La Capital: All Roads Lead to Mexico City

Guadalajara is the capital of the state of Jalisco and is the second largest city in Mexico. The city is known for its salubrious climate, handsome people and architectural art. Shown is the Playa Mayor (main plaza), with the Cathedral dominating the scene.

Mexico City (population, 1970 est.: metropolitan area, 8,700,000; city, 2,850,000; altitude: 7,350 feet) is the fourth largest city in the Western Hemisphere. It is a city of many contrasts. In some ways it is the most modern of cities with glass-and-steel skyscrapers punctuating the skyline, sleek shopping centers, super-markets, and large industrialized zones but in other aspects the city is old-fashioned and is characterized in many areas by cottage industries and tiny neighborhood stores. Mexico City is unique, however, in its innumerable relics of a fascinating past, including colonial churches that have been standing since almost a hundred years before the Pilgrims set foot in America and Indian pyramids that predate the Roman Empire.

During the 300 years of Spanish domination, Mexico City was the seat of the viceroyship. It is still the political center of Mexico, as well as the largest and most culturally advanced of all Mexican cities.

The history of Mexico's capital goes back more than six centuries, when the site occupied by present-day Mexico City was a lake with two small, uninhabited islands in its center and the Chapultepec area on the western shore was occupied by a crude and warlike people who called themselves Aztecs. Ruins and resto-rations of their culture are one of Mexico's prime points of interest.

Mexico's National University has evolved from being the first on the New World. The administration tower is distinguished by Siguiero's three dimensional mural. The 12 story library at right is resplendent with the mosaic mural artistry of Juan O'Gorman who was one of the two architects of the building.

South of Mexico City, near Amecameca are the volcanos Ixtaccihuatl, right, 17,343 ft., and Popocatepetl, left, 17,761 ft. Popularly called "Popo" and "Ixty." A road branches from the highway, leads to Izta-Popo Park a national park between the famed volcanos. Both peaks are a delight to alpine climbers.

The picturesque setting in lower photograph was taken near Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico. The extinct volcano Nevado de Toluca, 15,106 ft, is snow capped most of the year. The village of Zinacantepec is seen in the foothills.

For the artist and poet. Mexico is a land to excite the senses and spark the soul-fire of romance.

The Incomparable Mayan Peninsula Is A Portion of Paradise As Close to Heaven As Americans Can See Without Leaving The Continental Mainland.

Mexico is a land of epics not yet written a society of beautiful people whose faces speak of a peace and serenity known only to men and women of the earth.

Manacus candei Left: This bird performs its courtship dance by jumping back and forth between two twigs to a loud snap of its wings.

Piculus rubiginosus The Golden-olive Woodpecker is fairly common. It appears alone or in pairs in semi-open areas of southern Mexico.

Chloroceryle aenea A sparrow size bird found in southern forests.

Aulacorhynchus prasinus A very capable mimic.

Tanagra musica

Trogon collaris

The Collared Trogon occurs on plantations and in forests at middle elevations.

The bird pictured above is one of four Mexican species. The male, as well as the female pictured here, has a vibrant blue crown.

The male and female often join in a chattering duet when their bush or thicket is approached.

Habia rubica This elusive bird is found in the underbrush of thick woods in the state of Nayarit and southern Tamaulipas southward.

Thamnophilus doliatus

Male

Female

Royal Flycatcher

Onychorhynchus coronatus One of the most spectacular sights in the bird world is the raised crest of the Royal Flycatcher, above. When hand held the bird erects its colorful crest, but in the wild it is so seldom raised that no one is sure of its function.

Rufous-capped Warbler

Basileuterus rufifrons This delightful bird is found in the highlands throughout most of Mexico, lower elevations during winter.

Red-legged Honeycreeper

Cyanerpes cyaneus Probing flowers, catching insects on the wing, eating ripe bananas, and often hanging head down are characteristic traits of the Red-legged Honeycreeper.

The Ivory-billed Woodcreeper, right, is found largely in dry open woodland on both Pacific and Caribbean slopes.

Slate-throated Redstart

Myioborus miniatus This colorful bird is found in Sonora, southern Chihuahua and southward at high altitude.

Ivory-billed Woodcreeper

Xiphorhynchus flavigaster

Long-tailed Manakin

Chiroxiphia linearis The courtship dance of this bird is similar to that of the White-collared Manakin, but does not include the snapping sound of the wings. It is most often found in the arrid lowlands of the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Crimson-collared Tanager

Phlogothraupis sanguinolenta This beautiful bright red and black tanager has a spectacular appearance. He is found in lowland rain forest to elevations around 4000 feet.

