Cárdenas, San Luis Potosí

For more than a century it was owned by the Cárdenas family. Throughout that time and years later, there was a rise in its population among families of all castes, but most were Pames and few spoke Spanish. They were not concentrated in one locale but were dispersed among several rancherías, and one or two friars of the mission of Alaquines served in religious matters.

In the year 1761 the Ciénega hacienda was owned by Don Manuel Antonio Rojo del Río, Lafuente and Vieyra. When his property was confiscated and sold, it passed to the hands of Félix María Calleja and then Don Felipe Barragán. Upon the death of the latter, the property passed to the ownership of his daughters, Juana and Luisa Barragán.

When the Mexican War of Independence began, several armed conflicts are recorded as having occurred in the territory of the Cárdenas hacienda. In several combats are mentioned the royal forces commanded by don Cayetano Quintero and don Felipe de la Garza, and the guerilla insurgents of Desiderio Zárate.

In 1881 began one of the projects that would form the municipality into one of the most modern in the state, the railway. This project would include the construction of rails from San Luis Potosí to Tampico; the work progressed slowly, both from San Luis Potosí and from Tampico. There were interruptions, unfulfilled contracts, insufficient funds, and court trouble.

In these works they had to overcome the difficulties presented by the laying of the road from Tamasopo to the Highlands, and they built several tunnels penetrating mountains. This bold work challenged the mountains, and the tracks finally found their way to present-day Cárdenas in La Labor, in April 1890.

From that time on, life in Cárdenas was totally transformed, and soon the workshops of the Cárdenas Division were installed. The population grew, the Rasconcito and Colonia Americana neighbourhoods were founded, and the economy was stimulated as a result of the influx of many families who came from Alaquines, Rayón, Lagunillas and other more distant locations. It was a euphoric time that overflowed with joy in all areas of the region. This situation lasted until 1910.

By the beginning of the year 1911, Cárdenas experienced one of the first revolutionary outbreaks led by Higinio Olivo, a native of La Labor and Juan Torres Pérez, who took up arms in El Corito. The forces of Pedro Montoya and brothers Juan and Victoriano Torres entered in 1911. In 1912 brothers Cedillo, Magdaleno, Saturnino, and Cleofas and began a series of violent acts in open rebellion against President Francisco I. Madero.

In 1914 the Cedillistas were in possession of Cárdenas. They established their headquarters there and committed all kinds of abuses. They seized the station, as well as the trains and cargo.

The most important battle in Cárdenas recorded during the Mexican Revolution took place on May 27, 1917. The square was defended by a garrison commanded by Colonel Fidel Garza and the first captains Ramón Hernández and Margarito Negrete when he was violently attacked by Cedillista forces. The fighting spread to the entire population, the attackers took the railway installations, burned the chapopote tank and the scale, and tried to burn down the station.

According to the Integrated System and Geographic Information Statistics INEGI, 2000, the total area of the municipality is 384.26 km2 and accounts for 0.63% of the state territory.

In the municipality are located mountainous formations such as the Sierra de Santa Gertrudis, Sierra Paredes, El Picacho, El Azafrán, Catana and El Grande.

The average annual rainfall is recorded as 616.6 mm (24.28 in), and most of the region is dominated by semi-arid and semi-warm weather in the west, semi-warm and subhumid weather in the centre, and semi-warm and humid weather with rain in the summer in the east. The average annual temperature is 26.9 °C, reaching a maximum in summer of 47 degrees Celsius and a minimum winter 5 degrees Celsius.

• San Luis Potosi
• Alaquines
• Rioverde
• Ciudad Valles