Huatabampo

Huatabampo, head town of its municipality, sits just 8 meters above sea level near the point where the Mayo River meets the Gulf of California. The town had 30,324 residents in 2020. Its Mayo-language name is usually translated as willow in the water, and locals still use its old nickname, Tierra de Generales, for the Revolution commanders who came from here.

This was, and is, Mayo country. In 1614 the Jesuits Pedro Méndez and Diego de la Cruz, escorted by Captain Diego Martínez de Hurdaide, entered the valley and set up mission villages such as Juliantabampo, Chijubampo and Pueblo Viejo, run from Santa Cruz del Mayo. Today's town was born of a river flood in May 1890, when Colonel Antonio del Rincón sent men to look for high ground and families, including those of Chijubampo, moved there. The name Huatabampo came into official use that year, and the town was made a city in 1927.

Álvaro Obregón looms over local memory. He lived here for years before serving as president from 1920 to 1924, his former home is now the Museo Casa del General Álvaro Obregón, and he is buried in the town's old cemetery. José Tiburcio Otero, a general and later governor of Sonora, was put in charge of the Mayo line from Huatabampo in 1891.

The food blends Yoreme cooking with the sea. Look for colache, a stew of squash, corn, green chile and cheese; wacabaqui, a beef stew with corn, green beans, chickpeas, cabbage and squash; frijoles maneados, beans cooked with cheese until they turn stringy; and the coyota huatabampense, a fried corn-masa turnover filled with beef, chicken or cheese, unrelated to Hermosillo's sweet coyota. Horchata and barley water are the usual drinks.

The municipality has about 120 km of coastline, and its economy runs on fishing, shrimp farms and fields of chickpeas, vegetables and grain. Huatabampito, Las Bocas and Camahuiroa are the favorite beaches. Huatabampito alone has roughly 20 km of sand, and whales can be seen offshore in the first months of the year. In the south of the municipality, Navopatia has mangroves and pitaya cactus forest, and there is also the Moroncarit estuary. The climate is hot desert, with summer highs above 38 °C.