Pecos
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| Pecos Province | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — Province of Brazoria — | |||||
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| Nickname(s): "The Wild West" | |||||
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| Provincial language(s) | English, Spanish | ||||
| Protected language(s) | Mescalero, Comanche, Lipan | ||||
| Demonym | Pecoan | ||||
| Capital | Santa Fe | ||||
| Largest city | Midland-Odessa | ||||
| Area | Ranked 1st | ||||
| • Total |
273,000 km2 105,405.889 sq mi | ||||
| Population | Ranked 13th | ||||
| • Total | 1,222,653 | ||||
| • Density |
4.479/km2 11.599/sq mi Ranked | ||||
| Elevation | |||||
| • Highest point |
Wheeler Peak 4,013 m 13,167 ft | ||||
| • Lowest point |
Red Bluff Reservoir 861 m 2,826 ft | ||||
| Established | 10 July 1922 (13th) | ||||
| Council | 25 members | ||||
| • Largest party | Moderate, 11 Seats | ||||
| • Opposition | One Nation, 8 Seats | ||||
| Dietmembers | TBD | ||||
| Time zone | UTC-7 | ||||
| Abbreviations | PC, PEC | ||||
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Pecos Province (Spanish: Provincia Pecos) is one of the 13 provinces of Brazoria. It borders Sierran West New Mexico to the west and Mexican Chihuahua and Coahuilas to the south. Pecos has domestic boundaries with the Provinces of Comanche and Ute to the east. The provincial capital is Santa Fe while the largest city is El Paso. Pecos has an estimated population of TBD as of 2020 and a total land area of TBD square kilometers, making it the TBD largest Province by population and the TBD largest by area.
The El Paso metropolitian area accounts for about a TBD of the Province's total population and it is the only town conurbation with more than 500,000 people in the entire Province. The provincial population is scattered across many rural towns, with about 82% living in towns with less than 100,000. Other major towns in Pecos include Santa Fe, Roswell, Carlsbad, Las Cruces, and Fort Stockton.
Pecos Province is made up of three informal geographic regions: East New Mexico and Herradura. Both East New Mexico and Herradura are mostly encompassed by the Chihuahuan Desert, though the latter is characterized as more arid. Ranching, paritcularly desert ranching, and petroleum extraction are the two largest components of the provincial economy. The Permian Basin in the south of the Province is one of the most productive petroleum extracting regions in Brazoria, while northern Pecos is home to a relatively large amount of tourism, particularly in the Santa Fe area.
Geography
At 273,000 square kilometers, Pecos Province is the largest Brazorian province by land area. The provincial landscape varies slightly by region. East New Mexico and Herradura both contain wide, dry deserts, though the former has less arid wilderness with heavily forested mountain ranges. Pecos is characterized by a generally arid to semiarid climate. There is a provincial average of precipitation of 350 mm, with rainfall peaking in the summer season. Summer temperatures at lower elevations often exceed 100°F, though in more alpine areas typically remain around 78°F. The provincial record high temperature was 122°F in Loving on 27 June 1994, while the provincial record low is -58°F in Arestia on 8 October 1957.
Pecos is one of the more topographically diverse provinces in Brazoria, at the intersection between the southern Rocky Mountains and the Llano Estacado. Some of the more significant mountain ranges in the province are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the north, the Sacramento-Capitan Mountains in the center of the province, and the Guadalupe Mountains in the south. The highest point in Pecos is Wheeler Peak, while the lowest point is at the bottom of the Red Bluff Reservoir.
Flora and fauna
Pecos Province contains four general habitat zones with a wide diversity of plants and animals. The West Llano Estacado is a shortgrass prairie dominated by cultivars such as the blue grama. The Chihuahuan Desert extends through much of East New Mexico and all of Herradura, and it is characterized by its large quantities of creosote. The southern Rocky Mountains run through the center of East New Mexico and range in vegetation according to elevation gradients: pinyon-juniper woodlands persist around the base, with evergreen conifers, spruce-fir and aspen forests, and alpine tundra at higher elevations.
