Miracle in Mañanaland

The state of Sonora, our good neighbor to the south, is the second largest state in the Republic of Mexico, with an area of 76,663 square miles and a population of some 410,000. Sonora is bounded on the north by Arizona, on the east by the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, on the south by the state of Sinoloa, and on the west by the Gulf of California and the Colorado River. The principal industries are cattle, fishing, and agriculture. The tourist industry has been developing to some extent with the border towns of Nogales, Agua Prieta, Naco, Sonoyta, and San Luis and the fishing centers of Guaymas and Puerto Pe-ñasco, enjoying the major portion of the American tourist dollars that roll across the border. The three main Indian tribes of Sonora are the fierce and sullen Yaquis, the industrious and amiable Mayos, both in the southern part of the state, and the Seris, the tribe that lives off the sea around the Island of Tiburon. In Mexico, Sonorans are noted for the fierce vigor with which they fought in the Revolution and also for the large voice they have had in the affairs of the Republic. Four Mexican presidents, de la Huerta, Obregon, Calles and Rodriguez, have been from Sonora; this despite the proportionally small and scattered population of the state. And yet, in spite of the political influence that Sonorans have wielded in the Republic, Sonora has been a back-ward and relatively unprogressive state. Please note the emphasis on has been.

Sonora, second largest state in Mexico, one of smallest in population, is enjoying great industrial expansion. Here is the new dam at Hermosillo, vital power-irrigation project.

Sonorans will readily admit that. I, who have traveled around Sonora a great deal in the past decade, can qualify as witness to the fact. In all of Mexico there are no more friendly or hospitable people than Sonorans or in my estimation is there a more charming land. Sonora has mountains, the desert and the sea and little villages along the road, scorched and sleepy in the sun, and always so interesting. Very picturesque and pleasant, but one did not have to look far to see that time had not only stood still but that in a modern world the state was logging behind.

But now the Sonora of the past is no more. Like a great giant, Sonora has awakened from a sleep of centu-ries and is throwing off the bonds of inertia and ignorance. Sonora is up and doing. To appreciate Sonora of today, you should have seen the Sonora of ten years ago. Then you will know why Sonorans, when they tell you of their state and what has been done in the past three years, will exhaust the adjectives and exclaim "Es milagro!" It is a miracle!

This expresses itself in many ways. You can see it in the attitude of the people. Talk to reputable businessmen in Hermosillo, Nogales and Santa Ana; to farmers in Navajoa and Ciudad Obregon; to students at the University; to customs officials along the border; to the ordinary people in almost any street of almost any pueblo or city of Sonora and you sense their pride in their new state. It is important to remember this: what has been done in Sonora has been done by Sonorans solely by their own efforts.

This was not brought about by mere chance, but by a carefully planned course of leadership on the part of the state government wholeheartedly supported by all groups of Sonoran citizens. This was voiced by Abelardo Rodri-guez in Hermosillo in May, 1943, before the election which made him governor of the state. He said then, "If

Sonorans take great pride in Hermosillo, their capital. This, they say, will be the most modern city in all of Mexico. Widespread building program is now underway. We send our minds around the world and analyze carefully the reason for the existence of some rich, powerful and progressive nations and for the others which live in a half-dead state, we shall indisputably find that the nations which have been elevated to the first classification owe their rise solely to their own efforts. These have known how to develop and take advantage of their resources." And the ideal state, as he described it, was one in which the best welfare of the people was based on "equitable and just payment of the working people, raising the standards of living," and "fostering an educational and cultural program" to make each citizen of the state a better citizen. Words, of course, are cheap. Sonorans, if you are interested, will quote a mass of statistics to you which translate those words into action.

