Arizona Highways, November 1950

              I
La Tierra Enca11tadcr
J\ilexico , the E n. ch a nted L a nd, is not the same to all travelers. To some it is a hope­lessly
b achva rd and dirty place, where the plumbing does n't work. the trains always
run late, b ad roa ds are the rule in.s tead of the exception , and where the people are grim
and n ot p articul a rly Fri endly or bright. Such travelers, we feel. have a chip on their
shoulder, lad, either wit or humor to under stand, and for a ll concern ed it would be b el·­ter
if they h ad s tayed at home.
This, to ma ny travelers, a n E n.ch a nted Land, b ecomes more en. cha nted upon b etter
acqu a inta n ce. It is the little thin. gs, the thin.gs tha t a re r emembered , tha t make for
travel pleasure and come from fa miliarity and associa tion. ; or so one traveler has found it
who lrnows w ell the high ro a ds and the byways south from N ogales.
One remembers the moonlight in th e p laza a t H ermosillo in the spr ing, the cathe­dral
white and ageless . as silent as th e sil ent town that seems to go to b ed w ith the
c hickens. One remembers the terrible road from N ogales south, b efore the n ew road
was built to Guaymas, and nights stran d ed in the lonely d esert by rea son of temper­menta
l tires and a lways some farmer or fi sh erma n would come rattling by and ma ke
thi n. gs r ight, doin g so with su ch graciousn ess you would thin!, you w ere doing the
favor to be stranded with tw o fla t tires and no spare.
R emember ed , too, is the a ft ernoon one b y ch a nce came upon the ceremony of mov­ing
La V irgen de Zapopan , J a lisco's p a tron saint. from one p a rish to a nother in G u a d ­a
la jara, the s treets crowded with p eople ch a nting Maiiani tas Guadalupanas, a thou­sand
men and boys dressed in white shirts and black trousers pulling by long ropes the
carriage in which the Virgen rode, and the carriage turning out to b e a n ew Buick and
the Virgen , a lovely fi gurine in wood and silk, r egal in the b ack seat, ven erated by
crowds who bowed so respectfuliy when she w ent b y.
You remember G u a d a la jara, a la rge, bustling city, and how d eserted it b ecomes
during the siesta hour and how it awa kens late in the a fternoon when business starts
aga in . There w er e evenings seeing the city in horse-drawn coaches (cail ed "cala ndrias,"
which mean s " larb " b ecau se the way they flit around) and how you ma rveil ed tha t
these quaint conveyances h ad the right of way, and how no one seemed to mind tha t
they obviously slowed down the traffi c.
One wilI long remember the spirit of the p eople, 50,000 of them crowding the Pla za
in G u a d a la jara on the S ixteenth of September to h ear the " Grito ," the shout of fr ee­dom
on In.d ependen ce D ay, and how "Viva Jua r ez 1" "Viva Morelos]" "Viva J\!lexico ]"
b ecame waves of sound that flood ed the city.
Little things remembered make for pleasant tra vel memories: the fi es ta at Maza tlan. ,
the still h arbor a t night in Guaymas, p eople sitting on their doorsteps in big and little
towns. the policemen at night in Guadalajara ea ch on his own corner, each whistling
merrily on the hour every hour tha t all is w eII ; Lake Cha pala surrounded by blue moun­ta
ins; the crowded . ~ arke ts and how customer~ argue with sales p eople. One r emem­bers
how pla in, ordina ry living seems to b e so much fun for most p eople you meet
when you travel southward from N ogales.-R. C .
OPP OS I TE P AGE
.. W ASHDAY IN NAYAnrr" BY H ERB McL AUGHLI N. The
great Santiago River in Nayarit , where it passes by the
town of Santiago lxcuintla, is convenient on washday.
T he ri ver is wide, slow and sha llow. H ere mothers
gath er with their clothes and children, excha nge gossip
and merry quips. In our age of the automatic washing
machine this loo ks primitive but its much more fu n.
FRO N T C OV E R
.. JARABE T.~ r Ano" BY R AY MANLEY. The Mexican
H a t D ance ori gina ted in the sta te of J a lisco. It is a
gay, lively fo lk da nce, demanding intricate foo twork.
and is one of the Mexican dances which has not found
its way, like la raspa and la bamba, into the d ance
repertoire of Americans. The dancers and the specta­tors
in the photograph wear trad itional fiesta costumes.
A long the coast of S inaloa.
A wedding party in Culiacan.
PHOTOGRAPHS: HERB MCLAUGHLIN
Master glassmaker, G uadalajara.
Packing vegetables in Sinaloa.
Pottery Makr
Draftsmen
Waiter and Cook
VoL. XXVI. No. 11 Nov .. 1950
RAYMOND CARLSON. Editor
GEORGE M . A VEY, Art Editor
LEGEND
FRONT CovER
RAY MANLEY PORTRAYS GAY COSTUMES
OF MEXICAN DANCERS IN FIESTA DRESS.
MEXICAN AovENTURE 4
T1-1E TRAIN TRIP FROM NOGALES, ARIZ.,
TO GUADALAJARA IS AN EXCITING ONE.
SoNoRA 6
OuR NEIGHBOR TO THE souTH 1s BIG
ATTRACTION IN OUR TRAVEL BUSINESS.
NoGALES THE GATEWAY 10
CLOSEUP OF BORDER CITIES WHICH ARE
ENJOYING A BOOM IN FOREIGN TRADE.
SouTHWARD FRoM NoGALES 16
A PICTORIAL PRESENTATION OF THE FOUR
STATES ON WEsT CoAST OF M Ex1co.
JALISCO 30
A VISIT TO AN INTERESTING STATE AND
ITS FAMED CAPITAL CITY, GUADALAJARA.
SINA LOA 36
Ao RI CULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND FERTILE
LAND MAKE VISIT HERE A NOTABLE ONE.
NAYARIT 40
H .ERE IS REVEALED THE NE\V TYPE OF
LEADERSHIP MEXICAN STATES NEEDED.
Viva La Fiesta! ArcTieologist
0 I EIG RS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERB MCLAUGHLIN
We take you this issue on a Mexican
adventure, the journey by rail from No­gales
to Guadalajara. We loaf along
through Sonora, Sinaloa and Nayarit and
into the high plateau country of Jalisco .
We give you glimpses of markets and
fiestas, Mexico the old and M exico the
new, cities frantically b eing rebuil t, vi 1-
lages drowsy in the sun, broad rivers, wide
deserts, lofty mountains and miles without
end of shoreline washed by placid seas.
We introduce you to people and we lool,
in on them as they work and as they play.
In short, we take you calling on our good
friends and neighbors, the p eople a long
Mexico's West Coast.
An accident of geography makes neigh­bors.
It takes more than geography to
create good n eig hborly relations and
friendship. When we look around this
battered old planet and see the bristling
barriers of nationalistic distrust and ani­mosity
separating so many countries, w e
find the friendship between the United
States and Mexico exception a II y note­worthy.
Arizonans, however, living in a
border state, do not find this strange. Our
neighbors, the people of Sonora and Mexi­co's
\Vest Coast States of Sinaloa, Na­yarit
and Jalisco, are more than n eighbors.
They are our good friends. This friendship
has been brought about by mutual respect.
admiration and understanding, expand­ing
trade relations, bro a d en ing travel
horizons , interlocking needs and hopes.
Governor Ignacio Soto of Sonora ex­presses
it thi s way: "Arizona and Sonora
have been outstanding examples of real
internationa l frat ernity. They have been
good n eighbors in the trues t sense of the
word, b ecause of th eir reciproca l respect
and confid ence and firmest determination
to complement each other to better serve
!h eir respective d estinies." Ever widen­ing
travel a rteries mal,e these words hold
true for Arizona and the states south of
Sonora.
This issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is dedi­ca
ted lo Mexico·s W es t Coast States,-,
our good neighbors ,..... Sonora, Sinaloa,
Nayarit and Ja lisco. Nogales is the gate­way
to this vast, rich, colorful area. In
starting our journey southward we pause ·
to visit for a day or so in this great inter­national
port of entry,-,Nogales, Arizona,
and Nogales, Sonora,-,the twin ci ties on
the border so closely tied togeth er by
fri endship and trade relations as to be one
city. Through this port in 1949-50 there
passed n early $50,000,000 in exports and
imports. Border crossings of individuals,.....
citizens and aliens,..... totaled just over
4,000,000. Good neighborliness is good
business, well worth cultivating.,.....R. C.
Plantation Boss Smiling Coachman Printer Composer Teletype Operator
LEGEND Continued
YouRs SINCERELY . . .
AMONG OTHER THINGS \VE FIND THAT
WE ARE NOW ON OISPLA y IN FINLAND.
MAP OF MExico's
44
\ VEsT CoAsT BACK Covrn
ALLEN R EED DESIGNS l\L<\.P S1-10\VING
TRAVELER GOING SOUTH INTO M .EXICO.
DAN E. GARVEY
Governor of Arizona
ARIZONA HIGHWAY COMMISSION
Brice Covington. Chairman Kini;?rnan
H. Earl Rogge, Vice-Chairman C lifton
Louis Escalada. Member . . Nogales
C larence A. Calhoun. Member Mesi'\
John M. Scott, Member . . . . Show Low
J. Melvin Goodson. Exe. Secretary . . Phoenix
W. C. Lefebvre, State Highway Engineer . Phoenix
R. G. Langmade, Special Counsel . . . Phoen ix
AmzoNA H.1GHWAYS is published monthly by the Ari­zona
Hi ghway D epartment a few miles north of the
confluence of the Gila and Salt in Arizona. Address:
ARIZONA l-l1GHWAYS, Phoen ix, Arizona. $3.00 per year
in U. S. and possess ion s ; $3.50 elsewh ere. 35 cents
each. Entered as second-cl ass matter Nov. 5, 1941 at
Post Office in Phoeni x, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Copyrighted, 1950, by Arizona Hi ghway D epartment.
A llow five weeks for change of addresses. Be
sure to send in old as we ll as new addr~ss.
JAHN ~ TYLER
Shipbuilder
Moulder
Candy Vendor
Telegrapher
ADVENTURE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERB MCLAUGHLIN
A s tring of shining s teel ties together
Nogales, Arizona, and Guadalajara,
J a lisco, Mexico. rendering less formid­able
the 1068 miles tha t separa te Ari­zona's
b ord er and the second largest
city in Mexico and through terminals
there brings closer to u s the large cities of the interior of the
Mexican R epublic. This string of shining steel has been for
over two d ecades the main artery of trade and transportation
that has given impetus to the industrial and agricultural ex­pansion
in our neighboring states of the West Coast of
Mexico , and whose operations have brought prosperity to
these states and to Southern Arizona.
T his s tring of shining steel, to use its full name, is the
Ferrocarril Sud-Pacifico de M exico,-,the Southern Pacific of
Mexico Railroad Company,-,a subsidia ry of our own Southern
Pacific. Historians have extolled the contribution of our S . P .
and the Santa Fe in the building and development of the
frontier West that was once Arizon a. The S. P. of Mexico
has done even more for the territory it serves because its ser­vices
have not been supplemented by fine highways that have
been developed in our sta te since statehood. Highway trans­portation
a long the W es t Coast of Mexico at this late day is
still insecure, although road building programs are being ex­tensively
carried out. It has been only in recent years that air
transportation has developed sufficiently on the ·West Coast
to contribute appreciably to the transportationa l needs of
travelers and industry. Railroad and shipping have carried
and are carrying the main load.