It's not Baja...

Baja California is not all The Forgotten Peninsula. Baja California is not the place famous for road races that prove nothing... nor is it the worst and most dangerous highway on earth.

The mission-like Territorial Prison at Mulege where the prisoners are allowed to leave during the day and are summoned back in the evening by a guard who blows "recall" with a conch shell.

Baja California has been endowed by nature with assets which will assure a primitive undeveloped retreat for the development of man's inner environment.

In any form of the superlative, Conception Bay is one of the most spectacular places on this or any other planet. Coyote Bay, foreground, with its cluster of palm trees is one of our favorite Baja California hideaways.

Poolside at Palmilla resort hotel

Sunlight dances on the waters of Bahia de La Paz

eWayside shrine and Pitahaya cactus cOne of the most spectacular of nature's wonders is the sight of billions of tiny red crustacea (langustinas) washed ashore during the night by the sea's over production. Every beach we saw from the heights was “running red.” We were fortunate to get several photographs before the sun came up turning the langustinas from red to brown.

fA Mexican artist titled this “San Antonio pintoresco.”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOSEPH STACEY

Acapulco is Mexico's luxurious internationally famous seaside resort situated around one of the world's finest and most beautiful natural harbors.

The treasure of Mexico is like a pearl of great beauty. The dignity and the presence of the people is enhanced by the plainest settings. For the most part they are a gentle people who regardless of status move about with a genteel manner. Even from a distance the allur-ing rhythm of motion sets the stranger at ease. The more distant from the modern world one penetrates into Mexico, the more one is enchanted by the dreamy quality of life. There are places in Mexico where it seems time is one thousand years ago. An awareness of being "20 to 100 years ago" is commonly experienced. The traveller who does not learn some basic conversational Spanish is depriving himself of an experience in human relations that is destined to be lost to coming generations. It's true that Mexicans, as do most Latins, need only the eyes to express themselves. Nevertheless it is the voice and the manner of speak-ing that enchants the traveller. The gentle people, the people of the earth, the fishermen, the graceful dark eyed Indian of the mountain regions, the Seri Indians who live by the sea they speak so softly, so dreamlike with a musical timber almost a hush. so soft, and so soothing that one's own voice seems raw and somewhat discordant.

Most of Mr. Dudley's inspiration is drawn from his very extensive travels in Mexico and Latin America. He has also traveled widely in the Pacific Isles and the West Indies gathering subject matter. Mr. Dudley has exhibited widely in California - California Watercolor Society (including the national traveling shows), Orange County Annual, Seal Beach Annual, San Diego South, San Clemente Annual, Torana Art League and the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts.

We feel that artist Jack Dudley has captured much of the mood of the treasure of Mexico in the charm of the plainer settings. With this thought in mind we decided to use Mr. Dudley's paintings instead of the cold, unsympathetic clinical rawness of the camera's lenses to catch some of the unforgettable remembrances one prefers to treasure in his heart. That is the best part of beauty, which no photograph can record.

Corpus Christi Sunday in Papantla. Vera Cruz. Land of the Totonac Indians and Mexico's Vanilla jungle.

Color Your Life With Mexico

Los Mochis • Topolobampo • El Fuerte

marvels at progress in Cusarare Mission restoration with primitive ladders and hand tools.

Los Mochis, Sinaloa, center of the Fuerte Valley surge of industrial, agricultural and recreational activities. Ideally situated it has fine accomodations for fishermen, hunters and water sports aficionados. With nearly 2 million game birds migrating to the area during the northern winters and expanding water areas from dam construction and diversions the area is a sportsman's paradise. From nearby Topolobampo deep sea fishermen enjoy record catches.

Mexico's Grand Canyon

"COLONIALISTS" from page 14

The ghost town of Marfil, tucked into Guanajuato's hills, flooded and nearly destroyed in the early years of the 20th Century, came back to life when an Italian from the States rebuilt an old hacienda 20 years ago and drew other newcomers who wanted tranquil days in beautiful surroundings. His widow, Louise Belloli, now runs that hacienda as a small but flourishing guest house.