A minimum wage scale has been put into effect throughout the state. Sonorans are now the second best paid group of workers in the Mexican Republic. One hundred and two new schools have been built in the past three years at a cost of about five millions pesos. Forty-one new schools are under construction at this time, representing an additional expenditure of three million pesos; and another two million pesos have been allocated for repair and modernization of schools now in operation. Nearly ten thousand more children are in school today in Sonora than there were in 1940. A state-sponsored adult educational program has reduced the illiteracy rate from 16.80% of the adult population to 8.75 per cent. Illiteracy is a vile evil to be eradicated and the people are moving against it as they would against a most dangerous enemy. There have always been a few (and in proportion to the population), a very few enlightened, well-educated and progressive men and women in Sonora. But there have been too many who have not enjoyed the advantages these few have had. That is why the state is making such efforts to extend the opportunity of education and enlightenment to the poorest and most backward groups in the society that makes up the state. The principles of the Mexican Revolution are being put to work. Sonorans are proud of the fact that in four years the population of the The state has increased some 50,000 people. Hermosillo has in less than four years grown in population from 28,000 to 43,000. Other Mexicans are recognizing Sonora as the state of opportunity. When Sonorans begin to talk of the money that has been spent and is being spent and will be spent in public works, both state and Federal, in their state and when they point out the amount of money Sonorans are spending in private enterprise, one's head begins to buzz. The longer your acquaintanceship with the state has been, the more amazing it will appear to you. Curiously enough, there is no more encouraging or heartening sign of the times in Sonora than the attitude of the people in the face of what might be a terrible eco-nomic calamity. Each year Sonora has shipped 200,000 cattle into the United States. Now because of the hoofand-mouth disease which they term, and rather poetically, too, "la aftosa," these cattle cannot be shipped into this country. Beef is Sonora's biggest business. This business has been staggered. What has happened to this industry is tragic but Sonorans will not tell you of their worries. If you press them, they'll tell you they will find a way out and they will.

The miracle of modern Sonora began September 1, 1943, the day Abelardo L. Rodriguez became governor of Included in the plans for the new and modern Hermosillo is an extensive street widening program. Whole blocks of residences are cut in two to allow for wider streets.

Upon leaving the presidency he returned to public life. By judicious management of his own properties and businesses, he has amassed a fortune variously estimated from $25,000,000 to $100,000,000. He has interests in Born of poor parents in Guaymas, Sonora, in 1889, he spent his boyhood and young manhood in Nogales, Sonora, and even played baseball with a team in Nogales, Arizona. He joined the army in 1913, and 1928 became a General of Division. Five years before that he was appointed by President Alvaro Obregon as military governor of Baja California and served until he resigned in January, 1930. He was chosen by President Rubio to be Secretary of War and Navy for Mexico in October, 1931; in January, 1932, he became Secretary of Commerce; in August, 1932, returned to the Secretaryship of War and Navy. Upon the resignation of President Rubio in September, 1932, Abelardo Rodriguez was chosen by the Federal Congress to be president of the Republic to serve the balance of Rubio's term. In all these offices he served with great distinction and always for the good of the many as against the profits of the few. Some of Mexico's most liberal and progressive laws were instituted under his leadership.

Upon leaving the presidency he returned to public life. By judicious management of his own properties and businesses, he has amassed a fortune variously estimated from $25,000,000 to $100,000,000. He has interests in This wide, spacious boulevard in Hermosillo was not long ago a narrow, unattractive street. Population expansion and increasing tourist travel have brought about changes.

the state. I attended the inauguration that day in Hermosillo, the state capital, and was puzzled. "Why," I asked a friend, "does General Rodriguez, one of the wealthiest and most important men of Mexico, want a position like this?" "Sonora has done a lot for General Rodriguez," my friend answered, "and now he says he wants to do something for Sonora." Sonora had done a lot for Abelardo Rodriguez. Sonorans of influence gave him his start in life. All this I knew and I knew, too, that the name of Abelardo Rodriquez has been a household word in Sonora for years.

banks, real estate, ranching, insurance companies, a winery, and in fishing enterprises. The Rodriguez business empire is far-flung, extending from Tijuana to Yucatan, and it is common knowledge that in no business in which he has invested funds has he ever known a failure. Today he is ranked as one of three wealthiest men in Mexico and one of Mexico's foremost businessmen. But he has never hesitated when his country called. When World War II began, President Comacho named him chief of the Military Region of the Gulf of California and he later became War Production Chief, a post he relinquished to become Sonora's governor. Term of office is six years.

PAGE SEVEN OF ARIZONA HIGHWAYS FOR NOVEMBER, 1947

This was the man who came back to do something for his state, his patria chica. It sounded like glib political propaganda, but when I returned to Sonora this summer, the first time since the war and the first time since that memorable day in September, 1943, and when I saw what had been accomplished in Sonora in four short years, I realized how right my friend had been, how much the governor was doing for his state. When he took office he was pledged complete support by the nine-man legislature of Sonora; so it did not take long before his work and inspiration were felt throughout the state. First came schools. Sonora has the largest annual appropriation for education of all Mexican states. Several authorities claim that there have been more new schools built in Sonora during the past four years than in all of the other states in the Republic of Mexico put together. The University of Sonora has become a reality. There today hundreds of young people are taking teaching courses to fill the teaching posts in the public schools of the state. Even in remote villages new schools have been built because the Federal Government must keep up in Rural School Education with the state program in towns and cities. Teachers are receiving higher wages. Teaching is Public playgrounds and sports program has been started in Hermosillo to provide needed recreation for children. The advances made in a few years have been remarkable.