Today at this minute hundreds of carloads of tomatoes and
PAGE FOUR • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS •
other vegetables are rolling from packing houses in Sonora and
Sinaloa for American markets over the S. P. de M exico. More
carloads a r e a t the same time rolling southward a long the
same line carrying tools, machinery and farm equipment and
other supplies from U. S. factories to the M exican marl<et.
Two nations and two peoples enjoy better living through the
endeavors of this historic railroad.
It has withstood Hoods and revolution s, h ell and high
water, and is miraculously doing business in the same old
place,-,between Nogales and Guad a la jara.
The trip i s a Mexican adventure. The rail fan finds rail ­roading
with a Mexican Havor a little bit different than rail ­roading
elsewh ere.
It is not the kind of trip you want to tal<e if you d emand
your trains on time, but if you are patient and will just sit
bad< and enjoy the scenery and the surroundings you will
have a fine time. The fare plus Pullman b erth lower from No­gales,
Sonora, to Guadalajara, one way, is less than $30,
(226. 15 pesos a t 8.63 pesos to $1 to be exact) with Pullman
meals and good ones, too, between 50 cents and $ 1.00. Not
an expen sive a dventure to say the least 1
You see the ka liedoscope of country that is the 'vVest Coast,
d esert, jungles, pla ins, mountains and the sea. You see big
towns and little towns, and always th ere is the exci tement in
the sta tions when the trains come and go, b ecause nowhere
else on earth could the arrival of a tr,ain mean so much as it
does in these Mexican s ta tion s. Four great Mexican sta tes,-,
Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit and Jalisco,-,unroll lil<e a magic
carpet by your window, and not a mile of what passes b efore
you is not interesting. Not s tream-lined luxury, but exci tin g.
Please Tum Lo Page Forly-Lwo
NOVEMBER 1950
International boundry, Nogales .
The roundhouse at Empalme, Son.
On the siding at Guaymas, Son.
Loading tomatoes in Sinaloa.
The station at Magdalena, Sonora.
Icing produce 'cars, E mpalme.
Crossing Rio Fuerte, Sinaloa.
Wailing for train at Culiacan.
Wrecking equipment of railroad.
R ebuilding locomotive, Empalme.
Town greets train at San Blas.
Spanning the river, Culiacan.
IGNACIO SoTo
Governor of Sonora
"Good government is to faithfully interpret the needs and
longings of the greatest number of the people and to sat­isfy
them to the greatest possible degree."
Arizona couldn' t ask for a nice neighbor
than Sonora. These two states live side by
side in harmony and accord, each contribut­ing
to the well-being of the other.
Sonora is just across the street from us,
in a way of spealdng, whether y~u are in No­gales
, Douglas, Bisbee, Ajo or Yuma. You
may visit for a short afternoon or for weeks. Our neighbor
to the south will have something interesting for the visitor
every minute of the stay.
From a statistical viewpoint Sonora is impressive. The
state is the northernmost state in the Republic of Mexico.
covering an area of 113,457 square miles. The population,
according to the 1950 census, is 520,000 inhabitants, a gain
of 155,824 in ten notable years of advance and accomplish­ments.
The shores of Sonora, on the Gulf of California, extend
for 534 miles from the mouth of the Colorado River to Agia­bampo
Bay, on the border of the state of Sinaloa. Most
notable f ea lures of this extended shoreline are the bays of
Puerto Libertad, Adair, Punta Penasco, T epoca, Kino, T as­tiota,
Guaymas, T obari, Y avaros and Agiabarripo.
Sonora is divided in three definite climatic zones: The
eastern, which is mountainous; the central. extensive valleys
of which are irrigated by the principal rivers; and the west­ern,
essentially arid desert. All climatic conditions are found
in Sonora, from desert to mountains, but during most of the
year temperatures are moderate. Altitudes range to 6562
feet above sea level. Winters in the central and coastal re~
gions are very pleasant, about lil,e southern and central Ari­zona.
Summers in this same area are humid and hot.
The industrial development of Sonora has been pro ­nounced
during the past ten years, during which time one
hundred ten factories, large and small, liave been established.
The most important of these are meat pacldng plants and
plants for freezing and processing of shrimp and other sea­products.
Flour mills and modern plants for the manuf ac­ture
of cement, textiles, fats and oils have added lo the self­sufficiency
of the state. Sonorans have awakened to the
wealth of raw materials to be found in their state. For in­stance
the fishing industry, completely operated by Mexicans,
is now operaing with over two hundred ships and ten freez­ing
and pacldng plants, representing an investment of two
hundred million pesos. Ten years ago this industry was con­trolled
by Japanese. It has expanded under Mexican control.
The Mariachis are the wandering troubadours of Mexico . This type of music originated in Jalisco long ago when rich, colonial
la.ndowners organized groups of musicians to play at their weddings. The word comes from the French word "mariage.
P1-lQTOGRAPHERS: WESTERN WAYS,
HrnB McLAuc11uN, C. \V. KLEY.
Sonora has a la rge callle industry, in fact, one of the larg­est
in Mexico, with investments in lands, equipment and live­stock
of around one billion pesos. Livestock nlimbering
approximately two million head, represen t five hundred
miilion pesos on tl1e hoof. In the last four years four canning
plants and one meat pacldng plant have been built with a
sufficient capacity lo handle the annual production of the
callle industry. h didn't tal,e Sonora long to recover from
the damaging effects of the U. S. quarantine on Mexican
cattle caused by the hoof-and-mouth disease south of the
sta le.
Tl1e vast mineral resources of Sonora have yet lo be prop­erly
exploited. Sonorans, l1owever, are now turning their
a llen lion lo this industry and hope that the corning years will
Lring into production several mines as large as the Anaconda
subsidiary al their Cananea.
They do nol do things Ly lwlf measures in our sister state.
The emphasis l1as been on public education. The stale has
made grealer strides loward the goal of universal education
than l1as any oll1er stale in Mexico. In 1950 there were en ­rolled
in the public scl1ools of the stale 94.902 children, as
against 61,310 in 1940. Tl1ere are now in operation in the
stale 7I l public and private schools, employing 3,000 leacliers.
During the past seven years, 231 school buildings have been
built and equipped, a record no other Mexican stale can equal.
Public funds spent for education Iias risen from 3,200,000
pesos in 1937 and 5,176,000 in 1944 lo nearly 8,212,584 pesos
this year. The facilities of the University of Sonora at H er­mosiilo
l1ave b een expanded lo answer the needs of the ever­in
creasing number of graduates coming up from the public
scl1ools. A coilege of agriculture near Navajoa is !raining
1 l1e modern farmers for Sonora of lomorrow.
Sonora l1as Leen fortunate in her in spired leadership for
I lie past eight years. Governor Abelardo Rodriguez, former
president of lhe Republic and native son of Sonora, M ex ico's
oulslanding industrialist and empire builder, gave the stale
!he impetus lo move forward. Under his regime !he face of the
slale was transformed. His successor is Governor lgnacio
Solo, who represents the new and progressive ideal of leader­ship
for Mexican states. Governor Soto was never in any
sense a politician before taldng office. He has been a success­ful
business man for many years, the owner of a large cement
fnclory, and one of the state's most progressive citizens.
\\/lien Governor Rodriguez retired from office, Souornns
l1ad lo find a big man lo succeed him. That man was Ignacio
Solo. He is more than fulfilling the trust bestowed upon him
hy the people. Statistics tell the story.
But s lat islics do not tell the complete story of Sonora.
Sonora is something one must see at first hand. vVhen one
realizes 1l1e wealth of scenic and historial interest in the slate,
one tl1en understands how important this state is as a travel
adjunct lo Arizona and how concerned Arizonans are with
il s d evelopment. For instance, the completion of the highway
from Nogales lo H ermosillo (air-moe-see-yo) and Guaymas
( wl1y-mus) has been describ ed in a fa r-fet ched way as one
ol' tl1e major road building achievements in Arizona. The
reasou is simple. The year a fter this road was comμleted
I ravel lo Nogales from Tucson increased 26 per cenl and gaso­line
consumption in Santa Cruz county increased 46.4 per
ce nt. Next month this fin e, new highway will be hard sur­faced
lo Ciudad Obregon, a distance of 90 miles south of
Guaymas. and n ext year will be completed to Sinaloa.
The new dam at Hermosillo brings into production 25,000
acres of land /or .cultivation and assures supply of water.
Northern Sonora is dotted with historic old missions.
Empalme, near Guaymas, is an important railroad center.
S~nora is emphasizing the expansion of the public education.
School enrollment increased 33,592 during the past decade.
The State Capitol in Hermosillo was damaged by fire and
will eventually be replaced by an imposing modern structure.
Sonora is history. You can follow the trail of the Padres
through the Altar Valley, in and around Magdalena, where
la Fiesta de San Francisco is held in early October each year.
When you visit these missions in such places as T ubutama,
Caborca, Oquitoa, and Pitiquito you are in places that are
dreamy reminders of the days of Conquest. Magdalena is an
old town in the center of a busy farming district, hardly an
hour's drive from the border. The paved highway not only
takes you through this green valley but brings you to and
through lmuris (ee-moo-rees) and Santa Ana (san-tana) ,
small towns typically Mexi,can.
What was once the domain of the fierce Yaquis is now an
agricultural empire. The Y aquis are industrious {armers.
Tlw University of Sonora nl Hermosillo is offering a wide
rnnge of courses to graduates of Sonora's secondary schools.
An easy half day's drive from Nogales brings you to Her­mosillo,
the "pretty little city," capital of the state. The
Museum and Library which has just b een completed here is
one of the most bea utiful public buildings in all of Mexico.
The city itself is notable for the building boom that has
changed its character completely in the past six years. First
class accommodations are available in Hermosillo, a city worth
more than a passing visit if for no other reason than its pro­gressiveness,
the modernity of its architecture, the friendliness
of its people.
Guaymas, of course, is the tourist mecca of Sonora. Here
the d esert and the Gulf meet. This sea port h as long been
famed for its deep sea fishing , the gen eral excellence of its ac­commodations,
the picturesqueness of its loca tion. When the
marlin and the sword fish are running in May and June.
sportsmen from all over the United States check their gear in
at this port. In May the town celebrates the annual Fiesta de
la Pesca (Fish Festival), the main feature of which is the
promenade of fishing boats in the harbor.
With the completion of the highway south next year, the
quaint village of Alamos in the hills near Navajoa will be
prominently discussed in tourist literature. Described as the
"Taxco of Sonora," Almos retains its colonial charm and dis­tinction.
This new highway we speak of crosses the Yaqui and
Mayo Valleys, which brings to mind Sonora' s greatest
achievement of modern times-her agricultural expansion.
The modern textile factory at Hermosillo is indicative of the
industrial expansion taking place at this time in the state.
Ortega, arcliilect-builder, has earned a national reputation {or
his achievements in design and construction in Hermosillo.
When the dams under cons truction , or planned, are built,
Sonora will be one of the rich es t agricultural regions in Mexico
with nearly one million hectares ( h-vo and one-half acres to a
hectar) μnder cultivation, including the areas irrigated by
wells. Around Ciudad Obregon, Navajo and Huatabampo,
600,000 acres will soon be under cultivation, a territory that
surpasses in area the cultivated valley of the Nile River. Now
under construction in the great Yaqui Valley of Southern
Sonora is the Alvaro-Obregon D am (Oviachic) on the Yaqui
River, and planned for construction is the Camoa Dam in the
Mayo Valley on the Mayo River. Not only will these dams
bring more acreage under cultivation but they wiII also pro­vide
control of two rivers whose tempestuous floods have been
very damaging in · recent years. In the words of George R.