In nearby San Miguel de Allende, a young-artistwriter settled in the late '30s, intrigued by the isolation, history, architecture of the old colonial mountain town. He was instrumental in founding an art school which saw San Miguel come to new life as an arts and crafts center, luring artists and writers by the hundreds. Today, San Miguel boasts a National Institute of Fine Arts, and instruction in the arts painting, weaving, ceramics, jewelry may be found in many places beside the old art school that started off the wave. One such figure as James or Dickinson attracts other congenial souls, and so a community begins to assume a character which is many times independent of but often allied to the original Mexican community. And the city flowers, blooms and booms.

Sometimes it is not easy for Mexico to maintain a balance between wanting to please the traveler and foreign resident with comfort and convenience and maintaining, at the same time, its marvelously varied national and regional personalities. People come here originally for that very personality, and it should not be sacrificed. Foreign residents who understand this and many do do all they can to preserve and enhance old traditions, crafts, arts, architecture, flora and fauna, customs everything that shapes a land and its people.

Sometimes a very healthy balance is struck between the native wealth of craftsmanship and lore and those peculiarly foreign attributes of convenience and efficiency. Unhappily, in some areas the balance is so tilted toward a stereotype of American living that the result is nothing more than the transplantation of a more lavish living standard to a different climate and environment. And often the very qualities that seem so attractive among natives from a distance are the first to cause frustration among foreigners, who are amazed that the gentle courtesy of the Mexican sometimes conceals violence, and the amiable indifference to the pressures of time and livelihood can become galling to the anglo-saxon character with its stress on deadlines and efficiency.

Each newcomer or visitor must weigh his own preferences and establish his own life style. And in Mexico nearly everything is possible. It's all a matter of searching and testing.

Is the stranger gregarious, or a hermit by nature? A lover of sea or mountain, or forest, hill or plain? Does he seek daily contact with new culture and language, or does he want to deal exclusively with compatriots who help him found an enclave apart from the "natives?" Or does he want a judicious mixture of many of these elements?

Each community has its share of hard drinkers, talkers, gossips, the lazy ones and the problem-makers just as each also has its creative elements and people who enjoy making themselves helpful and valuable members of society.

Generally speaking, the influx of new faces leads to more dynamic surroundings not invariably the aim of a Mexico-lover and a more stimulating and enriched life which at its best is composed of a healthy mixture of native life sparked with the challenge and conveniences of foreign techniques and customs.

The availability of servants and some related advantages may not continue much longer. As the educational level of the country rises, it will become harder to recruit people in the service ranks. Mexico has no tradition of the honorable status of a servant as once existed in England and Europe, where young people aspired to serve as housekeeper, butler, gentleman's man. Now the young Mexican girl who once might have cherished no other ambition other than to be a servant dreams instead of clerking in a store, working as a secretary or serving as a telephone operator once she masters the tools of reading, writing, arithmetic and typing. The lad who once might have been a handyman enters a bank or office instead.

But for the foreigner, there are compensations. Wherever he travels or settles he will, if he is wise, profit from the simplicity of much of the life around him, enjoy its color and its zest, share some of the problems of those with whom he comes in contact, and rejoice generally in the colorful and individual character of the people and community around him.

LOS MOCHIS' EARLY HISTORY. AN ACTION FILLED EPISODE OF STRIFE TORN SETTLEMENTS AND A TURMOILED SAGA OF PIONEER SPIRIT.

1872 was the year when a young American engineer named Albert Kimsey Owen first visited Topolobampo Bay. The rugged beauty of the place further enhanced by a bright moonlit night fired Owen's imagination. He visualized Topolobampo as one of the world's most important port cities. Perhaps one day, he dreamed, it would rival San Francisco. Ships from all over the world would display their flags in this rich port. Topolobampo would also be the terminal for a fabulous railroad to traverse the high Sierra Madre Mountains through Tarahumara Indian land all the way to Texas and link with U.S. railroads. Thus in this way passengers and freight from Eastern and Midwestern U.S. could be channeled to an outlet on the Pacific Ocean closer by 350 miles and less expensive than either San Diego or Long Beach, California. Goods mainly to and from the Far East would benefit from this railroad. To carry out this grand dream of his he obtained authorization from Manuel Gonzalez, then President of Mexico, to found a colony of Americans to settle this barren land which was Topolobampo. Work was begun on a railroad that was to traverse from this port through the high mountain country to Texas. Also they began to construct and control canals and tap other sources of fresh water to guarantee the development of his pioneering community.

