Bustamante, Nuevo León

Bustamante is a municipality and town of Mexico in the state of Nuevo León. The full name is San Miguel de Bustamante. The municipality has an area of 558 km². It is bordered on the north by Lampazos de Naranjo and the state of Coahuila, on the south by Mina and Villaldama, Nuevo Leon, on the east by Villaldama, and on the west by Mina. In 2010 the population of the municipality was 3,773, of which nearly all lived in the town of Bustamante.GeographyBustamante is located in the valley at the mouth of a well-watered canyon in the headwaters of the Sabinas River, a tributary of the Salinas River. The Sierra de Gomas to the west of the town rise to an elevation of 5,591 feet (1,704 mts) at the Cabeza de Leon four miles south-southwest of Bustamante. East of town is the Sierra de Lampazos which rise to an elevation of 3,816 feet (1,163 mts)The climate is semi-arid with about 20 inches (500 mm) of precipitation annually, mostly falling in summer. Summers are hot and winters are mild, with the lowest annual temperature usually about 23F (minus 5C).HistoryThe Spanish recruited more than 400 Tlaxcalan families in 1591 to settle in northern Mexico to help pacify and integrate the northern Indian tribes, collectively called the Chichimeca. This was one of the measures taken to resolve the long-running Chichimeca War. Sixteen Tlaxcalan families among the ancestors of the Tlaxcalans who were settled near Saltillo moved north in 1686 to found Bustamante, which was originally called San Miguel de Aguayo de la Nueva Tlaxcala. The Franciscans established a mission nearby to convert the Alazapas, a local band of nomadic Indians, to Christianity.