Martin, Secretary-Manager of the W est Coast of Mexico
Vegetable Association of Nogales, Arizona, the Yaqui-Mayo
d is tricts are part of "an agricultural empire that is abuilding
faster than any !mown in recorded history." The money crop>
from Southern Sonora, grown principally for export to the
United States and Canada, consists of tomatoes, p eas, peppers,
eggplants and cucumbers. Sonora tomatoes reach the Amer­ican
mailet when American tomatoes are not in production
which brings fancy prices for fancy products. The distribu­tion
of Mexican vegetables, according to M r. Martin, forms a
large and important business in Nogales, Arizona, where 400
people are employed by the shippers and growers, with about
I 00 employees on the payrolls of the government, the tel e-
Despite the embargo on Mexican cattle to the U . S., because
of hoof-and-mouth disease, Sonora industry is a large one.
The new highway from Nogales south is making the people of
Sonora tourist -minded. This is lobby of new Hermosillo hotel.
phone and telegraph companies, the railroads and the customs
brokers all allied with the industry. It is estimated that the
annual net income of owners and employees of produce firms
in Nogales amount to about $775,000, the bulk of which is
spent in Arizona. Over 1,000 large trucks with trailers come
to Nogales each season to rush vegetables to nearby states.
Railroad freight bills amount to about $4,000,000 annual!y,
of which about $1,600,000 goes to the S. P . of M exico. Fur­thermore,
this industry provides employment to about 6,000
farm workers and their families in Mexico, a fact which
vividly illustrates the value of good n eighborly relations in a
business and commercial sense. Sonora is good business for us!
Public health has been stre2sed in recent years in Sonora.
The public clinic at Hermosillo caters to ills of the needy.
The international boundry separates Nogales, Arizona, (right) and Nogales, Sonora. The friendliest of relations tie them together.
BY JOSEPH STOCKER PHOTOS BY WESTERN V-..1 A YS
THE ~ATEWAY
If it weren't for the thin wire mesh fence that separates the
border city of Nogales , Ariz., from its cheek-by-jowl neighhor,
Nogales, Sonora, you couldn't possibly t e ll where the U.S.A.
leaves off and Mexico begins.
For there is such an intermingling of Yanhe living and
Latin living here where two nations meet that it would tah
far more than a fence to sort out one from the other. Little
wonder that nobody ever thought it worth the effort to give the
two cities different names. And , in fact , they are lumped to­ge
ther in the local colloqui a lism . "Ambos Nogales," they' re
called-meaning "both" Nogales.
Let's say you're looldng for a chance lo get a "quiclde"
glimpse of Mexico-not a full-dress tour, just a peel< and then
move on. You cruise 65 miles down U. S. Highway 89 from
Tucson, parl< your car on the American side and walk through
a gale in the wire mesh fence. You enter the customs station.
PAGE TEN • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS •
"Citizenship?" says the governmen l fundio11,1ry a l lhe
gate.
"U. S.," you r e ply. That's 1l1 e ex 1e ,i1 of th e reJ tape. and
1h ere you are-an international traveler doing il lh e easy way.
You could drive across the lin e. o f course , and see Noga les.
Sonora. from vour ca r window. But lh e n vou miss what you
went after-a ~lose -up of Pan-American life and or lhe int er­national
goulash produced by tl1 e juxlaposilion or Amer ican
vitalitv and Mexican mafiana at these border lwin c ities.
A~ericans living on this side of lhe lin e do bu~iness on
the other side. Mexicans living over lhere hnve johs over
here. "GooJ morning , Rnfa el." says tl1e neighborly c ustoms
gua rJ lo the intema lionnl jobhold e r trudging lhrough the gal e
each morning from th e counlry where li e lives lo 1l1 c country
\\'here h e works. "Bu enos dins, senor."
American tourists spend their money in Nogales, Sonorn,
NOVEMBER 19 50
and l'v l exican ladies cross the border e v e ry dny or so lo do the ir
s hoppin g in the Americnn stores.
Thenters in Nognles. Ariz. , show Mexican films, and
I h eaters in Nogales, Sonora, beguile the movie-goers' pesos
with interminable double fea tures straight from Hollywood .
(Showing today at the Teatro Obregon : G inny S imms in
' Trampas de Amor," with Marth a O'Driscoll and Alan
Curt is. " Fina comedia musi.cal realizacla [elizmente con un
reparl.o que Ucl. nunca olvidara!")
On th e American side th e n ewspapers pay close atten­li
on lo devolpments in Mexican politi cs. On the Mexican side
I he press follows th e for tunes of our Congress almost as in-
1 cntly as the lates t politica l intelligences from Mexico City.
Tradespeople living in e ith er Nogales speal< both lan­guages-
English and Spanish. Being b ili ngual is more es­sential
to their business than a l edger and a cash register.
And it's not enough for a hote l on the American side to
ins cribe " In" on one of its Front doors and "Out" on the
other. The inscriptions must read, " ln-Entrada" and "Out­Salida."
Similarly, stores on th e Mexican side welcome trade
with signs that say, ."Abier to , Pase Ud.; Open, Come In ."
J n fact, it would seem h ardly necessary to have an inter­national
fence th ere nt all. But one supposes that a certain
minimum deference h as lo be paid to th e nationalistic ameni­ti
es, even nmongst th e f rec-wheeling, ensy-go ing countries of
Nor th America.
Tlie fence, by the way, doesn't run exactly along the
fiord er. lt' s l wo or three fe e l this side of it. You can cross the
fe nce, stand with your bad< to it and still b e in the United
S I ales. Or, lo cite a more practical application, a fugitive from
U. S. justice can sca l e the fence one step just ahead of the law.
snag his pants shinnying down the other side and still be
hauled back without precipitating an international incident.
The fact that the line separating the two cities is at the
same lim e the lin e separa ting two nations has provided this
region with a sprightly collection of border memorabilia.
Item: The seven th hole of th e Nogales, Ariz., golf course
is s itunted on ly 25 yards from the boundary. A pitch shot with
a littl e loo much oomph behind it is liable as not to land in
Mexico. Golfers on the Arizona side lile to amuse themselves
speculating on th e implications of it. Are they liable to get
into trouble with the Mexican government for shipping rub-ber
into the country illegally? And should they apply lo
Washington for an import license to bring it bad<?
Item: An old settler by the name of John Brickwood built
a saloon many years ago, before the final boundary survey
had been made. When th e survey finally was completed, it
was discovered that the saloon lay almost exactly astraddle the
border. The bar was half inside Mexico and half inside the
United States. Shady characters incurring the d isfavor of th e
law needed only to slith er from the American end of the bar
to the Mexican end (or vice versa) when an offic er hove into .
view.
The twin cities consti tut e a very busy port of entry which
is of growing importance in commercial intercourse between
the two countries-a gateway, in fact, to the whole west coast
of Mexico. This embraces a vast and comparatively unex­ploited
agricultural region stre tching southward beyond Guay­mas
(the "Riviera of Mexico") to Culiacan and Mazatlan, at
the lower end of the Gulf of California. It includes the swiftly­growing
capital city of Sonora, Hermosillo, a modern Mexican
metropolis connected with Nogales by paved highway.
Trade between the United States and this west coast
e mpire of Mexico has increased measurably since the war, and
among its chief beneficiaries have been the twin cities of
Nogales. Merchandise, produce and livestocl, pour in both
directions through th e port of entry, moving by truck and rail­road.
(He re th e American railroad, Southern Pacific, joins
with its M exican counterpart, Sud Pacifico de Mexico .)
Because of its strategic commercial importance, Nogales,
Sonora, lacks some of the characteristic somnolence of towns
deeper in the interior. But the distinctive Havor of Mexico is
s till there.
Gordo, or at leas t his Nogales cousin, sleeps standing up
in the doorway of a bar, his bushy moustaches riffling gently
with each snore, his sombrero pulled low over his eyes. Over
there is the public square, with its tortilla stand and its
benches, where those unable to afford a movie can sit and
listen to the sound trad, blaring from loudspeal,ers in front of
the nearby thea ter. And up th e steep hill rising just beyond
the international fence shuffle a ragged Mexican boy and his
phlegmatic burro loaded with firewood. Here is a city and
village all in one.
There ahead, on Calle Elias, lies the Cavern, favorite
Nearly four million people passed tli.roug/i customs in 1949-50
Ill
Tlic CaPern in Nogales, Sonora, is a famous landmark, whose genial owner, Demetrios Kyriakis , has earned renown as a host.
haven of American gourmets and a melting pot among melt­ing
pots. For this renowned res taurant is run by a Greek
immigrant with l'vlexican citizenship and offers fine American
cuisine. The proprietor's name is.....-or was Jimmy Kerson .
Everybody still calls him Jimmy, although, in a moment of
nationalistic ardor during World War II ( Greece had just
been attacl<ed by Albania), he changed it to Demetrios P .
l<:yrial<is, J,is Creel< name.
Life has its little perplexities for a man born under one
llag, living under another and in the shadow of a third. For
instance, although Jimmy's home is in the Mexican Nogales,
he sends his children to school in the American Nogales. It
happens on occasion that they return home puzzled, and de­mand,
"Papa, when people ask us what we are, Mexican or
American, what should we tell them?" Jimmy gives this one
a lot of thought. Then.....-"You tell 'em," he says, "that you're
Greek."
The Cavern is just that.....-a great vault dug into the hill­side.
Long ago it was a gold mine. Later it served-not too
effectively-as a jail. Geronimo, the wily Apache renegade,
broke out of there in the 1880' s, with considerably less effort
than was required of him to escape from other durance viles in
which the white men tried to detain him from time to time.
Bars in Nogales, Sonora, never close, except once every
six years on the occasion of Mexico's presidential election.
Then, because the keys have long since been thrown away,
it's often necessary for the proprietor to station a man at the
door to tell the trade, "No drinks today."
Mexican holidays are observed as scrupulously and en­thusiastically
on the American side of the border as on the
Mexican side. Nogales, Ariz. , shopkeepers may let Washing­ton's
birthday pass unheeded. But comes Cinco de Mayo, or
some other patriotic Mexican celebration, and business closes
down for the day while the Yankee celebrants join their Mexi­can
neighbors over a nice cold beer. Viva la fiesta! Viva
Mexico!
The American tourist shopper, prowling through the
Mexican city in search or something to tah home to his sister's
Curios shops in Nogales, Sonora, enjoys tlie patronage of American visitors. Here one visitor glimpses the bustle of old Mexico .
Nogales, Arizona, is in tlw center of a dude ranching country and a modern paved highway joins it with Hermosillo and Guaymas.
family , will discover that the Mexicans have an extraordinary
approach to competitive merchandising. Instead of scattering
their curio shops around the town so as to snag random Amer­ican
dollars wherever the tourist might choose to wander, they
huddle in tight little clusters, like sheep in a storm.
H ere in the middle of a block is a small court ringed on
three sides with lines of booths selling Mexican knick-knacks.
If, at one booth, you can't find just the l<ind of silver-and­lurquoise
earrings you're looking for, you'll find them at the
next-. The tourist shopper saves a lot of shoe leather that way.
