Xochimilco: Lovely Flowers for Your Lovely Lady

FCermosillo

HERMOSILLO, the capital of Sonora, Arizona's sister state to the south, is 187 miles south of Nogales, located along the Sonora river, which often runs very wide and sometimes runs hardly at all. Eightyfive miles to the south of Hermosillo (Airmoe-see-yo) is the picturesque fishing port of Guaymas. To the south by west is the Tiburon Island, home of the Seri Indians. To the west are other and smaller ports on the Golfo de California.

Hermosillo, in Spanish, means "pretty little place" and truly it is. It is a green oasis in the middle of the Sonora desert. There are parks full of cool trees, and fragrant gardens in spacious patios. A patio might be described as a front yard located in the center of the house, with the house built all around it.

There are fine hotels and paved streets and if you pause for refreshments a brisk young lady will mix you a lemon-coke or a strawberry sundae in the most approved American fashion. Architecturally speaking, Hermosillo is very new and very modern, although landmarks like the Cathedral whisper of olden days. In many ways Hermosillo is more like an American than a Mexican city.With a population of 25,000, Hermosillo is the trading and marketing center of a vast empire in which you find ranches, mines and farming areas. When you consider that Sonora is the second largest state in the Republic of

... PRETTY LITTLE CITY

México, the honor of being the capital city of such a state is no light matter, and it is an honor that Hermosillo does not treat lightly.

Hermosillo has been particularly aggressive in the matter of public education. Fortunately, Sonora has been governed by some very able men and no less so than in the person of the present governor, General Macias. Primary and secondary schools have been sponsored by these men and today in Hermosillo a great state university is being built that promises to be one of the outstanding centers of learning in the Republic.

The state of Sonora is not only big but endowed with great natural resources. There are great copper mines in the northern part of the state, there are important border towns like Naco, Agua Prieta, Sonoyta and Nogales. There is the great farming region around Cuidad Obregón, 270 miles south of Hermosillo, in the fertile Yaqui valley. The recently constructed Angostura Dam on the Biaspe River will assure ample water supply for the Yaqui region, ending for all time the danger of drought. And still further south, along the Mayo River, is Navajoa, the center of another farming district, and peopled by the industrious Mayo Indians.

Modern enterprises and technical developments mean a great growth for the state. The beautiful capital city will grow and increase in importance along with the state.

A sign of Sonora's progressive undertakings is the new state university at Hermosillo, now under construction. Popular education is making great strides throughout all México, and this is especially noticeable in Sonora.

IF THERE ever was a garden paradise on earth, that place is Xochimilco, just a few miles from the heart of México City, and near the palace where the Districto Federal joins the state of Morelos. Xochimilco (So-chee-meelko) is an incredible place, square mile after square mile of flower gardens, truck gardens and every other sort of garden you can think of, bound together with mile after mile of canals. The exquisite formation of tilled acreage and canal, of island after island, gives the place the common name: The Floating Gardens of México.

Please do not get the idea that Xochimilco is a convenient and flowery spot, designed to lure the traveler. First, its roots go back deep into history and here the Aztecs put up their last stand against the Spaniards. The village of Xochimilco ("Place Where the Flowers Grow") has an entity and personality of its own. Its people are essentially gardeners and flower-growers and half of their life is spent in boats in the canals and in the marshes where they raise their surprising crops. Flowers and vegetables is their business. Truck load upon truck load of farm and garden products go each day to the big markets in the city where residents of the city can buy cabbages and carrots for their pots and pans and flowers for their soul. During the week, Xochimilco is a garden center, a busy place teeming with rich verdue and hard-working men and women. Carnations and cabbages! Roses and radishes! Violets and spinach! Lettuce and lilies! That's Xochimilco!

On Sunday the people of Xochimilco spruce up their boats and decorate them with the gaiest of decorations. All of Mexico, it seems, comes Gaily decorated gondolas push their dreamy way through the canals of Xochimilco. What a pleasant way to spend a Sunday!

Flower vendors in small canoes besiege the Sunday afternoon fleet of gondolas. Carnations, if you please, by the armful for a few cents.

Photographers in their boats will take your picture as you drift along, you can't help looking pretty in such pretty surroundings.