Mazatlán Mi Mazatlán

Juanacatlan Falls, near Guadalajara, on the Rio Grande, supplies power and illumination for México's second most important city.

Spanish exploration and colonization of the West Coast of México and the Southwestern part of the United States. It was named after the beautiful city in Spain and it bears its name proudly, being today one of the most gracious cities in all of México, a colonial city with great churches, a city of ease and graceful manners, noted for its songs, its poetry, its tequila, its beautiful women and the graceful charm of its men. One of the most popular songs sung in México today is "Guada-lajara" and when you hear a Mariachi band thunder that song to the skies you realize more completely than ever the fierce pride all the people of Jalisco have in their Capitol City. The people of Jalisco themselves are noted through the Republic for their courage, their love of freedom, their hatred of oppression. Some of the greatest warriors in the history of the Republic came from this city and state of poetry and music. In truth another popular song in México: "Ay, Jalisco! No Te Rajes!" honors this characteristic of the people. "Ay, Jalisco! Never give in."

Guadalajara is in many ways a very modern city. A well-dressed couple are as modish as their counterparts from any great American city. There are street cars and buses and fine shops and modern homes. There are fine hotels, parks, an opera house, several large theatres and cinema palaces. But despite its modern dress and appearances there is an old-world charm to Guadalajara. Life is lived a little bit slower, a little bit easier. The bustle and hurry of the modern 20th Century city is lacking in this capital of Jalisco. Here you find that there is still time for poetry, for easy conversation, for music and moonlight nights. Imagine a city of 250,000 people, with taxis and buses and all description of automobiles, having as a principal means of transportation horse-drawn hacks clippetty-clopping over the paved and cobble-stoned streets, taking the traffic in easy stride, patient impediments to the more rapid travelers, but of no concern or alarm to anyone.

There are many interesting places in and around Guadalajara. Near the city, stretching from Jalisco into the neighboring state of Michocan is Lake Chapala, (cha-pall-a) the largest lake in México, 70 miles long and averaging 15 to 20 miles in width. There are many Indian villages bordering the lake for it is famous for its fish and the agricultural areas about it. On the shores of this lake a great writer and a gloomy man, D. H. Lawrence, the English novelist, wrote much about México.

Southward in the state of Sinaloa, to the eastward of the point where Baja California disappears into the Pacific, is Mazatlán, México's leading port on the West Coast. Mazat-lán. Mi Mazatlán! So goes the song. And all residents of the city speak of Mazatlán with pride, reverence and devotion.

This is a city of music, of sunlight on clean sea sand, of a tropical moon bigger than a ripe orange, spinning strands of gold in the banana palms. The lazy breakers of the Pacific roll in to the beaches, and little fishing boats dance languorously to the rhythm of the waves.

There is laughter and song in the streets for Mazatlán (Mah-sah-tlahn) is a happy town.

Fishing is one of the principal industries at Mazatlán. The city is picturesquely situated, a charming place full of sunlight and the noise of breakers on the beach.

Today important Mexican military concentrations are taking place at Mazatlán. From here the long Mexican West Coast will be closely watched.

Her people are happy people. Her women are famed both for their charm and beauty, and Mazatlán itself is a city of gracious hospitality. Here there is no winter, only the winds from the sea and the rains of summer. Here life weaves itself in gentler patterns and the process of living is set to a calmer tempo. The world comes to Mazatlán by the sea, by the rails of the Sud Pacifico de México, swinging across the deserts and mountains from Nogales to Guadalajara, and today a modern highway is a'building to connect this jewel of the Pacific with places to the north and south. Today, however, the peace and calm of Mazatlán is broken by the sound of marching feet, by the sight of gunboats in the harbor, by men of military mien going about their brisk business of preparing for the defense of all the West Coast of México, all for the cause of Liberty and Democracy. The stern general, Lázaro Cárdenas, former president of the Republic, is there directing operations and wherever you find the general, you find serious business. Mazatlán is a crucial and strategic point, watching the gateway to the Golfo de California, whose endless miles of lonely coastline is being watched, and being watched well, for the general's face is stern. And so, while they may not realize it, the good citizens of many American states and cities, many of whom may never have heard of Mazatlán, owe some of their security and protection to this city of sunlight and light

laughter far, far down on the West Coast of México where the Pacific and the Golfo de California blend their blue waters.

Happily it is, too, for us all that Señor Juan Rodríguez of Mazatlá and Mr. John Smith of Phoenix, or Los Angeles, or Salt Lake, have the same ideas about Liberty and Freedom. The war against the Axis is no musical comedy gesture by the people of México. No oppressor's foot will ever leave footprints in the soil of our sister Republic as long as Mexican blood remains unshed in the defense of that soil. All of this you learn in Mazatlán.

You learn other things in Mazatlán, as well. You learn of the riches of the sea and the riches of Mexican soil, liberally supplied with water. You learn of birds, of gorgeous plumes, which people the dense growth along the sea and around the city. Here you see the artisitic qualities of Mexican handicraft.

Cobblestone streets and asphalt go side by side. A burro-drawn cart joggles along completely oblivious of more modern vehicles of 20th Century travel. Modern business buildings and buildings that have stood since colonial times gape at each other across the street.

A city of some 25,000 population, Mazatlán is destined to be one of the great cities of México. With the industrial development that cannot fail to come to the West Coast of México, will come the wealth and the people to add to the future importance and the lustre of this energetic Pacific port.

But nothing will ever change the personality of the town. Gay and airy, redolent of the sea and the tropic growth in and about it, full of flowers and sparkling laughter, Mazatlán will retain its easy charm and its easy graces, a city of the sea, hospitable and friendly. Visitors who come now and later will find the same welcome. The bells in the high spires of the churches call out to the faithful, their sonorous tones adding to the music of the sea washing endlessly and tirelessly against the beaches. The palms whisper to the winds that come in from the sea and the birds keep up their constant chatter in the sunlight.