Knicl<-lmacks, incidentally, are about the only commodities
you can buy more cheaply on the Mexican side than on the
American side. The current exchange rate is nearly nine pesos
lo the dollar. When American traveler ventures farther into
Mexico, this operates to his advantage. But here at the border
the dollar is the almighty determinant, and values in Nogales,
Sonora, approximate those in Nogales, Ariz.
Uncle Sam lets you bring $100 worth of merchandise bacl,
I
duty-free, plus one gallon of liquor.
While Nogales, Sonora, is the larger of the two cities and
the main tourist attraction of the area, Nogales, Ariz., is con­siderably
more than just the town you go through to get across
the border.
Within its orbit lie a number of fine dude ranches to
entice the saddle-and-chuck-dinner set. Its Rancho Grande,
anchored atop a hill n ear the city limits, with an incompar­able
view of the valley in which nestle the Ambos Nogales, is
one of Arizona's better hostelries. And the shades of the old
pioneers, the empire builders and the Spanish treasure-seel,ers
lie darkly across this southern Arizona landscape.
A scant 25 miles east of Nogales is the point at which the
first civilized white man entered what is now the western
United States. He was Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar,
who later guided Coronado's expedition of 300 conquistadores
and 500 Indians seeking the seven fabled cities of Cibola,
where the walls were sald to be encrusted with gems and the
streets paved with gold. The seven cities. as it unhappily de-
A view of one of the principal streets in Nogales, Arizona. This city at an elevation of 4,000 feet is npted for its {ine climate.
ke part
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-jl'•·•·• 'T...,_,
The Santa Cruz county
courthouse in Nogales.
veloped, were only seven Indian villages, with refuse for gems
and dust for gold.
Five miles from Nogales is the old Pete Kitchen ranch.
Kitchen , dead-eye peer of Indian fighters, once stood in the
doorway and pichd off , man by man, a group of Apaches
spying on him from a rod( 400 yards away.
Nineteen miles north of Nogales is Tumacacori Mission,
now a national monument. The great Spanish padre, Eusebio
Francisco Kino, built it in 1692 as a linl( in a chain of missions
stretching northward and westward into California . Here
F a ther Kino and his fellow pri es ts toiled to convert the savage
Indians of the d esert country, and the missions served also as
rest stations for venturesome travelers maldng their perilous
way through the Southwestern wilderness.
The old Spanish garrison of Tubae is locate d not far from
Tumacacori. Capt. Juan Bautista d e Anza organized an ~x­pedition
h e re which co lonized California and founded the
city of San Francisco. Firmly embeded in the editorial policy
of the Nogales (Ariz . ) H era ld an d its veteran publisher, H . R.
Sisk is a plan d emanding that T ubac be made a state parl<
and officially d esignated as the "Pl ymouth Roel( of the West,"
and maybe some day it will.
T ubac and T umacacori were stops on the old stage run
from Tucson to Nogales. It was the stage which P e te Kitchen,
with a self-satisfied c huclde over his own phrase-making, lihd
lo call the "Tucson-Tubac-Tumacacori-To Hell ."
Nogales itself,-,the American half of the twins, that is
,-,was founded by an itinerant peddler named Jacob Isaacson.
It was about 1875 that he decided to settle in the mountain
pass where the two Nogales' now stand,-,it was a natural trad­ing
point between Sonora and Arizona. Isaacson built an
adobe shad( on the site of the modern day Southern Pacific
depot. A settlement sprang up and b ecame lmown as Isaacson .
Later the name was changed to Nogales, which is the Spanish
word for walnuts. (There was a cool and quiet walnut grove
where the high school athletic fi eld now is located.)
Nogales, Ariz., is the county seat of Santa Cruz County,
Arizona's smallest, but in many ways most favored, county.
Nogales is located in a natural mountain pass at an elevation
of approximately 3,800 feet, with truly ideal weather, suffering
neither extremes in summer or winter, and with an average
rainfall of 16 .07 inches. Nogales is joined with Tucson on
the north by .U. S . 89, completely modernized highway, and
with Bisbee to the east by an all-weather, all-paved state road
which passes through the beautiful green grass country of
San t a Cruz and Cochise counties.
Nogales is served by the Southern Pacific Railroad, Sud
Pacifico de Mexico, Citizens Auto Stages to Tucson, " Trans­portes
del Norte" to Guaymas, Frontier Airlines, and to th e
South, Lineas Aereas Mexicanas and Aeronaves de Mexico.
Although Sonora once was lmown as "the cradle of
Mexican revolutions, " and this region has endured more than
its share of conRict, the Sisters Nogales are a couple of p eace­ful
l adies now. There hasn't been a revolution or a border
incident in these parts since 1929. That was the year of Lhe
short-lived Manso-Topete rebellion against the government
of President Calles.
Nogales, Ariz., came out of that unpleasantness unharmed,
Lut it hasn't always been so lucl<y. In 1913 the American city
was peppered with far -ranging bullets when the rebel forces
of Francisco I. Madero, defying the Diaz government, besieged
Nogales, Sonora. Three years later the redoubtable Pancho
Villa tool< over the Mexican town and made a pass at the
American Nogales. National guardsmen had to persuade
him to stay in his own bacl(yard.
If you're interested in a " quicl<ie" glimpse of our neighbor
lo the south , though, you can come ahead without fear ol'
wandering into the middle of a revolution or an inter-city
squabble . People down Nogales way find no time these Jays
for such diversions,-,they'r e far too busy enjoying a boom
induced by increasing international trade and tourist traflic .
The wire mesh fe nce is still there, but it has a swinging
gate. The sign on it reads, "Abierto, Pase Ud." Wall< on
into Mexico, senor.
p H0TOGf{AP II ER
Culiacan
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,\\R l Mo:zat an
FROM NOGALEI
e FRIENDLY FA<ES AND INTERESTING PLACES e
Mexico, or that part of Mexico with which we are concerned, our neighboring
states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit and Jalisco, is a land of strange and interesting
contrasts. Here are deserts, great jagged mountain ranges, lush jungles, barren, sandy
wastes, great rivers and an interminable shore line. Here you find remote villages
completely untouched by the modernity of our changing civilization, villages that
went to sleep several centuries agci and are content to remain that way. Here are
great cities, modern as tomorrow, eagerly grasping the new, representing a tide of
progress and advancement. a segiment of a great Republic and a great people at their
very best.
Here, perhaps more so than in all of Mexico, one sees a nation seizing technical
knowledge and scientific learning to hep apace with other great nations in the
world today. A farmer in an isolated village in the mountains may be using the
same tools his forefathers have used for generations ; yet here are great fertile valleys
reclaimed by irrigation, expertly farmed with the latest and most efficient of equip­ment.
Greater and greater are the yields of the generous land, adding to the wealth
of the Republic and the well-being of the people.
Ori'OSITE PAGE~"GuAYMAS, SoNORA" BY RAY MANLEY. Two hundred sixty miles south of Nogales, Arizona,
is the picturesque port of Guaymas, Sonora, on the Gulf of California. Guaymas is becoming increasingly
popular as a fishing and winter resort now that the highwBy from Noi;talcs is complete. Here in this bay in
late spring is held La Fiesta de las Pescas (Fish Festival). One of the highlights of this {iesta is the parade
of boats and fishing craft. all gaily lighted, carrying musicians and celebrants in festive dress. Guaymas is an
important commercial fi shing center, as well as a mecca for deep sea fishing e nthusiasts.
PHOTOGRAPHS Tl·!IS PAGE BY HERB MCLAUGHLIN
FLOWER GIRL
Tepic
H ERB M CLAUGH LI N
Jalisco·s historic C h urch of Z apopan.
The bea uti ful mu seum a nd li brary at Hermosillo.
RAY MA N L E Y
R A Y MA NLEY
An old miss ion in Northern Sonora. The Abelardo Rodriguez Lujan D am at Hermosillo, Sonora.
The ba y at Guaymas, Sonora, fishermen's paradise on the Gulf.
CARL W . K LEY
Alamos, Sonora--Pueblo of Arches.
MARTIN LITTON
The plaza and cathedral at Tepic, Nayarit.
HERB MCLAUGHLIN
Drying tobacco in the state of Nayar it.
Crossing the Santiago River in Nayarit by ferry.
HERB McLAUGHLIN
Harvesting mescal for tequilla at Tequilla, Jalisco.
Fishing nets drying in the sun at Lake Chapala.
A. NAVARRO ESPANA
Guadalajara, Jalisco - City of Song and R omance- Mexico's p roud and aristocra t ic lady.
HERB M c LAUGHLIN
WELDER
Mazatlan
1.-1s1 I Ef~MA:,,1
Guaymas
There are schoo l s today where I here were no school s bcf ore. There are roads
loday where a few years ago there were only wandering trails. The past decad e
lias seen miracles accompli shed in th ese West Coast s tal es . and th e promises of
lhc corning years arc exci tin g to consider.
The revolutions are over now, and the socia l unrest. The people of Mexico arc
coming into their own , demanding and securing benefits for themselves and their
children through the orderly processes of a great Democracy. The progress we note
along the West Coast of Mexico comes from the people and their inspired leaders.
The will of the people has prevailed.
Above a ll, Mexico is people. Viva la genie!
They enjoy their siestas and their fiestas, and have retained their charm and their
friendliness. They respect their troubadors playing on the street corner as they
admire the young engineer zealously striving to make his land a better place to
live in. They have littl e patience for the false prophets spouting invective; they have
great patience for a leader who makes mistakes if his heart is good and his intentions
honest.
Mexicans are a patient people.
They retain their customs and their old-world color, their gaiety and their pic­turesqueness.
In a world of bustle and hurry, th eir manana spirit has much for which
to be recommended. It is remarkable how much can be accomplished just by leaving
it for tomorrow.
Tomorrow? Let' s say today, for today has arrived for the people of J\llexico.
Viva la genie! . .. R. C.
OPPOSITE PAGE-"S1-JRJMP BoATS AT MAZATLAN" Bv HERB McLAUGHLIN . Mazatlan, one of the important
ports on Mexic o's West Coast, is in the state of Sinaloa. 'vVith the dredging of the harbor, Mazatlan is gain­ing
in importance as a shipping center and is a lso the center of commercia l ti•hing enterprises, notably shrimp.
Mazatlecos, or citizens of Mazatlan, are proud of their Carn iv a l (car-nee-vahl) which is held each year the
week before Lent. The ,rnrd "Mazatl an" is of Indian origin ,md means "hill where the deer ore."
PHOTOGRAPHS THIS PAGE BY HERU MCLAUGHLIN
PRIEST
Guadalajara
BY HELEN BEESLEY SINES
PIJOTOCRAPl·IS BY I IERB MCLAUCHLIN
National heroes remembered.
It is difficult to decide which has the more glamour, the
S tate of Jalisco, (Hah-lees'co) or its charming and romantic
capital. Guadalajara (Gwah-dah-lah-hah-rah) . Both have
been the inspiration for song and dance. Who has not seen
the "Jarabe Ta patio" ( the Mexican hat dance) or heard the
rollicl<ing song, "Guadalajara"? Perhaps the State is only
enhanced by its beautiful capital. one of the loveliest cities in
all of Mexico.
Jalisco is one of the largest, richest and most progressive
States in the Republic, covering an area of approximately
58,000 square miles. Its west coastline runs for 210 miles
along the Pacific Ocean and the altitude varies from sea level
lo 6000 feet. The climate is tropical along the seacoast but
cool on the plateaus. Its exports include minerals, cereals,
fine fruits, textiles, pottery, glassware, leather goods, liquor,
(tequila-tay-1,ee-lah) tiles and many other lesser products.
