durango and the seat of the municipality of Durango. It has a population of 616,068 as of the 2020 census with 688,697 living in the municipality. The city's offici ...

in the west, and Fresnillo and Zacatecas City in the southeast. Federal Highway 49 defines the eastern border of the municipality.

References

{{Zacatecas, state=collapsed Municipalities of Zacatecas 1825 establishments in Mexico States and territories established in 1825