Along the west side of Sonora is the Gulf of California(1). At the head of the gulf, on the border between Sonora and Baja California is the mouth of the Colorado River(2) which crosses the harsh Sonoran desert.
Otherwise the northwest is dominated by the Western(3) Sierra Madre(4) mountains. The highest of the Western peaks, near the southern end, is Nevado de(5) Colima in Jalisco at over 4000 meters.
In this area's southeast, along the Jalisco-Michaocán border, is Lake Chapala.
This is one part of a large area of the Americas where Spanish and Roman Catholic Christianity represent the majority.
Gaudalajara, the capital of Jalisco, is where Hidalgo proclaimed the aboltion of slavery in 1810. It is named for a city in Spain the Arabs renamed Wad Al-Hajarah, River of Stones. A suburb, Zapopan, also has more than a million people. The Torreón metropolitan area spills into Durango.
A sampling of pre-Columbia languages follows: I. Yuman languages were spoken in the Colorado River delta and northwest coastal Sonora. II. Uzo-Aztecan languages were originally spoken in northwestern México from near where Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua meet to Nayarit. The Aztecs(6), who spoke Nahuatl(7), migrated south from this area in the early 12th century.
north of Sonora and western Chihuahua
northeast of Chihuahua
east of Sonora
northeast of Durango and northest of Zacatecas
east of northeast Zacatecas
southeast of Zacatecas
southeast
southwest
northwest
1. Sometimes called the Sea of Cortéz.
2. Colorado translates as Red. The river is the ninth longest in North America.
3. Occidental in Spanish.
4. Translates as Mother Range.
5. Translates as Snow-peak of.
6. Méxica was their name for themselves.
7. Some regard today's Nahuatl as consisting of several languages.