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Cananea (from the Apache term for "horse meat") is a city in the northern Mexican State of Sonora . It is the seat of the Municipality Of The Same Name . This is the location where the company The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company was founded in 1899 and was the protagonist of a Strike In 1906 that resulted in the death of 23 people in a fight between the strikers and American rangers. A Corrido titled '' La Cárcel De Cananea '' (" Cananea Jail ") written in 1917 has become famous in Mexico . HISTORY The first non-native inhabitants of the land where Cananea is now located arrive in 1760 . It was a group of Jesuit priests who discovered and extracted gold and silver Mines . General Ignacio Pesqueira , native of the nearby Arizpe retired to this area. He continually fought Apache Indians who would attack the area, and once while chasing them off the mountains he discovered the abandoned mines and by 1868 he had resurrected the extraction of minerals in the Cananea mines. General Pesqueira's wife, Elena Pesqueira Pesqueira, discovered a nearby Sierra and the General named the highest peak ''La Elenita'' ("The Little Elena", 2843 Meter s above Sea Level ) in her honor. The other peak is named ''La Mariquita'' ("The Little Mary", 2476 meters above sea level). In 1989 William Cornell Greene purchased the mine from General Pesqueira and founded the Nogales, Sonora -based company "The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company, S. A. (CCC). On October 31 , 1901 the area became a Municipality with the Cananea town as its seat. On July 11 , 1957 Cananea town became a city. CANANEA STRIKE By 1906, there were 5 360 Mexican workers at the mine earning 3.50 Pesos per day while the 2 200 American workers were earning 5 pesos for the same job. However, the conditions in which the Mexican employees worked were deplorable. During the celebrations of Cinco De Mayo ( May 5 th), the Mexican employees made public their complaints while the local authority applied Martial Law to avoid further conflicts. However on June 1 , most Mexican miners went on strike. The company executives rejected all of the petitions and the workers decided to march and gather people from other towns in the municipality. The population supported the workers and the crowed numbered more than 3 000 people. While they were marching in from of the Wood Shop of the company, the American employees in charge of that department, the Metcalf brothers, threw water at them and then fired shots killing three people. The angry mob detained the brothers and Lynch ed them by setting them on fire. When they approached the government building of the Municipal President they were received by 275 Ranger s and other workers were killed while the strike leaders were sent to prison. Although the workers were forced to return to their positions with no demand being met, the action was a key event that prefigured the Mexican Revolution of 1910 . CANANEA JAIL The Cananea jail was built in 1903 and is located in downtown Cananea. It was the first public jail of the city and is currently a museum '' Museo De La Lucha Obrera '' with exhibitions of photographs and instruments used in mining. The ''Cananea Jail'' song is a Corrido that has become part of the culture of Cananea and the state of Sonora. It describes the experiences a man accused of murdering Chinese immigrants went through while at this jail. According to historian Rodolfo Rascón, a man called Francisco, nicknamed "El Cucharón de Batuc" ("The Big Spoon of Batuc") wrote the song in 1917. SOURCES
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