Guaymas

Guaymas, city (1990 pop. 87,484), Sonora state, NW Mexico, on the bay of Guaymas. A port on the Gulf of California, it is also the outlet for Hermosillo. Guaymas stands on a scenic inlet girt by desert mountains. Its fine beaches, excellent deep-sea fishing, and transportation facilities have made it a popular tourist resort. In addition to its role as a commercial center for the surrounding region, Guaymas has a substantial fishing industry. Although the surrounding area was explored as early as 1539, the city was not established until the early 18th cent. by Jesuit missionaries. U.S. forces occupied Guaymas in 1846, during the Mexican War, and it was held by the French in 1865-66.

Guaymas (formally: Heroico Puerto Guaymas de Zaragoza) is a port city and a municipality in the Mexican state of Sonora. It stands on a small bay on the Gulf of California, near the mouth of the Río Yaqui, south of state capital Hermosillo and north of Ciudad Obregón. It serves as the administrative centre for the surrounding municipality of the same name, and for the neighborhood San Carlos Nuevo Guaymas, Sonora. Guaymas reported a population of 101,507 in the 2005 census, while its municipality had 134,153.

The surrounding municipality has an area of 12,206.18 km² and is one of the largest in the state. Besides the municipal seat the settlements are: Bahía San Carlos, Pueblo Vícam, San Ignacio Río Muerto, Pótam, Bahía de Los Lobos and Ortíz.

Guaymas is the second-largest port on Mexico's Pacific Coast (after Manzanillo). It is one of the major shrimp producing cities of northern Mexico and was formerly a major oyster producer, although pollution and overfishing have depleted its stocks greatly.

Guaymas is located in a semi-arid flat area. The climate is dry and very hot, with an average monthly maximum temperature of 31°C in the months of July and August and an average monthly minimum temperature of 18.0º in the months of January and February. The average annual temperature is 19°C.

In a tradition dating back to 1888, one of Mexico's liveliest carnivals takes place on the waterfront every spring.

In June 2007, local mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico announced plans to build a copper smelter and refinery and a 400MW power plant at Guaymas.

History

The Jesuit missionary Juan Salvatierra first founded the mission of San José de Guaymas, some kilometres from the bay, in 1703; because of attacks by the local Seri natives, the mission was abandoned and re-established on several occasions. It is the oldest port on the eastern shore of the Golfo de California, and was the starting point for the first mission settlement of the Baja region. The first mission on the Baja was established near modern day Laredo, Baja California, Sur. On August 31 1769, José de Gálvez founded the town of Guaymas and assigned the first plots. On July 13 1859 it was assigned city status and, in 1862, the local congress renamed the settlement "Guaymas de Zaragoza".

The port was attacked by the French on two occasions in the 19th century: in 1854, José María Yáñez successfully led the townsfolk in repelling a group of filibusters under Gaston Rousset Bourbon and, in 1865, a flotilla of French ships took the port and occupied it until September 1866.

A fascinating account of life in Guaymas in the late 1960s / early 1970s from the point of view of a young American graduate student can be found in the book The Guaymas Chronicles by David E. Stuart. He reveals much of the lives of the poorer citizens of Guaymas as he describes his gradual integration into local society and the strong life changing friendships he made. In a sequel Guaymas Chronicles II, Zona Rosa, David E. Stuart returns to Guaymas and looks up many of his old friends from the first book after many years pass.

Transportation

General José María Yáñez International Airport serves Guaymas.

Guaymas in fiction

• Guaymas was the destination of the ill-fated small airplane in Family Flight, a 1972 TV movie (starring Rod Taylor, Dina Merrill, Kristoffer Tabori and Janet Margolin) about a family of four whose plane came down in the Baja California desert during a thunderstorm; the family cleared a runway in a desperate bid to fly out and never actually reached Guaymas on this trip.
• In the alternate history novel How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove, the Confederate States of America acquire Guaymas together with the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, from an impoverished Mexican Empire. This is a causus belli that sparks the Second Mexican War between the United States and the CSA.
• The fourth song on Beirut's 2007 album 'The Flying Club Cup' is entitled "Guyamas Sonora", though the album's track are said by singer Zach Condon to evoke French cities. Additionally, the cover's photograph is believed to have been taken in the city around 1930.

Locator maps

References

• Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005 INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
• Enciclopedia de los Municipios de Mexico

External links

• http://guaymas.gob.mx Guaymas municipal authority
• http://portofguaymas.com.mx Guaymas deepsea port
• http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/guaymas-mayor.html CityMayors feature
• Mexico's Guaymas Port May Pick Up California's Slack, 16 September, 2005