Chihuahua << chee WAH wah >> is the largest state in area in Mexico. It covers 94,571 square miles (244,938 square kilometers) and shares its northern border with parts of New Mexico and Texas, states in the United States. At the time of the 2020 census, the population was 3,741,869. The city of Chihuahua, founded in 1709, is the state capital.
A desert covers northern and eastern Chihuahua. The western and southern regions are mountainous. The southwestern mountains are home to the Tarahumara, an isolated group of Indians.
Chihuahua is one of the most prosperous states in Mexico. Agricultural products include beef, cheese, milk, apples, nuts, and peaches. Chihuahuan farmers grow much of the fruit sold in Mexico. Chihuahua’s mines yield copper, gold, iron, lead, silver, and zinc. The state also produces lumber from trees harvested in the mountains. Juárez, on Chihuahua’s border with Texas, is one of Mexico’s largest cities. Factories there manufacture automobile parts, electronics, and textiles for export to the United States.
Spaniards established Chihuahua’s oldest town, Santa Barbara, in the 1560’s. Chihuahua became a state in 1824, when Mexico became a republic. Until the late 1800’s, travel to Chihuahua was difficult. Apache, Comanche, and other Indians attacked settlers and stole their cattle and horses. Railroad construction begun in the 1880’s eventually linked Chihuahua to the Pacific Ocean and the United States. During the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Pancho Villa, a rebel general, used Chihuahua as his base of operations.