Some of the native wildlife found in the province includes bighorn sheep, bobcats, cougars, coyotes, deer, jackrabbits, javelina, pronghorns, roadrunners, western diamondbacks, Mexican gray wolves, and wild turkeys. In recent years, the Brazorian national government has made efforts to reintroduce North American bison into the West Llano Estacado region, designating a large part of the area in the Pecos-Comanche Provinces as a National Rehabilitation Wilderness.
Government
As a regular province of Brazoria, the provincial government wields little legislative authority of its own. The Pecos Provincial Council serves as the primary organ of local government, and it possesses the capacity to create Provincial Council Boards specific to the areas of administration over which the Council has power. Namely, this includes the Council Boards of Education, Healthcare, Housing, Justice, Transportation, and Utilities. These Council Boards maintain administrative and advisory functions which assist in the implementation and management of the policies and enactments of national government. Pecos Province is also responsible for the management of the provincial judiciary, including the Provincial Circuit Courts and the Pecos Provincial Court.
The Provincial Council held its last elections alongside the national government in 2016. The next elections are scheduled for 2020. In the 2016 elections, the National Party won 19 of the 25 contested seats, and upon the break-up of the National Party in the 2019 elections, these 19 seats were redistributed, with 11 going to the new Moderate Party and 8 to the One Nation Party. Of the six remaining seats, three are possessed by the Christian Democratic Party, two by the Liberty Party, and one by the Worker's Party. As in national elections, provincial elections are party-list and proportional, with parties winning seats depending on the share of the total vote received, after meeting a threshold number of votes which varies according to turnout.
Economy
Society
Pecos Province has an estimated population of 1,224,528 people as of 2018, compared to an estimate of 1,222,653 in 2017. The increase of 1,875 people in one year is the third lowest growth rate of any Brazorian province in a year, at only 0.153%. The ethnolinguistic composition of Pecos Province is 61% Latino, 21% Anglo, 14% Aboriginal, and 3% Tejano. Other minority groups compose less than one percent of the provincial population. Spanish is the predominant language in Pecos, and it is the most widely used language across most aspects of provincial society. The most widely practiced religion in Pecos is Christianity, the largest denomination of which is Roman Catholicism. Canaanism is found in more singularly concentrated rural communities in Pecos, with the vast majority Pecoan Canaanites being Sanctionists. Indigenous spiritual practices are found among the Protected Aboriginal Groups of the Western Comanche, the Mescalero Apache, and the Lipan Apache.
Culture
The local culture of Pecos is influenced by three primary sources, listed in order of influential significance: pre-independence Spanish settlement, later Brazorian colonization, and pre-Columbian indigenous groups. Pecos Province was one of the few Brazorian provinces to possess an already locally established colonial society upon its initial incorporation as a part of the Trans-Grande Territory. The Hispanic culture of Pecos itself was influenced to an extent by the pre-Columbian Puebloan cultures of the Tiwa people and the Mescalero Apache. Modern Pecoan culture is highly reflective of this historical tradition architecturally, linguistically, and socially.
Pecoan cuisine is one of the more representative features of the local culture and its fusionary influences. The provincial cuisine places a large amount of emphasis on endemic spices and herbs, including New Mexico chilis, anise, and piñón. Characteristic dishes include sopapilla, breakfast burritos, and enchilada montada. Another highly representative aspect of Pecoan culture is local architecture, which is mostly built in adobe styles and is heavily influenced by Hispanic and Puebloan sources.
Welfare
Pecos is a regular Province, meaning that its authority over social services is limited to mere administrative and planning capacities. Due to the highly decentralized nature of the provincial population, medical facilities and schools are typically managed independently by the respective counties, though financial resources are shared from a common provincial allocation. Pecos has one of the lowest rates of school completion in Brazoria, owing to the highly agricultural economy and a high rate of religious exemption claims. Only about 58% of the provincial population is recorded as having completed high school, while only about 19% has taken part in further education. Pecos Province is also nationally infamous for its poor healthcare service. The average EMT wait time in the province was 44 minutes in 2018, the second longest in Brazoria after Comanche Province.
Approximately 19.6% of the population of Pecos Province lives under the poverty line, the fifth largest percentage in Brazoria. The median income in Pecos Province as of 2018 was $31,407.
