Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role

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Order Number 9137321
M oral renovation o f the Californias: Tijuanas political and

econom ic role in Am erican-M exican relations, 19201935
C. de Baca, Vincent Zachary, Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego, 1991
Copyright 1991 by C. de B aca, V incent Zachary. A ll righ ts reserved.
UMI
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

> V
Moral Renovation of the Californias:

Tijuana's Political and Economic Role in American-Mexican
Relations, 1920-1935
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the

requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
in History
by
Vincent Z. C. de Baca
Committee in charge:
Professor
Professor
Professor
Professor
Professor
Professor
Ram6n E. Ruiz, Chair

Carlos Blanco-Aguinaga
Jaime Concha
Ram6n Gutierrez
Michael Montedn
Eric Van Young
1991
Copyright 1991
by
Vincent
Z. C. de Baca
The dissertation of Vincent Z. C. de Baca is approved,

it
is
acceptable
in
quality
and
form
for
and
publication
on
microfilm:
!_
b.air
University of California,
San Diego
QO
Table of Contents
Signature P a g e......................................
iii
Table of Contents...................................
iv
Preface..............................................
v
Vita, Publications and Fields of Study............ viii
Abstract.............................................
ix
I
Introduction.........................................
II
Geo-politics of the California Border Region.......
24
III
Tijuana Rising in the Prohibition E r a ..............
70
IV
Economic Miracle of Governor Rodriguez............
110
The Decline of Tijuana..............................
139
Tijuana's Colorful Legends.........................
173
Bibliography........................................
Appendices..........................................
Appendix A .................
Appendix B ..........................................
Appendix C ..........................................
183
199
200
206
208
VI
iv
PREFACE
Human beings
are territorial
creatures
and they
create borders to define real and symbolic limits to their

influence and security.
in
response
depression,
nations
to
man-made
war
often
Over time, borders expand or recede
and
impose
or natural
famine.
More
conditions
on
catastrophes
important,
weaker
like
stronger
neighbors
that
reduce the political and economic significance of borders.

Territorial
limits
are
effective
barriers
or
they
are
exposed as a political fiction.

The concept of border goes beyond territoriality to
distinguish
practice,
b e tween
cultural
cultures
and
boundaries
governments.
transcend
Yet
national
in
borders
whenev e r different peoples e stablish formal or informal

social,
political and
concerned
with
jurisdictions,
economic
ties.
ho w institutions
as
if
geographical points.
cultural
But,
Many
work
spheres
historians
within
were
in the process,
the
are
given
fixed
to
social and
economic relationships between peoples living on the margin

have
been
ignored
demographic
and
to
great
information
extent.
Given
revolutions,
the
borders
modern
blend
cultures rather than isolate them.

For two centuries, Mexico and the United States have
had periods of conflict and distrust that were followed by
relative
treaties
peace
had
if
not
friendship.
established a 2,000
By
1848,
wars
mile-long border
and
between
the two countries that became both a blessing and a curse.

Families and merchants spread across it while fugitives and
smugglers
took
detriment
of
advantage
both
of
diplomatic
societies.
Yet
vagaries
increasingly,
to
the
northern
Mexico and the southwestern United States forged links that

contradicted national values.
even
began
to
worry
that
Some Mexicans
bicultural
and Americans
society
rising along the border which would become
might
be
independent
of
both nations.
Tijuana,
thri v i n g
the
subject
m e t r opolis
prospe r o u s
state.
in
of
the
Tijuana
this
shadow
was
thesis,
of
created
became
Amer i c a ' s
be c a u s e
most
of
its
location near the powerful urban centers of California.

proximity to the U.S.
and
its
geographical
isolation
Its
from
Mexico City left it in the cultural and economic periphery

of
cities
across
Tijuana became
this
century.
dependent
the
border.
a sanctuary
In the
Without
means
of
for American tourists
interim,
on foreign visitors.
Tijuana
The
disowned by mexico and the U.S.,
became
resulting
its
own,
early
in
thoroughly
society was
yet both derived benefits
from its existence.

As a life-long "borderlander," I have been curious
about Tijuana's origins and its development.
this
side
attended
Agua
of the
border,
family parties
Caliente
I played
and
racetrack.
in
Tijuana
accompanied my
Without
Though born on
streets,
father to
knowing
why,
vi
the
the
bordertown
influenced my
personal
discovery
Luckily,
my
as
life,
well
as
so
this
an
intellectual
dissertation advisor,
Dr.
study
has
been
challenge.
Ram6n Eduardo
help me narrow the scope of this work.
Ruiz,
If credit is due,
Dr. Ruiz deserves my eternal appreciation for urging me to

finish this task.
Many other people contributed to this study and they
deserve
recognition.
acknowledge
the
support
of
University of California President's Dissertation Fellowship

that facilitated study in Mexico City.
I am grateful to the
staffs
of the
Nacidn,
Public
Library,
Archivo
the
General
San Diego
de
la
Historical
the
Society
Tijuana
and
Special Collections at UCSD and UCR for all their help.

Chicano
their
Arturo
the
The
Studies Research Center at UCLA gave me access to
newspaper
Madrid
Institute
collection.
and
Dr.
Special
Ra y
Garza
for their encouragement.
thanks
goes
at
the
Tomcis
My
family
gave me emotional strength during trying time.
and
to
Dr.
Rivera
friends
In the end,
this work is dedicated to the Tiiuanenses who struggled to

build a proud city against all odds.
vii
VITA
May 29, 1950
Born, San Diego, California
1972 - 1974
1981
U.S. Marine Corps

B.A., Uni v e r s i t y of California,
San
Diego
M.A., U n i v e r s i t y of California,
San
Diego
Instructor, MIracosta College, Vista, CA
Instructor, Mesa College, San Diego, CA
Ph.D., U n i v ersity of California, San
Diego
1984 - 1986
1986
1990 - 1991
1991
PUBLICATIONS
"Review of Dirk Raat and Sara de Mundo Lo," La Red/The Net
72 (September, 1983).
"The Peasant Mystique of the Mexican
X I I :2 (Fall, 1981), pp. 193-209.
Revolution," Aztlein
FIELDS OF STUDY
Major Field:
History of Latin America
Studies in Modern Mexico
Professor Ram6n Eduardo Ruiz
Studies in Colonial Latin America
Professors Eric Van Young and Benjamin Keen
Studies in American Southwest
Professor Ram6n Gutierrez
Studies in Modern South America
Professor Miguel Montedn
Studies in Spanish American Literature
Professors Carlos Blanco-Aguinaga and Jaime Concha
Vlll
A B S T R A C T OF THE D I S S E R T A T I O N
Moral Renovation of the Californias:

Tijuana's Political and Economic Role in American-Mexican
Relations,
1220-1935
by
Vincent Z. C. de Baca
Doctor of Philosophy in History
University of California, San Diego, 1991
Professor Ram6n Eduardo Ruiz, Chairman
Tijuana, Mexico became a North American marketplace

for
vice
activity
due
to
the
California by the A m e r i c a n
important,
"moral
reformation"
Progressive
the prohibition of liquor
of
movement.
More
in the United
States
made Tijuana world-famous for the "high life" of its "golden

age"
(1920-1935).
institutionalized
Mexico's
moral
authorized Tijuana's
renovation
development
as
1910
yet
the
Not surprisingly,
usually
and
brothels,
operated
government
a tourist
exchange for "sin taxes."

owned,
Revolution
p a t r onized
U.S.
the
haven
in
citizens
saloons,
drug dens and casinos that grew on Mexican soil.
Over time, an American and Mexican elite made fortunes while

ix
Tijuana
residents
Mexican
standards.
legend"
stigmatized town residents who had no control over
the
illicit
earned
It
trade.
meager
was
wages
ironic
American
that
that
were
Tijuana's
puritans
and
high
by
"black
Mexican
nationalists protested against the vice cartels but they had

limited success.
In the 1930s,
ruined by global political
Tijuana's
"golden age" was
and economic changes.
In many
minds, the "sin city" declined to a second-rate "hell-hole"

until
WWII
mobilization
revitalized
tourism
under
Mexican
owners and staff.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
I
In
its
youth,
Tijuana,
Me x i c o
bec a m e
wild
bordertown due to moral and political changes in the United

States.
a
Once only a sleepy village,
foreign tourist
brothels
resort,
and drug dens.
it was modernized into
complete with
saloons,
casinos,
American capitalists and tourists
lavished riches on the young city during the era known

Prohibition.
Border vice activity,
Mexican politics at local,

government.
moreover,
as
afflicted
district and national
levels
of
Most importantly, Tijuana's residents, known as
Tiiuanenses.
ha d
socio-economic
relations
with
foreign
tourists.
The bordertown's
social
structure was
affected
since
t o urist
hired
American
Mexican
the
employees.
Not
resorts
surprisingly,
opinions t o w a r d
vice
Tiiuanenses
activity
when
an d
held
moral
ambivalent
issues
and
pragmatic needs conflicted.

II
Fo l l o w i n g the
early
in
this
m a r k e tp l a c e
created
century,
for
fun-spot famous,
The
reformation"
Tijuana
vice.
Tijuana's
prostitution.
"moral
network
became
A m ericans
of
bordertown
the
and
gambling,
grew
into
of
California
North
American
Mexic a n s
q u ickly
liquor,
an
drugs
and
international
in its "golden age" from 1920 to 1935,
for
its "high life" and the instant fortunes that could be made
there.
Generally, United States citizens dominated both the
supply
and
soil.
demand
Although
of
illicit
moral
commodities
reformers
sold
condemned
on
Mexican
conditions
in
Tijuana, they could not stop the expansion of vice activity.

The
bordertown
economic
Mexican
declined
advantages
president,
when
international
disappeared.
L&zaro
political
Finally,
CArdenas,
outlawed
in
and
1935,
gambling
a
and
closed down Tijuana's casinos while he launched a campaign

of national renovation.
As a result,
s tagnated
mobilization
until
U.S.
Tijuana's development
in
World
War
II
revitalized border vice and tourism.

Ill
Since 1848, the northern district of Baja California
was Mexican in name but existed within the orbit of American
California.
Local residents looked to California for their
daily needs and for help in times of crisis.
Tijuana .grew
within this orbit and had stronger ties to San Diego and Los
Angeles
than
businesses
border
to
mainland
nurtured
region;
from
activities
relied
American
social
and
the bordertown
fugitives
Since
Mexico.
both
and
on
and
economic
also
the
demands
Mexican
criminals
and
across
the
smugglers
and
Tijuana's
of
American
authorities
alike
friends
links
harbored
countries.
unwilling to stop contraband,

investors
Families,
proved
business
customers.
unable
or
Tijuana's location encouraged

to
expand
their
activities
beyond governmental control.

Tijuana
American
o ffered
industry.
teleph o n e
lines
extensions.
In
no
resistance
San Diego's
entered
1885,
the
to
railroad/
the
electricity
Tijuana
as
Santa
Railroad
Angeles and downtown San Diego
Fe
and,
by
almost
1890,
covered the last 15 miles to the border.
of
and
natural
linked
a local
Los
line
San Diego tourists
could take the National City and Otay Railway

southern end of the line.
spread
(NC&O) to the
The NC&O made its final stop at
Tia Juana, U.S.A., the last settlement north of the border.

Tijuana's
Diego
and
its
Power
hippodrome.
The
San
who
Company,
o
infrastructure
industrial
Adolph Spreckels,
and
urban
leaders.
was
linked
Millionaires
to
San
John
and
owned the NC&O and the United Light

also
invested
in
Tijuana's
first
The Spreckels brothers used their newspaper,
Diecro Union, to
promote
a one-dollar,
fare between San Diego and the border.
round-trip
In 1903,
importer
Juan V. Apablasa was first to connect his Tijuana brokerage

house with the San Diego telephone system.
And,
in 1914,
Manuel and Ruben Barbachano incorporated the Cia. El<ctrica

Fronteriza and bought Tijuana's electricity from the United
Light and Power Company.
The Spreckels' companies exerted a
profound influence over politics and industrial development

on
both
sides
of
the
border.
Tijuana
relied
on
these
foreign power and transportation links to
California until
mid-century
finally
when
the
Mexican
government
replaced
these American systems, thereby linking Tijuana more closely

to the Mexican nation.
Tijuana
M exican
entered
bordertown,
the
twentieth
lacking
century
almost
any
as
tourist
quiet
appeal.
American visitors still rode horse-drawn carriages from the

border.
Miracle-seeking
"one-lungers"
s u ffering
tuberculosis came to Tijuana's Hot Springs Hotel,
from
eager to
test the curative powers of the town's famous mineral water.

Tijuana's commercial district contained two general stores,
six
saloons,
"Spanish"
some
curio
restaurants
Calle Olvera.
shops,
spread
two
hotels
along the
main
and
street
The ruins of Tijuana's adobe church,
few
called
flooded
in 1895, reminded Americans of the early Spanish missions.

The
appeal
of
the
Old West
search of a bygone lawlessness.

Blanca beer at The Club,
Jos6
R.
George
Alvarez.
They
doubting friends back home.

cockfights
corral.
took
place
at
postcards
Savin curio
from
stores to
Traditional Mexican rodeos and

the
On Sunday afternoons,
innocent
the
satisfy"
Charles
S.
Hardy
livestock
from June through September,
bullfights attracted crowds to the Calle Olvera arena.

these
in
owned by American-born
purchase
lbs or the Alexander
v acationers
Visitors could drink Carta
a cantina
could
drew
distr a c t i o n s
gave
rise
to
Even
flurry
of
criticism of Tijuana's infant tourist industry.

In the first decade of the twentieth century,
reformers
pressured
Mexico
to
place
some
moral
restrictions
on
sports events.
Katherine
Mexico
In 1903,
Tingley,
San Diego's leading spiritualist,
and her theos o p h i c a l
City protests
against Tijuana's
followers
sent
annual bullfights.^
Local authorities discounted the charge of animal cruelty as

the muttering of cranks.
tourist
attractions
American protests against border
incr e a s e d
over
the
first
quarter
century.
Mexican
officials
did not
attitude toward gambling in their

the territorial
government
have the
same
jurisdiction.
of Baja
passive
In
California,
1907,
enacted a
gambling law, the Recrlamento de Jueaos. to control gambling

and raise revenue.
licensing
It explained the
procedure,
considered
legal.4
and
clar i f i e d
Gambling
fee schedule and the

the
machi n e s
types
were
of
games
banned,
but
Mexico never outlawed the vice.

At the turn of the
century,
the United States was
prosperous yet Americans complained how industrial growth had

ruined u r ban
life,
resources
Progre s s i v e
movement
and national
(1900-1924)
values.
wanted
to
capitalist America and abolish the monopolies,

vices,
crime,
society.
immigration,
With
notable
poverty
and
perfect
corruption,
fear that
exceptions,
The
polluted
scholars
have
characterized Progressives as young White men who were from

Protestant, middle class, urban and Republican backgrounds.^
They
felt
alienated
from
their
society,
but
they
also
believed that the state could effect orderly social change

with progressive guidance.
Movement
S enator Robert
leaders
La
included
Follette,
Theodore
Woodrow
Roosevelt,
Wilson,
writer
Ida
Tarbell, Justice Louis Brandeis, muck-racker Upton Sinclair,

reformer Jane Addams and Samuel Gompers.
G overn o r
Hiram
Johnson,
financier
Stanford president
David
Benjamin
temperance
Fremont
Wheeler,
Older,
Steffens
Herbert
Starr
Hoover,
and Chester Rowell
progressive
politics.
Democrats,
Independents,
social
It
workers,
fundamentalists,
Rudolph
Jordan,
Sara
Franklin
were
editor
Hichborn,
Lincoln
of
from
groups,
eugenics
statewide
Republicans,
trade
societies,
zealots,
president
Dorr,
leaders
support
women's
Spreckels,
Berkeley
leader
had
anti-vice
Californians like
unions,
Christian
nati v i s t s
and civic
reformers among others.

Then,
in
late
prohibited book-making
Otis Act.
business
viable
When
options,
puritans
San
Tijuana
to
Diego
complained to
the
on horse
California
alternative
However,
1909,
the
C a l i fornia
races
gamblers
race
was
Walkertheir
considered
climate
reported
the Mexican
the
contemplated
track
California
new s p a p e r
through
legislature
of
that
government
reform.
American
and
"caused
r
the race track idea to be abandoned, at least temporarily."0

For
the
moment,
Tijuana
gambling
houses
were
potential
havens, but political events in California would change this
situation
forever
in
the
second
decade
of
the
twentieth
century.
Moral
California
reformers
in
Johnson
won
allies
took
1910,
the
gained
when
election
immediate
p olitical
progressive
for
steps
Republican
governor.
to
ascendance
Johnson
eradicate
Hiram
and
the
in
his
state's
thriving vice industry and the corrupting influence of the

Southern Pacific Railroad.
State laws to ban prostitution,
gambling and political corruption were enacted between 1910

and 1915.
Congress
In the Harrison Act of 1914, moreover,

tried to eliminate
the
drug
trade
the U.S.
through
its
newly-won power to interdict narcotics smuggling across the

border.
when
California
Local
prohibitionists
Option
La w
communities in the state.

World War
in April
"dry," especially
Volstead
Act
became
continued
to
When the U.S.
1917,
after
compromised
in
tolerate
1912,
"wet"
entered the First
the entire nation went virtually

the
Eighteenth
e f fective
on
Amendment
January
and
16,
the
1920.
California's liquor industry found itself surrounded on all

sides.
its
While the reformers thought they could abolish vice,
purveyors
discovered
renewed
opportunities
across
the
border.
San
national
included
Diego
Progressives
were
and statewide political

merchant
George
developer Ed Fletcher.
As
intimately
activity.
Marston,
attorney
linked
Local
Edgar
to
leaders
Luce,
was true of most Progressives,
the
San Diego
group
fought
against
a perceived
"secret
conspiratorial plutocracy," in this case, industrialist John

Spreckels
and
boss
struggled with the

the city.
Charles
Hardy.
Local
Spreckels-Hardy machine
p r o g ressives
for
control
of
It echoed the national Republican Party struggle
bet w e e n
the
Marston,
Luce
young
progressives
and Fletcher
were
and
the
founders
"old
guard."
the
Lincoln-
of
Roosevelt League which defected from the Republican Party to

join the ill-fated Progressive Party.
From 1900 to 1924, many San Diegans crusaded against
vice on both sides of the border and hundreds of letters in
Mexico
City testify to
included
Mayor
physician
Charlotte
Roscoe Hazard,
John Woods.
Episcopal
John
this
Sehon,
Baker,
fact.
Other
minis t e r
heiress
Ellen
horticulturalist Kate Sessions
builder
and minister
The San Diego movement worked with Methodist

churches,
Women's
Chri s t i a n
T e m p erance
Suppression
the
Law Enforcement
League
the
"Remove the menace of Tijuana and keep

safe,
campaigns
Crabtree,
Scripps,
League and Vice
clean,
partisans
William
(WCTU), Purity
1920s,
local
law-abiding
were
supported
community."
by
local
and even vigilantes.
Democrats,
Committee.
had
as
its
San Diego
Sometimes
officials,
Chamber of Commerce, the Ad Club, Kiwanis,
Union
motto:
County a
anti-vice
police,
unions,
Catholics,
In
the
teachers
Jews,
ethnics
and radicals avoided contact with puritanical groups.

the
Progressives
had
grass-roots
apparatus
that
But
could
flood Mexico City or Washington with protests about Tijuana

vice activity.
Tijuana became a favorite home to Yankee gamblers as
Mexico suffered the ravages of the 1910 Revolution.
that time, Baja California,
During
remained aloof from the violent
rebellion by virtue of its physical isolation and its sparse

population.
In
fact,
the
stability and prosperity.

these characteristics.
entire
region
enjoyed peace,
One strong man emerged to protect
In 1915,
Colonel Esteban Cantu, who
had survived power struggles between the insurgent factions,

became the iefe politico and military chief.
Cantu declared
his desire to keep the peace and to maintain a territorial

government
authorities
without
in
the
Mexico
benefit
City.
of
He
support
believed
from
that
expatriated American vice could provide the

to
operate government
and fund new public
national
regulating
revenue needed
services.
When
the time came, Americans paid high fees, taxes and duties to
Cantu,
and
Tijuana
became
an
oasis
of
vice
bey o n d
the
influence of California laws.

The
critics
insist
that
Cantu
gambling and other vice activities.
opened
Tijuana
As mentioned earlier,
a primitive level of illicit enterprise already existed.

1915,
as a harbinger
first
gambl i n g
A ntonio
Regional
Elosua,
Fair
of things
casino
who
permit
operated
facility.
to
to
card
to
come,
Mexico
games
Cantu
City
at
Cantfi granted the
In
issued his
financier
his
T ijuana
concession
on
10
his
own
without
government,
seeking
approval
from
the
central
yet the. 1907 territorial gambling law required
that local officials at least notify the capital about all

new permits.
Elosiia was not the only person interested in
gaining a gambling license, and others applied as well.
The
gates of Tijuana were unlocked and many permits were issued.

Numerous
illicit
Californians who wished to continue their
ende a v o r s
reformers.
The
flocked
five most
to
Tijuana
their
Bakersfield,
they were outlawed.
escape
successful American
Tijuana became known as "border barons."

closed
to
California
the
gamblers
in
In 1913, three men
gambling
halls
when
In 1915, Marvin Allen, Frank Beyer and
Carl Withington opened the Tivoli bar in Tijuana under the

ownership
Antonio
of
t h eir
Elosiia
ABW
sold
Corporation.
his
gambling
Two
years
permit
to
later,
the
AB W
Corporation, which began operating the Monte Carlo casino in

Tijuana.
The Baja California Investment Company had tried to
encourage the construction of a Tijuana race track under the
auspices of the Lower California Jockey Club.
found no investors until James W. Coffroth,
boxing promoter from San Francisco,
explore
Tijuana's potential.
In
first
Together,
racing
these
season
five
in
"border
an influential
arrived in San Diego to
1915,
Long took over the Lower California

their
The company
Coffroth
and Baron
Jockey Club
and began
Tijuana
barons"
on
January
controlled
1,
1916.
much
of
11
Tijuana's
gambling
and
liquor,
and
they
would
later
collaborate to build the town's most famous resort.

The federal government in Mexico City watched these
develo p m e n t s
with
concern
and,
in
1920,
the
central
government of Interim President Adolfo de la Huerta asserted

control
over
offered
token
Baja
California.
loyalty
to
Colonel
every
Cantu,
president
who
holding
had
office
throughout the decade-long rebellion, had the distinction of

governing the most stable territory in the country.
He had
ruled largely without the help or hindrance of the central

authority,
many
displaying
thought
him
such
capable
spirit
of
of
separatist
accusation he denied until his death.

the
day even
referred to the
independence
that
tendencies,
an
Popular accounts of
"Principality
of Cantu," and
with good reason.

After Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico in
1916, Cantia had declared Baja California neutral in the face
of
direct
Mexico's
U.S.
military
diplomatic
intervention.
initiative
drew
His
usurpation
criticism,
as
did
of
his
failure to report his revenues and expenses to the capital.

When President De la Huerta ordered Cantu to hand over his
authority,
he
initially refused to
comply.
The
President
used diplomatic pressure, the intercession of mutual friends

and
the
obey.
threat
On
of
August
surrendered his
military
18,
offices
1920,
force
to
convince
Cantti
disarmed
his
Cantu
to
troops,
and retired to Los Angeles.
The
12
political
stability he had preserved offered new
economic
opportunities to subsequent governors.

General Abelardo L.
Rodriguez,
assumed control of Baja California,
successor to Cantu,
on September 1,
1920.^
A native of Sonora, he had the support of the ruling Sonora

clique,
and
energetic,
Rodriguez
economy
the
"border
barons"
influential
helped
while
them
and
to
illicit
found
eager
organize
activities
him
to
business
Tijuana's
reached
be
an
partner.
vice-centered
new
heights
of
efficiency and profitability.

Throughout the 1920s, Rodriguez and Baja California
prospered
as
Prohibition
and
moral
reform
in
the
United
States became more rigid. Rodriguez protected Tijuana vice,

both during his tenure as military governor of the territory
and
during
Republic.
his
two
years
Meanwhile,
as
interim
"golden age," protesters
opponents
nationality,
usually
diversity
ideology
m a naged
to
occasionally events
the
Throughout Tijuana's
condemned activities perceived as
immoral and inhuman.
showed
of
Tijuana's vice activities drew angry
protests on both sides of the border.
exploitative,
President
and
blunt
A profile of Tijuana's
across
race,
religious
c riticism
class,
belief.
of
his
gender,
Rodriguez
regime,
in Tijuana defied even his
ability
but
to
keep the peace.

The
liberal
Hearst
press,
a prototype
of
them,
boldly declared that "Tia Juana is a plague spot and ought
13
to be eradicated."1
to back his
"problem"
While Hearst had only shaky evidence
assertion,
for the
Tijuana had
newspaper and
de f i n i t e l y
for
its
become
readers.
In the
winter of 1926, people along the entire border recoiled from

the news of a family suicide pact.
One reporter called the
incident the worst in the history of the border.

dust had settled,
the Peteet case,
Before the
as it came to be known,
grew into a major diplomatic incident.