To provide needed water for Sonora's capitol and vital power for the blossoming industry of the city. Hermosillo, the capital, to be worthy of its leadership of the Sonora of tomorrow, is now in the middle of a vast public works program. The beautiful "Boulevard Hermosillo" is nearing completion and work is progressing on the new state and municipal buildings. Playgrounds and parks are planned, a new airport is in the blueprint stage, and a new depot will be opened when the new dam is built, over which a realignment of the railroad will be placed. Perhaps the biggest single economic milestone in the government of Governor Rodriguez in Sonora has been the new Packing and Freezing plant being built at Hermosillo. Sonora is a large cattle producing state; yet not a pound of Sonora meat has been palatably processed in Sonora. A law was passed imposing a tax on all cattlemen in the state with ten or more head of cattle and taxes thus raised have gone into this plant. Land irrigated by the new dam will be used to feed and fatten Sonora cattle. Sonora beef, pork and lamb will be processed in this plant, frozen there and shipped frozen all over Mexico and, as a matter of fact, the world through the port of Guaymas.

"Education for the future!" is the slogan of the modern Sonora. At the University of Sonora the emphasis is to produce teachers for the many new schools of the state. becoming an honorable profession in a state where not so long ago a teacher did not receive the wages of common day-laborer. Nearing completion in Hermosillo, as part of the University and as the cultural headquarters of the state, is the new Library and Museum, a building any American city would be proud to claim as its own and a fount of learning and cultural inspiration for generations of students to come. State and Federal funds are going into a vast plan of dams and irrigation on the Sonora, Yaqui and Mayo Rivers. The dam at Hermosillo, at the junction of the San Miguel and Sonora Rivers, will irrigate 50,000 acres, will provide needed water for Sonora's capitol and vital power for the blossoming industry of the city.

With the cattle of Sonora shut off from Arizona and United States markets because of the hoof-and-mouth disease in Mexico (the infected areas are far south of Sonora) this Packing and Freezing Plant will more than anything else save the largest industry in the state. The traveler to Sonora in the future need never hesitate about the drinking water in the towns he visits. The State and Federal Governments, working together, are building new, hygenic water plants and sewage disposal systems in Nogales, Magdalena, Hermosillo, Guaymas, Ciudad Obregon and Navajoa. Small irrigation projects are being built in many remote sections of the state to serve local conditions. WhileHermosillo is reaping the greatest benefits of the Rod-riguez government, all of Sonora is benefiting by it.

Governor Rodriguez has not only given Sonora wise and far-seeing governmental leadership but as an indi-vidual has done much to encourage private business to expand and grow and modernize.

He built Edificio Sonora, the most modern office building in Hermosillo. Soon new buildings were spring-ing up all over town, including two new hotels, the De Anza and the San Alberto, and a six-story wing to the Hotel Laval. When the big tourist boom starts, Hermosillo will be ready for it.

The new textile plant, Textiles Sonora, has just been completed and is one of the most modern on this conti-nent. A cement manufacturer, with his associates, is in-vesting twelve million pesos in a new plant, which will receive its power from the new hydroelectric power plant at the new dam. Sonora has faith in the vision of Rodriguez.

Now nearing completion, and as an integral part of the education and cultural development of Sonora, is this museum and library at Hermosillo. Below, modern schoolA group of young ladies at a club dinner in Hermosillo are as modern and modish as their American neighbors. Sonora expects much of the young people for tomorrow.

New businesses in Sonora go tax free for ten years. Old buildings, which have far outlived their usefulness. have been loaded with additional taxes. The government in Sonora can be gently persuasive in getting things done.Colonia Pitic, a beautiful and ornate residential area, was started by the Governor. Thirty-one beautiful homes have been built there in three years, representing an ex-penditure of four million pesos. Before that it was the poorest and most desolate part of the desert.

