Santa Catarina River (Mexico)

The Santa Catarina River (Río Santa Catarina in Spanish) is a river and a State Protected Natural Area in Nuevo León, Mexico; a tributary of the San Juan River and the Rio Grande, it flows through the Monterrey metropolitan area.^[1]

The Santa Catarina River made the establishment of Monterrey and its metropolitan area possible and generated an economic system based on agriculture and livestock; on the other hand, it has also brought numerous floods. In 1596, the river was mentioned by Diego de Montemayor in the founding document of the capital of Nuevo León:

Spanish: Y se han de regar con el Agua de los Ríos de Santa Catarina y Santa Lucia y para ayudar á cultivar las dichas tierras los Indios Casiques Naturales de esta tierra que son el Casique Napayan Guachichil con su gente y el Casique Alguaron Borrado junto á los Coapuliguanes, y el Casique Juaquialene y como Agua coata es con su Gente.
English translation: And they are to be irrigated with the water of the rivers of Santa Catarina and Santa Lucia and to help cultivate the said lands the Casique Indians Native to this land who are the Casique Napayan Guachichil with its people and the Casique Alguaron Borrado together with the Coapuliguanes, and the Casique Juaquialene and as Agua coata is with its people.^[2]

In July 2010, Hurricane Alex caused severe flooding, landslides, and damage to homes, bridges, roads, and other infrastructure. Constitución and Ignacio Morones Prieto avenues, which run alongside the river, had to be redesigned and rebuilt. The 2007 linear park disappeared completely, along with other sports facilities and the market under the Puente del Papa.^[3] After the hurricane, no more sports or commercial facilities were built on the riverbed, allowing the ecosystem to recover.^[1]

The Santa Catarina River rises in the Sierra Madre Oriental within the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, near San José de las Boquillas in municipality of Santiago, at more than 2,200 meters above sea level, collecting the waters of municipality of Arteaga in the Sierra El Álamo, Cerro Rancho Nuevo and Sierra de la Viga, then those of Sierra San Isidro, Sierra San Juan Bautista, Sierra San Cristóbal and Sierra Mauricio. The river passes through El Salto de Ciénega de González and then enters Santa Catarina through the San Cristóbal canyon, crossing a long and narrow canyon between the foothills of the Sierra Agua del Toro, Cerro El Magueyal and Sierra de San Urbano, passing through some towns in Santa Catarina such as San Cristóbal, El Marrubial, Tinajas, El Alto, los García, Buenos Aires, Nogales and Horcones, from there to the mouth of La Huasteca, collecting the waters of 32 canyons (El Pajonal Canyon, La Mielera Canyon, Santa Juliana Canyon, Sandías Canyon, Salazar Canyon, San Pablo Canyon, Las Escaleras Canyon, etc.) that in turn receive water from several municipalities in Nuevo León and Coahuila.

The river emerges from the gorges between the Cerro de Chipinque and Cerro de Santa Catarina to cross the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey and then in San Pedro Garza García; where the Jesús María mills were located, it is fed by the waters of the Obispo stream, which fall from Cerro de las Mitras, enters Monterrey between San Jerónimo and Loma Larga, crosses between the center of Monterrey and Colonia Independencia, then towards Guadalupe where it is joined by the La Silla River with the waters of Cerro de la Silla, crosses the municipality of Juárez; until in Cadereyta it joins as a tributary of the San Juan River and then flows into the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico.