El Carmen, often known as "Carmen", is a town and municipality of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. The population was 6,996 at the 2005 census. Located in the Salinas Valley region, it is one of the smallest municipalities of the state of Nuevo León, is bordered by the municipalities of Salinas Victoria at North and East, General Escobedo at South, Abasolo and Hidalgo at West. As of 2009, its population is projected to be much higher than it was in the last census, as there is a large number of people moving to this municipality and surrounded municipalities, mainly people from other places outside Nuevo León, because of the lower house prices, compared to that of Monterrey, and the increasing potential of the region due to the relatively close distance to Monterrey, and constant expansion of its metropolitan area, which is estimated to absorb this municipality soon.

History

The area was settled by Canarian captain Bernanbé de las Casas, who, with other Spanish, primarily Canarians settlers, established several settlements across the Salinas Valley. De las Casas owned an extensive collection of lands, mines and small settlements in the Salinas valley, However, the town which is today El Carmen, was an unsettled territory inherited
from Bernabé de las Casas to his daughter, Juliana de las Casas and her husband in 1614, founded as the Hacienda

Hacienda

Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...

 of Chipinque. The small village remained almost unpopulated, so the area which comprised the small town was sold in 1616 to Diego de Villarreal, a Spanish captain and his sons, in order to increase the Spanish population the Salinas Valley region.

On February 5, 1852, was signed a decree by then Governor of Nuevo León

Governor of Nuevo León

The Mexican state of Nuevo León has been governed by more than a hundred individuals in its history, who have had various titles and degrees of responsibility depending on the prevailing political regime of the time....

, Agapito García, and his executive secretary Santiago Vidaurri

Santiago Vidaurri

José Santiago Vidarrui was a controversial and powerful governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León between 1855 and 1864. His tenure was marked by secessionist ambitions and an unparalleled commerce with the Confederate States of America...

, in the document, the village of Chipinque and surrounded area, would form a new and independent municipality of Nuevo León

Nuevo León

Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...

, named "El Carmen".

Society

The main activities of the municipality are agriculture, ranching, cattle and most recently manufacturing industry, as there are several factories recently created around the municipality

El Carmen, as well as other neighbouring municipalities in the Salinas Valley such as Hidalgo, Abasolo, Salinas Victoria and Mina, have a great potential of development as they are relatively close to Monterrey

Monterrey

Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...

and its metropolitan area. Those municipalities constitute the recently named peripheral region of the metropolitan area of Monterrey.

Sports

The most practiced sport in the municipality is baseball, it has a baseball park and a small stadium, and it is seat of the Academia de Béisbol, one of the most important Baseball academies in Nuevo León and Northeastern Mexico. Also El Carmen has a favorite team playing on San Nicolas Baseball League it has been Champion once and got stolen three championships the name of the actual League is "Juan Manuel(Melin)Garcia.

The municipality has, also, several places to practice other sports such as soccer, volleyball and basketball.