Their Governor has become one of the most active individual builders and investors in Hermosillo, but the people of Sonora do not mind. Profits from these invest-ments have been allocated by Governor and Mrs. Rod-riguez to "La Fundacion Esposos Rodriguez," a scholar-ship fund for needy young men and women of Sonora aspiring to a higher education. These two fine and gen-erous people have practically underwritten an educational program in Sonora, and generations of Sonorans will ben-efit by it. Sonora is grateful for the generosity of Rod-riguez. Even the Governor's annual salary of 48.000 pesos goes into a fund to buy athletic equipment for boys in Hermosillo and Sonora who cannot buy their own. The Governor has great faith in baseball, a game he learned to play in Nogales, Arizona, as a fine influence in the

lives of young boys. Governor Rodriguez has given from his personal funds more than 300,000 pesos to the new Museum and Library and the list is endless of the good things he has done for his state and his people. A friend of his estimates that by the time his term in office expires (September 1, 1949) Governor Rodriguez will have given over ten million pesos (approximately $2,000,000) of his own funds to various public and charitable enterprises in Sonora during his tenure in office. Unquestionably no governor of any American or Mexican state has left a record of beneficence like that. Because of all the good he has done, he is universally beloved in Sonora and Mexico. He is the only man of importance in the Republic who does not go around accompanied by a group of pistoleros or body-guards. "Mi General" has no enemies.

When we drove into Sonora this summer to look around. I stopped, as I always did before, at a little adobe cantina in Santa Ana to pass the time of day with my good friend, Pablito. After the abrazo, I asked for a "Tequillita!" and inquired of his health and fortune.

"No!" he said, "No tequilla!"

"No tequila!," I exclaimed. After all, Mexico is the land of tequila.

Pablito explained that Governor Rodriguez believed the drinking of tequila and mescal was a bad thing for the poor people. He imposed such heavy taxes on establishments serving hard liquor that they either had to close or remain open only through the sale of beer, on which there was practically no tax. So here again was the influence of the Governor felt in a forceful way; a oneman prohibition force, as it were.

But did Pablito mind? "No," he said, "what 'Mi General' says is good enough for me. Now I have schools to send my children to and when they get big they can go to the University in Hermosillo and learn to be better than a 'cantinero' like me. Wait until you see IIermosillo, Ramon, 'es milagro."

So we toasted the Governor over a glass of beer and I drove on down the road. The road, too, was a surprise. When I last went over it, it was a trial and tribulation! Now it is paved far past Santa Ana and by Christmas will reach Hermosillo, providing a perfect surfaced highway all the way to Nogales. Next summer, they say, it will reach Guaymas and in a couple of years maybe all the way to Guadalajara. Then the travel boom will begin.

Wherever you go in Hermosillo are signs of the times. Left to right below, are the cement factory; a new, modern home; and a garage and service station building.

Three of the most beautiful of the new structures in Hermosillo are (left to right) the new theatre; the old people's home, to the building of which Senora Rodriguez has been the inspiration; and the strikingly beautiful public clinic, an art creation This is, in short, the story of Sonora and Hermosillo of today. "Es milagro!" What has been accomplished in several short years has been a miracle. It shows what can be done when the people of a state receive inspired leadership and when they have faith in that leadership. All the children of Sonora can now look forward to an education and not only the lucky sons and daughters of wealthy parents. The young people of Sonora, upon receiving an education, can look forward to a place for themselves under Sonora's sun and will not be faced with the necessity of migrating to greener pastures elsewhere. In the past, Sonora has been a state producing raw products. In the future, Sonora will take her raw products of soil and sea and make them attractive for the markets of the world. All the seven seas wash Sonora's shores. Distant Cathay, the east and the west are just over the deep, blue horizon. Guaymas and the new port that has been planned for the Yaqui Valley, El Tobari, are next door to Hong Kong, Manila, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Liverpool, Lisbon, Cairo and Quebec, great portsof-call on the waterways of the world. This is the Sonora of tomorrow, translated in terms of pesos and centavos. The gifts of Nature have been bountifully bestowed on our sister state. Progressive Sonorans realize this and have made up their minds to use those gifts for the good and betterment of all the people. In the past, Sonora has been an admirable place for a few; in the future, Sonorawill be the land of promise and fulfillment for the many. This is the Sonora of tomorrow translated in terms of human values and human rights. When Governor Rodriguez leaves office his successor will carry on the social and economic program he has inaugurated and to which he has given such impetus. The people will demand that. His influence and guidance will be just as great after he has left office as it is now, because his political philosophy has been planted in the hearts of a grateful people and it will grow there and flower. He has shown the people of Sonora what they can do and the people of Sonora will do it. He has pointed a way and has blueprinted a plan of cultural and economic advancement and betterment for his people to follow. There will be no deviation. No longer is Sonora a sleepy land of manana. Now Sonorans say: "Manana, no! Ahora, si! We will and can do these things today. Tomorrow will take care of herself." And the problems and tasks of today after being attacked with vigour and vision and with such enthusiasm!

Hermosillo's new textile factory is one of the most modern in world. It has just been put in operation, and will provide large payroll. Right, a farm equipment business.