While it is estimated that from one fourth to one third of
tlie entire population of Mexico consists of pure-blooded In­dians,
Jalisco has probably a smaller percentage of residents
of pure Indian blood than the country as a whole. Perhaps
5% of the population are pure Spanish descent while the
vast majority are of mixed races with Indian and Spanish
blood predominating.
Spanish is the common language in Jalisco but in a few
remote regions Indian dialects are still spol,en. A consider­able
number of people, especially among the business com­munities
of urban areas, also speal, English.
Economically, the population of Jalisco falls into the same
general classification as those applica,ble to all of Mexico; a
large group living at a subsistence level. about 84 % ; a small
middle class, about 15 % ; and a very small group of wealthy
people, about 1 % . However, with Jalisco becoming more and
more important as an industrial center, the percentage of its
residents either in the middle class or in the wealthy group is
probably greater than the national average of the Republic.
Cathedra.l in Guaclalajara.
The able and popular Governor of the State of Jalisco is
Licenciado (Attorney) Jesus Gonzales Gallo.
The region that comprises the present S tale of Jalisco was
conquered by the Spaniard, Nuno Beltran de Guzman
( Gooze-malui) and his army in 1529. Jn January 1532, one
of his subordinates, Captain Juan de Onale, founded "Villa
de Guadalajara" in honor of his Commander who was born
in the Spanish C ity of the same name. However, the s ite
chosen proved to be undesirable and the town was moved in
August 1533 to Tonala. This site did not please Guzman
and early in 1535 he caused a further removal to Tlacoman,
north of the gorge of the Rio Grande, which a t that point is
now more generally !mown as the Santiago River. Finally,
in February 1542, Guadalajara was moved to its fourth and
present site in the Valley of Atemajac (Ah-tay'-mah- hal,) .
The city celebrated its 400th a nniversary only eight years ago.
The phenominal growth of Guadalajara is plainly demon­stra
ted by the 1950 census. In 1940 the population was 236,557
while the 1950 census shows the figure to be 382,710, a 62%
increase over a ten-year period. The States as a whole showed
a 23% increase, the population of Jalisco now being 1,744,770.
One of the reasons for Guadalaja1'.a ' s spectacular growth could
well be its a lmost perfect climate. It is one of the cleanest,
brightest and most healthful ciJ:ies in Mexico. lt is situated
5000 feel above sea level in the midst of low, gently rolling
hills. The sun shines daily and the heat is never oppressive,
67° being the normal temperature during June and July. The
a tmosphere is excep tionally dry from September to June.
Guadalajara is certainly a combina tion of the old and the
new. Horsedrawn carriages share the streets with the most
up-to-date station-wagons; and heavily laden burros amble
a long the cobble streets with the latest in Coca-Cola delivery
lruch ; hand-drawn carts compete with up-to-date moving
vans; newly-widened paved avenues are only a block removed
from the narrow, one-way cobble streets. Sarapes, sombreros
Tfie ancient church in Tequila,
Gateway to the city.
A modern home in Guadalajara.
The church at Chapala.
Guadalajara ... old and new.
and rebozos rub shoulders with young Mexicans whose
smartly tailored suits might well have come from the pages
of "Esquire."
Guadalajara homes are a contrast, too, but both cling to
the inside patios and an abundance of grillwoik. The gardens
are luxurious with Bowering trees and tropical plants. Except
for the doors, practically no wood is used in construction. All
floors are of tile, and glass is use effectively and profusely. Be
the home a hut or mansion the bougainvilla and bright tropical
flowers grow lavishly, adding color and beauty the year round.
Guadalajara is a city of church and the most beautiful
of a ll is the Cathedral which boasts, among other treasures,
Murillo's ma gnificient "Assumption of the Virgin." One of
the loveliest smaller churches is Santa Monica whose marvel­lously
carved stone grapes of the elaborately decorated facade
suggests an early pagan temple dedicated to Bacchus.
Guadalajara's Museum and Library are housed in an
ancient seminary building, which. constructed in 1700, is one
of the fin est examples of early eighteenth century architecture
on the American Continent. Recently the museum was the
scene of a very fin e art exhibit presented by the American
G.l. 's who are studying h ere in Guadalajara. El Teatro De­g-
ollado, (Day-go-yah -doh) is one of the city's most cherished
landmarh. Pattern ed after La Scala in Milan , it was begun
in 1855 and when completed in 1866 was the largest and
l'in es t buildings of its ldnd in the Republi c. lt scats 3000, and
is the home of the University-sponsored Symphony Orchestra.
The most celebrated and interesting fiesta in Guadalajara
takes place from June until October of each year when Our
Lady of Zapopan (Sah-p6-pahn) comes lo the city from her
own village about five miles distant, to be with the Guadala­jarans
during the rainy season. lt is said that before her
arrival in the 17th century, the storms were so viol ent that
eacl1 year many people were kill ed by lightning. Since the
arrival of Our Lady, however, the "tormentas" have been less
severe, and the p eople a ttribute this phenomenon to their be­lov
ed Virgin of Zapopan. Like her two sister images, T alpa
n11d San Juan de Los Lagos, Zapopan is· rich in jewels and
rin ery. She carri es a jeweled sword and enjoys the title of gen­eral.
She rides in her own coach which is completely covered
The market of San Juan de Dios in Guadalajara.
with fresh Bowers, and is pulled by hand. She is surrounded
by a human chain of 100 or more, members of the guard of
honor of the Virgin of Zapopan, who chanting and praying,
accompany her from church to church. Always in the proces­sion,
are Indian dancers who execute their traditional and
energetic patterns to the beat of drums and the piping of shrill
fife-like instruments. The costumes are of brightly colored silb,
adorned with bits of glass and tin, b eads and other objects.
The head dresses are of feathers, elaborate and colorful. Many
authentic Mexican costumes, fresh Bowers, bright rebozos, not
to mention confetti and the inevitable firecrackers mah the
pilgrimage of Our Lady of Zapopan a never-lo-be- forgotten
experience. After having visited every one of the seventy-odd
churches in Guadalajara, the Virgin returns to her own shrin e.
accompanied by practically the entire population of Guadala­jara
and the surrounding villages.
Only thirty-two miles southeast of Guadalajara is the
largest lake in the Republic, Chapala (Chah-pah-lah). It is
seventy miles long, 20 miles wide, covers 270 square miles and
is 5,159 feet above the ocean. It straddles the boundary be­tween
the States of Jalisco and Michoacan (Mich-oh-ah­kalm).
On the banb of the Lake Chapala is an attractive
resort town where one may enjoy a famous "white fish" din­ner
while listening to the music of the Mariachi (mah-ree­ach-
ce . .. roving singers), or just watching tlie beautiful sun­set.
At Lah Chapala there are several hotels and many
beautiful homes b elonging to Guadalajarans who spend l h eir
summer vacations and weel{-ends at the Lal,e.
Another State attraction, also convenient lo Guadalujaru,
is San Pedro Tlaquepaque, (Tlah-kay-pah-lmy) famous for
its pottery works which produce great quantities of figurin es.
enormous jars and plates, macetas, cooking and tableware. In
l he plaza at Tlaquepaque one may enjoy tequila, beer or oth er
refr eshments while listening lo the Mariachi or cnncion eros
( bl1n-see-o-n eh-rohs) (street singers).
One of the prettiest short trips from Guadalujara is the
one to Tequila. For over three centuries this old Spanish town
has maintained its precarious position on the edge of a gorge­ous
ravine down which clear. tumultuous waters rush. This
charming rural village is finely f1avoured hy lradilion and
liquor, for it is the original home of Mexico's national drink.
PAGE THIRTY-TWO • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • NOVEMBER 1950
In the shops wares are piled hig/1. A pottery shop in Tlaquepaque.
Tl;e regional dish of Jalisco is "pozole" (poh-z6-lay). It
is made of maiz and is ~ooked with either porl{ or chicken and
served with shredded lettuce, sliced radishes, chopped onions,
a dash of lime juice and a "salsa picante." It is delicious and
like all other Mexican "comidas" is preceded by "una copita"
of tequila taken with a pinch of salt and a dash of lime.
To leave resorts and "refrescos" for a moment . . . Jalisco is
very proud of its native son or Ta patio, ( tah-pah-tee-oh) the
late Jose Clemente Orozco, Mexico's genius painter of murals.
His work is well represented in Guadalajara and as a result,
painters and art lovers are beginning to make pilgrimages to
the city where they can see and study the famous murals
which are to be found in the huge dome and on the walls of
the Paranymph (lecture hall) of the University of Guadala­jara;
the Hospicio (os-pee-see-oh) de Ninos (orphanage) and
in the Governor's Palace.
Perhaps it might be interesting to state some of the dif­ferences
one finds when maldng his home in Mexico. The
most noteworthy item is that of servants. They may be hired
for as little as 50 pesos per month (about $6.50) or as much as
200 pesos or approximately $28. Usually they pref er to live
in the home where they are employed. They are especially
good with children and have untold patience with their young
charges. A servant might spend a whole lifetime in the ser­vices
of a particular family having become an indispensable
and useful member of that home; she may have begun her
career as the young "nana" (nurse) to the first newborn and
have been his faithful companion throughout his early life,
never quite relinquishing her vigilance and affection for the
child. ·
Naturally, the foreign children grow up speaking the
native tongue and frequently when spohn to in English re­spond
in Spanish. It is curious to attend a children's party
given by the American Society and find that the children
revert to Spanish when playini.? together.
The Mexican servants launder beautifully and iron most
expertly, charging on an average of four pesos or about 65
cents per day.
Rents are comparatively cheap. An altractive four-bed­room
house will cost from 400 to 500 pesos, roughly 65 dol ­lars
a monl h. Telephone, electricity and water rates are much
Tfw shoemaker at work.
TTw skilled weaver al his looms.
Here the glassmaker plies Ti is trade.
The ripe plants are loaded on mules and taken to distillery.
Harvesting mescal for tequila on Jos e Cuervo plantation.
Mescal pulp is then made into mas 11.
ch eap er than in the States but the service i s not as good. Meal
is much cheaper and often eaten the day it is ldll ed. Chickens
are usually selected and blled before th e eyes of the pur­chaser.
The most common fruits to be h ad are oranges.
pineapples, bananas , papay os, m angos and oth er lropirn I
fruits in season. Th e orange juice is es pecially sweet nnd
delicious.
Taxis are p l entiful and c h ea p and frequently il is wiser
and no more expensive lo hiie a car and driv er for a lrip tha n
l o Lal<e one's own automobil e.
Marl<e ling is always an inleres ling experi en ce and one
usually bargains for every item ; in fact , tlwt is an accepl e d
practice except in cer ta in stores whicl, slale that !h e ir prices
are fix e d.
Another cu r ious th in g is the numb er o l' people who come
lo one's door l o sell or lo r epa ir various items. Each h as h is
own distinc tive whistle , or call, and soon one l earns lo li sle n
for his favorite "Mr'. Fixer." The man mos t w elcom e is lhe
"zapalero" (zah-pah-tay-ro) who repairs a nd shines shoes. H e
usually settles himself in a s hady place on the sidewall< a nd
with several p airs of shoes arran ged before him begins lo re­pa
ir or polish. The cos t is small, only a bout five cenl s a sl, ine;
and it is a very good one , indeed.
The mo s t amazing d elivery boy i s tl, e one wl10 rides hi s
bicycle w hil e carry in g on his h ead a h uge ll a t b as ke t full o l'
h ard ro lls or th e favorite Mexican "pan Juice" or sweet
bread. Hi s b a lance is a m azing d espit e w ind and oilier slrecl
hazards.
One co uld h a rdly write a bout M exico w i1l, ou1 some rd'c r­e
nce lo !h e type ol' l'iesl·a e njoyed l, cre. I n addi l ion lo il w m nny
n a li on a l and c hurc h fcs liva ls. 11, ere are 11, c privalc pnrlics
whicl, M e so muc h a part of 1l1 e everyJny lire of 11, e J\!l ex ica n .
T l, e mos t im porlanl,· of c ours e, i s I h e birthday party, 1 l, c c l1 icf
,111ra c 1i on of w hicl, is a lways 11, e piiin l a. T hi s i s a n olla o r
earll1 e n jnr wl,i c h lrn s IJee n b ea ulifull y decorn le d w ill, crepe
p aper,-,il may b e an a irplane, a s h ip, a walerme lon. a mon l, e y
o r pra c li call y an y object. T h e jar is fill ed wi ll, candies. pcn ­nuls,
lim es, oranges, g um , e l c. It i s su spended f rom n rope
and m ay h e swung from s id e lo s ide or ra ised up an d d o wn .
In I urn, th e child ren arc b lin dfold e d and wi l h a s lc>Ul slid,
1r y 10 bren l< 1h c piiiata. b r course whe n som e on e fin a ll y suc­ceed
s !he re i s a mad s cramble 10 gel as ma n y of 11, c conlen ls
n s pos s ib le. A piiiala is not c onfined lo hi rll,d ny ann ivcrsaril's
hut ma y be enjoyed on m o s t a n y o ccasion. A l>irlhduy c e fe ­b
rali o n sometim es beg i ns a t 3 o 'cfocl< in I l, e mor nin g wh e n
o ne i s a w a l<e n ed by the " m niinnitas" sung l, y f ri c nds n nd pro-
13ri e[ g limpses in harv e sting and
manufacture of Jos e C u e rPo t equila.
Cookers are loaded with masli for distillation.
f essio n a l musicia n s who se renad e for about thirty m inutes
after whic h breakfast is usually served.
It i s not always necessary to have a birthday in order to
b e seren aded. Frequ ently young men ho nor their "novias"
(sweeth earts) b y hiring s in gers or stringed music to speal<
!h eir m essages of love. This particular fo rm of serenade is
called the " gallo" (guy-yo). It can b e a very romantic e x ­perience
but i f the paren ts of th e senori ta a r e no t sympathetic
with th e courts hip, the musi c can be terminated somewhat
a b rup tly, a nd the young m an must pay the musicians w ith­out
having received the desire d reward for his e ffor ts .
Better even th an the birthday party is the celebration of
one's Saint's D ay,-,when friends and rela tives pay a call and
usually bring Rowers or othe r gifts. If it is during the orchid
season one might even receive a ba~l<e t c ontaining a hundred
or more orchids. The most popular feast d ay is Guadalupe
Day on December 12th w h en Mexico pays homage to the
n ational patron saint, and to all the girls who h ave been
n a m ed in her h onor.
Tequila is then bottled and stored in warehou s e.
Chri stmas is celebrated in a most beautiful and impressive
manner. In place of Christma s trees, practically every home
h as a "Nacimiento" (Nah-s ee-me-en' -to) and for nine days
the s t ory o f Mary and Joseph ' s r ide to Jerusa lem is re-enacted
b y those who assemble at various homes. Included are the
r ecitation of the R osary , the singing of t raditi ona l music and
the procession , with l ighted candles, wan d ers fro m patio lo
patio re-enacting t he search fo r lodgi ng by Mary and Jos eph .
Christmas is purely a religious celebration, and the e x change
of gifts i s postponed u n til January 6 th, the day o f the T hree
Wise Men w h e n the children ex pect their presen ts as a g ift
from t he Magi.
Volumes more could be wri tten about Mexico , considered
by many the ideal vacation spot of the world. Those of us who
live here fi nd it charming and a ttractive ; how ever , in order to
enj oy it t o t h e full est, w e must r e m ember that ma1'i.ana does
not always mean "tomorrow" a s we learned it in our tex tbooks,
but perhaps ... sometime in t he not-too - d istant- future ...
Quien sabe ?
Lake Clwpala . . . largest in Mexico . . . is res ort center o f Jalisco.
/Yfazatlan , in S i,wloa,
is destined to be a
great tourist center.
J. W. MANSON
The Sanalona Dam, on
Rio T amazula, has been
important to /arming.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERB MCLAUGHLIN
Sinaloa (seen -a- low-a) is the state
south of Sonora. The capital of the state is
~~ ,}ifill ~) Culiacan (cool-ee-ah-cahn) w ith a popula-
-=- ~'"'v ;J-' ~ ~ ~}. tion of 50,000, a brisk, modern city in many
~_::___ _ _' Z~_ ways , but old and venerated in years be-
-1• ...... ,.,.,. - - cause here is where the great Conquest
parties w ere formed for the exploration of what is now south­western
United States. Men, whose names have b een glori­fi
ed in the early history of our land , knew the streets of Culia­can
several centuries ago. Despite its modern ways, the cen­turies
have left their marks in the area:
Culiacan is si tuated where the Rios Humaya and the
Tamazula meet. From there to the sea they b ecome Rio
Culiacan. The Sanalona Dam built on the T amazula River
in 1948 has added stability to the vast agri cultural enterprises
around Culiacan, assurin g a consta n t supply of water for
200,000 acres of rich farmlands.
When you thinl< of S ina loa you thin!< of farming. The
slate is one of the big agricultura l s ta tes of Mexico, blessed
by climate, by geography, by large rivers whic h have was hed
ri ch soil from the mountains to deposit it in the fertile valleys
of stal e, most of which are but a f cw f cet a bove sNi hwd.
Sinaloa has now about 250,000 acres of sugar cnnc under
cultivation with big sugar mill s a t Los Mochis, Navolalo.
Cos ta Rica, and at E l Dorado. Sinaloa has under c uftiva lion
2:i0,000 a cres of garbanzos (chick-peas). 130,000 acres of
cotton, 80,000 acres of winter vegetables and 50,000 acres of
linseed and rice plus corn, beans and other basic commodities.
This vast farming industry is built around the area drained
principally by the rivers Fuerte, Ocoroni, Sinaloa, Mocorito,
Humaya, T amazula, San Lorenzo, Elota, Presidio, Rosario
and Culican. Eventually the largest of these rivers will b e
brought under control by dams, which will mean even a
greater agricultural expansion throughout the entire state of
Sinaloa, resulting in more foodstuHs for the R epublic, more
foodstuffs to be exported to world markets.
Sinaloa is bordered on the west by the Gulf of California
and the P aci fic Ocean. The state is long and narrow in
shap e, h emmed in on the east by the great Sierra M a dres of
Chihuahua and Durango, a mountain range which gives a
liberal runoff and feeds the rivers of the State. The coastal
valleys, which form the principal part of Sinaloa, are noted for
their mild winters and hot and humid summers. H ere is part
of the Tierra Caliente ( hot country) of Mexico and if you
haven' t b een in the hot country of Mexico you haven 't seen
summer at h er most unpleasant. U npleasan t. of course. for
the traveler. but perfect for the farm er. And incidentally. thes<'
grea t rivers we speal< of. which form the backbone o f Si na loa 's
farming . arc the detriments lo the tourist indu stry. bemuse be ­fore
the road can be co mpleted from Nogales lo G uadalnjarn
these rivers will have lo be bridged . ,ind il will Lab: a fol o l
lime and a lot of money lo do that tlic way il s l10uld he d on e.
PAGE TI-IIRTY-SIX • ARIZONA HIGJ-IWA YS • NOVEMBER 1 Q,O
The emphasis on commercial fishing in Mazatlan
h.as resulted in a new shipbuildi.ng industry.
The state government of Sinaloa, under the direction of
Governor Pablo E. Macias V ., is not n eglecting its road build­ing
program. Work is constantly in progress on various sec­tions
of the Nogales-Guadala jara Highway, 378 miles of
which will form the north-south highway through Sinaloa.
T he ma ny rivers which flow east to west from the mountains
to the sea through the s tate will even.tually be bridged . F erry
service is provided over the main rivers now. Connecting high­ways
b etween the larger ci ties in Sinaloa are b eing brought
up to standard specifications.
Culiacan, 576 miles from Nogales, is a b eehive of industry
during the vegetable shipping season, November through May.
Thousands of carloads of tomatoes roll north each year from
C uliacan for con sumption in the U nited States. Picl<ers and
pacl<ers jam the fi elds and sh eds, trucks crowd the highways
day and night, loaders work around the clock getting the crops
in and out during the season. The excellence of Sinaloa to­matoes,
selected and pacl<ed to meet the r igid s tandards of the
U. S. D epartmen t of Agriculture, has in recent years com­manded
high and profitable prices for the Sinaloa farmer.
Business men in C uliacan a re very U. S.-minded as far as
winter vegetables are concerned , b ecause the slightest ch ange
in the market eHects them and their investments. The govern­ment
and the large cooperatives are conducting extensive
s ta tis tical studies of the U. S. winter produce market in order
for the farmers of the state to plant the b est and most profitable
winter crops to supply . tha t ma rl<e t.
As one can readily see, Culiacan is a prosperous and pro­gress
ive city. The construction of the Sanalona D am a few
miles eas t of the city has b een the stabilizing factor to the city's
principal business. An extensive sys tem of canals is b eing
built for the orderly dispersion of this stored water for the
reclamation of more land and to secure the greatest yield from
lands in cultivation. It isn't n ecessary now for the growers
around Culiacan to fret about the vagaries of the w eather.
Culiacan is probably one of the most sports-minded cities
in the R epublic. No one there thinks it strange that the city
should have a costly, modern steel-and-concrete stadium with
a capacity of 15,000 to seat the crowds supporting the Cul­iacan
b aseball team. But Culiacan has such a stadium, just
built, and to use a current expression. "they pa d< 'em in."
Shrimp fishing and the processing of sea products
is becoming a maior business in port of Mazatlan.
This market stall in Culiacan is typical of
public markets of Mexico. Everything is sold.
Street scenes in Culiacan reveal interesting
contrasts of old ancl new in the life of M exico.
Packing tomatoes for U. S. markets in C uliacan .
The Carnival in Mazatlan is a gay w eek-long [ies ta
in w hich the entire city takes part. lt ends at Len t.
Tlwusands of acres of tomatoes are harvested in
the fertile valleys of Sinaloa for ex port trade.
The great touri st attraction of S inaloa is the charming city
of M azatlan on the sea coas t. This jew el of the blue Pacific is
ideally located on one of the fi n es t ha rbors on M exi co's \Vest
C oas t, a harbor protected by islands, a h arSor in which great·
dredges a re now working t·o allow clea ra nce for larger ships
n ecessary to h a ndle th e products of th e soil of S in a loa.