More than fourteen hundred Americans arrived between 1875 and 1890. Owen exercised complete control of this colony which settled, among other places, in Ahome and in what is today the city of Los Mochis. Owen's ideals of communal government and even distribution of produce and wealth ended finally in disenchantment and strife among the settlers. Two rival factions were formed and finally after several years the colony disbanded. Thus, Owen's dream of a socialist utopia vanished. His spirit, however, encouraged the determined few who remained here and were the lifeblood of today's generations. Despite their tremendous hard-ships, unending toil and sweat, these diehard colonists set an example of perseverance, work and hope. Many married with local Mexicans and planted the seed of what is today the city of Los Mochis.

Not all of Owen's undertakings ended in mere dreams. His clear vision on the possibilities and great advantages of a railroad crossing Mexico's high western sierras all the way to Texas, materialized practically 90 years later, when in 1961 the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad linking Presidio, Texas, Chihuahua City, Los Mochis and Topolobampo was inaugurated by President Adolfo Lopez Mateos.

Although Benjamin Johnston, another U.S. citizen, is credited with the founding of Los Mochis in 1903 (the year in which sugar production first began in the mill he established), Owen's settlers, already here when Johnston arrived, absorbed the stream of newcomers from all parts of Mexico who contributed to make Los Mochis the flourishing and modern community it now is!

VISIT LOS MOCHIS-TOPOLOBAMPO BAY AREA, AN ENCHANTING UNSPOILED VACATIONLAND!

LOS MOCHIS, (place of land turtles) in "Cahita Indian Dialect" was founded by an American, Benjamin Johnston, in 1903. It's a modern city with a present population of 95,000. Its economy is derived from agriculture (over 550,000 acres under irrigation). The rich lands of this region are irrigated by the "Miguel Hidalgo Dam," located about 7 miles up-river from the town of El Fuerte. Principal products under cultivation are: sugar cane, wheat, cotton, tomatoes, canteloupes, watermelons, sorghum, safflower and a great variety of vegetables which are shipped to the United States and overseas markets. To further boost farming in the region and for the purpose of opening up new and rich lands, another dam has recently been constructed. This big project "El Sabinito" is capable of irrigating 60,000 hectares (about 130,000 acres).

Drinking water of Los Mochis is one of the purest in Mexico with one of the country's most modern water purification plants. Los Mochis' golf course is considered one of the best on Mexico's Pacific Coast. "Botanical Gardens" with rare flowers and trees from the four corners of the world is of interest to horticulturists.

The climate is ideal during fall, winter and spring, averaging 75 to 78°F in the daytime, 65 to 70°F at night. Summer, though tropical is the best season for marlin and sailfish fishing. However, fishing in general is rated excellent the year 'round.

Fabulous duck, geese, quail and dove hunting, in season, is but 45 minutes from Los Mochis. Season starts Nov. 1st and terminates Feb. 25th. Hunters may bring rubber boots and decoys if they so wish. Law limits sportsmen to 20 ducks and 5 geese per hunter per day. Most common duck species are: Teals, blue bills, mallards and redheads. Goose species is speckled. Sportsmen must obtain, through nearest Mexican Consulate, gun permit and hunting license; or they can be obtained locally through Federal authorities. Hunters are encouraged to bring their own shells. Reliable hunting guides are available furnishing both ser-vices and transportation. Shotguns are also available locally for rental.

Hotels can arrange sightseeing tours to points of interest in Los Mochis or sur-roundings. Whether one is an avid hunter or fisherman, bay or deep sea outings or hunting trips may also be arranged.

Los Mochis Airport has paved landing field, 1050 meters long with control tower with radio beam frequency 3023.5, established for all Pacific Coast area. High octane gas and mechanic service also available.

"El FUERTE DE MONTES-CLAROS" (Fort of Montesclaros) so named for many decades, was founded in 1564 by the Spanish Conquistador, Don Francisco de Ibarra only 43 years after Cortes' conquest of Mexico. Since its beginnings, "El Fuerte" became one of the most important military and political outposts that the Spaniards had in the conquest of Sonora, Arizona, New Mexico and California.

Six to seven miles upriver from El Fuerte is the well known dam which irrigates the "El Fuerte Valley." This dam, the "Miguel Hidalgo" constitutes one of Mexico's greatest irrigation projects. The excellent catfish and largemouth bass fishing here has attracted sportfish-ermen from the U.S.A.

Thus El Fuerte, Miguel Hidalgo Dam and surroundings, constitute one of Mexico's most interesting areas to visit.

Distance from Los Mochis to El Fuerte is 50 miles along a new highway. For additional information on El Fuerte, Los Mochis, Topolobampo or surrounding region you may write or contact: