Copper mining and regional identity in Sonora, Mexico

Copper mining has been a dominant economic force in northeastern Sonora, Mexico, for the last century. Control over the means of existence has shifted through three distinct eras in Cananea and Nacozari de Garcia, the two copper mining towns. Associated with these shifts have been changes in place meaning. This study analyzes how the relationship between means and meaning create regional identity. Political and economic policy caused the class in power to change. Each change altered the balance between means and meaning, which sometimes disrupted and other times facilitated the creation of identity with place, and the creation of a mining identity in the greater region. The process through which a place becomes symbolic in an industrial environment is clarified, and how this place meaning is transformed into a regional identity is further examined.