This city of sun and sand a nd p alms is 708 miles south of
N oga les . Its p opula tion of some 35,000 is principall y engaged
in fi shin g. shipping, boa t building and ma nufa cturing. H ere
as in th e great ci ti es of .[vlexico is noted th e contrast b etween
the old and the n ew. Along the ocean drive a re modern build­ings
and in the streets is the bustle of traffi c. N ot far down
the shore a re the huts of fi sh ermen and sma ll fishing boa ts
moving gentle to the motion of the sea . Where the n ew air ­port
is b eing built, to more firmly tie the city to the r est of the
R epublic, b a re foo te d boys drive th eir burros in to the jungles
w h ere b a n anas grow wild, and one can h ear th e cha tter of
p arrots. L uxurious yachts rest a t a n chor in the ha rbor where
sma ll homema de boa ts carry solita ry fi sh ermen sp ending an
a ft ernoon in the sun, wonderfully unconcerned whether the
fi sh d ecide to b i te.
The winters are mild, the summers "muy caliente," and
humid as well as hot. Mazatlecos unders tand the w eather very
well. The wise ones ta l<e it easy in the h eat of summer days,
stirrin g about only in the early morning and in the evenings
w h en cooler a ir moves in from the sea.
The Carnival which tal<es place the weel< b e fore Lent is
one of the gayest fi estas in all of M exi co. H ere one can a p ­preciate
the meaning of the word " fi es ta ." One is very dull
or unfortuna te who can not lay aside duti es and cares to join
in the fun and fes tivity.
Ancient church spires watch over the city undisturbed by
the slow p assing d ecad es . The gentle win ds of the P a cific
caress the rich colored Howers hanging profusely from vine
cover ed balconies. Brightly dressed birds ar e sh a fts of color
moving through the palms. The dredges in the h arbor groan
as they go about their chores , as if reluctant to be put to su ch
arduous tasb when the n a tural thing to do is to take it easy
in the sun. Such is M a za tla n .
Mazatlan and C uliacan in Sinaloa are
se rv ed by seve ral moclern air lin es.
Gilberto Florez Munoz
The clistinguishecl goTJernor of Nayarit.
S outh of S ina loa and Maza tla n , the
railroad and the highway cro ss a sandy,
jungle-covered pla in and a pproach moun­ta
ins high and blue a gainst the M exi can
sky. The traveler is n earing the s tate of
Nayarit ( nie-yar -eat).
Those mounta ins b esp eal< cool w eather, reli ef from the
h eat of the coas ta l " tierra caliente." The jungle plain gives
w ay to gradually rising foothill s, thicldy covered with tropical
growth or with p a tches of smaII farms on intricate terraces .
The hiils are sepa rated by large and sma ll river s every inch of
whose b anb feel the discipline of the plow. Further on the
mounta ins b ecome clearer in the blue haze, ranges whose
n ames are lil<e the b eat of drums: Sierra Madre de Nayarit,
S ierra de T eponanuas tla, Sierra de Ixcatan, Sierra de A catlan.
The towns of A caponeta, Morada, Ruiz, N achi pass by
and then one arrives at the capital of the state: T epic ( tay­peelc)
Eight years ago T epic was d escrib ed in these pages in this
manner: "T epie is the s tate capital of Nayarit, one of the most
hidden and seques ter ed states in M exico. This little city is
in the high mountains, and only the railroad connects it with
the outside world. Life is unhurri ed h ere and the n a tives do
not seem to know of the busy world outside. If th ey did. they
wouldn' t care. It has colonial charm and is a refr eshing ex­p
eri ence for the traveler a little bit tired of the busy hum of
modern places. T epic still possesses much of the qua intness
of yes terday."
Since then eight d ecisive years have left their marb on
T epic and Naya rit to such an extent the traveler returning
a ft- er that time would scarely r ecognize the place. E ight years
have p erformed miracles in T epic and N ayarit.
The ma n most responsible for these miracles is the able
and genial governor, Gilberto Flores Munoz, an extremely
effi cient administrator , a visionary who has transla ted his
vi sions into concrete achi evements, the man all ci tizens of the
s ta te contend should be the n ext president of the R epublic.
"But, of course," you will be told, " look what our governor
has done for Nayarit. Think what h e could do fo r a ll of
M exico."
The American unfa miliar with the p eculiar governmental
structure of M exico finds this strange. T he governor of a
M exican sta te has much more power than the governor of an
American stale. H e virtually b ecomes the government and is
almost free to do as he pleases without r es trictions of un­wieldy
legislatures and confining laws. G overnor Flores
Munoz u sed the po~ver given him by the people to cha n ge
wha t was consider ed the most bacl<-woods s ta te in M exico to
one of the most progressive. And his worl< is not done, nor
has he had too much to work with.
N ayarit is one of the smallest sta tes in M exico, in size
measuring only 16,390 square miles and with a popula tion of
292,343. The sta te is principally d evoted to a griculture, the
ma in crops b eing corn. b eans , ri ce. suga r can e. bana nas , pea­nuts
and tobacco. The state is the "corn b asl<et" of M exico
and a leading producer in the R epublic of the crops mentioned.
Total value of crops produced in 1949 was 83.572,959 p esos.
almost double the crop value in 1946. The a dministration of
G overnor Mufioz h as built hundreds of wa rehouses through­out
the farming a reas lo gua rantee a surer and more orderly
storing and marl<eting of th ese crops , of su ch vita l necessity
lo the inha bita nts of the large, crowded cities of the interior.
PAGE THIRTY-NINE • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • NOVEMBER t 950
The lo ve ly city of T epic. Ancient Spanish hacie nda . J . \V. MANSON The spires of Mescaltitan .
Industrial expansion has followed the increase in the value of agricultural products of Na­yarit,
resulting in a balanced economy. More and more, the people of the state are processing
their own raw products. Impressive results are shown in the manufacture of textiles , tobacco,
c hocolate , sugar, and vegetable oils.
In the important fields of Public Health and Public Education, Nayarit has made important
gains. You find n ew schoo l s now in isolated villages and in the larger centers of population such
as T epic, lxtlan, Santiago lxcuintla, Compostela , Acaponeta, Ruiz and San Blas nume rous and
modern schools are the most imposing buildings to be seen. Competent technicians and doctors in
the public clinics are great ly reducing the death rate among children and are stemming the spread
of communicable diseases .
Nayarit has incalculable opportunities for attracting the tourist. The highway through the
Barrancas to Guadalajara from Tepic is hard-surfaced, an expertl y-built highway. From Tepic
north to the Sinaloa border the road is hard-surfaced, an important linl, in th e Nogales-Guada­lajara
highway. The rive rs one comes upon will be bridged in the future. Unti l then the state of­fers
fr ee ferry service for the traveler.
T epic, "Place where the mountains m eet," i s the business and cultural springboard of the
s tate. It sti ll possesses some of the "quaintness of yes t erday" but is rapidly being s treamlin ed to
b e tte r fit the demands of tomorrow. Streets are being widened, new buildings are b e ing con­struct
ed. The park and publi c playground is spacious enough to care for a population three times
the size of the city. In one important respect will T epi c surprise the American traveler: its cle an ­liness;
and in T epic you find something you seldom find in Mexico: a spotless public market.
The mus eum of Archaeology and History in T e pic, established two years ago, is of interest to
all trav el ers. Here the brilliant young scholar Prof. Jose Corona Nunez is assemb ling archaeo­logical
treas_ures found a ll over the s t ate resulting in an aroused interest on the part of major
archaeologists in this region. (Typical figurines displayed at the Museum are s hown on the page.)
The Colonial building in which the Museum is housed was erected during the 17th century and
was the home of the Counts of Miravelles , whos e coat-of -arms exists on it s outer wall.
From the pine-covered mountains around T epic to the ocean is an hour's drive. This new
highway, from Tepic to San Blas on the Paci'fic, makes available to the visitor one of the most
b eautiful beaches on the West Coast. What was just an isolated and forgotten fi s hing village
is now b ec oming an important resort town.
It will b e interesting to see what the next e ight years bring to Nayarit and how these words
will apply to the state then. Nothing, of course, can c hang e the mountains, valleys , and the sea,
nor do anything to detract from the beauty and climate of this little state . We predict much will
happen in the n e xt e ight years to make life more comfortabl e and more pleasant for the people
living in the mountains of Nayarit, in the vall eys and a long th e sea. The people of Nayarit will
see to that. Governor Munoz h as pointed the way .
Huic hol Indians of Nciyarit. J. W. MANSON Flag day al Santiago l;xcuintla. JOSE CORONA NUNEZ Monument to Quetzalcoatl.
•. . cit)' of T epi.c.
The plaza lfl
. houses. ·l d section Ren roa
Pf-10.,TOGRAPMS:
H ERO l\'T.CLAUGHLIN
A statue honoring
B enito Juare z
rises above T epic .
A kind ergart en · ,.,...
l/1 l epic.
In Sinaloa the tracks
follow the ocean shore.
The arrival of the train at
Mazatlan attracts crowd.
As mountains of Nayarit
approach, fuel is loaded.
High Salsipuedes bridge
" Get off if you can!"
Engines labor through
the Barrancas region.
Many tunnels were dug
to conquer mountains.
MEXICAN ADVENTURE ... CONTINUED FROM PAGE FOUR
This railroad has had an interesting and tempestuous his­tory.
A few brief mileposts in its story are· as follows:
Under the terms of a reciprocal lease with the Santa F e,
in July, 1898, Southern Pacific took over operation of the New
M exico and Arizona Railroad Company line from Benson to
Nogales, and the Sonora Railway line from Nogales to Guay­mas,
originally built by the Santa Fe and opened to traffic in
July, 1882. In December, 1911 , these properties were acquired
from the Santa Fe in exchange for the line built by Southern
Pacific from Needles to Mohave, and in June, 1912, title was
transferred to the Sud Pacifico de Me;ico.
Construction of the road along the west coast of Mexico
to a junction with the National Railways of M exico at Gua­dalajara
was begun at Empalme, Sonora, near Guaymas in
August, 1905. Work was started north from both Mazatlan
and Guadalajara in 1907. The line from Empalme 117 miles
south to Navojoa was completed in May, 1907, and the
through line from Empalme to Mazatlan was opened in
February, 1912. The revolutionary period 1910-20 halted
further construction and also made operation of the completed
road extremely difficult. During nine years (1912-21) the 105-
mile section Acaponeta to T epic, could be operated for only
five months. Bitter warfare raged along its route.
Railroading was an almost impossible feat in the revolu­tionary
period, and it is a wonder that there was a railroad
left when it was over. An agreement covering new construc­tion
and rehabilitation of sections of the railroad damaged
during the revolutions was reach ed by the railroad and the
Mexican government in March, 1923, and two days later
work was begun at La Quemada on the 103-mile gap to T epic.
Much of this section was in mountainous territory involving
heavy construction, particularly through the volcanic forma­tion
of the Barrancas.
Thirty-two tunnels were bored, with a total length of
25,000 feet. These thirty-two tunnels with three additional
ones that were bored previously between La Quemada and
Tequila, make a total of thirty-five tunnels in that section of
the line between T epic and Guadalajara, the longest of them
being tunnel No. 18, 2,943.1 feet in length.
This railroad through the Barrancas would gladden the
heart of any railroad fan. Rails skirt lofty p eaks, cling to
steep mountainsides, overlook great gorges, cut right smack
through some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in
Mexico. The heavy grades start at Roseta in Nayarit and ex-
Swept and clean station
of T epic greets visitor.
Railroad ties are cut in
Nayarit mountain forests.
Crossing through wide
lava fields in Nayarit.
Roadbed here was a big
[eat for the engineers.
The city of Guadalajara
is the end of the journey.
President Sines (right)
and administrative aides.
tend almost to Guadalajara, a distance of 227 miles. It took
fine engineering to build this part of the line and when you
consider that it was done before the era of modern dirt moving
machinery your marvel at what was accomplished. On one
section of the road more than 4,000 laborers were employed,
each laborer using a basket, carried by back and secured by
a cord over the forehead , to carry dirt away.
The last bridge, the one at Salsipuedes, was completed in
April, 1927, and two days later trains were operated over the
1095 miles of line from Nogales to Guadalajara. Salsipuedes,
incidentally, is the highest bridge on the railroad being 867.7
feet long and 237 feet high at the highest point. No bridge
anywhere, perhaps, has ever been better named. Translated,
"Salsipuedes" means "Get off if you can T"
The contribution of the Sud Pacifico de Mexico to the
economic stability of the West Coast states cannot be too
highly stressed. The railroad operates 125 locomotives and
at various times of the year cars in operation fluctuate between
2,000 and 3,200. In 1949 the line carried 52,677 tons of im­ports,
consisting principaHy of machinery, agricultural imple­ments,
lubricating oils and greases. drugs, chemicals and gen­ernl
merchandise. During the same period exports amounted
to 163.172 tons. consisting princirally of Fresh vegetable, .
fresh sea f~ods , vegetable oil seeds, molasses, copper bullion,
ores and concentrates, garbanzo, ixtle fiber and charcoal.
The business and industrial gains recorded through the
four states served by the S. P. of Mexico can clearly be seen
in operating figures of the line. Freight train miles increased
from 976,175 in 1940 to 1,5 16,420 in 1949. During the same
period, Net Freight Ton Miles w ent from 302,163,835 to
587,788,721; Passenger Train Miles from 425,808 to 758,174;
Passenger Car Miles from 5,581 ,575 to 7,754,015 , and Passen­gers
Handled One Kilometer 146,240,489 to 316,422,6'3'3.
The task of coordinating the activities of the railroad to
best serve the needs of the people and varied industries of
Mexico's busy West Coast is the responsibility of four Ameri­cans
and a large staff of trained and experienced Mexican
railroad men. The Americans are B. S . Sines, president;
Louis G. Hoff. vice-president in charge of traffic: Vvilliam
Barker, assistant to the president in charge of maintenance;
and J. W. McLaughlin, assistant to the president in charge
of the mechanical d epartment.
At this very minute trains are rolling both w'ays up the
Barrancas. People are waiting at little stations and villages
to wave at the passengers and be waved back at. It is a ll
wondt>Tf ullv exciting. lt is railroading with a Mexican flavor.
YOURS
SINCERELY
SHINE SMITH'S CHRISTMAS PARTY :
I lrnvc brcn wondr rin iJ if Shine Smith was going
lo lrnvc a Chri slmns Party aga in this year for th f'
:'\Juvn jos . J have sc-nt thin gs lo the p,utics be fore and
I have been snving old clothin g for the pasl yea r to send
il,is fa ll . \,\/here can I send the boxes of clolhing I
l,nw saved for this wonder ful ca use?
M rs. J. R. S mid,
C leveland, Ohio
• Yes, indeed/ S hine is goin9 to lwve a C /,,.i stmas
party 1/,is year. Tlrn party will be Tielcl at Pinyan. Tl,i s
i.s i.n Blacl, Mesa about 200 miles from Flagstaff. Rec­ords
slww tl1is to be tfie poorest district in tlie Reserva­tion
with 2,000 N,wajos in tlie area witlwut any sheep.
ft lool,s li/w eacli year th.is party is bigger and better.
A/n,ady gifts are starling to come i.n. Anyone wlw
would lilw I.a sencl an ytT1ing to tliese very neecly N avajo
people can aclcfrc ss t/,eir conlri.bution s lo S T,ine Smit/i,
Flagstaff, Arizona.
ERRORS CORRECTED:
. T ha nks a mill ion for publishing the a rti cle on T uc­son
Ind ian Training School. written by Randolph Shd­don,
in your O ctober iss ue of ARIZONA H1GJ·JWA YS ! The
Board of Nationa l M iss ions of the Presbyterian C hurch
in the U. S. A., whi ch owns and operates the Indi an
Schools a lways a ppreciates such publicity given its e f­fur
ls lo serve the under-privileged and minority groups
o f our nation.
There ore two sta tements in error in the article which
I \\'ould apprecia te having correcled. The first is the
fact that I do not have the honor of the title of Doctor
since I am just an ordin a ry layman and the other is the
fact th at si nce the writin g of the a rticle the Ponce!
family has moved its home lo the campus o[ Ganado
M iss ion at Ganado, Arizona, wl-icre 1 am now se rving
ns superintendent o f Ganado M.ission..
Jos. A. Poncef
S uperintendent. Ganado Miss ion
Ganado, Arizona
" 'vVe ore sorry we did not have our etrticle up-to -elate
hut are happy Lo Im.ow Mr. Ponce! is now at Ganado,
one of our /u.vorite miss ions.
l:'1 PURSUIT OF AUTOMOBILE LILLI.AN:
Read Swita f's la n, ent (Yours S incerely, August,
1950) about the dime novel telling the story o[ "Auto­mobile
Lilli a n: The Dancing G irl Bandit of Arizona."
Consa rnc-1 knew the vixeon well back in the days
when a six-shoo ter and holster weighed my knees half
way down lo my locs. Read the di111e novels about the
ga l loo a fter l learned lo read from the school marm
I \\'8S court in'.
A nyway, gell ing back to Swita f's request-I have
been buying dime novels from some houses in the East
for well over 50 yea rs and am still buying them from
tl,ese houses whi ch I list for your informa tion:
Johnson S mith & Co .. Detroit 7, Michi gan; I. & M.
Ottcn hcimcr, 25 S. Howard S t .. Ba ltimore, Md.: 'Nch­man
Broth ers, 7 12 Broadway, New York 3, N. Y.
Hope Swital locaks the book and th en sends me a
little note as lo exactly where I can buy a copy on ac­count
of I would like lo r~ad of the Daring Lillian
agai n--might even make a good pi cher in the movies­al
least th a t's what my fri ends here in Cali forn ia te ll
rn c.
Walter (Death Valley Scotty) Scott
The Castle, Death Va lley
Goldf;eld, Nevada
• We'll ge t the posse out and ch.ase Daring Lillian
until we cat cf,. her.
WE VISIT F INLAND:
. My friend, Mr. Henry Karhu, an editor of the
Amerilwn Suomctar, H a ncock. Mich., sent me as a gift
your ARIZONA H 1GJ·IWAYS.
Every new issue of the magazine brings ever closer lo
me the wild' romanticism and ka leidoscopic story of the
fascinat ing Southwest. It reminds me greatly of the
scenic panorama of Lapland's mounts and dells and
BACK COVER
NOVEMBER VISIT
The cottonwood s are brittle and yellow,
\,\Tinter is almost h ere.
Air that was lightly hazed and mellow
ls sh arp ened now, and clear.
This is a country once my own,
Big and western-and tough;
A land where the mountains show their bone
And time is long enough
. To touch the colors and wait the change
Of a late day's light on a distant range,
Or close a book and stare into
A sky so high and wide and blue
That time itself shall have no mark
Excep t that sun divides the dark.
SYLVIA LEWIS KINNEY
,1, , ;, heoo<,. ho< <o ""' waodm, of ,hcse ~ \~
has an additional tang. something different, fascinating
and majesti c. Graphically the ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is of
the first order, showing skill ed cra ft smanship. 171e text
co ntents measure up to this fine standard.
H erc in the editorial offices of my paper ARIZONA ~
H1G1-1WAYS passes on from hand to hand, and its elabo- )r/
ra te illustrations a re, with p leasure shown to visitors. IJ
But before the magazine is worn out from too ma ny
handlin gs , our window trimmer cuts out the outstanding
pictures lo display to the passing thron gs. At this mo-ment
th ere are in our display window the rare Indian
pictures from the recently arrived summer issue. From
the Indi an ladies hair-do pictures we a rra nged a re­production
for our Sunday Edition. All in a ll the
Southwestern world of story from far across the seas
has become close and fa milia r lo the people of Oulu,
F inland.
ln a window in Finland.
Many peo ple of this North ern land are a lso Arizona
wa nderers, but their relatives and fri ends have had
only an inklin g of the great and natural beauty which
is the he ritage of A rizona. Now they can vision it after
studying the beautiful pictures from Arizona in ARIZ­ONA
H1GHWAYS. W e a re proud to introduce th em and
lo show th em to a ll interes ted parties .
Valde Nasi.
E ditor-in-Chief of Kaleva,
Daily Newspaper of
Oulu, Finland
• T-0 Editor Nasi of Kaleva and our friends in Oulu,
we extend . our /riendliest of wesiern greetings.
BRIGHT AUTUMN
Bright Autumn colors on the hill,
From the Great Artist's palette spill,
Crimson, purple, scarlet, gold :
Mirrored in the lake, behold
The cold, clear disk of hunters moon ,
And ghostly fli ght of mountain loon.
The wild geese southward make th e ir way:
S horter and shorter grows the day:
As pungent, burning leaves float by,
Blue smoke-wreaths trail towa rd bluer sky.
Soon, ice-locked waters, running deep,
\,\/;II dream of Spring, and dreaming, sleep.
P EGGY JAMES
* * * *
DUST UNTO D UST
Dust a long the road of the desert ;
Dust of the dinosaurs,
From the C liff Dwellers,
And the for gotten men
Of the early world.
In some not far di sta nt time
Our dust. too, will blow
Along the highways.
GRACE BARKER Vv'ILSON
* * * *
SHEEP BELL
"There a in 't a fin er sheep bell in these parts,"
The old ma n u sed to say.
"Real sil ver, and it cost a pretty penny,
But it has a way
O[ soundin' mighty cheery when the sheep
Come trailin' home at night."
He' cl polish it until it shone as bright
A s sun on mountain water.
W e ranch boys used to laugh at his deli ght
In such a common thing
And say we'd rather hear some ship's horn blow.
Today l wish that the old man could know
How many times on city streets I h ear
His sheep bell music trembling in my car.
BYRD BAYLOR
* * * *
THE TWO TRACKS
See where the red squirrel. darting to the brink
Of the half-frozen water hole to drink.
Drew with his tiny feet a ruffled line
As fragile as a lace-edged Valentine.
A porcupine, descending from a tree,
Looked at the dainty track admiringly.
"And the rocks and pines I loo will go,
And weave a lovely pattern to and fro!"
And here we follow his contrasting trail.
The h eavy furrow of a dragging tail
And clumsy paw-marks, ponderous and slow,
C learly recorded in the shining snow.
KATHERINE CARR H ENZE
OPPOSITE PAGE
The talented wriier-oholo<1raoher-artisi, Allen C. Reed. desi!1ned this interesiin!1 mao
of the West Coast -of M~,<i~o for us. Here at a ala~ce o,;-e sees vast and c~lorf~!
.states to the south, which are becomin!1 increasinQ'I~ imoortant in the _A.rizona travel
story. The S. P. of Mexico now ties the;e siates tog;ther.-New highway is being built.
"THROUGH THC: B.~RRA:-<CAs" Bv HERB McLAUGHLI!'<. Passen<1ers on the S . P. of
Mexico, going from Nogales to Guadalajara, are offered eye- filling scenery throu gh
the mountains of Nayarii and Jalisco. It took superior roadbuilding to master this
piciuresque, but imposing terrain. requiring 25,000 ft. of tunnels to get line through.