The
Peteet
and
events
their
were
clear
daughters,
enough.
Clyde
Thomas
and
and Audrey,
Carrie
arrived
at
Tijuana's San Diego Hotel on Saturday, January 31, 1926, for

a five-day visit.
than drinking
They seemed to enjoy doing nothing more
and gambling;
the
family
drank
Mr.
Peteet
and his two
sights"
until
excessively
their
three entered the

Later that night,
witnesses
last
and
gambled
daughters
in
admitted
all
continued
Wednesday
Oakland Bar
later
about
for
town.
"seeing the
Tijuana,
and drank
that
when
the
few hours.
Thomas Peteet was given a "Mickey Finn,"
while the Peteet girls were drugged, abducted and repeatedly

raped.
Their father was tossed out into the street,
his wife later found him.
The couple
frantically searched
for their children throughout the night.

left
in
front
of
the
hotel
after
where
One daughter was
midnight,
and
Tijuana
police returned the other to her parents the next morning.

But the family's nightmare was hardly over.
14
When
the
immediately
Peteets
were
finally
crossed the border,
the outrage to border agents.
where
reunited,
Mr.
Peteet
they
reported
The family was understandably
upset and reacted impatiently to the slow pace of government

efforts.
the
Peteet even considered getting his pistol to shoot
Tijuana
justice.
culprits
Ultimately
Diego home where,
rather
the
on
than
rely
family
Saturday,
on
bureaucratic
returned to
February
6,
their
they
San
committed
suicide.
The
When
the
family was
police
arrived,
Audrey, were dead.

coma
for
three
Investigators
discovered
the
later
parents
that
afternoon.
and their
daughter,
The older daughter, Clyde, remained in a
and
half
days
before
found a hastily drawn
she,
will
too,
and two
died.
farewell
notes that gave no hint of why the family took their lives.
Their shaken neighbors could not explain why the Peteets had
been driven to this extreme.
The San Diecro Union put the blame on Tijuana.
Diegans were shocked to learn that
Zenaido
Llanos,
and
Oakland
Bar
Tijuana's police chief,
owner,
Luis
Amador,
among the seven men accused of raping the Peteet girls.

surprisingly,
the
community
of
San
San
Diego
began
were
Not
to
contemplate a proper response to the rampant lawlessness in

Tijuana.
American
officials
Schuyler 0. Kelly,
were
indignant
the San Diego coroner,
from the
start.
played a crucial
15
role in molding public opinion and directing the course of

political
Peteet
events.
girls
telegram
to
tragedy.
ha d
the
The
carried
the
Kelly
been
State
declared
to
press
that
the
sexually
assaulted,
and
sent
Department
protesting
the
Tijuana
California newspapers
story.
the
Days
later,
and the wire

a
San
Diego
services
coroner's
inquest blamed Llanos and Amador for the Peteet deaths and
demanded that they be charged with murder.
Some 1,200 angry spectators lauded the ruling of the
coroner's
jury,
and
Friend Richardson,
the
San
Diego
City
Congressman Phil D.
Council,
Governor
Swing and Secretary
of State Frank Kellogg demanded justice for the Peteets and

a
solution
thr e a t e n e d
to
border
federal
crime.
measu r e s
Congre s s m a n
if mur d e r
Swing
charges
also
were
not
brought against the defendants.

When San Diego Mayor Frank Bacon chaired a special
"mass meeting of the
City Council
to
discuss
case, the large crowd in attendance was unruly.

15,
the Council passed a
government to
protect
U.S.
resolution
close the border

citizens.
directing
from dusk until
Meanwhile,
Americans
the
Peteet
On February
the
federal
morning to
awaited
the
response of the Mexican judge in charge of the Peteet case.

Mexican authorities gave every indication that they
would take any actions necessary to prevent an international
crisis.
U.S.
Meanwhile,
Governor
Consul Frank Bohr that
Abelardo
Mexican
Rodriguez
courts
promised
would expedite
16
the
investigation,
and
he
pledged
that
the
guilty
receive the "most drastic punishment possible."
would
On February
10, Mexican prosecutors arrested seven men; prominent among

them were Zenaido Llanos and Luis Amador.
Possibly in response to American protests,
Mexican
President Plutarco Elias Calles ordered a moral clean-up of

Tijuana.
By February 15, Tijuana's vice sweep had shut down
fifty-two saloons and some five hundred women entertainers

had been shipped out of the
Frederico
Tijuana,
Palacio,
the
city.
Governor Rodriguez
presidente
municipal
and
(mayor)
of
announced that anyone considered undesirable would
be arrested.
Mexican political officials took swift action
while the district
judicial
system
evidence presented
in the Peteet
shifted through
case.
Americans
the
were
deported and Mexicans sent to the Islas Marias penal colony.

Mexican
Judge
February 17.
of rape,
Saturnino
Urias
delivered
his
ruling
on
The state prosecutorsasked that indictments
assault, concealing a crime and murder be brought
against the seven suspects.

four men
held
over
for
But
trial
on
Judge Urias
complaints
ordered only
for
rape
and
violent assault.
The
ruling
in
San
one
Diego
breath,
Union, oddly,
and
in
the
reported
next
the
said
judge's
that
"the
announcement of the indictment came almost at the same hour

with
the
announcement
that
the
United
States
Treasury
17
Department had ordered the closing of the international line

at 6 o'clock, the ruling to go into effect at once."11
San
Diego
Temperance
branches
Union,
the
of
the
Methodist
Woman's
Church
C h ristian
and
the
Law
Enforcement League wanted the border closed altogether,
but
President
bar
Calvin
Coolidge,
said
Americans from entering Mexico.
that
he
would
not
Although the evening curfew
was widely evaded and loosely enforced,
the order remained
in effect until 1933.

The
worried
restriction
merchants
customers.
Commerce,
affair.
of
whose
American
livelihood
visits
to
depended
on
Tijuana
bo r d e r
One interested party, the San Ysidro Chamber of

launched
Feeling
its
own
trapped
investigation
of
economically between
the
the
Peteet
warring
parties, the Chamber tried to restore harmony to the region.

For their part, Tijuana businessmen sent telegrams to Mexico
City
and- to
Washington,
D.C.,
to
protest
Although Governor Rodriguez agreed with his
the
curfew.
countrymen,
he
said that he would ask President Calles to close Tijuana and

Mexicali in protest against the "unfriendly attitude toward
Mexico that prevailed among California newspapers.
Luckily,
the crisis did not escalate
19
further.
The
Americans began to calm down once they took a closer look at

the Peteet affair.
background
and
Cooler heads investigated the family's
discovered
with the Mexicans.
But,
that
blame
did
in San Diego,
not
the
rest
solely
memory
of the
18
Peteets'
played
shame
a
endured
subconscious
for a generation an
incident
that
role
legends
that
in the
sensual
surround Tijuana.
The
chronicles
legend."
the
Peteet
the
case
origin
is
and
illustrative
persistence
of
in
that
Tijuana's
it
"black
From 1920 to 1935, Tijuana offered an escape from
puritanical
rules
that
had
spread
across
California.
But, at the same time, the city was stigmatized by its great
dependence
on
activities.
underground
Tia
Juana,
American
the
city's
became synonymous with poverty,

tourists
came
to
town
with
trade
in
American
crime and lust.
the
immoral could be had for a price.
wrong
idea
illicit
alter
ego,
Millions of
that
anything
In fact, virtue remained
a scarce item on both sides of the border.
To correct long
standing distortions of Tijuana's history, one must attempt

to integrate the multiple visions of Tijuana's past depicted
in official, popular and academic sources.
IV
The
"official"
version
on each side of the border.
of Tijuana's
The governments of Mexico and
the United States have their own explanations.

all too often,
history varies
Bureaucrats,
color their reports on Tijuana according to
their private interests and attitudes on morality.
Yet both
countries have used state power against border crime without

achieving lasting effects.
set
by
the
taxes
and
Legal
br i b e s
sanctions have been off
derived
from
r e gulated
or
19
protected vice
enclaves.
Cynical
functionaries
have
even
been known to call prostitution a socially necessary evil.

Law enforcement/
for its part, has had the ambiguous duty of
simultaneously attacking, modifying and encouraging illegal

enterprises.
crises
into
Yet,
with all
politicians
due
complacency
hav e
righteousness
and
once
public
city
fathers have
reacted
quickly
subsequently
attention
shifted
to
lapsed
to
other
recognized their
image
matters.
Tijuana's
problem for decades.
In 1926,
Governor Rodriguez tried to
blunt Tijuana's bad publicity by renaming it Zaragoza,

the hero at the Battle of Puebla.
received popular acceptance,
never mentioned again.
semiofficial
effort
to
labeled Tijuana the
the
idea never
so the plan was abandoned and
The Tijuana tourist bureau,
capacity,
improve
However,
likewise
public
for
mounted
relations.
c o n s i derable
Tourist
"Gateway to Mexico."
in its
agencies
Yet these names
and metaphors failed to correct its negative image.

Tijuana, in truth, has long occupied an unflattering
position
in
California's
popular
culture,
serving
as
the
inspiration for numerous sensationalist novels like Carroll

Graham's Border Town
In
(1932).
marked
hostility
Tijuana's
account
The
(1934), and Hern&n de la Roca's Tijuana
U.S.
print
toward
history
for biases
media,
Tijuana.
can
be
in
the
moreover,
Yet,
g leaned
if
press.
The
has
vivid
one
is
Hearst,
shown
pictures
of
careful
to
Spreckels,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout perm ission.
20
Otis-Chandler,
traditional
city's
and
but
dubious
proportions.
example,
Copley
newspapers
distorted v i e w
fame
Media
into
of Tijuana,
black
coverage
disseminated
of
turning
legend
the
the
of
Peteet
the
untold
case,
for
showed how public impressions of Tijuana could be
m an i p u l a t e d
reporters
by
an
overzealous
press.
Indeed
Mexican
argued that their American counterparts
reported
1?
Tijuana. J
only pathetic or criminal events m
The "academic" versions of Tijuana's history suffer

from the same problems that affect the official and popular
accounts.
Most sources on border morality and Tijuana lack
objectivity.
Public
officials
and
businessmen,
who
have
written their memoirs in apologetic and evasive styles,

usually
slanted yet informative
reformers
have
p o rtrayed
sources.
Tijuana
only
are
Sanctimonious
as
the
devil's
playground and they left their opinion in the public record.

Only two books rise above the passionate debate.
To date,
the best general study of Tijuana written in English remains

John
Price's
book,
Tiiuana:
Urban i z a t i o n
in
a Border
Culture, which utilizes a multidisciplinary approach based

on the
city's
historical
c o n t e x t . 14
working under David Pinera Ramirez,

study that
supersedes most
Me x i c a n
scholars,
have published a major
earlier books.
Historia
Tiiuana. relies on extensive archival and oral resources.

My
own
research
of
M exican
de
1F
presidential
correspondence at the Archivo General de la Nacibn revealed
21
that moral attitudes always affected the letters and replies

contained
in
the
records
of
1920
through
1935.
This
dissertation asserts that moral and legal prohibitions alone

failed
to
entire
border
still
abolish
the
immoral
region.
r e sembled
activity
Before
passing
1920,
believed
that
they
c o uld
ter r i t o r y b e low the

unpopulated
Hollywood,
still
border
terrain.
affected
two
Turner.
expand
its
into
own,
the
the
Californias
d e scribed
by
the
Californians
south
i n c l u d e d vast,
Well
a sin city of
the
frontier,
American Historian Frederick Jackson
that
since
the
desolate
and
1920s
and
and Tijuana
1930s,
remained as
wild, vulgar and changeable boomtowns.

V
The
The
topics
introduction
are
is
presented
f o l l o w e d by
in
chronological
a chapter
regional links north of the border.
on
order.
Tijuana's
Chapter 3 examines the
growth of American vice in Tijuana during the first years of

Prohibition.
The
fourth
government
balanced
The
chapter
fifth
activity
in
this
chapter
economic
explains
era.
The
and
the
shows
moral
decline
concluding
Tijuana's place in California culture,
ho w
needs
of
the
M e xican
in
Tijuana.
Tijuana's
chapter
vice
evaluates
in border history and
in its own "black legend."
22
ENDNOTES
Robert R. Alvarez, Jr., Familia:
Migration and
Adaptation in Baia and Alta California. 1800-1975 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1987), p. 8.
Hereafter
cited as: Alvarez, Familia.
Jose C. Valadez, "Revelaciones del Presidente de
Baja California en 1911," La Qpinidn. No. 195, March 29,
1931; Editors, San Dieao Citv and Countv Directory. 1910
(San Diego:
San Diego Directory Company, 1910), p. 897.
"7503 Shares of Jockey Club Are Given Receiver,"
The San
Dieao Union, December 29, 1915.
Roberta Ridgely, "The Man
Who Built Tijuana, Part V," San Dieao M a g a z i n e . 19:11
(September, 1967), p. 55, hereafter cited as:
Ridgely,
"TMWBT." Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part II, p. 53.
^ "Bullfights,"
1970), p. 52.
San
Dieao
Magazine. 22:10
(August
^ A r c h i v o Ge n e r a l de la Naci6n, Presidenciales,
Fondo O b r e g d n-Calles, D a v i d Zarate to E pigmenio Ibarra,
Ensenada,
Baja California, December 5, 1921, Exp.
425-T-7.
"George E. Mowry, The California Progressives (New
York:
Quadrangle,
1976), p. 38 and p. 88.
Gilman
Ostrander, The Prohibition Movement in California. 1848-1933
(Berkeley, University of California Press, 1957), p. 104.
Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream:
California Through the
Progressive Era (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1985),
p. 236.
Jos e p h R. Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade (Urbana:
Un i v ersi t y of Illinois Press, 1970), p. 104.
Richard
Hofstadter, ed.
-The Progressive Movement. 1900-1915 (New
York;
Simon & Schuster, 1986), p. 7.
James H. Timberlake,
Pr o h i b i t i o n
and the
Progressive
Movement,
1900-1920
(Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1963), p. 167.
"Tijuana:
The Mecca for Thousands of Tourists
Annually,"
The San Dieao Union. January 1, 1910.
7
'James A. Sandoz, "Northern Separatism During the

Mexican Revolution:
An Inquiry into the Role of Drug
Trafficing, 1919-1920," The Americas. XLI:2 (October 1984),
p. 208.
O
Esteban Cantu Jimenez, Aountes Historicos de Baia
California Norte (Mexico:
n.p., 1957), p. 3; hereafter
cited as:
Cantti, Ap u n t e s .
q
* A b e l a r d o L. Rodriguez, A u t o b i o a r a f i a
(Mexico:
Novaro Editores, 1962), p. 105.
her e a f t e r c i t e d as:
Rodriguez, A u t o .
23
"Tia Juana Is a Disgrace to Mexico, a Menace to

America," Los Angeles Examiner, February 11, 1926.
11 "Tia Juana Court Indicts Four
The San Dieao Union. February 18, 1926.
in Peteet
Case,"
12
"Governor
Rodriguez
Would
Bar
Bo r d e r
to
California Trade," The San Diego Union. February 25, 1926.
13
"Mexican A c c u s e s U.
S.
of D i s i n f o r m a t i o n
Campaign," The San Dieao Union. November 21, 1986.
Also
see:
"Pressure, Payoffs Curb Mexican Press," Los Angeles
Times. March 4, 1987; "Views Differ over Coverage by U. S.
Press of Mexico," The San Diego Union. October 11, 1986;
and "Sources and Systems," Reader. 16:37
(September 17,
1987).
Culture
^ J o h n A. Price, Tiiuana:
Urbanization in a Border
(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973).
^David Pihera Ramirez, ed., Historia de Tiiuana. 2

Vols. (Tijuana: Centro de Investigaciones Hist6ricas, UNAMUABC, 1989) .
C H A PTER 2
GEO-FOLITICS OF THE CALIFORNIA BORDER REGION

I
Tijuana's history and culture have been determined
largely by the border
frontier that
distrustful of each other.

peninsula,
United
States,
Mexico-U.S.
corner
which extends
of
Tijuana
border
Mexico
almost
on
region.1
800 miles
the
naturally
greater
weather;
there
edge
199.)
within
of the
of
This
the
the
small
"California
similarity to
Southern
blend i n g effortlessly into the anonymous
chaparral of the peninsula.

of the
south
western
(See page
region because of its topographical

California,"
two nations
Located on the Baja California
sits
falls
separates
The Pacific border region, part
California
land mass,
is
seasonal
little
usually
variation
enjoys
good
between
Los
Angeles and Ensenada.

In the
1870s,
Yankee
adventurers
following
gold
strikes near La Paz and Ensenada passed through Tijuana. And

later,
it
was
advertisements
Promoters
popularized
when
publicized
as
railroads
Tijuana's
tourist
drove
"rough
to
edges"
the romance and danger of frontier times.
"mecca"
the
to
by
border.
dramatize
When California
vice operators needed a refuge, Tijuana was selected for its

location and, perhaps,
even more for its colorful history.
24
25
II
The human occupation of Baja California dates back

to prehistoric times.
Evidence of ancient Indian occupation
can be found across the region.
The first Baja Californians
built huts and villages near hot springs and in shady river
valleys now covered by urban sprawl.
The Cochimi and Ipai
Indians lived in the Tijuana coastal zone for 7,000 years.

They
spoke
religions
Uto-Aztecan
were
cultures.4
isolated
languages
influenced
by
and
the
their
Yuman
animistic
and
Chumash
In a relative sense, the peninsula's geography

the
Tijuana
tribes
from
m a jor
American
civilizations; still, they had customs and morality similar

to
nearby
peoples.^
In
17 69,
S panish
christianize and colonize the Tijuana

the
San
Diego
Mission
without
friars
tried
Indian villages
success.
to
from
Ultimately,
the
Mexican and American nations absorbed the Indians along with

the Tijuana borderlands.
The original Tijuana
Mexican
resource.
Santiago
Republic
to
In 1829,
Arguello
land title was
d e velop
Governor
26,000
Cochimi village of Tecuam.
the
region
Jos6 Maria
acres
at
issued by
as
national
Echeandia
Tijuana,
the
granted
including
the
In the U.S.-Mexico War of 1846,
Arguello and his family supported the American conquest of

their
native
land.
The
U.S.-Mexico
border
crossed
their
Tijuana property and the Arguello holdings became subject to

legal challenges in both countries.^
(See page 200.)
26
In the n i n e t e e n t h century,
Amer i c a n s m o n o p o l i z e d
land ownership in Baja California, to such a degree that the

region was
practically
alienated
from Mexico.
Private
citizens continued to buy property over the border even as

the U.S. government officially denied territorial ambitions.
Since Mexico could not protect the distant border, the state
welcomed
any
unp o p u l a t e d
scheme
to
region.
derive
In
1859,
briefly
contemplated
selling
States,
but
law
Mexican
blocked the transaction.

permitted
foreign
income
P resident
the
and
from
peninsula
popular
the
barren,
Ben i t o
Ju&rez
to
United
the
opinion
effectively
Indirectly, the Ju&rez government
landholding,
yet
it
reserved
Mexican
sovereignty over the territory.

In the meantime,
American mining companies pledged
to develop Baja California,

the Mexican government.
approved
included
two-thirds
"one
w ater
concession
hundred
and
of
thousand
minerals
in exchange for lands granted by
On March 30, 1864, President Ju&rez

to
an
American, Jacob
Leese,
that
Baja
California, in exchange for

Q
pesos."0
Leese claimed the land,
between
the
twenty-seventh
and
the
thirty-first parallels, but soon the Leese group went broke

and sold the grant to another American concern.
Likewise,
the
Lower
California
Mining Company incorporated with 40,000
Colonization
dollars
in capital
to extract silver from the Triunfo mine north of La Paz.

1866,
the
Lower
California
Company
had
and
absorbed
all
By
the
27
holdings of the Leese group.

Browne,
The company hired John Ross
a California mining pioneer,
and other useful resources.^

mineral
value,
he
saw
an
to locate ore deposits
While Browne found little of

"embryo
American
town"
on
peninsula that bespoke a new destiny for the region.

pub l i c l y
adv o c a t e d
U.S.
annexation,
noting
the
Browne
that
California's "geographical position gives it a value
Baja
. . .
1 D
to which its intrinsic resources can never entitle it." u

Browne thought that national security demanded that
the U.S. protect the peninsula from Japan, England or other
countries.
He also told his
employers
that
only
imported
Oriental labor could make the venture profitable.
But the
Lower California Company failed to bring in Oriental labor,

and
meager
financial
Because
the
company
Mexican
government
returns
failed
canceled
caused
to
the
the
meet
its
mine's
closure.
obligations,
concession
and
the
the
land
reverted to the state.

In
the
1880s,
the
Mexican
g o v ernment
approved
development schemes underwritten with foreign capital,

the regime encouraged any company willing to
the
peninsula.
P r eside n t
Manuel
c o n c ess i o n
President
Sisson,
Gonzalez
through
Gonz&lez
laws against
George
Luis
to
gain
Huller,
provided
fiscal
foreign ownership,
an
his
industrialize
American,
the
Baja
lobbied
California
Mexican
incentives
and
partner.
and
relaxed
thereby paving the way for
American land monopolies.
28
On July 21,
1884,
Sisson
and Hiiller organized the
International Company of Mexico to develop 17 million acres

(6.9 million hectares),
Tijuana
and the
incl u d i n g the territory between
twenty-eighth
Colonization Law,
the
parallel.
International
Based
on
the
Company paid Mexico
10-cents-per-hectare fee on two-thirds of the total grant.11

The company would have paid Mexico over 366,000 dollars to
acquire the concession, but it did not generate enough stock
market
investment
to
fund
its
construction
plans
and
it,
too, failed.
In 1887, a British corporation, the Mexican Land and
Colonization Company,
took over the Sisson-Huller property.
. The English Company, as it became known,

million
agents.
acres
19
were
The
for
large
sale
grant
through
was
advertised that 18
its
San
subdivided
Diego
and many
land
eager
buyers purchased tracts suitable for small farms.

President Porfirio Diaz tole r a t e d flexible
enforcement
productive.
in
case
Baja
Francisco Bulnes,
that the Diaz government
California
should
a Mexican senator,
conducted
some
to
the
country.
become
admitted
shady deals,
they were not allied with foreign enterprise,

disadvantageous
law
"but
nor were they
Ultimately,
Mexico
retained the peninsula, and the nation got funds to meet its
obligations.
29
III
Tijuana's development was hampered by isolation and

p oor
transportation.
Tijuana
had
value.
Merchant
ports
of
few
apparent
ships
Ensenada
discovered
near
passed through
Since
and
the
close
resources
ignored
San
the
area,
harbors
and
little
city
Diego.
Ensenada
Tijuana.
no
in
When
Prospectors walked
desolate trails and used the bordertown as

supply
depot.
With
improved
travel,
the
commercial
favor
rich
Yankee
existed/
of the
ores
"gold
were
diggers"
along the
old,
a rest and re
settlers
helped
organize the scattered adobe ranches into a community with

economic
activity.
integrated
At
Tijuana
with
the
same
the
time,
economy
American
of
the
railroads
southwestern
United States.
Californians first noticed that Tijuana had numerous
mineral
hot
springs
along the banks
of the Tijuana River.
The Arguello family leased the springs to San Diegans "Dr.

D. B. Hoffman, Dr. Strong and brother,
seven
years."14
David
Hoffman
and
and Mr. J. Gould for
associates
operated
popular health spa at the site known as Agua Caliente.
Five
years later, the Southern Pacific Railroad built tracks from

San Francisco to Los Angeles,
where passengers
to stage coaches bound for the border.

Adams ran the White Sulfur Springs Hotel,
two miles
south of the U.S.
In the
transferred
1880s,
Asa
located less than
customs house.
J. H.
Averill
brought visitors to Tijuana from downtown San Diego aboard
30
wagons.
In 1885,
the Santa Fe Railroad linked Los Angeles
to San Diego and the NC&O interurban railway built a line to

the
border.
directly to
Thus,
the
trains
border
finally
from where
delivered
they
Americans
traveled
the
last
miles by foot or horse to the Tijuana mineral baths.

As California filled with new settlers and tourists,
Tijuana
acquired
beyond
first
the
reach
land boom,
reputation
of
American
an
exotic,
laws.
O'Neal-versus-Nugent
On May 27,
boxing
with Wyatt Earp as referee.
foreign
During
Tijuana hosted sporting
banned north of the border.

the
as
match
California's
events
1888,
land
that
were
for example,
occurred
in
Tijuana
The spectators arrived by train
and sat on the American side in bleachers separated from the

boxing
ring by
Afterward,
a rope that
hundreds
represented
borderline.
of Californians crossed the border
spent the rest of the day in Tijuana.

Diego's
the
zone of tolerance,
and
Prostitutes from San
the Stingaree,
walked among the
Tijuana visitors seeking customers. J

As
T i juana
hosted
more
s pectacular
events,
the
town's new role in the American vice economy stimulated the

construction of saloons, hotels and a bull ring.
however,
long
Still,
Americans,
did not build casinos, brothels and race tracks as
as these
activities
remained
few American "go-getters"
Tijuana would
soon draw millions
legal
in
California.
could have predicted that

of tourists.
But,
then,
California land values suddenly rose as the railroads helped
31
populate, urbanize and industrialize the West Coast.
On the
U.S. side, land parcels sold for 150 dollars an acre in 10and 40-acre tracts.1^
In 1888, a new Tijuana resort called
the Hot Springs Hotel stimulated further development.

Arguell o
heirs
Caliente
springs to the Hart
Hotel
publicity
had
sold
the
emphasized
land
surrounding
and
the
Stern
Land
medicinal
resort's beautiful Mexican setting,
The
the
Agua
C o m p a n y . 17
waters
and
the
but the bordertown grew
slowly.
Soon,
control
of
American
new social groups won economic and political
Tijuana.
investors
Government
officials,
displaced the Arguello
pre-eminent status in the community.

had less than 100 residents.
California
through
politico. ^
Most
region,
from
In the 1880s,
the
official
ca l l e d
appointee
chief of the territory as well.

to the border
family
and
its
Ti'juana
The Diaz government ruled Baja
civil
often,
merchants
was
the
also
iefe
military
European immigrants moved
where they opened saloons
and curio
stores that catered specifically to American tourists.

In
French
1886,
Alejandro
immigrant,
moved
curio shop in Tijuana.

small
businesses
near
commercial dynasties.
Savin,
the
from La Paz
and
the
By
border
1890,
that
of
opened
the
first
George
would
German
Hussong,
opened
blossom
into
lbs owned stores
Ensenada and Tijuana.
John
son
Later, two German immigrants started
San Jos del Cabo,

named
Mexican
In 1892,
saloon
in
in
another
Ensenada,
32
where gold miners came to "weigh their gold and spend it."
These
merchants
became
boom,
many
homes
kept
America n s
made
although most
Diego. w
the
wealthy
and
a profit
in
Baja
savings
in
from their
reduced their
losses
California's
San
Diego.^
Tijuana
and
land
Some
investments
returned to
San
The new economic leaders of Tijuana subordinated
hereditary
elite
by
further
m o n o p olizing
land
and
markets.
Subsequently,
in the
1880s the
Porfirian
regime
nullified the Tijuana grant and attached the ranch to land

concessions
sold to American
inevitable
government
investors.
seizure,
two
91
To postpone
Arguello
heirs
an
sold
family property along the banks of the Tijuana River and a

village began to take shape.
On October 15, 1890, a Mexican
judge granted Tijuana community status, superseding the land

titles held by the Arguello heirs.
local historian,
regarded the
00
official
founding. ^
Tijuana's
value
Soon
depended
court
land
on
Ricardo Romero Aceves, a

decision
speculators
its
location,
as
Tijuana's
realized
not
that
on
its
resources.
American
capitalize
land speculators
flocked to
on the real-estate boom.
W i l liam
"Smiling
promoted
tourist
Billy"
resort
Car l s o n
San Diego
to
slick-talking man,
caused
called Monument
stir
City.
when
he
Carlson
situated the project near the mouth of the Tijuana River to

compete with the Hotel del Coronado, then under construction
33
a few miles north.
In
1891,
Carlson's venture ended when
the river flooded the entire community.
Two years
later,
"Smiling Billy" rebounded from his business failure and won

election as mayor of San Diego.
Mexican wife traveled on
Mexico
City,
where
he
To celebrate,
a pleasure
met
he and his
and business
President
Diaz
and
trip
to
personally
negotiated a concession to build a railroad across northern

Baja
California.
when
he
ran
"Smiling Billy's"
afoul
of American
plans
fraud
came
to
halt
and
spent
four
laws
years in federal prison.

American
developers
c o n s idered
alternatives for the use of Tijuana.
many
p r o f itable
The theme of "Tijuana,
the tourist mecca," gained wide exposure in the local press.

Visitors
to
San
Diego
Victorian elite
border.
In
read
rode the
the
1890s,
about
railway
local
Tijuana,
shuttles
papers
and
even
the
that
toured the
regularly
advertised
that "a tally-ho party will leave Hotel Del Coronado for Tia
Jua na. Th e
at
Otay
hotel guests played on Coronado beach, hunted
Lakes,
bathed
at
Agua
Caliente,
waters and explored the borderlands.
cruised
But the "red-blooded"
Yankee tourist who enjoyed the "sporting life"

amusement
mission.
in
trips
Shrewd
to
the
ruins
businessmen
Mexican
of
found little
Tijuana's
realized
that
old
adobe
gambling
and
other vice operations might be of more interest.

Southern
attempt
to
put
C a l i fornia
gambling
newspapers
resorts
in
publicized
Tijuana.
In
every
1897,
34
media scandal erupted from rumors that Jesse Grant,
the son
of
Springs
Ulysses
Simpson
Grant,
had
purchased
the
Hot
Hotel and had acquired a Mexican gambling franchise for 700

dollars.
The concession allegedly permitted construction of
a two-million dollar gambling facility with space for boxing

and a lottery.
become
the
It was said that the
"greatest
sporting
Tijuana casino would
center
on
the
continent."
California newspaper reporters dismissed the story as false

but admitted that
currency
"this rumor,
o c c asionally
a t tenti o n
has
peninsula."
been
The
for
the
directed
fact
that
with variations,
past
to
ten
the
Grant
has gained
years,
whene v e r
development
owned
near
Ensenada only lent further credibility to the report.
The
statement that
Grant applied for no concession whatever

any kind at
apply
for
Tia Juana.
concession,
It
is
but
true
he
gold
the
mine
Los Anaeles Times printed an exclusive
of
for privileges of
that
refused
"Mr.
he
to
was
do
asked to
04
so."
A
"horseman and plunger" named Phil Dwyer had fabricated the

Jesse
Grant
story
to
awa k e n
similar scheme of his own.

interest
in Dwyer's
enthusiasm
for
The news media eventually lost
scam but
reputation in the process.
inves t o r
T i juana
got
In the press,
an
undeserved
Tijuana became a
symbol for world-class tourist resorts, gambling casinos and

other vice
operations.
Meanwhile,
wealthy Americans
other ways
to gamble their money by purchasing
found
land below
the border.
35
IV
A fter
Califor n i a
1900,
border
four
region
investments.
Wealthy
John
Edward
Cudahy,
e xt e n d e d their
enormous
indust r i a l i s t s
through
Americans
H.
California
Mexican
direct
like
Harriman
The
the
ownership
Harrison
an d
holdings
estates.
monopolized
John
Gray
D.
south by
financiers
and
Otis,
Spreckels
purchasing
poo l e d
OC
Baâ California. J
resources to defend their investments m
often
Otis owned newspapers and real estate in Los Angeles; Cudahy

founded
a meat-packing
control l e d
the
subsidiaries;
included
and
sugar
industry
in
Los
Southern
Pacific
Spreckels
ran
factories,. public
Angeles;
Railr o a d
financial
utilities,
Harriman
and
its
empire
that
ships,
banks,
hotels, railways and newspapers in Hawaii, San Francisco and

San
Diego.
R e p u bli c a n
These
Party
men
exerted
and
wielded
powerful
influence
t r e mendous
in
the
economic
and
political power across the Californias.

Harrison Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, began
purchasing land in the
its
fertility.
General
Guillermo
On
Imperial Valley
June
Andrade
25,
1878,
850,000
River Delta at 10 cents an acre.
when he
the
Diaz
acres
in
In 1902,
discovered
regime
the
sold
Colorado
General Andrade
leased 250,000 acres to Otis for three years at 60 cents an

acre.^
Then, the magnate bought the Andrade lands.

Otis and his son-in-law,
the
Colorado River Company
Harry Chandler,
in Mexico
and then
had formed
created the
36
California and Mexico Land and Cattle Company

to
meet
U.S.
million acres
The
C&M
laws.
By
1907,
they
had
(C&M Land Co.)
accumulated
one
in a ranch that extended across the border.
Land
Co.
lobbied both
the U.S.
and
M e xican
governments to build canals diverting Colorado River water

to their
Chinese
cotton
property at
sharecoppers,
production,
Browne.
Chinese
Tijuana
Chino
and
where
With
the
labor
of
the company prospered by introducing
fulfilling
the
prediction
merchants operated
Mexicali
catering
gambling,
liquor,
flourished.^7
Mexicali,
public expense.
Although
to
the C&M
J.
Ross
establishments
Asians
opium
of
use
Land
like
and
the
in
Casino
prostitution
Company
controlled
it never hindered Chinese vice operations in its
domain.
But
Mexican
until
the
affairs
the
Otis-Chandler
to
protect
government
tired
group
its
of
nationalized the property.^
Baja
the
The
did
intervene
California
foreign
in
holdings
intrigues
and
C&M Land Company worked
with many Americans who owned Mexican lands.
Harry Chandler
sold John Cudahy 16,000 acres for a total of 8,000 dollars.

In
his
memoirs,
John
B.
Cudahy,
Jr.,
recalled
that
his
father's estate at Hechicera was located 20 miles southeast

of Mexicali, parallel to the Ferrocarril Inter California,
branch of the Southern Pacific.

The Cudahy Ranch had 4,000 acres devoted to Durango
cotton and four hundred men were employed at harvest-time.
37
Duroc-Jersey hogs raised at the ranch were butchered at the

Tijuana slaughterhouse owned by Charles S. Hardy, the "boss"
OQ
of San D i e g o . ^
Hardy, m turn, filled and managed all the
Cudahy
Meat
Company accounts in the
border
region.
The
Cudahy family worked with the other American landowners to

defend their Mexican property.
The
M e xican
constru c t i o n
of
government
railroads
and
concessions to such endeavors.

an American railroad company,
especially
the
state
welcomed
gave
H.
Harriman
owned
the
the
generous
At the turn of the century,

Southern Pacific,
the second largest landowner in Baja California.

Edward
the
Southern
became
By 1904,
Pacific
which,
in
turn, owned 55,000 acres along the tracks of the Ferrocarril

Inter California.
the
Compahia
S.A.,
de
In Mexico, Harriman's company operated as

Terrenos
Aguas
de
la
Baja
California,
with rights to "one-half of all of the water passing
through Mexican territory to the United S t a t e s . " ^
In 1902,
the Southern Pacific sold its water rights to the C&M Land
Company,
part of a web of interlocking financial
interests
extending across the California border region.

John D. Spreckels arrived in San Diego in 1887,
just
in time to capitalize on California's real-estate crash the

following year,
speculators.
rendering worthless
Spreckels
the
paper
fortunes
of
amassed discounted land and bought
delinquent county tax liens as he foreclosed on properties

at Coronado Island, the downtown area and southern San Diego
38
County.
Meanwhile,
Tijuana and the border region fell into
the lap of San Diego's new first citizen like ripe fruit.
Spreckels
winter tourist
transformed
centers.
San
The
Diego
jewel
and
of his
Tijuana
into
empire was
the
Hotel del Coronado, where wealthy guests enjoyed the Casino

Bar,
horse
Spreckels
that
t r ack
bought
operated
and
and
daily
private
improved
from
but
the
illegal
local
Coronado
and
gambling.
railroad
San
systems
Diego
to
the
30
border. ^
Thus, he monopolized the nascent tourism.
Meanwhile,
rail
Spreckels
planned
to
connect
San
Diego
lines to Yuma with concessions to build over Mexican
territory.
Visitors from the whole U.S. arrived on the San
Diego & Arizona Rail Road (SD&A), but the Spreckels' company
inadvertently
created
Tijuana in its wake.

different
orga n i z e d
vice
activities
around
By January 1, 1910, the SD&A had five
construction
camps
through the eastern mountains.
laying tracks
out
of
Tijuana
The supervisors of each SD&A
road crew struggled against the camp followers, gamblers and

*3 * 3
liquor dealers who erected tents near the camps.

San
Diegans
watched
the
daily
road-building,
and
later many spectators passed through Tijuana saloons before

returning
home.
Railroad
construction
gamblers and prostitutes to Tijuana.

industry"
center
had previously
for vice.
existed,
The Spreckels'
attr a c t e d
many
Where only a "cottage
Tijuana,
became
companies never
major
tried
to
39
stop border vice;
indeed,
the
family
lavished time,
money
and publicity on Tijuana horse-racing for decades.

V
By the turn of the
paled
in
comparison
to
century,
operations
however,
in
San
Francisco,
Angeles and San Diego's Stingaree district.^4

lbs curio
provided
shops
a
sold tourist
good
share
of
items,
but
business.
Tijuana vice
Los
The Savin and
liquor sales also
Unscrupulous
liquor
dealers sold local whiskey and tequila labeled as expensive

imported brands of liquor.
An
prominently
Alvarez
American
among
citizen,
the
Tijuana
Jos
vice
owned a popular cantina,
drank American
R.
Alvarez,
purveyors
The
Club,
figured
of
the
where
day.
tourists
liquor or Carta Blanca beer and gambled on
faro, monte and dog races.
He also owned Tijuana's
bull ring and other local property.
second
In 1911, Alvarez had a
run of bad luck when The Club was ransacked and his liquor
supply was destroyed by the rebels who seized Tijuana.
The
U.S. Immigration Bureau claimed that Alvarez had abetted his

alien
smuggling
himself"
Lower
by
brothers
virtue
California.
Diego to
and
of holding
He used
that
land
he
but
" e x p atriated
and public
considerable
retain his citizenship,
had
office
influence
he had to
in
in
San
relinquish
his Tijuana property. J

At the same
gambling operations
time,
other Americans ran a variety of
in Tijuana.
Gambling became a popular
40
industry
and the
closely.
district
In December
government
12,
1907,
the
northern
Baja California authorized most races,

lotteries
slot
after
machines
payment
were
of monthly
illegal.
regulated
dice,
fees
John
it very
district
of
card games and
but
roulette
Russell,
and
ma n a g e d
greyhound race track with permits approved by Colonel Celso

Vega, the iefe politico of
Baja California.
Some foreigners had bad luck in Tijuana, others were

luckier.
An
American
consortium
acquired
concessions
to
build a Tijuana gambling resort that included a horse track,

but
the
venture
capital.
never
succeeded
A Los Angeles native,
Tijuana
liquor
store
and
represented the Spreckels'
because
customs
b r okerage
companies in Tijuana.
of
lottery
jewels) .
overwhelmed Tijuana
At
known
this
and the
owned a
and
as
territorial
The
another American,
the
point,
he
Yet he was
(See page 207.)
-iefe politico also appointed J. L. Smith,
(raffle
insufficient
Juan V. Apablasa,
empowered to inspect the bullfights.
as inspector of the
of
rifa de
gamblers
alha-ia'*
ha d
government
not
saw no
reason to ban a lucrative source of income.

The
California
d o m i nation
landholding
of
by
Tijuana
American
commerce
citizens
and
and
Baja
European
immigrants left Tijuana politically weak and vulnerable to

militar y
matters
invasions
worse,
from n o rth
Tijuana
became
of the
border.^
To
make
an unwilling participant
the rebellion against President Porfirio Diaz.
in
41
On
May
Liberal Party
(IWW)
8,
1911,
insurgents
loyal
to
the
Mexican
(PLM) and the Industrial Workers of the World
disobeyed direct orders and captured Tijuana after a
brief engagement.
looted
the
liquor.
lbs
In a fit of moralistic zeal,
and
Savin
stores
San Diego witnesses
and
destroyed
said that
on
the steps and was absorbed by the ground.,IJ

alike
were
reduced
to
all
their
"so much liquor was
destroyed that it ran out of the front doors,
sightseers
the rebels
trickled down
Insurgents and
frenzied
l o oting
of
abandoned homes and businesses.

A week
later,
rebel commander
Carl Ap Rhys
Pryce,
transformed Tijuana into a "wide open" border town.

sellers, were
merchants,
welco m e d back.
opened
brothels
Pryce
and
sold
extor t e d m oney
gambling
Americans in the name of the "revolution."

that
gambling
houses
pay
him
25
Liquor
from
permits
to
He also demanded
percent
of
their
daily
winnings and charged each tourist a quarter to enter town.

Pryce tried unsuccessfully to extort money
Otis,
Cudahy
and
the
Southern
Pacific
by
from Spreckels,
threatening
to
destroy their Mexican properties if they helped the Mexican

government.^
Eventually,
on June
7,
however,
he
fled
across the border with 8,000 dollars worth of loot when he

heard that Mexican troops were approaching Tijuana.
Jack Mosby,
the new rebel commander,
was unable to
restore discipline to the ranks of the PLM movement.

to battle,
Mosby ordered prostitution,
gambling and
Prior
liquor
42
banished from town without realizing that vice had already

dissipated his m e n . I t
fun.
was too late for Mosby to stop the
According to historian Alejandro
F.
Lugo,
Jr.,
the
Revolution of 1911 introduced organized of vice to Tijuana.

He contended that the PLM marauders
to
"gambling,
left Tijuana wide open
drinking and prostitution,
imported from the
United States, which proliferated for the first time on this

border
like
novelty."4
Yet
no
one
accepted
responsibility for the violation of sovereignty or anything

else.
On June 14,
Mosby's
troops
ceremony.
off M e x ic a n
On June
representing the
Governor and Colonel Celso Vega forced
26,
San
Spanish-War veterans.
with
conventioneers
Mexican
control.
soil
the
Diego
and p r e p a r e d
Governor
Common
hosted
Council
dignitaries
and
a group
of
The SD&A hauled eight coaches filled

eager
to
Although the
toast
Tijuana's
PLM battles
uneasy with so many armed soldiers

(See page 208.)
return
to
had heightened
the mystique of Tijuana as a tourist mecca,
the border.
a victory
visitors were
guarding both sides
of
After the battles, the Mexican
government promoted Vega to general and transferred him to

the Veracruz garrison.
VI
M ajor
during
the
Esteban
Cantu,
PLM unrest,
who
em e r g e d
had
after
politico of northern Baja California.
occupied
1913
as
Mexicali
the
iefe
Esteban Cantti ruled
43
Baja
California
attitude
toward
industrialists
on
the
with
strong
American
hand
and
with
investments.
pragmatic
California
and vice purveyors grafted their operations
border
suppressed
tourist
zones
of
industry
tolerance
when
for
vice
moral
across
crusade
the
state.
Between 1910 and 1915/ progressive legal reforms added more

stringent
punishment
for
crimes
against
California
morality.^
Professional
barkeepers
gamblers,
considered
their businesses.
Tijuana
pimps,
the
opium dealers
best
place
to
and
rebuild
Three notable individuals set an example
for all purveyors who followed them.
In 1913, Marvin Allen,
Frank Beyer and Carl Withington abandoned their brothels and

saloons in Bakersfield and moved to the border,
formed the AB W Corporation
Tivoli
Club)
Bar
in
Tijuana
(ABW).
and
the
where they
The corporation owned the

infamous
El
Tecolote
(Owl
in Mexicali.
American
industrialists
like
Otis
resigned themselves to bordertown vice with

in their newspapers.
Colonel
Esteban
Cantu
and
Spreckels
few complaints
regulated
and
heavily taxed the ABW, except that he kept national receipts

for
regional
prosperous
uses.
as more
AO
The
and more
territorial
saloons,
government
brothels,
became
opium
dens
and gambling halls paid due consideration to the "Kingdom of

Cantu."
The
gover n o r
became
an
e n igmatic
figure
inspired both praise and contempt in the Californias.
who
44
By
city's
1915/
largest,
character
Tijuana
most
raised
Californias.
vice
operations
profitable
serious
constituted
economic
moral
the
sector.
conflicts
Its
in
both
The San Diego Panama-Pacific Exposition, which
opened in January 1915, drew thousands of visitors from all

over the
country.
Stingaree,
Even
had been
San
"swept
Diego's
clean"
red-light
for the
zone,
occasion.
the
The
Stingaree contained over 120 bawdy houses, located within K,

Market,
First
and Fifth
Streets.
Scores
of prostitutes,
hustlers and criminal types came to the city hoping to "make

a quick buck" from the tourists.
squad m o l e s t e d them,
many
made
Because the San Diego vice

their
way
south
of
the
to U.S.
and
border.
In March,
Mexican
American tourists
authorities
intolerable,
and
that
they
Tijuana
demanded
protested
"lawlessness"
had
action.
first,
At
become
the
Spreckels press blamed the tourists who were victimized in

Tijuana
because
Furthermore,
they
ignored
common-sense
warnings.
the editors of "The Same Old Scruples"
in The
San Diego Union argued that "those who are in the 'sucker'
class will not be
situation
influenced by
worsened,
however,
as
any good advice.

more
Exposition
The
visitors
were swindled by the American gamblers.

By
late April,
crime
in Tijuana
grew
so worrisome
that the directors of the San Diego Exposition had to react

to the bad publicity.
The New York-based American Bankers'
45
Associ a t i o n
wrote
to
the
Spreckels 7
company,
that
traveler's
checks
cashed
American
it
had
in
National
stopped
San
Diego
Bank,
payment
by
on
four
"bunco"
men.
Officials at the San Diego bank replied that the action and
negative publicity attached to the case were unwarranted and
that
American
National
would,
in
retaliation,
refuse
to
honor all checks from the New York firm.

The
May
C.
San Diego mayor
Bliss,
the
received
another protest
sister of Michigan's
seen Tijuana before,
but
found that
governor,
"the place
from
who
had
is not
fit
any longer for decent people to go to,
as it has resolved
itself
Mayor
into
a gambling
hell-hole. "4^
O'Neall
sent
copies of the Bliss letter to Esteban Cantu and the Mexican

Consul.
Again, The San Diego Union replied that tourists had
ignored ample warnings and that
Tijuana anyway.
the mayor had no power in
The newspapers editors said that there was
"no reason to suppose that suggestions

on
Tijuana w o u l d b r ing the
instability
Companies
endured"
of
Mexico's
c oncluded that
desired
for putting the lid

r e s u l t s , " given
government.4 ^
The
"what
cured must
cannot be
since "more persistent publicity"
the
Spreckels
be
would not deter
visitors to Tijuana.
The
continued
to
presence
draw
of
minor
caused a major crisis.
Ameri c a n
protests
gamblers
until
two
in
Tijuana
runaway
girls
On April 21, 1915, the boyfriends of
46
Mary Percell and Selma Potwin abandoned the two 18-year-old

Los Angeles women in Tijuana.
about
Tijuana,
subjected
Potwin
them
to
told U.S.
being forced
the
where
young
swindlers
the
"vilest
immigration
into White
women
to
The American girls wandered

o f fered
of
insults."
officials
Slavery."
the
San
them
that
money
and
Percell
and
they
"escaped
The border guards took
Diego
City
Jail,
where
they
who
ha d
childhood,
was
awaited juvenile authorities from Los Angeles .47

San
personally
Diego
known one
outrage d by the
bothered
Police
C h ief
of the w o m e n
incident.
Since
"innocent and foolish"
he felt it was
Keno
Wilson,
since
Tijuana's
girls,
wrote
"bunco"
men
Chief Wilson,
"time to drive them out of the
country."4
The Tijuana situation intensified when the teen-agers tried

to poison themselves
home,
in
jail rather than
face ridicule
at
but the doctors saved them and the girls were taken
back to Los Angeles.
As a postscript,
criticized the local Scripps'
the Spreckels press
newspaper for an article on,
"Girls at Death's Door."4

The Percell and Potwin case
to
action
against
American
hustlers.
governor ordered Francisco Vdzquez,

to
apprehend
ope r a t i n g
all
stirred Governor Cantii
undesirable
in the bordertown.
April
27,
the
the Tijuana subprefect,
American
The
On
"bunco"
Mexic a n s
artists
arrested
38
suspects but 12 "escaped" from custody and evaded recapture.

V&zquez took the remaining 26 prisoners to the U.S. Port of
47
Entry and released them at the border,

police awaited them.
where the San Diego
The police ran them out
of town
and
ordered them not to return.

The
directors
of
the
Exposition
and
the
bor d e r
shopkeepers appreciated the fact that Tijuana and San Diego

authorities had eliminated swiftly the "riffraff," narrowly
ave r t i n g
an
i n ternational
crisis.
Police
Chief
Wilson
declared that Tijuana had returned to normal and that only

honest
activities
prevailed.
"'The
saloons are to be continued,'
gambling
places
Chief Wilson said,
and
'but they
will be legitimate and a tourist will be given a chance to

win.'"^
As
the
scandal
faded
from memory,
the
San
Diego
Exposition and Tijuana enjoyed a successful year.

Governor Cantu,
complaints
by personally
Arthur Houser,
Company,
for his part,
responded to American
licensing Tijuana gambling halls.
a director of the Baja California Investment
and Antonio Elostia convinced Cantu that- regulated
gambling would drive American criminals from the bordertown.

After payment of the usual fees,
gambling
On
July
concession
1,
1915,
entertainment
that
Elosda received the first
that
the
his
Tijuana
included
governor
allowed
Fair
popular
in
o f fered
American
and
Tijuana.
visitors
Mexican
games of chance.
San
Diegans
said
that
Elosua
helped
the
governor
suppress the American swindlers and opium smugglers.

Tijuana
Some
residents even proudly claimed that their city had
48
become
Cl
"as free from vice
Subsequently,
as any in the United States.''^
Elosfta spent
100, 000 dollars building the
Monte Carlo near the border,

holdings
during
became
the
only to
sell all his Tijuana
the First World War.
established
p attern
The
for
Elosda
license
gambling
permits
purchased by later American companies.

Meanwhile,
Texas
investors
asked
the
permission to build a racetrack at Tijuana.
governor
for
In March 1915,
the Lower California Jockey Club sought capital to pay for

the Mexican
concession
and
four Texans
C.
Clinton
Tobias and H. J. Moore

Houser,
for building expenses,

Tucker,
Forest
E.
"to
make
the
White,
and one Mexican resident,
as the prime movers of the venture.
prom i s e d
listing
e nvironment
W.
E.
Arthur
Tobias further
strictly
M e xican
so
travelers will not only be interested in the races, but will

co
come to the Mexican city and see the true Mexican ideals."
Although the Jockey Club forecast
a July
4 opening of the
track, the first race actually occurred six months later.

On
November
30,
1915,
two
California
gambl i n g
promoters arrived at the U.S. Grant Hotel with plans to take

over the Tijuana racetrack.
Long
invited Moore
they
discussed
Coffroth
received
James W. Coffroth and Baron H.
and Houser
"plan
25,000
for
to their
the
dollars
hotel
future."
room,
The
from Adolph
where
next
day,
Spreckels
S3
purchase the racetrack land. J
to
49
A decade earlier,
"Sunny Jim" Coffroth had owned the
Daly City Boxing Arena and gained notoriety when he paid San
Francisco
boss
permits.
Coffroth and Adolph Spreckels had been childhood
friends
along
Abe
San
Ruef
5,000
Francisco's
dollars
to
Barbary
expedite
Coast.
boxing
Baron
Long
owned popular Los Angeles nightclubs like the Watts Tavern,

the Vernon Country Club, the Ship Cafe and the Sunset
Inn.
The Spreckels Companies trusted Coffroth and Long to build

and operate an honest race track in Tijuana.
The
J.
W.
Coffroth
Company
absorbed
the
California Jockey Club and elected new directors

objections
of
founders
Moore
and
Tobias.
Lower
over
The
the
former
directors went to court to restrain the Coffroth Company but

were not
successful.
The new
investors
racing would begin on New Year's Day,
predicted
and the construction
of Coffroth's Hip 6 dromo progressed rapidly.

Club
owners
owners,
deals
concessionaires
conferences
reformers
business
kept
had
California,
until
finalized
the
public
stopped
but
and
Tijuana
institutions
famous
staff
excited.^
and
provided
the
of American
Cantu,
while
from
gambling
was
transplanted
civilization
on the
news
Progressive
sportsmen
Tijuana
horse
daily
The
Long
Culturally,
sportsman
The new Jockey
Gover n o r
track
Coffroth
opportunities.
these
with
that
with
in
new
desolate
banis h e d
streets
of a
Mexican town.
50
One
disgruntled
directors because
stockholder
of q u e stionable
sued
the
Jockey
Club
o wnership and ethics.
Alberto Madero, uncle to the assassinated Mexican president,

Francisco Madero,
sued the directors of the Jockey Club to
recover a 25,000 dollar investment.
Madero, who lived in El
Paso, retained the Los Angeles firm of Carpenter,

Harris to press the case in San Diego
December 13,
M.
J.
1915,
M o ore
Madero7s lawyers
before
Judge
W.
"appointment of a receiver,
R.
Foarl and
Superior Court.
On
sued Arthur Houser and

Guy,
petitioning
the dissolution
for
of partnership
and distribution of assets" from the Lower California Jockey

C lub .55
M ader o ' s
affidavit
a l leged
that
Houser
Madero's money to "secure certain privileges"

Cantu.
had
used
from Governor
The court awarded Jockey Club stock to a receiver,
but it did not affect the 1,000 shares that Cantti and Adolph
Spreckels
each
"services
r e n d e r e d ."55
a llowed
without
to
held
take
in
over
having to
the
corpor a t i o n
The
J.
the
disclose
W.
Lower
its
as
payment
for
Coffroth
Company
was
Cal i f o r n i a
finances.
Jockey
Madero
Club
won
his
claim and the inaugural races proceeded as scheduled.

When Tijuana tourism was
the
racetrack
December
29,
usually became
1915,
the
Jockey Club petition

racetrack
across
the
San Diego
"to stretch
Sixth
Street
at
criticized
focus
City
of
in California,
attention.
Council
defeated
a banner
On
a
advertising the
c7
Broadway.
Councilmen
51
Fox
and B e n b o u g h
supported
Coffroth's
controversy
occurred on opening day,
dressed all
its track personnel
Expo
had
used
the
previous
appeal.
when
the
Another
Jockey Club
in uniforms the
year,
creating
San Diego
the
impression that the Expo sanctioned the Hioddromo.

return e d
purpose,
the
but
old
his
uniforms
after
business
they
tactics
ha d
became
false
Coffroth
served
the
their
subject
of
criticism in San Diego.

On January 1, 1916, the Lower California Jockey Club
held its first day of racing at
his
family
Carranza
representatives
attended
guests.^
W ill i a m
Chance
and
the
of
day
like
Charlie
Barney
and Los Angeles
Oldfield,
Sheriff
J.
Governor Cantii,
President
opening
Celebrities
Farnum,
Tijuana.
festivities
Chaplin,
James
C.
Venustiano
as
honored
Eddie
Jeffries,
Cline
Foy,
Frank
joined
10,000
spectators the same day that the San Diego Exposition drew
20, 000
visitors
Coffroth's
luck
to
Balboa
turned
Park.
for the
But,
worse
as
the
t h under
flooded the r a c e s . ^
(See page 209.)
In the
Jockey
S.
rebuild
Club
hired
M.
Goodbody
to
next
day,
storms
spring,
the
the
flood-
damaged track.
By mid-summer,
opening season.
expectations.
the
track
had
survived
its
chaotic
Attendance and profits surpassed everyone's

Local playboys Walter Dupree,
Gerald Cudahy
and Claus Spreckels hosted a party at the Hotel del Coronado

to
honor
Coffroth's
ac c o m p l i s h m e n t
in
transforming
52
financial disaster
into a successful
business.
San Diego
reporters estimated that professional gamblers had bet over

10/000 dollars in Tijuana every day of the s e a s o n . ^
The
Jockey
the
Club managed to make
"neat
profit,"
despite
fact that losses, taxes and business expenses absorbed most

of its earnings.
On November 11, Coffroth began the second season of
racing
at
the
Hioddromo
in
Tijuana
with
torrent
of
American dollars. Tijuana enjoyed astonishing success as the

San Diego Exposition and Coffroth's Hip6dromo drew thousands
of Americans
raised
over
produced
for the second year in a row.

17,000
more
dollars
than
27,000
in
taxes;
dollars
the
next
with
the
contributing 3,300 dollars to the total.

Moral reformers
c o n t e n d e d that
greatest
publ i c
Cantii and the
that
John
month,-
it
it
Hioddromo
61
condemned the illicit revenues and
responsibility
knew
In August,
for
D.
Spreckels'
conditions
Spreckels
in
group
bore
Tijuana.
"owned
San
the
The
Diego."
Because the Spreckels Companies had played a major role in

dev e l o p i n g
the
bordertown,
many
people
co n s i d e r e d
the
Tijuana race track a "gimmick" to increase SD&A ridership.

William
Clayton
and
Spreckels Companies,
Jockey Club,
Horton
L.
Titus,
directors
of
the
originally sold the track site to the
and by 1915,
the SD&A was
advertising special
rates of 50 cents for the round trip between San Diego and
the racetrack.
53
Adolph Spreckels,
65,000
dollars
and
who had loaned Coffroth at least
a p p a rently
held
Jockey
Club
stock,
brought his Napa-bred race horses to the Hipddromo from the

first day.
the
In 1924, one of his horses, Runstar,
prestigious
Coffroth
Handicap
with
finally won
$100,000
prize.
The family newspapers lavished free publicity on Coffroth's

track by printing daily schedules and race results.
The Spreckels family raced, wagered, entertained and
present e d
wi n n i n g
honors
Spreckels businesses
brought
them
Roberta
brothels,
the
sold land to
customers
Ridgely
at
via
argued
Hipddromo.
the
family
that
while
"border barons"
railways.
John
the
Journalist
Spreckels
saloons or casinos in Tijuana,
and
owned
no
but his newspapers
spent millions of dollars to advertise border attractions.

Although San Diego reformers blamed the Spreckels family for
the wild border conditions, it was never proved.
By mid-1916,
"border barons"
them
from
was
the
success
angering the
California.
Moral
of
Coffroth
forces
that
reformers
and
other
had expelled
across
the
state
/TO
condemned Tijuana vice on many fronts. J

clubs, city politicians,
crusade.
annual
Tijuana
and newspapers were driven into the
In late May,
the Women's
at
introduced
its
a
the Southern California district
Christian
convention
in
California women's
Temperance
San
sinful
resolution
Diego.
worst,
demanding
Union
After
the
the
San
(WCTU)
the
held
its
describing
Diego
closure
of
of
Chapter
liquor,
54
drug,
prostitution
border.
and
gambling
establishments
below
the
At the same time, Sheriff Ralph Conklin and mayoral
candidate George Marston urged the City Council to prohibit

the circulation of Hinddromo racing information,
while the
publisher of the
San Diego
Los Angeles
Express
criticized
for neglecting the Exposition in favor of Tijuana high life.

The measure failed in San Diego, but Los Angeles enacted a
law that banned Tijuana racing forms.
Meanwhile,
Diego
asked
M exican
the
federal
into
The public,
initial
scandals,
responses
from both
and the
officials
government
Tijuana.
mayor
to
pressure
controlling
however,
Ameri c a n
sides
police
soon
Cantti
the
lost
reformers
chief
San
and
the
s ituation
interest
got
of the border,
of
in
in
the
ambivalent
and Tijuana vice
activity continued even though it was more firmly regulated

than before.
Despite the violence of the 1910 Mexican Revolution,
Cantii m a n a g e d
to
keep
matters
u n der
control.
Cant
i
cultivated good public relations with his American neighbors

by the timely use of crusades against vice and lawlessness.
As
Tijuana's
destiny became
linked to
the Governor kept the border business

American investors desired.
executive who
California
tourism,
climate as stable as
He proved himself a competent
responded deferentially to American protests
even while profiting from the vice e c o n o m y . ^
55
By
had
1917,
the Allen
Beyer
consolidated
ownership
of
saloons.
& Withington
Tijuana's
Corporation
best
casinos
In addition to expanding the Tivoli Bar,
the Foreign Club and then
spent
20,000
Sunset Inn to the Monte Carlo Saloon.

ant i c i p a t e d
decline
in
tourism,
dollars
and
it built
adding the
Antonio Elosua, who

sold
his
gambling
concessions the Tijuana Fair and the Monte Carlo to Carl

Withington
and Ed Henderson
the
proceeded,
decade
mut u a l l y dependent.
the
for an undisclosed price.
Jockey
Coffroth,
Club
Long,
and
the
ABW
As
became
Withington,
Marvin
Allen and Frank Beyer centralized the most profitable vice

franchises
and
collectively
were
known
as
held
the
"border
barons . ^7
In
Friendship
remained
210.)
late
Fiesta
friendly
June,
to
San
assure
toward
his
Diego
Governor
spectacular
Cantti that
administration.
the
U.S.
(See
page
The spirit of trust ran so deep that Mexican troops
marched in the San Diego parade while
carrying arms.
But,
the Great War ultimately burst the illusion of friendship as

American
spies
told
their
superiors
about
the
Governor's
Tijuana
decreased
German contacts.^
The
number
of
visitors
to
significantly when the United States entered the First World

War.
At this point,
April
6 , 1917,
Cantu's careful stratagems failed.
the U.S.
neutral Mexico became
declared war
against
Germany,
On
and
a concern to American policy makers.
56
When
the
U.S.
Congress
throughout the
restricted
liquor
consumption
country as a war emergency measure,
border
saloons posed a special case.

On
December
that "Tijuana,
5,
U.S.
immigration
officers
as a tourist town for Americans,
to exist during the war."
declared
will cease
Agents would henceforth require a
new identification card of anyone crossing the border.

federal
seekers,
order
said that
tourists,
"cards will be
idlers,
gamblers,
The
denied to pleasure
race-horse
followers
and the l i k e . " ^
The "border barons" got a flexible period
to
affairs" before the border was
"adjust their
closed to
them.
Although
service
patrol
the
the
U.S.
border,
Army, h e l p e d
illegal
the
entry
immigration
still
occurred.
Because of restrictions on tourism, the Jockey Club canceled

its third racing season and the vice
brief
decline.
Moral
reformers
industry went
hoped
that
the
into a
stronger
border policy would further isolate Tijuana when the supply

of dollars
in
circulation diminished.
After the war,
the
"border barons" and Tijuana merchants expected that business

would rebound as tourism and trade returned to normal levels
once war-time prohibition ended.
VII
With the Eighteenth Amendment,
continued American Prohibition,
to
welcome
the
reopening
of
and the prospect
Tijuana had
the
border.
of
further reason
The
Hip 6 dromo
57
prepared
for
prostitution,
"Tijuana
surge
of
drugs and gambling.
owed
its
initial
7 fi
laws of California. u
publicity
visitors
was
a ttracted
As
one
development
to
invasion.
In the
liquor,
historian
the
the
1920s,
said,
'moralistic
A large supply of money,
invested in m o d e r n i z i n g
expected tourist
by
labor and
town
for
Tijuana
the
made
qualitative leap in development by accommodating the desires

of
more
and
more
American
tourists.
location became an economic advantage

boomed.
Vice proliferated,
The
city's
border
as the whole
region
exacting a heavy price in both
the U.S. and Mexico.

Meanwhile,
residents
20
The
linking
SD&A
and
Tijuana
penetration by Americans.
fulfilled
resort
that
Tijuana's
the
to
raged
across
appeared
full
had
improved
to
greater
and
Concurrently, the "border barons"
potential
the
automobile
Cal i f o r n i a
as
and American Prohibition
suddenly
1,200
(see page 205), tripling in size over a period of
years .71
travel,
the population of Tijuana grew to
an
international
sparked a moral
Californias.
The
of oppor t u n i t y
lively
and
tourist
explosion
boom-town
danger.
"golden age" of Tijuana vice was about to unfold.
The
58
ENDNOTES
^ Florence
C.
Shipek,
ed.,
Lower California
Frontier:
Articles
from The San Diecro Union, 1870
(Los
Angeles:
Dawson's Book Shop, 1965), p. 49; hereafter cited
as:
Shipek, L C F .
E r n e s t o Galarza, "Mexicans in the
Southwest:
A Culture in Process," in Edward Spicer and
Raymond H. Thompson, eds., Plural Society in the Southwest
(New York:
1972),
p. 267.
Hernan Solis Garza, Los
Mexicanos del Norte (Mexico:
Editorial Nuestro Tiempo,
S.A., 1971), p. 57.
Joaquin Xirau Icaza and Miguel Diaz,
Nuestra Deoendencia Fronteriza (Mexico:
Fondo de Cultura
Econdmica, 197 6 ), pp. 38n, 42.
Niles Hansen, The Border
Economy (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1981), p. 19.
David Pinera Ramirez, coord.,
Panorama
Historico de Baia
California (Tijuana: Centro de Investigaciones Histdricos,
UNAM-UABC, 1983), p. 253; hereafter cited as: Pinera, P HBC.
Ramdn Eduardo Ruiz, The People of Sonora and Yankee
Capitalists (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988), p.
183 ff; hereafter cited as:
Ruiz, PSY C .
Lawrence A.
Herzog, "The United States Mexico Border:
Eclipse of a
Traditional I n ternational Boundary," UC MEXUS News 19
(Winter 1987), p. 3.
Robert R. Alvarez, Jr., Familia:
Migration and
Adaptation in Baia and Alta California, 1800-1975 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1987), pp. 7-8.
Hereafter
cited as:
Alvarez, Familia.Lee Dye,
"San Andreas Fault
Theories Shaken Up by New Studies," Los Ancreles Times. March
7, 1988.
Shipek, LCF. p. 44. Wilbur E. Garrett, ed., Atlas
of North America:
Space Age Portrait of a Continent
(Washington, D.C.:
National Geographic Society, 1987), pp.
30, 178; hereafter cited as:
Garrett, Atlas.
^ Garrett, Atlas, p. 18.
P. L. Bell and H. Bentley
Mackenzie, Mex i c a n West Coast and Lower California:
A
Commercial and Industrial Survey (Washington, D.C.:
U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1923), pp. 285-291;
hereafter
cited as: Bell and Mackenzie, MWCLC.
4 George Harwood Phillips, "Indians of Los Angeles,
1781-1875," in Roger L. Nichols, ed., The American Indian:
Past and Present (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986), p. 180.
Alfonso Salazar Rovirosa, Historia del Estado de Baia
California:
De 1500 a 1980 (Mexico:
Ediciones Econ 6micas,
1976), pp. 19-20; hereafter cited as:
Salazar Rovirosa,
HEB C . Carl Waldman, Atlas of the North American Indian (New
York:
Facts on File Publications, 1985), pp. 39, 6 8 .
Sherburne F. Cook, The Population of the California Indians,
1969-1970 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1976),
p. 38.
Vi Murphy,
"Help Promised to Quimiay Indian
Village," The San Diego Un i o n . June 8 , 1971.
59
^ Claude L 6vi-Strauss,
Schocken Books, 1979), p. 27.
Mvth and Meaning
(New York:
^ Celso Aguirre Bernal, Tiiuana:

Su Historia - Sus
Hombres (Mexico:
n.p., 1975), pp. 61-64, 121-122; hereafter
cited as:
Aguirre Bernal, TS H .
Pablo L. Martinez, A
Histor y of L o w e r C a l i f o r n i a . Ethel D u f f y Turner, tr.,
(Mexico:
Editorial Baja California, 1960), pp. 369-370;
hereafter cited as:
Martinez, LQ..
Josefina Rendon Parra,
Apuntes H i s t o r i c o s de Tiiuana (Tijuana:
P a p e l e r i a del
Noroeste, S.A., 1972), p. 20;
hereafter cited as:
Rendon
Parra, A H T .
Salazar Rovirosa, HEBC, pp. 194-195.
David
Pinera Ramirez, ed., Historia de Tiiuana. 2 vols. (Tijuana:
Centro de Investigaciones Histdricas, UNAM-UABC, 1989), Vol.
1, p. 28 ff, pp. 60-62; hereafter cited as: Pinera Ramirez,
HT.
Pablo L. Martinez, Guia Familiar de Baia California.
1700-1900 (Mexico:
Editorial Baja California, 1965), pp.
899, 993; hereafter cited as:
Martinez, Guia. Clarence A.
McGrew, Citv of San Diecro and Countv of San Diecro, 2 Vols.
(Chicago and New York:
The American Historical Society,
1922), Vol. I, p. 172; hereafter cited as: McGrew, S D .
^ Walter V. Scholes, Mexican Politics Purina the
Juarez Regime. 1855-1872 (Columbia, Missouri:
University of
M issour i Press,
1969),. pp. 34-35.
Charles Nordhoff,
Peninsular California (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1888),
p. 52; h e r e a f t e r cited as:
Nordhoff, PC.
Robert G.
Cleland, Mexican Year Book. 1920-21 (Los Angeles:
Mexican
Year Book P u b l i s h i n g Company, 1922), pp. 121-122, 225;
hereafter cited as: Cleland, M Y B . Martinez, LC, p. 394.
Martinez, L C . p. 391.
^ Nordhoff, P C . pp. 25-2 6 .
10 J. Ross Browne, "Exploration in Lower California,
3
Part,"
H a r o e r 7s M o nthly M a g a z i n e X X X V I I I :ccxxiii
(December 1868), p. 23.
''Martinez, LC, p. 406.
Nordhoff, P C . pp. 56-57.
"18,000,000 Acres of Lower California Lands," The

San Dieqo U n ion. August 18, 1887.
Donald Chaput,
"The
British Are Coming! or, The Army of India and the Founding
of Ensenada," The Journal of San Diego History XXXIII:4
(Fall 1987), P. 152.
1 *3
Francisco Bulnes, The Whole Truth About Mexico:

President Wilson7s Responsibility. Dora Scott, tr.,
(New
York:
M. Bulnes Book Company, 1916) , pp. 200, 132 ff;
h e r e a f t e r c i ted as:
Bulnes,
Truth.
Ri c a r d o Garcia
Granados, Historia de Mexico desde la Restauracion de la
60
Republics en 1867, Hasta la Caida de Porfirio Diaz (Mexico:

N . P ./ 1917), Vol. II, pp. 229-231.
Ernest Henry Gruening,
Mexico and Its Heritage (New York:
The Century Company,
1928), p. 65; hereafter cited as:
Gruening, Mexico.
John
Kenneth Turner, Barbarous Mexico (Austin:
University of
Texas Press, 1964), pp. 58-59; hereafter cited as:
Turner,
BM.
Francisco Bulnes, El Verdadero Diaz v la Revolucidn
(Mexico:
E d itora Nacional, 1967), pp. 164-165,
199;
hereafter cited as:
Bulnes, D i a z . Ram 6 n Eduardo Ruiz, The
Great Rebellion:
Mexico. 1905-1924 (New York:
W.W. Norton
& Company, 1980), pp. 28-33; hereafter cited as:
Ruiz, G R .
Ruiz, PSYC. pp. 177-181.
Samuel Ramos, Profile of Man and
Culture in Mexico. Peter G. Earle, tr., (Austin:
University
of Texas Press, 1975), p. 6 6 . Charles Macomb Flandrau, Viva
Mexico (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), p. 20.
Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution. 2 Vols.
(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1986), Vol. I, pp. 16, 443-444;
hereafter cited as:
Knight, MR.
Walter N. Breymann, "The
Cientificos:
Critics of the Diaz Regime," in, Ralph Lee
Woodward Jr., ed. Positivism in Latin America. 1850-1900
(Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1971),
p. 87 ff.
"The New Hot Springs,"
The San Diego Weekly
U n i o n , S e ptember 21, 1871.
"Tia Juana White Sulfur
Springs," The San Diego Union. May 11, 1882.
1^Herbert Lockwood, Skeleton's Closet. 2 Vols. (La
Mesa:
Bailey & Associates, n.d.), Vol. 2, p. 12; hereafter
cited
as: Lockwood, ,C.
June Nay Summers, Buenos Dias
Tiiuana (Ramona: Ballena Press, 1974), pp. 13-14; hereafter
cited
as: Summers, B D T . Theodore W. Fuller, San Diego
Originals (Pleasant Hills, California:
California Profiles
Publications, 1987), pp. 97-98.
Elizabeth C. MacPhail,
"When the Red Lights Went Out in San Diego:
The Little
Known Story of San D i ego's 'Restricted' D i s t rict," The
Journal of San Dieao History XX:2 (Spring 1974), p. 4;
hereafter cited as: MacPhail, "RLSD." B. F. Elliott, Lower
California (Los Angeles:
La Siesta Press, 1987), p. 5.
"Tia Juana City:
$70,000 Worth of Lots Sold at
Auction," The San Dieao Union, August 18, 1887 . "Tia Juana
Valley," The San Dieao Union. January 1, 1888.
17 "Grand Opening of the Hot Springs Hotel," San
Dieao Bee. October 26, 1887.
Pinera Ramirez, PHBC, p. 704.
^
Martinez, LC.
Philip Rush, A History of the
Californias (San Diego:
Neyenesch Printers, 1958), p. 252;
hereafter cited as:
Rush, HC. Angela Moyano de Guevara y
Jorge Martinez Zepeda, coords., Vision Historica de Ensenada
61
(Mexicali: FONAPAS-B.C., 1982), p. 132; hereafter cited as:

Moyanao y Zepeda, V H E .
^David Pinera Ramirez, "Ensenada a Principios del
Siglo XX," in, Moyano y Zepeda, VHE. pp. 165-169. Martinez,
Guia. pp. 981, 858.
Marian Cromley, "Hussong's," The San
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Martinez, Guia. pp. 378,
412.
McGrew, SD. Vol. I, p. 69.
Pinera Ramirez, PHBC. p.
297.
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San Diego Directory Company, 1910), p. 289; hereafter cited
as:
Eds., SDCD. 1910. "La Junta Consutiva del Comercio y
de la Indu'stria y M. Gonzalez," El Heraldo. October 5, 1932.
"Tijuana Old Mexico Invites You," The San Dieao Union. July
28, 1935.
Francisco Sanchez Gonzalez, Obra Economica v
Social del General de Divisidn Abelardo L. Rodriguez
(Mexico: Editorial Helio, 1958), p. 165. "It All Started in
1957," San Dieao & Point Magazine 16:11 (September 1964).
David Nelson, "Tasty Get-Together for Serious Gourmets at
Thornton Home, 11 Los Anaeles Times. July 2, 1987.
"First
National Bank Salutes the San Diego O p e r a , " San Dieao
Magazine 40:12 (October 1988), p. 43.
2 McGrew, S D . p. 106.
Eds., SDCD. 1910 through
Eds., SDCD. 1920.
Eds. SDCD. 1910. p. 188.
Ed., SDCD.
1910. p.375.
Max Miller, "South of the Border - 24 Years
Ago - Down Tijuana Way," The San Dieao Union, December 15,
1941.
Pinera Ramirez, H T , Vol. 1, p. 103.
Bill Owens,
"Stories from the Legend Desk:
Ken B o j e n s , " R e a d e r ,
September 4, 1986.
21 Conrado Aceves Cardenas, El Rancho Tiiuana:
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Californidad, 1963), p. 25 ff; hereafter cited as:
Aceves
Cardenas, RT.
."Woman to Press Caliente Ouster," The San
Dieao Union. July 3, 1937.
Richard F. Pourade, "Death
Climaxes Long Fight of Tijuana Heiress," The San Dieao
U n i o n . Novem b e r 18, 1943.
R i c h a r d F. Pourade,
"Agua
Caliente Land Dispute Stirs Tijuana," The San Dieao Union,
November 28, 1943; "Alejandro Arguello Obituary," The San
Dieao Union. May 18, 1948.
"Arguello Heirs Take Over Agua
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Frank del Olmo, "U.S. Asked to Aid 200 Heirs in Fight Over
Tijuana Property," Los Anaeles Times. August 11, 1972.
oo
Ricardo
Romero
Aceves,
Honzontes
Baiacalifornianos (Mexico:
Central Impresora Litografica,
Romero Aceves, H B .
Pinera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 1, p. 298.
62
23 "Tally-Ho Party/" The Diego Union. October 9,

1897.
"Step Back:
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F ebruar y 7, 1988.
Ralph Forty, San D i ego's South Bav
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Doubtful Story as to the
Tia Juana Concession," The San Diecro Union. May 21, 1897.
"Springs of Tia Juana:
Jesse R. Grant and Associates to
Develop Them," The San Dieao Union. April 9, 1897.
"Jesse
Grant's Concession," The San Diego Union. May 31, 1897.
^
G.
William
Domhoff,
Who
Rules
America?
(Englewoods Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 24, 82,
178.
Carey McWilliams, Southern California:
An Island on
the Land (Santa Barbara:
Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1973), pp.
156-157.
Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (New York:
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Lowell L. Blaisdell,
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Pacific Historical Review XXXV:4 (November 1966), p. 393;
hereafter cited as:
Blaisdell, "Chandler."
Editors, "The
Question of Mexico's Neutrality," The San Dieao Union. April
15, 1915.
W i l l i a m Mountain, "Hearst Scores President,
G.O.P. Will Regain Power," The San Dieao Union. April 16,
1915.
George E. Mowry, The California Progressives (New
York:
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OC
Celso A g uirre
Bernal,
Compendio
H i storico
Bioqrafico de Mexicali (Mexicali:
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Aguirre Bernal, C H 3 M .
Bell and Mackenzie, MWCLC, pp. 300, 306.
Edna Aid< Grijalva
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07
Maurilio Magall 6n, Breves Apuntes sobre Mexicali v
sus Condiciones Comerciales (Calexico:
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Edna Aid Grijalva Larranga, "La Colorado
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Pedro F. Prez Y Ramirez, "Panorama de Mexicali:
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OQ
Eugene K e ith Chamberlin, "Mexican C o l o n i z a t i o n
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63
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Adventuring with Camera
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Rush, H C .
p. 201.
"Hardy Market Pioneer in San Diego," The San Dieao
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Richard F. Pourade, The History of San Dieao:
Gold in the
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Pourade, H S D . Grace L.
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Bell and Mackenzie, MWCLC. p. 301.
Rush, H C , pp.
160, 184-185.
Franklin Hichborn, "The System" as Uncovered
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James H. Barry Company, 1915), p. 6 . Bean, Boss Ruef. p. 4,
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Mowry, P, pp. 18-19, 44.
Robert Glass Cleland,
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Bulnes, Diaz, p. 242.
Latin American Division,
"Railways in Mexico," Commerce Reports (Washington, D.C.:
U n i t e d States G o v e r n m e n t Printing Office, D e p a r t m e n t of
Commerce, Report No. 175, July 27, 1918), pp. 456-457.
Ruiz, PSYC, p. 12.
John A. Kirchner, Baia California
Railways (Los Angeles:
Dawson's Book Shop, 1988).
Robert
M. Hanft, San Dieao & Arizona:
The Impossible Railroad
(Glendale:
Trans-Anglo Books, 1984); hereinafter cited as
Hanft, SD&A. Peri 6 dico Oficial. 5 de Mayo de 1908. Aguirre
Bernal, TSH. p. 163.
^
The San Dieao Union. August
Dieao Union. December 6 , 1900.
6 , 1887.
The
San
32 Carol Bowers, "Smiling.Billy:

A History of the
Boy Mayor of San Diego," Reader 16:27 (July 9, 1987).
33 "steel Laying Rushed on New Railroad," The San
Dieao U n i o n . J a nuary 1, 1910.
P a t r i c k W. O'Bannon,
"Railroad Construction in the Early Twentieth Century:
The
San Diego and A r i z o n a R a i l w a y , " Southern
California
Quarter l y LXI:3
(Fall 1979), p. 269.
Egbert Conklin
Hopkins,
"Tales
of
the
Mojave,"
The
C a l i fornians
(March/April 1988), p. 16.
Hanft, SD&A, pp. 54-55.
Ruiz,
P S Y C . p. 23, 94-99.
34 MacPhail,
"RLSD," pp. 1-28.
James A. Sandos,
"Prostitution and Drugs:
The United States Army on the
M e x i c a n - A m e r i c a n Border, 1916-1917," P a c i f i c Historical
Review XLIX:4 (November 1980), pp. 621-645; hereafter cited
as:
Sandos, "PD."
64
Martinez, Guia. p. 777.

Aguirre Bernal, TS H . p.
163.
"Cantina The Club," The San Dieao Union. January 1,
1910.
"Engages Attorney in Fight for Admission," The San
Diego Union. November 9, 1912.
"Alvarez May Lose His
Mex i c a n Land," The San Dieao U n i o n . November 9, 1912.
Arthur Ribbel, "Old West Tipplers Loved to Get Struck by
'Lightning,'" The San Dieao Union. May 31, 1987.
73.
^Martinez, Guia, pp. 832-833.

Eds., SDCD. 1910. p.
Eds., SDCD. 1916. p. 166. Aguirre Bernal, TSH, p. 138.
2 7 Alex Dreshler, "When Sounds of War Echoed Along

the Border," The San Dieao Union. September 16, 1979.
28 "Letter Reports to be Threat to Destroy SD&A
Mexican Line," The San Dieao Union. June 14, 1911.
Pourade,
HSD, Vol., p. 149.
Bob Owens, "Baja Rebellion," Reader.
February 25, 1988.
Paul Vanderwood, "Writing History with
Picture Postcards:
Revolution in Tijuana," The Journal of
San Dieao History XXXIVrl (Winter 1988), pp. 48-50.
"Three
Women Given Scare by Rebels at Tijuana," The San Dieao
Union. June 13, 1911. Eds., SDCD. 1910. p. 223.
^ p i h e r a Ramirez, HT. pp. 82-83.
"Rebels Avenge
Attack on Girl," The San Dieao Union. June 3, 1911.
"Long
Sought Murderer Said to Be with Rebels, The San Dieao
Union. June 4, 1911.
"Two More Rebels Caught, Charged with
Smuggling,"
The
San Dieao
Union.
June
7,
1911.
"Prohibition at Tijuana!,"
The San Dieao Union. June 8 ,
1911.
"75 Arrests Reported for
After Raid of Rebel Camp,"
The San Dieao Union. June 15, 1911.
"Warning," The San
Dieao U n i o n . June 24, 1911.
. 4^ Pihera Ramirez, H T . Vol. 1, p. 150.
Summers,
BDT, p. 28. Archivo General de la Nacidn, Presidenciales,
Fondo Revolucidn, Celso Vega to Gobernacidn, Ensenada, Baja
California, July 31, 1911, Exp. 427-T-7. "Federal Leader
Determined to End Reign of Anarchy Across Border," The San
Dieao Union. June 24, 1911.
"Gov. Vega Greets Chief of
Veterans," The San Dieao Union. June 27, 1911.
41 MacPhail, "RLSD," pp. 4, 15.
Pihera Ramirez,
PHBC. p. 709.
"The Vice District Closed," The San Dieao
Union. November 13, 1912.
"Spread of Social Evil; Problem
for Police," The San Dieao Union. November 12, 1912.
Janet
Sutter, "Vice Gripped Stingaree," The San Diego U n i o n ,
November 23, 1987.
Howard B. Woolston, Prostitution in the
United States (Montclair, New Jersey:
Patterson Smith,
1969), pp. 24-25. Mowry, CP., pp. 102, 299.
Richard
Hofstadter, ed., The Progressive Movement. 1900 to 1915 (New
York:
Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1986),
p.
91.
Franklin
65
Hichborn, The California Legislature of 1913 (San Francisco:

The James H. Barry Company, 1913), p. 337 ff.
Pourade, HSD
Vol., p. 178.
MacPhail "RLSD," p. 27.
"The Morals of San
Francisco," Sunset 34:5 (May 1915), pp. 853-855.
Martin J.
Schiesl, "Progressive Reform in Los Angeles under Mayor
Alexander, 1909-1913," California Historical Quarterly LIV:1
(Spring 1975), pp. 43-44. Merritt Barnes, u/Fountainhead of
Corruption':
Peter P. McDonough, Boss of San Francisco's
Underworld," California History LVIII:2 (Summer 1979), p.
144.
"La mujer y la moral social," Boletin del Archivo
General de la Nacidn, Mexico III:
3 (July-Septemher 1979),
pp. 10-11.
Bulnes, Diaz, pp. 422-423.
Albert J. Pani,
Hygiene in Mexico:
A Study of Sanitary and Educational
P r o b l e m s . Ernest L. de Gogroza, tr.,
(New York:
G.P.
Putnam's Sons, 1917), p. 179 ff.
pihera Ramirez, PHBC. p. 359.
Salazar Rovirosa,
HBC. p. 336.
Martinez, L, p. 516.
James A. Sandos,
"Northern Separatism During the Mexican Revolution:
An
Inquiry into the Role of Drug Trafficking, 1919-1920," The
Americas XLI:2 (October 1984), p. 209; hereafter cited as:
Sandos, "NSMR." Joseph Richard Werne, "Esteban Cantu y; la
soberania mexicana en Baja California," Historia Mexicana
XXX: 1 (July-September 1980), p. 15; hereafter cited as:
Werne, . "EC."
Berta Ulloa, Revolucidn Mexicana, 1910-1920
(Mexico:
Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriories, 1963), pp.
203, 223, 236, 315, 354, 378; hereafter cited as:
Ulloa,
RM.
4^ Hector Gonzalez, "The Northern District of Lower
California," in, Finis C. Farr, ed., The History of Imperial
Countv, California (Berkeley:
Elms and Frank, 1918), p.
308.
Maria Luisa Melo de Remes, jAlerta, Baja California!
(Mexico:
Editorial JUS, 1964), pp. 118, 129.
Adalberto
Walther Meade, "Caracteristicas Generales de los Regimes de
Cantu y Rodriguez," in, Pihera Ramirez, P H B C . p. 392.
Salazar Rovirosa, HEBC, pp. 330-332.
"Esteban Cantu, 1st
Baja Chief, Dies," The San Diego Union, March 16, 1966.
"Mrs. Ana Cantu," The San Diego Union, December 9, 1990.
"Bridget Cantti and Byron Wear Marriage Announcement," The
San Diego Union, July 17, 1988. Rush, H C , p.202.
"Carranza
Bars Opium from M e x i c a n Mails," The San Diego U n i o n ,
December 15, 1915.
Ulloa, RM, p. 354.
Werne, "EC," pp.
171-178.
Sandos, "NSMR," p. 210. Eugene Keith Chamberlin,
"Mexican Colonization versus American Interests in Lower
California," Pacific Historical Review XX:1 (February 1951),
p. 47.
Claire Kenamore, "The Principality of Cantu," The
Bookman - XLVI (1917), pp. 23-28.
Sandos, "NSMR," p. 208 ff.
Bell and MacKenzie, MWCLC. p. 296.
Cleland, MYB, p. 76.
Werne, "EC," p. 29.
John W. F. Dulles, Yesterday in Mexico
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961), p. 75; hereafter
66
cited as:
Dulles,
Mexico.
Edwin Lieuwen,
Mexican
Militarism (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press,
Lieuwen, Militarism.
Mark T. Gilderhus, Diplomacy and R e v o lution
(Tucson:
University of Arizona Press, 1977), pp. 76-77.
Knight,
MR,
Vol. 2, pp. 210, 217-218.
U.S. Grant IV, "A Sojourn in Baja
California, 1915," Southern California Quarterly XLV:2 (June
Grant, "1915."
Ruiz,
GR, pp.
252-257.
Governador.
Dist r i c t o Norte
del
Territorio de la Baja California, P r o v e c t o de lev de
Inaresos
(Calexico:
Shiller Printery, 1920), p. 3.
New
York Times, October'1, 1920. Rendon Parra, A H T . p. 89.
44 Editors, "The Same Old Swindles," The San Diego
Union. March 18, 1915.
"Detectives Capture Bunco Men," The
San Dieao Union. March 17, 1915.
"Army of Bunco Men Headed
for Border," The San Diego Union. March 18, 1915.
"Scores
of Bunco Men Invade Mexican Town," The San Dieao Union,
April 6 , 1916.
"Bunco Men Trap Another Victim," The San
Dieao Union. April 10, 1915.
John M. Sears, "San Diego &
Arizona Praised After Journey Over Line with Dodge," The San
Dieao Union. April 11, 1915.
"Sunday Bullfight Excursion to
Run," The San Dieao Union. April 11, 1915.
"Tijuana Mecca
of Sightseers," The San Dieao Union. April 30, 1915.
G. W.
Fairbrother, "Stories of Robberies at Tijuana Ridiculed,"
The San Dieao Union, April 26, 1915.
"Bunco Game Stories
False, Eastern Bank's Agent Finds," The San Dieao Union.
April 27, 1915.
"Blow at Tijuana Swindlers Urged by San
Diego Banker," The San Dieao U n i o n . A p r i l 11,
1915.
"Mysterious Mission Takes Mahoney North," The San Dieao
Union. April 29, 1915.
"End of Gambling in Tijuana Urged by
Mexican," The San Dieao Union, April 21, 1915.
45 Tijuana Lawless, Declaration

San Dieao Union. April 19, 1915.
4 Editors, "San Diego and the
The San Dieao Union. April 20, 1915.
of
Visitor,"
Tijuana
The
Gamblers,"
47 "Two Girls Escape White Slavery," The San Dieao

4 "Drive Bunco Men from Tijuana Police Motto," The

"Girls Seek Death to
Escape Scorn of Former Friends," The San Dieao Union. April
24, 1915.
4 ^"'Girls at Death Door'
Story
Shown
Untrue,"
The
67
50'25 Tijuana Bunco Suspects in San Diego Jail," The

"Bunco Men Depart Under
Guard of Police," The San Diego Union. April 29, 1915.
^ C h a r l e s K. Jackson, "Tijuana Grows in Popularity,"
The San Dieao Union. January 1, 1917.
Forty, SBI, pp. 3940.
"Regional Fair at Tijuana," The San Diego Union.
January 1, 1917.
"Tijuana Amusement Under New Direction,"
The San Dieao U n ion. July 1, 1917.
A photo of Elosiia
printed in: Aguirre Bernal, TS H . p. 191.
Eds., SDCD. 1916,
p. 18. Eds., SDCD. 1917. p.394.
^2 "Great Race Track at Tijuana Will Open July 4,"
The San Dieao Union. April 15, 1915.
"Tijuana Race Track
Survey Is Completed," The San Diecro Union, April 22, 1915.
"Plans for Track Across Border Laid Out," The
San Dieao
Union, October 11, 1915.
^ 2 ,iHow Promoters Expect Track to Pay," San Dieao
S u n , Novem b e r 29,
1915.
"Coffroth A r r i v e s to Talk
Business," The San Dieao Union, December 1, 1915.
Pinera
Ramirez, H T . p. 96.
Roberta Ridgely, "The Man Who Built
Tijuana, Part I," San Dieao Magazine. 19:11
(September,
1967), p. 98, hereafter cited as: Ridgely, "TMWBT."
Eds.,
SDCD. 1916. p. 681.
^ Walter Bean, Boss Ruef's San Francisco (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1974), pp. 86-87.
McGrew,
SD. p. 422.
Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part I, p. 60 ff.
"James
Coffroth Dies at Home, The San Diego Union. February 2,
1942.
"Baron Long Discovers Bigger Kick in Horses than in
Chinese Herbs," The San Dieao Union. December 15, 1931.
"Baron Long,- Agua Caliente Developer, Dies," The San Diego
Union. February 19, 1962.
Roberta Ridgely, "The Gradeur and
the Lore of the U.S. Grant," San Diego Magazine 30:8 (June,
1986),
pp.
190-191.
"Tijuana
Racing
Course
Nears
Completion," The San Dieao Union, D e c e m b e r 5,
1915.
"Concessions," The San Dieao Union, D e c e m b e r 9, 1915.
"Railways Fix Low Fares to Mexican Race Track," The San
Dieao Union. December 11, 1915.
"Trains Will Run to 2
Tijuana Terminals," The San Dieao Union, December 25, 1915.
"Many Trains on Tijuana Run," The San Dieao Union, December
31, 1915.
"Tijuana to Draw Crowd Tomorrow," The San Dieao
Union. December 4, 1915.
"Tijuana Hot Springs Opens New
Year's Eve," The San Dieao Union. December 16, 1915.
"Film
of 'Land Just Over Yonder' Finished," The San Dieao Union,
December 21, 1915.
68
55 "Two Actions Involving Tijuana Race Track Filed

in Court/" The San Diego Union. December 14, 1915.
"Tijuana
Race Track Contest Dismissed," The San Dieao Union. December
18, 1915.
"Madero Files Another Racetrack Complaint," The
San Dieao Union. December 19, 1915.
"Race Track Men Appear
in Court," The San Dieao Union. December 28, 1915.
Ulloa,
RM, p. 307.
56 "7508 Shares of Jockey Club are Given Receiver,"
The San Dieao Union. December 29, 1915.
57"Banner over Street as Racetrack Ad Banned,"
San Dieao Union. December'30, 1915.
The
58 Tijuana Racetrack Opens with Blazing Crown of

Success," The San Dieao Union. January 2, 1916.
"Sidelights
on the Races," The San Dieao U n i o n . J a nuary 2, 1915.
"Milady Fashion Out for Fun at Tijuana Races," The San Dieao
Union. January 2, 1915. C. P. Cook, "Tijuana
Course Ready
to Greet King Horse," The San Dieao Union. January 1, 1916.
J. W. Coffroth, "They're Off!," The San Dieao Union. January
1 , 1916.
^ U l l o a , R M , p. 368.
"They're Off!," Sunset 36:2
(February 1916), p. 30.
Enrique Olivares Santana, ed.,
V e n u st i a n o Carranza:
Plan
de Guadalupe.
Decretos v
Acuerdos. 1913-1917
(Mexico:
Secretaria de Gobernacion,
1981), pp. 78, 87.
60 Ridgely,
"TMWBT," Part II, p. 130.
^ A g u i r r e Bernal, TSH. pp. 178, 182.
Goodbve
^Ridgley,
"TMWBT," Part V, pp. 54-55.
63Ridgely,
"TMWBT," Part II, pp. 89, 126.
^Bonelli, B D B . p. 109.
Raymond Chandler, The Long
(New York:
Ballantine Books, 1984), p. 220 ff.
3Grant, "1915," p. 154.

Gordon Stuart, When the
Sands
of the
De s e r t Grew
Gold
(Pacific
Palisades,
California:
Stuart, 1961), p. 56.
Thomas D. Murphy, On
Sunset Highways:
A Book of Motor Rambles in California
(Boston:
The Page Company, 1915), pp. 123-124.
^^John A. Price, Tiiuana:
Urbanization in a Border
Culture (Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1973),
pp. 50-51.
Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part VIII, p. 100.
69
67 Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part III, p. 114; Ridgely,

"TMWBT," Part V, p. 54. Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part VII, p. 8 8 .
John T. Flynne, "Fiesta Parade Given Praise by

Authority," The San Dieao Union. June 26, 1917.
"Good Will
Cemented by Fiesta," The San Diego Union, June 24, 1917.
"Orders Closing Port to Enemies Expected Today," The San
Dieao Union. December 3, 1917. Mark T. Gilderhus, Diplomacy
and Revolution (Tucson:
University of Arizona, 1977), pp.
76-77.
Knight, m ,
Vol. 2, p. 217.
69- "Boundary Line Closed by New Federal Order," The
San Dieao Union. December 5, 1917.
7 Angela Moyana Pahissa,
"Resena Historica de
California y sus Repercusiones sobre Baja California," in,
Pihera Ramirez, PHBC. p. 709.
71Pihera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 1, p. 334.
CHAPTER 3
TIJUANA RISING IN THE PROHIBITION ERA
I
Tijuana vice was created by Californians evading the
mor a l i z i n g
force
acqui r e d more
of
Prohibition.
influence
in
Americans,
Tijuana
than
most
in
time,
Mexicans.
Moreover, the lion 7 s share of profits flowed back across the

border.
The
Mexican
government,
meanwhile,
enforced
its
morality laws selectively to maintain revenues derived from

border
vice
disti n c t i v e
activity.
social
This
political
structure
foreign vice and hypocrisy.
based
process
on
the
Furthermore,
created
marriage
a
of
Tijuana's growing
Mexican population demanded that their rights be recognized

over those of American monopolies.
This
chapter provides
evidence that Tijuana residents fought against vice enclaves

time after time.
Yet in the end,
Tijuana
by
situation
ordering
Mexico responded to the
territorial
authorities
to
stabilize conditions to increase illicit tourism.

II
After a decade of rebellion,
regime
ruled Mexico
social agenda.
conditions
popula r
in
exchange
classes,
pr o d u c t i v e
through military
force
and
a vague
It had vowed to improve living and working

for
prom i s i n g
identifying the vice

the
the Constitutionalist
political
to
"moralize
industry as
energies
of
support
the
the
an enemy that
M exican
from
nation"
the
by
dissipated
people.
70
The
71
government hoped that moral reforms would stimulate industry

as well
as national
pride,
suppressing illicit activity.

The
first
attempt
Venust i a n o
at moral
Carranza
who,
moralization
campaign,
bullfights,
cockfights,
In
Gover n o r
but
*1
it made
little headway
reform had come

in
which
1917,
from President
ordered
prohibited
in
the
drug
initial
trafficking,
the national lottery and other

o
gambling around Mexico City,
Chihuahua, Tabasco and Sonora.
Sonora,
Plutarco
Elias
Calles
su p p r e s s e d
-5
unlicensed liquor sales,

at the
same time,
houses
to
gambling and prostitution.
Governor Esteban
proliferate
in
Baja
Cantu
allowed pleasure
California
nothing more than a presidential scolding.
Yet,
but
suffered
One scholar has
argued that Carranza's reforms theoretically called

ideological and material regeneration of Mexico.
noted,
"in practice,
for an
"But," he
this moralizing campaign collided with
the immediate imperatives of profit and taxation ."4

Before Carranza got very far with his moral program,
rebels
from Sonora,
in 1920,
proclaimed the Plan de Agua
Prieta and seized power under the leadership of Adolfo de la

Huerta, Alvaro Obregdn and Calles, who weighed the costs of
moral legislation against the practical
national
government.
the
Initially,
presidents,
called
Sonoran
campaigns to
suppress vice
necessities
the
clique,
activity,
but
three
of the
Mexican
a dvocated
during
moral
the
1920s
they soon compromised their idealism as mounting political
72
and economic problems
overwhelmed national
central
moral
power
relaxed
laws
in
affairs .5
Tijuana
to
meet
crushing fiscal debts that confronted the nation.

Obregbn's
regime
(1920-1924)
banned
vice
yet
The
the
Publicly,
Mexico
City
issued permits in Tijuana.

Ill
In
the
border resort,
mad
rush
to
develop
lucrative
American
few people were concerned about the harm and
crime committed in the pursuit of fortune and fun.

beca m e
place
where
The
prosperity
bonanza
in
flourished
morality
sank.
border
vice
national,
territorial and local government.
Tijuana
as
pu b l i c
s upported
Yet tijuana's
town council had no power to grant permits,prohibit vice or

to
interfere w i t h
supreme
authorities.
To p r otect
the
millions of dollars in American cash that flowed to Tijuana,

Mexico
City
l i mited vice
proved
t h e m selves
trustworthy
scandalous excesses.
permits
and
c o ncessions
collected
and
to
foreigners
capable
of
who
avoiding
The territorial governor monitored the

all
taxes.
By providing Americans
with the earthly delights forbidden in their own society by

Prohibition,
Tijuana
served
as
California.
At the same time,
moral
safety
valve
it generated vital
for
capital
for Mexico with only a hint of national shame attached.

In
1920,
Tijuana's
popularity
was
ensured
when
American promoters modernized the town and finally made it

available to millions of tourists.
The town's "golden age
73
began
in earnest
as transportation
organized vice activity,
improved,
as Americans
as the U.S. banned liquor,
and as
government corruption prevailed over the border region.

January,
In
the San Diego and Arizona Railroad finally opened
transcontinental
passenger
service
through
California
and
eastern cities, and the U.S. government lifted restrictions

that had virtually closed the border since the First World
War.
Automobiles
and
airplanes
also
accessibility to American visitors.

barons"
urged closer diplomatic
countries
so that their
for
the
first
spectators
time
attended
in
the
Meanwhile,
Tijuana's
the "border
relations between the
Tijuana
from a resumption of tourism.
increased
investments
two
could benefit
Coffroth's Hip 6 dromo reopened
three
horse
years,
and
thousands
of
races.^
The
SD&A Railroad
added special San Francisco and Chicago connections but it

was
Prohibition,
above
all,
that
spurred
Tijuana's
Eig h t e e n t h
Amendment
development.
IV
On
January
16,
outlawed the production,

in the United States.
1920,
the
sale and transportation of liquor
Prohibition,
the "Great Experiment,"
benefited the saloons and distilleries around the bordertown

xn countless ways.
drinkers,
sellers,
beverages.
four
years.
Overnxght,
producers and smugglers
Tijuana's
An
. .
Txjuana became a mecca for
30 saloons
observer
of alcoholic
doubled in number
recalled
that
bars
within
paid
1,000
74
dollars
in
territorial
addition
to
federal
and
municipal
contributions. Police and liquor inspectors were hired to

prevent crime and fraud in the saloons.
P rohibition
problems
pass
when
only
smugglers
created
bribed
fiscal
Mexican
liquor t h rough the border.
Mexican
Consul
in
San
Diego,
and
diplomatic
customs
En r i q u e
estimated
agents
Ferreira/
that
to
the
Mexico
lost
millions of dollars in the first two months of Prohibition

when dealers smuggled trainloads of liquor into Tijuana to
avoid
confiscation
by
U.S.
authorities.
In
particular,
Consul Ferreira reported that Tijuana merchants brought

to
30
box-cars
January
full
of
liquor
across
and February without paying
the
fees.
border
He
25
during
asked U.S.
Customs to provide a list of liquor exported through the San

Ysidro
Port
for
comparison w i t h the
records
imports during the months in question.

reporte d
the
officials
collected
the
chief
government
were
on
tightened
fired.
the
smuggler,
Consul Ferreira also
Aldrete,
Q
offered him a 2,000 dollar bribe to forget the fraud.
As a
result
that
of Mexican
liquor
Alberto
fiscal
However,
smuggled
V.
control
and
no
duties
were
into
Tijuana
during
some
ever
the
first chaotic months of Prohibition.

As
the
year
expectation despite
progressed,
Tijuana
some political
crises.
succeeded
beyond
By April,
the
Hip6dromo had completed an excellent racing season and the

vice houses were making money as well.
President Venustiano
75
Carranza
abolished.
was
assassinated
and
his
strict
moral
code
Tijuana did not mourn the fallen "First Chief of
the Revolution."
As the President lay in state,
an eastern
news reporter described the bordertown's lively main street,

Avenida Revolucidn, as a combination of a Wild West town and
Coney Island.
The reporter said that,
"On either side is a succession of saloons, dance

halls, moving picture barns and gambling dens.
In
other places, not so largely advertised, one may
cook a pill [opium] or otherwise dally through the
lotus hours. . . . There is, naturally, in a place
like Tia Juana the tragedy [prostitution] that
ever goes hand in hand with more or less organized
license.
Occasionally you hear a whisper, but on
with the dance ."10
On
wel c o m e d
July
1,30 0
4,
Tijuana
cars.
By
hosted
day's
65,000
end,
Americans
and
tourists
had
the
consumed most of the available food and gas from Tijuana to

San Diego, and had caused isolated shortages throughout the
holiday .11
dollars
It
on the
has
been
average,
said that
then well
each visitor
over
spent
a million
20
dollars
poured into Tijuana's coffers on that one day.

Meanwhile, American reformers renewed their crusade.
San
Diego
lives
ministers
preached
and t h eir e t ernal
criticized John Spreckels,

the
most
epitomized
visible
a
class
souls
in
tourists
Tijuana,
risked
w hile
their
others
James Coffroth and Baron Long as
Tijuana
of
that
investors.
absentee
To
landlords
who
many,
they
controlled
Tijuana events from the comfort of their San Diego offices.

The
Reverend
Lincoln
Ferris
told
his
First
Methodist
76
Episcopal following that Spreckels owned the racetrack,
and
that
for
the
magnate
bore
the
greatest
responsibility
19
conditions below the border . *

When Ferris wrote his superiors
activity,
they sent two investigators below the border
the first summer of Prohibition.

for the Board of Temperance,
of
the
about Tijuana vice
Methodist
Episcopal
debauchery was rampant
investigators
Prohibition and Public Morals

Church
reported
and that Americans
were to blame.
The report said,
of prostitutes,
booze
vermin." J
In August,
in
sellers,
that
Tijuana
like Baron
Long
"The town is now the mecca
gamblers
and other American
As a result, the Board of Temperance demandeda
permanent closure of the border.
The U.S. State Department,
however,
not
replied
that
it
would
become
morals" and bar visitors from Tijuana.

Balarezo,
the
who
addressed the
Thanksgiving Day
"a
censor
of
But Governor Manuel
10,000 Americans
who
attended
opening of the Hipbdromo. said,
"The
dives and lower class amusement must g o ."14

Meanwhile,
the
boo m
town
in Tijuana, dynasties were established as
roa r e d
and
Respectable Tijuana families
local
casino
Italians,
Mexico City.
rich.
ran
expanded liquor sales and
and a brothel .15
shopkeepers prospered in an aggressive

Americans,
became
like the Savin clan still
their curio stores but they, too,

opened a backroom
families
few Tijuana
competition against
Asians and financiers
from Sonora
and
Yet the wealthiest Mexicans usually lived at
77
San Diego and they

However/
great
activist
seldom reinvested
Francisco
prosperity
ha d
in Tijuana
Rodriguez
two
said
opposite
foreigners/" according to Rodriguez,
industry.
that
Tijuana's
effects.
"The
"made a lot of money
and the Mexicans got only humiliation, hunger and misery."1

In
profited
truth,
from border
small
American
casinos,
and
saloons,
M exican
drugs
elite
or brothels.
As with all boom-towns, Tijuana produced some great fortunes

while most residents competed for menial jobs in the tourist
or pleasure
lucrative
sectors
houses
of the
while
Mexican
small share of the market.

floating
jobs,
population
housing
tourists,
and
workers,
of
economy.
Foreigners
purveyors
ran many
captured
only
The bordertown's success lured a
thousands
public
beggars,
who>
in
services.
turn,
A m ong
criminals
required
them
were
and purveyors who
became economically active in the boom-town.

During
the
first
years
of
Prohibition,
many foreigners opened liquor establishments
moreover,
in Tijuana to
cater to the flood of Americans crossing the border.

Johnson,
the
heavyweight
boxer,
ran
two
Tijuana; by 1921, he owned the Newport Bar,
night
Jack
clubs
in
which employed
and catered to Black people only, and the Main Event Bar.
Otto
Edm u n d King owned the
Lawler
the
St.
Francis
Cafe,
Sandia
W.B.
Barrel
McKnight
House,
Eugene
the
Lugar,
Mi
Jeff Wilson El Caballito, Moses Bob Davis the Honeydew Bar,

Victor Helti owned Vick's Place, John Rakich the Pullman Bar,
78
Tom Baden the Mint Bar and Charles Kinney the Los Angeles
Bar.
Other Tijuana saloons such as the American Club, Paris
Cantina,
Casino Cafe,
Tijuana Bar,
Saloon, Elite Saloon, Black Cat,
The Hollywood,
The Sonora,
Klondike
Rooney's,
Last
Chance Saloon, Mexicali Beer Garden, La Peninsula, Mini Bar,

Cantina Vernon,
Log Cabin Bar and Office Bar were likewise
under American ownership.

Charles
"Checks"
Sloan
The Midnight Follies was owned by
and by
1 ft
first Mafia godfather.
Tony
Mirabile,
San
Diego's
Europeans operated the Villa Bar,
La Misi 6n and La Flor de Italia, while Asians owned the San

Diego Bar, Palacio Real and El Mereado.
A
gambling
few
vice
houses
even
and pros t i t u t i o n
in
combined
one
liquor,
facility.
drugs,
Americans
flocked into places like The Chinaman's, the Red Mill Club,
Blue Fox or Green Mill.
Chinaman's,
was
1Q
locally recognized as the
and prostitution
in
Mill,
brothel
the
best
devastating
Japan.
Patricio Mee Hong, who owned The
Tijuana.
Soo
in
fires only to be
"czar"
Yasuhara
town,
which
owned
of drugs
the
survived
It was he who began organized baseball in Tijuana by
his Royal Palace nightclub.
owned
by
a
the
Daneri
and
Miguel Calette Anaya owned the
Blue Fox for five decades until he retired.
operated
two
closed by America's war with
forming teams of young men who worked at the Red Mill
was
Red
family
of
San
The Green Mill
Diego,
large winery before the liquor ban.
which
had
All
four
79
brothels were regulated by the district government and paid

taxes like other concessions.
The "border barons" monopolized the most successful
gambling
establishments
Tivoli, the Monte Carlo
in
Tijuana:
the
Carl Withington,
Beyer and Marvin Allen built two more
saloons
adding the Sunset Inn to the Monte Carlo

Booze's Place on Avenida Revoluci 6 n.
their
underwrite
Tijuana
ever
empire
more
the
(see- page 211) and the Foreign Club.
By 1920, James Coffroth, Baron Long,
that
Hip 6 dromo.
"netted
lavish
Frank
in Tijuana,
and then
opening
One researcher wrote

sufficient
living
by
the
income
to
free-wheeling
Border Barons."^
Each
Coffroth
of
the
handled the
"barons"
fulfilled
Hioddromo. drawing
wealthy friends who gambled at the track.

on
restaurant
operations,
since
he
had
specific
upon
role.
circle
of
Long concentrated
owned popular
Los
Angeles nightclubs frequented by the Hollywood movie colony.

Withington,
renewed
who had highly placed contacts in Mexico City,
gambling
business.
permits
Beyer was
the
and
masterminded
a d venturous
gambler
wealthy film producers like Louis B. Mayer,

and
Carl
Laemmle
to
Tijuana.
Allen
the
overall
who
lured
Joseph Schenck
bought
much
of
the
liquor dispensed in the group's establishments, though Beyer

and Long also made purchases.
These Americans had the best
operations in town.
80
During
businessmen
Prohibition/
drew criticism
personal profit.
r ichest
in
class
of
for undermining the
For example,
Mexican
new
Tijuana
Miguel
while
Gonzdlez
living
in
Me x i c a n
nation
for
became
the
San
Diego.
Through marriage to Matilde lbs, the daughter of George lbs,

Gonz&lez
i n h e r i t e d the B i g Store
Tijuana,
San Diego
and Ensenada.
w i t h A b e l a r d o Rodriguez,
curio
He was
yet he
and p r o p e r t y
childhood
in
friends
o f f e r e d Es t e b a n
Cantu
55,000 dollars to fight the central government.

In the
1920's,
Gonz&lez
usurped
power
from
the
Ensenada town council by forming a separate body called the

"Cuerpo Consultiva"
to decide civil
91
affairs. A
The
other
members of the extra-legal consultive body included Enrique

Aldrete,
Rafael
Barreiro,
empire
where
all
around
he
Cota.
Romandia,
district
his
employed
Lorenzo
Cabanas
powerbrokers.
Compania
loyal
men
Comercial
like
and
Gonz&lez
de
Luis
Baja
Marin
built
an
California,
and
Alfonso
On April 25, 1925, he and Governor Rodriguez founded
the Banco del Pacifico with offices in Tijuana.

also
Benigno
owned
the
Withington
and
Corporation.
accused
Mexicali
Ed
Before
Brewery
in partnership
Henderson,
Prohib i t i o n
of monopolizing
officers
ended,
with
Carl
the
AB W
Gonzalez
local beer production
competition from the Cerveceria de Tijuana,

Cardinale,
of
Gonz&lez
by
stood
blocking
owned by Mario
and the ABC Brewery operated by Herbert L. Jaffe
and Edward P. Baker.
He also owned La Ballena, better known
81
as the Long Bar.

Tijuana
for
(See page 214.)
barkeeper,
other
brewer
Mexicans
who
and
Gonz&lez became a wealthy
liquor
challenged
distributor a model
the
American
liquor
dealers.
The American liquor ban stimulated Tijuana and its
tourist
economy,
beverages
saloons,
below
and
the
breweries,
the .popular
border
caused
distilleries,
demand
a
for
alcoholic
construction
vineyards
boom
in
and warehouses
O O
in
the
Tijuana
area.
Mi g u e l
Gonz&lez
opera t e d
the
Mexicali Brewery; Mario Cardinale produced Cardinal Beer at

his Cerveceria de Tijuana;
Herbert
Jaffe and Ed Baker ran
the ABC Brewery and imported liquor as well.
The Red Top
Distillery was owned by a mysterious man known as Johnson,

and
John
Tecate.
Compania
Donlevy
operated
the
Mariano
Escobedo
imported
Importadora
de
Compania
Tijuana.
D estiladora
liquor
Seven
vinters
wine in the Tijuana vicinity at such places

Bodegas
of
Santo
Tomds
owned
by
through
Abelardo
de
his
produced
as the
famous
Rodriguez,
and
another winery owned by Antonio Muriia Martinez.

The
liquor
industry
around
Tijuana
represented
sizable investment that offered great potential not only for

profit, but for fraud.
Once again,
Consul Enrique Ferreira
reported problems in collecting liquor duties at Tijuana to

the
central authority.
Tijuana
Specifically,
he
found that
major
liquor importers were reducing the amount of
cargo
82
listed
on
consular manifest
certifications,
thus
lowering
tax obligations by 50 percent.

On March 7, 1922, Ferreira notified the Ministry of
Foreign Relations that the National Treasury had lost 20,000
dollars
in
single
Henderson and the Cia.
shipment.
The
consul
accused
Ed
Comercial de la Baja California S.A.
of declaring only half of a 2 1 , 000 -gallon cargo of whiskey

delivered by train to Tijuana.
eight
dollars
Ferreira
dollars
dollar
per
gallon
calculated
in
that
federal
on
the
duties
shipment.
Since Mexico fixed duties of

imported
Cia.
or
Customs
24
distilled
Comercial
percent
inspector
of
spirits,
owed
the
Manuel
40,000
168,000-
Cubillas
had
accepted only 20,000 dollars as full payment .22

In
government
the
end,
ordered
amount of taxes.
Gonzalez
and
agent
the
Cubillas
Cia.
lost
Comercial
his
to
job
and
pay
the
the
full
The company, owned by Ed Henderson, Miguel
Carl
Withington,
blamed
the
underpayment
on
confusing regulations and pleaded that the additional duties

would hurt
its business.
But,
Mexico
City
officials told
the Treasury to settle the account with the Tijuana liquor

dealership
since
local
officials
seemed unable
to
conduct
themselves properly.
In the early 1920s,
Mariano Escobedo,
other young Mexicans,
Miguel Calette Anaya,
Sirak Baloyan, Rafael Romandia,
including
Alfonso Bustamante,
Enrique Aldrete and Alberto
Aldrete also built successful businesses around one pleasure
83
industry
or
another.
Tijuana
and
derived
These
their
men
incomes
Francisco
Rodriguez,
an
Mexicans"
who
Tijuana's
slowed
prospered
activist,
from
called
and
vice
lived
activity.
these
men
industrialization,
prolonging its p o v e r t y . R o d r i g u e z ,
in
"bad
thereby
a bartender who later
became an important union organizer, also blamed the Mexican

financiers
for
le t t i n g
Tijuana
fall
into
the
hands
of
foreigners.
V
Tijuana purveyors protected their illicit affairs by
corrupting p u b l i c officials.
9c
Three governors,
Manuel
Balarezo, Epigmenio Ibarra and Jos Lugo, were removed from

office for permitting illegal gambling, liquor smuggling and
vice
activity
through
Tijuana.^
For
example,
Governor
Manuel Balarezo permitted illegal gambling at Tijuana's Last

Chance Saloon.
Yet Balarezo assured the central authority
that he had banned illegal gambling but he was still removed

by popular request.
In
Tijuana,
liquor
s m uggling
f l o u rished
Prohibition while district officials turned the

The
Comptroller
where
smugglers
Tijuana.
General
of
brought
large
In one,
that a relative
1,500
cases
ever
filed.
customs
discovered
quantities
agent Adolfo
of Governor Epigmenio
of tequila
In
Mexico
into
another
Tijuana,
case,
three
of
during
other way.
many
liquor
cases
into
Labastida
reported
Ibarra had
smuggled
but
no
federal
charges
were
agents
were
84
arrested for stealing 40,000 dollars worth of taxes from the

Tijuana customs house.
escaping
that
from
Manuel
passed
the
One was later shot and killed while
jail.
subsequent
P. Cubillas, another
contraband
liquor
investigation
Tijuana
with
revealed
customs
the
help
agent,
of
other
government employees at Mexicali.

Examples
was
of official corruption abounded when
discovered that Baron Long,
Ernesto
Yasuhara owned the smuggled liquor,
Cardinale
friend
of
the
Mexican
smuggled liquor into
President,
Tijuana
from
and
but the auditors
no evidence that would stand up in court.

Wirt
71
it
Soo
found
Furthermore,
Bowman,
regularly
aboard
San Diego
Sonora
and Arizona .trains.

Governor
Ibarra
also
support of illegal gambling.

Labastida,
drew harsh
criticism
On November 11,
a Tijuana municipal delegate,
1921,
for
his
Adolfo
informed officials
in Mexico City that Governor Ibarra was permitting illegal

games
paid
in Tijuana.^
Ibarra
12,000
conduct
banned
claimed
that
relative,
in
his
card
the
It was
dollars
games
rumored that
in b r i b e s
and
Governor
g i ven
a concession to install
Tijuana
casino.
He
Beyer had
for p e r m i s s i o n
roulette.
had
Frank
Labastida
Enrique
to
also
Torres,
37 illegal slot machines
calculated
that
each
machine
yielded at least 2,000 dollars a month in profits to Torres.

Under the terms of the agreement,
15
gold
pesos
in
municipal
taxes
Torres paid the district

and
30
gold
pesos
per
85
machine
for a total
of
about
20,000
gold pesos
per year.
Labastida said that Ibarra and Torres were equal partners in

another casino in Mexicali,
and that the Governor had links
to other illegal gambling houses as well.

The pattern of vice affected another major town in
Baja California,
that
district
begging
where
him
Ensenada.
Mexico City received petitions
residents
to
shut
poor Mexicans
had
down
the
wasted
given
to
Governor
gambling
their
halls
precious
in
Ibarra,
Ensenada
earnings.
One
resident urged Ibarra to close two illegal operations in his

town, saying "we are waiting for your government to prohibit
these
does
games which must

not
matter
but
be
not
restricted to
oq
h e r e .1'^5
Tijuana where
The .appeal
was
to
it
no
avail.
Meanwhile,
inspector,
Ildefonso C. Fuentes,
reported
that
Tijuana
an Ensenada liquor
police
officials,
court
clerks and rebel sympathizers were playing jackass poker in

public
at the
Casino
Ensenadense.
Fuentes
said that
the
Ensenada town council h a d appro v e d gambling concessions

based on the territorial
12,
1907,
and
that
the
Realamento
operators
de
Juecros
were
paying
municipal contributions of eight gold p e s o s . ^

Casino
Ensenadense belonged to
Jos
Quintero,
listed Governor Ibarra as a major investor.
of December
monthly
Although the
its
charter
The inspector
also reported that Tijuana Police Commander Jose Gil,
alias
"El Zarco," had won 250 dollars playing cards at Quintero's
86
place.
In this manner,
gambling
while
a few high officials profited from
violating
President
0breg6n's
moralization
program.
As
the
evidence mounted,
lost patience with
officials
in Mexico
Ibarra and ordered him to
City
suppress all
gambling and illicit activity in the district.
On January
11, 1922, they asked Ibarra if gambling was once again being
tolerated,
"in contravention of the expressed disposition of
this Government ."^1

law,
but
reforms
he
urged
with
municipal
Ibarra had not yet complied with the

his
superiors
consideration
freedom.
for
Meanwhile,
to
temper
district
General
their
moral
revenue
Pablo
and
Macias
padlocked the Chino Casino without orders from Ibarra. ^

On
February
1,
1922,
Jose
Inocente
Lugo
was
appointed governor and soon picked up where his predecessor

left off.
Immediately,
Lugo proposed creating a forty mile
zone across the California border where saloons and gambling

halls
would be
prohibited.^
broad
support,
the
instead,
border
dry
Although
zone
the
never
idea
received
materialized;
Lugo hampered efforts to end illegal gambling and
liquor smuggling.
When federal authorities asked for a progress report
on the Tijuana cleanup campaign,
Governor Lugo replied that
all casinos, saloons and brothels were being closed and that
moralization was proceeding with due speed.
businessmen,
political
groups and laborers
But residents,
soon complained
87
that the Governor was, in fact, protecting the gamblers and

smugglers
in
Tijuana.
In his defense,
Lugo
stated
because so much illegal vice activity existed,
that
he could not
suppress it all at once.

However,
Governor Lugo and the
rejecte d some gambling concessions,
central
authorities
approved others
and
allowed some casinos to reopen.
Examples of such favoritism
were plentiful.
on April
Orci,
For
instance,
a high politico,
asked the
1,
1922,
federal government
Tijuana gambling permit which received Lugo's

Three weeks
that
the
later,
Orci
applica t i o n
officials
request
violated
had
Juan
in Mexico
for a
endorsement.
City
informed
Lugo
rejec t e d
because
the
federal
moralization
been
o n going
R.
programs. 34
Yet,
Carl
Withington
renewed with no trouble.

governor
with
that
only
want e d
Withington's
slight
the
revisions
gambling
Tijuana renewed.
had
his
In July,
gambling
a letter notified
application
of
the
c o n c ession
The permit was
thereby revealing the special
concession
had
been
contract.
for
the
the
approved
Withington
Monte
Carlo
in
extended for five years,
relat i o n s h i p b etween
some
ranking Mexican officials and the American "border barons."

The Withington concession provided a detailed view
of the bargains
American gamblers.
and
met
the
struck be t w e e n
the
government
and
rich
The Monte Carlo conducted legal gambling
fiscal
schedule
set
in
the
agreement.
88
Withington and the ABW Corporation had to comply with the

contract,
and
they
were
also
subject
to
Mexican
law.
According to federal law, the permit would be revoked if the

corporation
behalf.
The
barons"
to
gambling
dance
asked
Withington
retire
room,
hall,
foreign
ten
percent
caf 6
to
co n c e s s i o n
in addition
saloon,
power
of
to the
and
intervene
on
a l l o w e d the
all
money
income
restaurant
its
"border
bet
in
earned
the
from the
permitted
on
the
premises. 35
Gambling
at
the
Monte
Carlo
holding 50 people at any given time;

o'clock
in the
morning
and
closed
occurred
in
room
the club opened at
at midnight.
The
only
legal games mentioned in the contract were chess,, billiards,

bowling,
dominoes,
such as poker,
slot
whist,
machines,
roulette
panguingui,
and
card
games
trecillo and ecarte.
It
was required that no individual lose more than 50 gold pesos

a day,
and that no one under 21 years of age be admitted.
Soldiers
and
uniformed
policemen
were
also
excluded
from
gambling and the interior of the room had to be visible to

patrols on the street.
The
Monte
dollars monthly
called
to
the
C a rlo
for the
casino.
owners
agreed
salaries
The
to
of police
club
had
to
allocate
and
300
inspectors
submit
to
all
appropriate inspections from government agencies as required

by
law,
and
to
deposit
a bond
of
5, 000
dollars
with
the
territorial treasurer as a fiscal guarantee to the central
89
authority.
The bond would be
forfeited if the
concession
were canceled for any of the above causes.

The
"border barons" paid 25 percent
liquid assets
to
the
territorial
of the
government/
above
beyond their federal and municipal contributions.

were made
to be broken,
Treasury.
and fines
could be
the
and
But rules
paid
into
the
Thus, the Mexican regime and the "border barons"
maintained a special relationship that

from
club's
moralization
program
while
exempted the
district
latter
authorities
were blamed for Tijuana's immoral conditions.

Lugo's
that he
administration
was
licensed illegal gambling
hampered
by
accusations
in the bordertowns.
In
February 1923, Tijuana residents protested that the Governor

was permitting Americans
violation
to
dominate
gambling activity
of federal moralization programs.
Tomcis Antuna
and
80
local
residents
in
Specifically,
petitioned
President
Alvaro Obregdn to stop illegal gambling at the Hioddromo and

the Monte Carlo.
police
chief
petitioners
few
Two
of
years
Tijuana
earlier,
when
said that business
tourists
went
beyond
the
Antuna
Ibarra
was
in town
track
governor.
was
and
had been the

The
ruined because
casino
near
the
border.
Obregdn ordered the Governor,
chief and the municipal delegate
Yet
Lugo
fortune
replied
called
that
the
to
Hipddromo
" B o o k m a k e r , " which,
the district military

answer
the
operated
in
his
complaint.
a
wheel
opinion,
of
was
90
permitted by existing laws.
or
He admitted seeing the same
machines
played legally at San Diego
and
Los Angeles beach
resorts/
but he denied responsibility for
the machines used
at Tijuana.
Days later,
Lugo wrote
another
letter to the
President, accusing his critics of being more concerned with

the casinos and brothels along Avenida Revoluci 6n than with
public morality.
vice
activities,
Lugo urged Obregdn to close all

rather
than
Tijuana
allow preferred Americans
to
hold exclusive permits for the concessions.

The Tijuana m unicipal delegate,
informed
Mexico City that
machines
operating at Monte C a r l o . T h e chief of military
operations,
illegal
rather
General
gambling
Lugo
Catarino Mesina,
Jesus
sanctioned the
Ferreira,
flourished because
"wash his hands
of this
also
the
"Bookmaker"
reported
Gover n o r
scandalous
that
would
affair"
than
conduct a moralization campaign.

The gambling scandal would not subside and Tijuana
political
opponents
used that
to
criticize
the
economic dealings with the "border barons."
Governor's
By 1923,
Tijuana chapter of the Partido Cooperatista Nacional

urged the
Mexican
situation.
government
among
February,
the
and Gregorio Castillo,
of the Tijuana party branch,
In
solve
chaotic
(PCN),
border
The PCN supported the presidential candidacy of
Adolfo de la Huerta,
struggle
to
the
local,
Castillo
vice president
offered to mediate the power
territorial
suggested
and
that
national
Tijuana
officials.
authorities
91
close
the
Monte Carlo
at
o'clock
inthe
afternoon
so
tourists could spend more time in Old Town.

But
compromise
district
leaders
ignored the
argued
fact that
the
that
Castillo's
Government
Secretary
had endorsed the concession and that local authorities could

not
modify
barons"
gambling
had
government,
permits.3
not broken
their
so there was
Furthermore,
the
"border
with
the
Mexican
cancel
it.
Agents
agreement
no reason
to
from Tijuana's Public Ministry investigated the Monte Carlo

in
the
company of
Carl
Withington
and
they
reported
no
gambling abuses or permit violations.

But Mexico City received more protests about Tijuana
casinos.
On March 2, reports of illegal gambling confirmed
that territorial authorities had failed to enforce the moral

reform program .39
that
it
had
"Bookmaker"
As usual, the federal government replied
"never
granted
machines.
permit"
However,
that
Governor
included
Lugo
cited
the
two
letters from the Government Secretary that authorized Carl

Withington
to use
Withington
was
unaltered gambling
ordered
to
close
Hioddromo casinos by month's end.
the
devices.
Monte
Meanwhile,
Carlo
and
the
Yet the gambling ban had
no impact since the racetrack had just completed its regular

season,
and tourism usually declined at
that
time
of
the
year.
But
March
10,
the
Tom^s
storm
Antuna
of
complaints
sent
another
never
subsided.
complaint
about
By
the
92
economic monopoly represented by the Hipddromo and the Monte

Carlo.
Then Rafael R. Romandia protested,
Tijuana's
many
newly
formed National
bu s i n e s s e s
bankruptcy.
could
On March
not
17,
Chamber
compete
Delegate
on behalf of the
of Commerce,
and
they
Catarino
verged
Mesina
Obregdn that popular
"indignation was manifest"
the
At
bordertown.
ambiguously,
first,
protestors
assumed
resolved,
warned
throughout
P r esident
by
Yet,
b ehaved
forming
he tried to pacify the

commission
investigate illegal casino operations.

authority
on
as if caught between his own moral policy and
his loyalty to Governor Lugo.

Mexican
the
that
that
the
empowered to
Although the central
"Bookmaker"
case
had
been
other Tijuana casinos continued to operate banned
games.
In
April,
Tom&s
Ant u n a
an d
group
of
local
bu s i n e s s m e n w a r n e d taht Tijuana m e r c h a n t s w e r e bankrupt

beca u s e
the
wild
pleasure
crossing Puente Mexico,

Town
to
the
bor d e r
houses
that
machines,
Tivoli
Bar
Mr.
over
Cicourel
card tables
on Avenida
tourists
from
the long wooden bridge linking Old

the
acknowledged that the Monte Carlo

out
scared
had
T i juana
had
moved
an d A m e r i c a n
Revolucidn
River.
closed,
the
same
card
while
but
Antuna
pointed
"Bookmaker"
dealers
banned
to
games
the
were
played at the Red Mill, the Alhambra and the Foreign Club.
The
P r esident
sent
copies
of
the
telegram
to
Governor Lugo and General Ferreira so they could determine
93
if
illegal
casinos.
gambling
At last,
defeated his
honest
was
occurring
consisted
but
of
he
one
their spokesman.
In late April,
in the border casinos,

and
only
ran
noted
general
cantinas owned largely by foreigners
permits
other
bo r d e r t o w n
Lugo admitted that illegal gambling had
administration/
commerce
in
that
Tijuana's
store
and
who employed Antuna as
Lugo stopped all gambling
but he insisted that the

legal
many
g a m e s.The
clubs had
crisis
subsided
briefly, but the period of calm lasted only a few months.

By August,
President
meanwhile,
criticizing
Tijuana
federal
workers
decision
construction of a second area racetrack.
wrote
the
to
block
For years,
Jerome
Bassity of San Francisco had tried unsuccessfully to seize

James Coffroth's Hiobdromo concession.
By 1923,
Bassity's
Monte Costa Jockey Club had started building its own track
at
Tijuana's
monument.^
beaches
just
south
However,
Mexico
of
City
the
coastal
suspended
border
construction
because the racing plant was on federal property,
and that
triggered the protest.

Gabriel
Cooperatistas
Munoz
and
the
petitioned President
Union
0breg6n
Trabajadores
to
resume
work
since 200 Mexicans had lost jobs paying over 4 dollars per
day.
It was a convincing argument because very few Tijuana
businesses
employed
so
many
Mexicans.
Nevertheless,
the
central authority refused to let Bassity put the race course

on federal lands.
Ram 6 n De Negri,
Secretary of Gobernaci 6 n,
94
told
the
President
that
the
El
Monumento
prop e r t y
was
desired by "Mexican and North American speculators who want

to
install vice
centers
like those
in
Tijuana which have
cost us so much trouble and disgust ."42
The President was
warne d that Bassity had been the
infamous
most
brothel
operator of the San Francisco's Barbary Coast and that his

plans for Tijuana were sinister.
De Negri advised Obregbn
to distribute the land among the workers rather than allow

completion of the track.
Bassity's race track was stopped/
yet the displaced workers got no satisfaction.

The Mexicans'
struggle
to
work
in
dominated economy of Tijuana had only begun.
the
Ameri c a n
By September,
Gabriel Munoz led another organization that opposed foreign

control of morality and the economy.
Comit
de
Trabajadores
As president
of the
Committee),
Munoz
(Workers'
complained that the Tivoli bar and the Foreign Club still
ran
casinos
and
that
officials
conditions
since
barons."
On September 9, the Workers'
that
the
ABW
their
local
salaries
Corporation
was
had
depended
conducting
on
lied
the
about
"border
Committee declared
illegal
gambling
from their Tijuana casinos and from the Mexicali brothel, El

Tecolote.4^
The workers
asked Obregdn to close the
because the lower classes were

Americans were taking profits,
Mexico.
losing their
savings
clubs
while
salaries and winnings out of
Munoz complained that Governor Lugo had given
the
95
ABW Corporation free rein to
"commit all the immorality it
wanted" since it paid high taxes.

Days
later,
O b regbn
decided
to
act
against
the
continued defiance of his moralization in Tijuana.
He wrote
to the
that
C o m i t 6 Trabajadores
that,
"Rest
assured
my
Executive office will take action in this case to exorcise

the
atmosphere
of
i m m o rality
and p r o s t i t u t i o n
shamelessly invaded that unfortunate region
that
has
of our country
where a spirit of wild speculation has withered all ethical

sentiment ."44
Although
Obregdn's
statement
sounded
firm,
the words rang hollow to the Tijuana workers who had heard
many such vows before.
its word,
country,
they wanted to earn decent

yet,
had made
corrupt
that
the
politicians
impossible.
action had arrived.

policy,
If we take the Worker's Committee at

livings
and the
In their
in their own
"border
minds,
the
barons"
time
for
If Obregdn should waver in his Tijuana
workers
were
determined
to
conduct
the
moralization program without his help.

On
the
Trabajadores
night
took
of
direct
September
action
12,
since
the
the
authorities had still not solved local problems.

later told the
zones
President,
of tolerance
to
"the People
close
their
in mass
doors."4^
Comit6
central
As Munoz
forced
the
Hundreds
of
Mexicans ran through the American pleasure houses on Avenida

R e v o l u c i 6 n,
hurting
d e s t roying
foreigners.
In
property
but
particular,
not
stealing
witnesses
from
or
both
96
sides of the border recalled how 50 men raided the saloon

and casino
in the
Tivoli
furniture everywhere.
bar,
A minor
Tivoli musician named Mrs.
money,
injury was
liquor
and
reported when a
Wilson broke her banjo over the
head of a riotous Mexican;

funny.
throwing
some Americans
found the
story
If the workers only wanted jobs in the resorts, they
were applying in a strange way.

Later
that
night,
the
tactic
was
repeated
in
two
other casinos before the mob moved toward the Foreign Club.
However,
the
Federal
march,
p ro p e r t y
troops
dispersed
from
from the
the
f u rther
crowd
Tijuana
and
garrison
saved
destruction.
blocked
"border
Mexican
baron"
soldiers
restored order and guarded the American businesses for three

nights until emotions calmed.
In the aftermath,
allowed
the
brothels,
Yet nothing was settled.
Munoz
casinos,
explained how the army had

saloons
resume operation almost immediately.
and
drug
dens
to
Later, he was indicted
for conspiracy but he never stood trial because the central

government granted him immunity from prosecution.
Munoz
was
f o under
of
the
In 1925,
state-controlled
Nacionalista Obrera which tried to coopt workers.

unpredi c t a b l e
the
outcome,
Tijuana
v/orkers
made
Liga
However
their
opinion known about foreign purveyors.

But Governor Lugo's
fate was sealed when he became
entangled in a "border baron scheme to stage a heavyweight

boxing championship.
In the summer of 1923, the Jockey Club
97
asked
Lugo to
permit
a Tijuana boxing
match
between
Jack
Dempsey and Harry Wills as a promotion for the Thanksgiving

Day start of the Hipddromo.
spectators
100,000
wanted
James
special
suspend
the
would be
help
Coffroth
The track owners predicted that
and
drawn
from the
Carl
to
fight,
government.
Withington
moralization
the
program
gambling fair could attract more
they
In particular,
asked
for
but
the
60
Governor
days
tourists.
so
to
that
However,
Lugo
told Coffroth and Withington that only the central authority

could permit gambling.
and
its
fiscal
But he
agreed to present the plan
incentives
to
his
his
the
superiors
for
their
consideration.
True
to
Dempsey-Wills
scheme
Mexico City.4
over 200,000
to
the
Governor
appropriate
s u bmitted
higher
the
power,
in
Lugo explained how the fight could generate
dollars
Inter-C a l i f o r n i a
suggested that
word,
in taxes,
Railroad
enough money to extend the
to
the
Sea
of
C o r t 6 s.
He
the Jockey Club would pay 200,000 dollars to
the territory in addition to the usual federal and municipal

contributions.
In addition, the "border barons" offered the
federal government 10 percent of the gross income from the

boxing match.
Lugo calculated that a gambling fair limited
to only 30 days could produce 300,000 dollars for the needed

delta
people
railway.
who
activity.
Lugo
urged
enclo s e d
prag m a t i c
letters
regulation
In one letter, Arturo del Toro,
from
of
influential
border
vice
a financier from
98
Mexico
City,
wrote
that
reforming
Tijuana
would
not
end
liquor sales, gambling or prostitution, as was proven by the

failure
of American
Prohibition.
adequate regulation
Rather,
as the only practical
Del
Toro
solution
urged
to
the
border dilemma.
Del Toro praised Coffroth and Withington since they
provided honest fun to a select class of tourists,
claimed that both
Tijuana
foreign visitors.
having
been
the
To
and San Diego
underscore
guest
of
his
Admiral
were
point,
Wells
and
and he
enriched by
he
mentioned
U.S.
Senator
Henry F. Ashurst for a day at the races and the Monte Carlo.
Admiral Wells commanded the 11th Naval District in San Diego
and
the
Senator
had
calling
for
U.S.
Mexico.
The party enjoyed its
liquor
the
written
several
p u r chase
from the ample
tables
of
congressional
Baja
Ca l i f o r n i a
fill of gambling,
of the
bills
from
food and
hospitable
"border
barons."
Meanwhile,
the
Dempsey-Wills
scheme
stirred
excitement and concern from Mexico City to the border.
As
usual, the Jockey Club announced the fight and gambling fair
to the press so public interest could pressure the Mexican
government
the
b ox i n g
into approval.
scheme
as
In
fact,
a publ i c i t y
forthcoming racing season.
James
stunt
never
depend
on
to
staged
promote
his
But 0breg6n rejected the scheme
since, in his words, he "believed that

should
Coffroth
speculation
[Mexico's] prosperity
in
vices
of
this
99
nature /"47
ordering the
ideas because
honor.
In
it
governor to
raised doubts
the
end,
the
stop encouraging
about
the
Dempsey-Wills
such
administration's
fight
in
Tijuana
never occurred.
However,
an American gambler named Wirt Bowman took
the Tijuana gambling scheme seriously.
During his colorful
life, Bowman had panned Klondike gold and managed Guggenheim

mines in Arizona.
One
San Diegan who remembered him well

AQ
said that Bowman "xâs from Nogales."
Most important, he
had endeared himself to the Sonora clique by smuggling guns

to them during their battles with Pancho Villa.
Regarding
Tijuana
Fernando
gambling,
Torreblanca,
Jockey
the
Club
Bowman
asked
P resident's
gambling
event
his
friend,
secretary,
was
true.
if
the
Bowman
rumored
wanted
gambling permit if any were to be issued.

But
bungling,
office.
the
federal
government,
as in the Dempsey-Wills
scheme,
t i red
of
Lugo's
removed him from
The former governor became a convenient scapegoat
for Tijuana's failed moralization while the "border barons"

went unpunished and their concessions were continued.
Sonona clique,
thereby,
The
proved itself ambivalent toward the
moral reforms it proclaimed.

VI
With Prohibition,
prosperous Tijuana was faced with
political and social chaos.

moral catastrophe.
Corruption and fraud threatened
The "border barons" monopolized the best
100
liquor, gambling and tourist operations.

to Mexico
City that
Mexicans
It did not matter
could not
homeland against foreign purveyors.
compete
By 1925,
in their
vice activity
flourished in Tijuana despite moral reforms, labor struggles

and political violence.
In the
1920s,
Tijuana was
torn between
the
proven
rewards of an illicit bonanza versus the idealistic promises

of moral reform.
at
hand,
or
u n certa i n
so
It was easier to seize the opportunities

it
seemed
M e xican
dream.
at
the
time,
The
than
"barons"
to
await
made
an
Tijuana
dependent upon their generosity but the business wore them

out.
With
r eplace d
change
the
old
all
about,
"barons"
an d
prosperity and moral bankruptcy.

abandoned Tijuana's hopeless
aggressive
they
led
new
the
foreigners
town
into
Mexican leaders eventually
reform
since America's
liquor
ban provided an economic miracle.
101
ENDNOTES
^ Francisco Bulnes, The Whole Truth About Mexico:
President Wilson's Responsibility. Dora Scott, tr.,
(New
York:
M. Bulnes Book Company, 1916), p. 301; hereafter
cited as: Bulnes, Truth.
Secretaria de Gobernacidn, V e n u s t i a n o Carranza
(Mexico:
Talleres Gr 6 ficos de la Naci 6 n, 1981), p. 107.
F rancisco Jos 6 Mtigica,
Hechos.
no palabras
(Mexico:
Programa Enducativos, 1982), Vol. 2, pp. 170-172.
Leonardo
Pasquel, Carranza en Veracruz en 1915 (Mexico:
Editorial
Citlaltepetl, 1976), pp. 18-19.
Douglas W. Richmond,
"Carranza:
The A u t h o r i t a r i a n Popul i s t as Nationalist
President," in, George Wolfskill and Douglas W. Richmond,
e d s ., Essays on the Mexican Revolution:
Revisionist Views
of the Leaders (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1979),
p. 63.
Robert G. Cleland, Mexican Year Book. 1920-21 (Los
Angeles:
Mexican Year Book Publishing Company, 1922), p.
156; hereafter cited as: Cleland, M Y B . Ram 6 n Eduardo Ruiz,
The Great Rebellion:
Mexico. 1905-1924 (New York:
W.W.
Norton & Company, 1980), p. 155 ff; hereafter cited as:
Ruiz, G R .
3
J El Caballero Puck, "Calles, maestro de escuela,"

El Universal Illustrado. November 20,
1924, reprinted in
Boletin del Archivo General de la Nacion. Tercera Series:
Vol. 3, No. 4 (October 1979), p. 8 .
Editors,
"Los
Propositos Moralizadores del General Calles," La Prensa (San
Antonio) Febru a r y 17, 1926.
Gruening, M e x i c o , p. 318.
Fernando Medina Ruiz, Calles:
Un D e s t i n o Melc a n c 6 1 i c o
(Mexico:
Editorial JUS, S.A., 1960), p. 25.
Antonio G.
Rivera, La Revolucion en Sonora (Mexico:
Imprenta Arana,
1969), pp. 454-455.
Oscar J. Martinez, Border Boom Town:
Ciudad Juctrez Since 1848 (Austin:
Uni v e r s i t y of Texas
Press, 1978), p. 53; hereafter cited as:
Martinez, Juarez.
Albert L. Michaels, Mexican Politics and Nationalism from
Calles to Cardenas
(University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D.
Dissertation, 1966), p. 59. Ruiz, G R . p. 417.
^ Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution (2 Volumes,
Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1986), Vol. I, pp.
4 62-463; hereafter cited as: Knight, M R .
^ "Mexico to End Gaming; Dry Strip on Border," New
York Times. August 9, 1920.
Dulles, Mex i c o , p. 60. Gustavo
Casasola, Seis Siqlos de Historia Grafica de Mexico. 13251925. 6 Vols. (Mexico:
Editorial Gustavo Casasola, S.A.,
1971), Vol. IV, p. 2504; hereafter cited as:
Casasola, H G M .
102
^ "Coffroth Signs 10-Year Racing Concession," The

San Diego Union. December 8 , 1920.
John A. Price, Tiiuana:
Urbanization in a Border Culture (Notre Dame: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1973), p. 54; hereafter cited as:
Price,
Tiiuana. Roberta Ridgely, "The Man Who Built Tijuana, Part
VIII," San Diego Magazine. 19:11 (September, 1967), p. 116,
hereafter cited as:
Ridgely, "TMWBT."
Ovid Demaris, Poso
del Mundo (New York: Pocket Books, 1971), p. 119; hereafter
cited as: Demaris, Poso.
n
Celso Aguirre Bernal, Tiiuana:

Su Historia - Sus
Hombres (Mexico:
n.p., 1975), p. 187; hereafter cited as:
Aguirre Bernal, TSH.
Ricardo Romero Aceves, Horizontes
Ba-iacalifornianos (Tijuana:
"El Mexicano," 1966), p. 124.
Alfonso Salazar Rovirosa, Historia del Estado de Baia
California:
De 1500 a 1980 (Mexico:
Ediciones Econdmicas,
Salazar Rovirosa,
HEBC.
Wendell E. Harmon, "The Bootlegger Era in Southern
California,"
Southern
California
Quarterly. XXXVII:4
(December 1955), p. 336.
Demaris, Poso, p. 18.
Price,
Tiiuana.
p.
52.
R o berta
Ridgely,
"Tijuana,
1920:
Prohibition Pops the Cork," San Diego Magazine. 19:7 (May
1967), p. 115.
Leonard
Rottman,
Oral
H i s t o r y . San
Diego
Historical Society, June 18, 1972, p. 8 .
Q
Ârchivo General de la Nacidn, Presidenciales, Fondo
Obregdn-Calles, Enrique Ferreira to Alvaro Obregdn, San
Diego, California,
September 23, 1921, Exp.
429-S-7;
hereafter cited as: AGN, OC.
^Stephen Chalmers, "The Drought and Tia Juana:
A
Picture .of the Wide-Open Boom Town Sixteen Miles South of
San Diego Over the Mexican Border," New York Times. June 6 ,
1920.
^David Pihera Ramirez, ed., Historia de Tiiuana, 2
vols. (Tijuana: Centro de Investigaciones Histdricas, UNAMUABC, 1989), Vol. 1, p. 99; hereafter cited as:
Pihera
Ramirez, H T .
^Lincoln A. Ferris to Alvaro Obregdn, San Diego,
California, March 9, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-7-7.
Ridgely,
"TMWBT," Part V, p. 54.
Clarence A. McGrew, Citv of San
Diego and Countv of San Diego. 2 vols.(Chicago and New
York:
American Historical Society, 1922), Vol. I, pp. 329330; hereafter cited as:
McGrew, D.
Elizabeth C.
MacPhail, "When the Red Lights Went Out in San Diego," The
Journal of San Diego History XX:2 (Spring, 1974), p. 15;
hereafter cited as: MacPhail, "RLSD."
"Genevieve Crabtree,
100, Dies ,11 The San Diego Union. December 12, 1986.
103
-1
"3
Tia Juana:
14/ 1920.
"Methodist Temperance Board Would Bar Travel to

Shocked Conditions/" New York Times. September
14L.M.F.,
"Happy Crowd Packs Tijuana
Opening/" The San Diego Union. November 26, 1920.
For
Race
Joaquin Aguilar Robles, Frontera Norte:

Memorias
de un detective (Mexico: Costa-Amic, 1984), p. 75. Cudahy,
Mananaland, pp. 35-36.
Hern^n de la Roca, Tiiuana In:
Novela (Mexico:
Editorial CVLTVRA, 1932), p. 60.
Olga
Vicenta Diaz Castro, N a rraciones v Levendas- de Tiiuana
(Tijuana:
Editorial IBO-Cali, 1973).
Guillermo Durante de
Cabarga, Abelardo L. Rodriguez:
El Hombre de la Hora
(Mexico:
Ediciones Botas, 1933), p. 18.
Joe Knefler,
"Those Good, Old Corrupt P r o h i b i t i o n D a y s , " San Diecro
Magazine. 6:1 (March-April 1953), p. 40.
Herbert Lockwood,
Skeleton Closet (San Diego:
Bailey & Associates, 1973),
Vol. I, p. 115.
B r aulio Maldonado, Baia California:
Comentarios Politicos
(Mexico:
Editorial B. Costa-Amic,
Maldonado, BC.
Pablo L.
Martinez, A History of Lower California. Ethel Duffy Turner,
tr., (Mexico:
Editorial Baja California, 1960), p. 521;
hereafter cited as:
Martinez, LC.
Martinez, Juarez, pp.
51, 16.
Clifford Alan Perkins, Border Patrol (El Paso:
Texas Western Press, 1978), p. 83.
Pihera Ramirez, H T . pp.
100-108. Josefina Rendon Parra, A p untes Historicos de
Tiiuana (Tijuana:
Papeleria del Noroeste, S.A., 1972), p.
93;
hereafter cited as:
Rendon Parra, A H T .
Richard
Rodriguez, "Across the Borders of History:
Tijuana and San
Diego Exchange Futures," Harper* s Magazine. 274:1642 (March
1987), p. 45.
Leonard Rottman, Oral History. San Diego
Historical Society, June 18, 1972, p. 14.
Wulfrano Ruiz
Gonz&lez, Por Fin Habla Buchito Sobre la Zona . Libre
(Tijuana:
Imprenta de la Paz, 1988), p. 50; hereafter cited
as:
Ruiz, Buchito.
Antonio Zavala Abascal, Las Misiones
Dominicas. el Turismo v la Levenda Negra de Tiiuana v de
Baia California (Mexico: Ediciones Postal-mex, 1964), p. 8.
^Francisco M. Rodriguez, Baco v Biri&n:
Una
historia sangrante v dolorosa de lo gue fue v lo oue es
Tiiuana (Mexico:
B. Costa-Amic, 1968), Tomo I, p. 23;
hereafter cited as: Rodriguez, Baco. Jorge Bustamante, "La
Economia
de
la
Front e r a
Norte:
Mexicanizaci6n
o
Agringamiento," History Department Lecture, UCSD, February
17, 1987.
Eileen Jackson, "'Grito de Independencia' Echos
Across the Border," The San Diego Union. September 16, 1962.
Price, Tiiuana. p. 16.
Economic Research Bureau, The Baia
California-San Diego Countv Lickaoe (San Diego:
Chamber of
Commerce, 1978) p. 2.
Baldermar de Murguia, Capital Flight
and Economic Crisis:
Mexican Post-Devaluation Exiles in a
California Community (La Jolla:
Center for U.S.-Mexican
104
Studies, R e s e a r c h Report Series # 44, 1986),

p. 13.
Lawrence A. Herzog, "Mexico's Transplanted Millionaires,"
Los Anaeles Times. October 16, 1988.
Carol Olten, "Benefit
Tour Features Four of the Finest Homes in Tijuana," The San
Diego Union. May 21, 1989.
17
x Leonard
Rottman,
Oral
History.
Historical Society, June 18, 1972, p. 9.
San
Diego
^Ruiz, B u c h i t o . p. 15.
D o u g P o r t e r and Ric
Reynolds, "A Peek At San Diego's Syndicate," Door 5:10
(December 6, 1973).- Homer Clance, "Bompensiero Moved Into
Top Mafia Post Here In 1960," The San Dieao Union. February
14, 1977.
1TJos Estrada Lzaro,
"Veinte Ahos del Deporte
Tijuanense," in, Pihera Ramirez, H T . Vol. 2, pp. 195-197.
"Otay Winery and Distillery," The San Dieao Union. January
1, 1910.
Pihera Ramirez, H T . p. 108.
John A. Price, ed.,
Tiiuana '68:
Ethnographic Notes on a Mexican Border Citv
(San Diego:
Mimeograph, 1968), p. 20.
Rodriguez, Baco. pp.
62-63.
Ruiz, Buchito. p. 285.
Salazar Rovirosa, HBC. p.
356.
20 Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part VIII, p. 100.
."Carl
Withington," The San Dieao U n ion. October 24, 1925.
"Frank
B. Beyer," The San Dieao Union. February 16, 1931.
Thomas
N. Gwynne, "Marvin Allen," The San Dieao Union. February 7,
1933.
"Coffroth's Estate," The San Dieao Union. February
17, 1943.
"Baron Long, Agua Caliente Developer, Dies," The
San Dieao Union. February 19, 1962.
Dial Torgerson, "Former
President of Mexico Gen. Rodriguez Dies in La Jolla," Los
Anaeles Times. February 14, 1967.
Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part
VI, p. 46.
0*1
Adolfo Labastida to Alvaro Obreg6n, Tijuana, Baja

California, November 8, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7. Miguel
Gonz&lez, Mexico, April 11, 1924, AGN, OC 425-T-7.
Alvaro
Obregdn to Miguel Gonzctlez, Mexico, April 11, 1924, AGN, OC,
425-T-7.
Miguel Gonz&lez to Alvaro Obreg6n, Tijuana, Baja
California, April 15, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
"La Junta
Consultiva del Comerica y de la Industria y M. Gonzalez," El
Heraldo de Mexico. October 5, 1932, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
22 Adolfo Labastida to Alvaro Obreg6n, Tijuana, Baja
California, November 8, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Ridgely,
"TMWBT," Part V, p. 55.
Pihera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 1, pp.
102-104.
Ruiz, B u c h i t o . pp. 15-16.
Francisco Sanchez
Gonzalez, Obra Economica v Social del General del Divisidn
Abelard o L. Rodriguez (Mexico:
Editorial Helio-Mexico,
Sanchez, Rodriquez.
105
22 Enrique Ferreira to Alberto Pani, San Diego,

California, M a r c h 7, 1922, AGN, OC, 429-S-7.
Enrique
Ferreira to Alvaro Obregdn, San Diego, California, March
22, 1922, AGN, OC, 429-S-7.
Manuel Padr6s to Fernando
Torreblanca, Mexico, May 20, 1922, AGN, OC, 429-S-7.
Compania Comercial to Alvaro 0breg6n, Calexico, California,
July 20, 1922, AGN, ON, 429-S-7.
2 4 Rodriguez, Baco. p. 50.
Francisco M. Rodriguez,
"Mi t e s t a m e n t o , " Zeta 765 (November 25, 1988).
Jorge
Bustamante, "Surgimiento de la Colonia Libertad," in, Pihera
Ramirez, H T . Vol. 1, pp. 321-322.
23 Alvaro Obregdn to Abelardo Rodriguez, Mexico,
January 4, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Salazar Rovirosa, H B C .
p. 346.
Manuel B a l a r e z o to Alvaro Obregdn, Calexico,
California, February 3,
1921,
AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro
Obregon to Eigmenio Ibarra, Mexico, August, 29, 1921, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Epigmenio Ibarra to Alvaro Obregdn, Mexicali,
Baja California, S e p t e mb e r 14, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
E pigmenio
Ibarro
to A l v a r o
Obregdn, Mexicali,
Baja
California, December 13, 1921,
AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro
Obregdn to Gral. Pablo Macias, Mexico, January 11, 1922,
AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Jos6 Lugo to Alvaro 0breg6n, Mexicali,
Baja California, F e b r u a r y 15, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Plutarco Elias Calles to Alvaro Obreg6n, Mexico, March 3,
1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Clyde Siler to Alvaro Obregdn,
Corning, California, March 11, 1922, AGN, OC,, 425-T-7.
P lutarco Elias
Calles
to Jos Lugo, Mexicali,
Baja
California, May 22, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Manuel Gonz&lez
and Ramdn V i l l a r i n o to A l v a r o Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja
California, June 6, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Jos Lugo to
Alvaro Obregdn, Mexicali, Baja California, July 9, 1922.
Plutarco Elias Calles to Jos6 Lugo, Mexico, July 28, 1922,
AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Enrique Ferreira to Alvaro Obregdn, San
Diego, California, March 14 and April 14, 1923, AGN, OC,
425-T-7.
2 Juan Rios, et al., to Alvaro Obreg6n, San Diego,
California, December
26, 1920, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Manuel
Balarezo to Alvaro Obregdn, Calexico, California, February
3, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Adolfo Labastida to Alvaro
Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California, November 11, 1921, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Also see:
AGN, OC, 428-C-l.
Alvaro Obregdn
to Epigmenio Ibarra, Mexico, August 29, 1921, AGN, OC, 425T-7.
Epigmenio Ibarra to Alvaro Obregdn, Mexicali, Baja
California, September 14, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
2Ênrique Ferreira to Alvaro Obregdn, San Diego,
California, September 23, 1921, AGN, OC, 429-S-7.
Adolfo
Labastida to Alvaro Obregdn,
Tijuana, Baja California,
106
December 8, 1921, AGN, OC, 429-S-7.

Fernando Torreblanca, Mexico, March 19,
S-7.
Flavio B6rquez to
1922, AGN, OC, 429-
2 Adolfo Labastida to Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja

California, November 11, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
2 Manuel Perez to Epigmenio Ibarra, Ensenada,
California, December 5, 1921, AGN, OC 425-T-7.
Baja
2 Ildefonso
C.
Fuentes
to
Epigmenio
Ibarra,
Ensenada, Baja California, December 4, -1921, AGN, OC, 425-T7.
David Zarate to Epigmenio Ibarra, Ensenada, Baja
California, December 5, 1921, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Ruiz,
Buchito. p. 51.
21Alv a r o Obregdn to E p igmenio
January 11, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Ibarra,
22 Plutarco Elias Calles to Alvaro Obreg6n,

March 3, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Mexico,
Mxico,
22
Jos Lugo to Alvaro Obreg6n, Mexicali, Baja
California, February 15, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Gral.
Pablo
E.
Macias
to Alvaro
Obreg6n,
Mexicali,
Baja
California, March 8, 1922.
24Gilberto Valenzuela
27, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
to
Jos6
Lugo,
Mexico,
April
Gilberto Valenzuela to Jos6 Lugo, Mexico, July

28, 1922, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
John W. F. Dulles, Yesterday in
Mexico (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1961), p. 321.
Robert F. Smith, The United States and_ Revolutionary
Nationalism in Mexico. 1916-1932 (Chicago: ' University of
Chicago, 1972), p. 27.
2 ^Tom&s V. Antuna to Alvaro Obregdn, San Diego,
Jose Lugo
to Alvaro Obreg6n, Mexicali, Baja California, February 11,
1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Jos6 Lugo to Alvaro Obregdn,
Mexicali, Baja California, February 13, 1923, AGN, OC, 425T-7.
^7Catarino G. Mesina to Alvaro Obreg6n, Tijuana,
Baja California, February 12, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
General Jesus M. Ferreira to Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja
107
*50
JO Gregorio Castillo to Jos Lugo, Tijuana, Baja

Alvaro
Obregdn to Gregorio Castillo, Mexico, February 10, 1923,
AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Jos6 Lugo to Alvaro Obregbn, Mexicali,
Gral.
Jesus Ferreira to Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California,
February 15, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Gregorio Castillo to
Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California, February 17, 1923,
AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Jos6 Lugo to Alvaro Obreg6n, Mexicali,
Tomeis
Antuna to Alvaro Obregdn, San Diego, California, February
18,
1923, -AGN, OC,
425-T-7.
Catarino Mesina
to Alvaro
Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California, February 25, 1923, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Casasola, HGM, p. 2376.
on
Alvaro Obregdn to
Jos Lugo, Mexico,
March 2,
1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Catarino Mesina to Alvaro Obregbn,
San Diego, California,
March 7, 1923, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Tomds Antuna to Alvaro 0breg6n, San Diego, California, March
10, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Jose Lugo to Alvaro Obregbn,
Mexicali, Baja California, March 10, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Rafael R. Romandia to Alvaro Obreg6n, San Diego, California,
March
11, 1923, AGN, OC,
425-T-7.
Enrique Ferreira to
Alvaro Obregbn, San Diego, California, March 14, 1923, AGN,
OC, 425-5-7.
Toiticis A n t u n a to Alvaro Obreg6n, San Diego,
California, April 12,
1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro
Obregbn to Jose Lugo, Mexico, April 13, 1923, AGN, OC, 425T-7.
Alvaro Obreg6n to Gral. Jesus M. Ferreira, Mexico,
April 13,
1923, AGN, OC,
425-T-7.
Jose Lugo to Alvaro
Obregbn, Mexicali, Baja California, April 14, 1923.
Gral.
Jesus M. Ferreira to Alvaro Obregbn, San Diego, California,
April 16, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
41 Ram6n P. de Negri to Alvaro Obregdn, Mxico,
August
18, 1923, AGN, OC, 818-L-85.
Alfred G.B. Hart to
Alvaro Obregbn, Mexico,
July 7, 1924, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Florencio E. Monteverde to Plutarco Elias Calles, San Diego,
California, May 7, 1925,
AGN, OC, 818-L-85.
See AGN, OC,
806-T-2 and 219-B-4.
Pauline Jacobson, "Jerome Bassity, A
Study in Depravity," San Francisco Bulletin, May 14, 1910.
"Jerome A. Bassity," The San Diego Union. August 15, 1929.
Herbert Asbury, The Barbarv Coast:
An Informal History of
the San Francisco Underworld (New York:
Alfred A. Knopf,
1933), p. 239. Roberta Ridgely, "The Man Who Built Tijuana,
Part V , San Diego Magazine. 19:11 (September, 1967), p. 116
and Part VIII, p. 143, h e reafter cited as:
Ridgely,
"TMWBT.
Pihera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 1, p. 97.
108
^
Gabriel C. Munoz to Alvaro 0breg6n, Tijuana,
Baja California,
August 9, 1923, AGN, OC, 818-L-85; Alfredo
Argiielles to A l varo Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California,
Augsut 12, 1923, AGN, OC, 818-L-85.
Rom6n P. De Negri to
Alvaro Obregdn, Mexico, August 18, 1923, AGN, OC, 818-L-85.
Gabriel C. Munoz to Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja
California, September 8, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Gabriel C.
Munoz to Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California, September
13, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
44A l v s r o Obregdn to Comit6 Trabajadores,
September 10, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Mexico,
^ F r a n c i s c o M. Rodriguez, Baco v Biridn:

Una
historia sanorante v dolorosa de lo crue fue v lo crue es
Tiiuana (Mexico:
B. Costa-Amic, 1968), Tomo I, p. 22;
hereafter cited as:
Rodriguez, B a c o .
Gabriel Munoz to
Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California, Sept e m b e r 13,
1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
"Tijuana Quiet Folowing Raid on
Gaming House," The San Dieao Union. September 13, 1923.
Alvaro Obregdn to Gral. Jesus M. Ferreira, Mexico, September
14, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Gral. Jesus M. Ferreira to
Alvaro Obregdn, Mexicali, Baja California, September 19,
1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-Y. Alvaro Obregdn to Gral. Jesus M.
Ferreira, September 20,1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Gabriel
Munoz to Alvaro Obregdn, Tijuana, Baja California, April 30,
1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro Obregdn to E. Elhumeau,
Mexico, May 1, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro Obregdn to
Gabriel Munoz, Mexico, May 7, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
John
A. Price, Tiiuana:
Urbanization in a Border Culture (Notre
Dame:
U n i v e r s i t y of Notre Dame Press, 1973),
p. 55;
hereafter cited as:
Price, Tiiuana. Rigely, "TMWBT," Part
VII, p. 111.
See: AGN, OC, 407B-3.
4^Jose Lugo to Plutarco Elias Calles, Mexicali, Baja
California, August 9, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Arturo del
Toro to Jos Lugo, San Diego, California, March 22, 1923,
AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
^ W . G. Bowman to Fernando Torreblanca, Calexico,
California, August
30, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Plutarco
Elias Calles to Alvaro Obregdn, Hacienda Soledad de la Mota,
Nuevo Leon, August
31, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Fernando
Torreblanca to W. G. Bowman, Mexico, September 5, 1923, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro Obregdn to Jose Lugo, Mexico, September
19, 1923, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro Obreg6n to Abelardo
Rodriguez, Irapuato, Guanajuato, December 27, 1923, AGN, OC,
425-T-7.
109
"Death Ends Colorful Life of Border Plea s u r e

Prince/" The San Dieao Union. October 24, 1925.
Thomas N.
Gwynne, "Marvin Allen," The San Diego Union, February 7,
1933.
Leonard Rottman, Oral History. San Diego Historical
Society, June 18, 1972, p. 7.
Bob Owens, "Caliente!"
Reader 12:28 (July 21, 1983), pp. 15-16.
Ridgely, "TMWBT,"
Part IX, p. 87, and Part X, pp. 106-108.
C H A PTER 4
THE ECONOMIC MIRACLE OF GOVERNOR RODRIGUEZ

I
Governor Abelando Rodriguez
economic
miracle
while
development schemes.
he
expanded
(1923-1929)
suppressing
all
achieved an
opposition
to
his
While he started many new industries,
rather
than
closed
border
vice
activity.
Rodriguez joined in the profits of the "border barons."

1927,
Mexico
City
allowed
the
Governor
and
his
In
American
partners to construct the luxurious Agua Caliente resort to

accommodate
soared,
more
Agua
tourists.
Caliente
(See
became
page
203.)
Tijuana's
As
salvation
profits
and
its
curse.
II
In the 1920s,
assuming
that
wanted reform.
with
federal
those
Mexico's moralization came to naught,

with
authority
over
approval.
Changes
in
furthermore,
revenues
collected
from
pleasure
Mexico's
social
change
depended
and
since
funds
were
and wild Tijuana
morality in Mexico.
moral i t y
were
also
destructive to vital
houses.
on
The
scarce
required
future of moral change looked bleak.

Rodriguez
actually
It was known that Rodriguez regulated vice
expensive to enforce and,
resources,
Tijuana
for
fate
of
financial
reform
the
So, in American minds,
came to
symbolize the
state of
(See page 213.)
But nothing
could be
further from the truth.

110
I ll
Gradually,
were
their
Tiiuanenses
community
tourism.
asserted
interests
For different
ahead
reasons,
what
of
they
foreign
Tijuana
labor,
thought
vice
and
policital
and business groups criticized American purveyors and their

Mexican partners
as enemies of Mexico
and its
Despite humanitarian or selfish ambitions,

political
groups battled the ruling
Revolution.
trade unions and
elite
and
the
"border
barons" who provided Tijuana with its meager livelihood.

Ill
A lv a r o
trusted
Obregdn,
General
meanwhile,
Rodriguez
back
ha d
to
transferred
Baja
his
California.
Rodriguez achieved success despite his humble origins;

father,
moved
Nicolas
to
Rodriguez,
Sinaloa
and
was
then
miner
to Guaymas,
from
Sonora,
his
Durango who
where
he
married Petra Luj&n and raised a family of eleven children.

Although one biographer described the family as honest and
poor,
they
standards.
were
considered
middle
class
by
regional
On May 12, 1889, Abelardo Rodriguez was born at
the Villa
de
San
Jos
de
Guaymas.
school in the bordertown of Nogales,

boxing and baseball.^
He
finished
primary
where he also learned
By age 17, he worked at the Cananea
Copper Company in the aftermath of the historic mineworkers'

strike.
Two
California,
years
where he
later,
earned
he m i g r a t e d
12
dollars
to
Los
a week
Angeles,
in an
iron
factory to help pay for singing lessons.
112
Rodriguez
and
had a reputed passion
loose women,
dissipate the
Angeles.
and found
insecurity
It was
English;
Jos
at
for hard
"many types
of distractions to
and loneliness"
this
time
Vasconcelos
that
argued
drinking
of living
he
that
learned
he
in Los
to
"spoke
speak
English
badly,
but
Spanish
times.
Each of his wives was upper class and at least part
Anglo-American.
even
worse."J
He
was
married
three
Rodriguez was an enigmatic product of the
Mexican-American
borderlands,
retaining
investments,
relatives and friends on both sides of the border.

was the chaotic political
and military situation
But it
in Mexico
that gave him the chance to change his destiny.

Rodriguez,
Los
Angeles
and
an apolitical
returned to
youth,
Mexico
became
and joined
Rebellion" in search of adventure and fortune.

settled
in
Nogales,
appointed him police

lieutenant's
subsequently
promoted
campaigns.
by
He was
A
in
friend
year
the
Alvaro
Empalme,
Aguascalientes,
his
chief.
com m i s s i o n
such as La Bomba,
Le6n,
where
rebel
Obregdn
Prieta
eventually awarded the
"Great
received
and
major
La
was
battles
Trinidad,
and
rank
he
Legaspy
army
at
with
In 1912,
he
Celaya,
Agua
the
Antonio
later,
Culiac&n,
Saltillo,
bored
the
Yaqui
of colonel
and given command of the Second Infantry Brigade in Sonora.

On April 23, 1920, Rodriguez signed the Plan de Agua
Prieta
and
joined
Venustiano Carranza.
the
successful
A month later,
rebe l l i o n
against
he became a brigadier
113
general with orders to lead the Baja California expedition

against
Esteban
Cantti.
He
remained
as
chief
of military
operations for a year and a half until he was transferred to

a command outside the district.
October
31,
California
and
1923,
Rodriguez
and district
military
power
was n a med
army
in
the
Thirteen months later,
chief,
hands
governor
thereby
of
on
of Baja
uniting
civil
34-year-old
man.^
Rodriguez proved to be an effective administrator who seldom

let
opponents
or
ethics
slow
his
progress.
To
say
that
Governor Rodriguez regulated Tijuana vice activity would be

an
understatement,
resources,
since
he
d e veloped
including sin taxes.
all
district
While many critics blamed
him for growing border immorality,
he took credit only for
the many public works.

Historian Pablo Martinez believed that the Governor
produced the
fastest
economic
growth
that
Baja
California
experienced during the- first half of Prohibition.
Martinez
did not call the Governor an
but that
there
were
so
many
"exploiter
centers
of vice,
establ i s h e d
that
consequently the taxes collected for the local treasury rose

to
the
greatest
Maldonado
would
government,
Colonel
proportions."^
say
that
"upon
Later
Governor
occupying
the
Braulio
territorial
don Abelardo followed the same road traveled by
Cantu
and
the
of
exploitation
pri n c i p a l
source
revenues."
R o drigu e z
ignored the
subjects
of
In
of
vice
his
remained
the
autobiography,
illicit
sex,
liquor,
114
gambli n g
and
drugs;
never
claiming
to
be
saint,
he
admitted that he was a man, and that "men exist with errors,
sins and defects so nobody ought to use the bad things
of
life to put themselves above the rest or to emphasize their

own virtues."
The
number
of
Tijuana
pleasure
palaces
doubled during his eight-year administration,
almost
and sin taxes
did pay for district services and new construction while the
central
government
bordertown.
received
millions
of
from
the
Tijuana vice purveyors and the "border barons,"
in particular,
welcomed the Governor as a business partner
who protected their mutual investments.

for,
dollars
while
speaking
practiced the
of
high
And well they might
moral
opposite by allowing
purpose,
the
Rodriguez
"border barons"
to
reopen their vice centers.

Ill
He had been in office only one month when the first
protests
against
Nove m b e r
0b r e g 6 n
11,
that
his
1923,
the
signed
complained
that
Carlo
The
and
Tecolote
by
local
R.
Foreign
who
sent
to
residents
the
capital.
wrote
to
violated
Roirtcin and
had
Club
other
the
reopened
in
the
the
Tijuana,
against known
wanted
Tijuana
federal
executive
foreign-owned
residents
Tivoli,
as
On
President
just like the five men before him.
Rodriguez
in Mexicali
petitioners,
were
new governor had
moralization policy,
petition
rule
Monte
well
as
policy.
casinos
El
The
closed,
115
knew that
reforms.
corruption
hindered
In their petition,
the
they
enforcement
state,
of moral
"It occurs to us
that the people of this district are destined to suffer the

continued
misfortune
petitioners,
of
authorized
gambling."7
For
the
it was enough to be rid of the "border barons"
and-their ilk.
As usual,
Obregdn told the residents to be patient
and to submit their accusations so their complaints could be

resolved legally within the system.
this
first
wave
of
local
protest
Don Abelardo survived

because
he
was
able
to
provide the state with essential support at a time when it

was most needed.
In 1923, Adolfo de la Huerta had rebelled
against 0breg6n with the support of half the federal army.

Government
finances
were
came forward with money,

he
almost
brothels,
but
Rodriguez
troops and war materials,
stalled the m o r a l i z a t i o n
casinos,
exhausted,
saloons
of
Tijuana
and dens
to
by
because
allowing
generate
the
large tax
revenues for the government's war effort.

But,
Tijuana
two months later,
for the
failure
the U.S. government punished
of Prohibition.
On March
6,
the
U.S. Treasury Department bowed to local pressure and closed

Tijuana to all vehicle and foot traffic after 9'clock p.m.,
three hours earlier than normal.
said
Governor
active
Rodriguez,
propaganda
under
had
the
Moralistic American women,
conducted
"scandalous
pretext
of
fighting
smuggling and similar v i c e s . P r e s i d e n t
and
drug
Obregdn said that
116
he was fighting narcotic traffickers and denied authorizing

the casinos,
His
primary
saloons
and brothels
complaint
was
that
cited by
the
the Americans.
earlier
closing
hurt
business and revenue and he urged the Mexican Ambassador in

Washington to procure "an opening of the line as before.
Obregdn,
initiatives.
however,
dism i s s e d further p r o v o c a t i v e
He knew the truth about
Tijuana and decided
not to jeopardize better relations with the U.S.
over such
an issue, telling the Governor to correct any obvious abuses

of moral policy as soon as possible,
to
illegal
gambling.
But
Rodriguez
closures for four more days,

75,000
investments.1^
Juan
R.
Platt,
delay,
he
The
was
approved the postponement.

the
until
postponed
the
he was able to
casino
collect
dollars in fees from concessionaires to pay for some
unspecified
agent,
with special attention
directed
in
Tijuana
But,
the
President's
at
confidential
the
time
and
although Obreg6n agreed to
Gover n o r
to
carry
out
the
moralization order.
The
Me x i c a n
colony
in
California,
meanwhile,
expressed its displeasure that the moral campaigns were not

taken seriously,
March
Jos
14,
Ruiz
least of all by district
Mexicans
and
reduce border
cabled
others
Obreg6n
declared
condemn
the
U.S.
operations b e c a u s e Rodriguez
bordertown casinos and brothels

of money.11
that
to
officials.
in exchange
On
Rodriguez.
had
had
to
r e o p e n e d the
for large sums
The petitioners also warned that the Governor's
117
brazen press statements threatened to arrest and intimidate

American tourists if the U.S. government refused to lift the
restrictions
against
Tijuana.
could remain silent,
They
given his
wondered
how
Obregdn
long-standing opposition to
border vice activity.

At the same time that Ruiz and others criticized the
Governor,
they
implied
that
0breg6n's
dedication to the
response,
Rodriguez
when he said that,
the
Ame r i c a n s
distrusted
four-year-old policy.
defended Obregdn
and,
In his
thereby,
himself
"now they have launched exaggerated and
sad accusations about your moral situation.
The campaign in
operation since my arrival has been as active as conditions

require
and I have
severely punished every
the truth was twisted by Rodriguez,

became
worse
government
Tijuana.
as
cycle
responses
of
1?
But
since vice activity only
vice,
confused
abuse."
protest
the
and
public
ambivalent
debate
about
The complaints that Rodriguez was protecting the
"border barons" became more specific and just as pointless.

Obregdn also received many protests from the Mexican
colony
control.
in
California,
which
was
bey o n d
the
Governor's
On March 22, Jos Torres and other Mexicans in Los
Angeles complained that Rodriguez had given Carl Withington

a gambling monopoly
illegal
Tijuana
and that
casinos
he had
while
businessmen to cross the border
authorized
troops
were
at Mexicali.
the other expatriates accused Rodriguez
dozens
forcing
1 *3
of
honest
Torres and
of taking personal
118
bribes
amounting
to
100,000
pesos
bordertown vice operations.
each month
to
overlook
But the emigrants may have had
some political motives, as well,
for accusing the governor.
Obregdn replied that he would moralize Tijuana after

suppressing the De la Huerta rebellion,
to
bother with
stubborn
Local
sponsor the repugnant trade."
Powers
advising them "not
who,
in many
At this point,
cases,
the President
knew that border vice dens were still in operation.

he was accepting taxes collected by don Abelardo,
knew that his moral policy
bankrupt.
His posture
Since
he surely
in Tijuana was compromised and
sanctioned
further
illegal
acts by
the American purveyors and the district chief.

On
Obregdn,
March
25,
Jos
Ruiz
sent
a second
note
to
congratulating him for ordering Juan Platt to close
the border casinos, as reported in the San Diego newspapers.

But,
he
went
on to
say,"everyone
knew"
that
Governor
Rodriguez would delay the order for two more weeks until all
p aid
taxes
ha d expired. ^
Ruiz
said, it
was
"public
knowledge" that district advisors Juan Orci, Arturo Guajardo

and Manuel Pina Cuevas also represented casino operators who
were
urging
the
Governor
gave
Tijuana
to
leave
their
premises
open
indefinitely.
Ruiz
while
ridiculing the
practiced
moralization.
policy
hypocritical
He
urged
t ongue-in-cheek
way
in which
the
President
praise
Rodriguez
to
Rodriguez on a mission to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
send
where
119
"they still eat people alive."

1) , Ruiz and his friends
Orci
had
sold
In a third protest
claimed that
themselves
to
Juan Platt
g a m b l e r s / w h ile
(April
and Juan
Rodriguez
"publicly confessed" that gambling would continue as long as

the
capital
needed
m o ney
to
fight
the
De
la
Huerta
rebellion.
To
repeat
the
obvious,
the
Sonora
clique
proposed
abstract reforms that conflicted with the concrete need to

regulate vice for economic reasons.1
Governor Rodriguez
continued to give money to his appreciative superiors,
and
many residents of Tijuana continued to distrust his motives

and to dislike his methods for keeping order.
did, however, cancel some gambling permits,
The Governor
punishing those
who evaded his authority.
For example, Rodriguez closed the
P ioneer
illegal
Bar
because
of
gambling
and
took
the
additional step of ordering border guards to prevent the bar

owners,
Albert
the city.
17
Casner
and
Robert
Davis,
from
re-entering
The problem was that the Pioneer Bar had failed
to apply for gambling permits.
On May
13,
Rodriguez asked
the Foreign Relations Secretary to declare Davis and Casner

undesirable aliens.
Rodriguez
did not
relish
deporting
Asians were another case entirely.

particular,
Mexicans.
scapegoat
In a major case,
for
Americans,
He made the Chinese,
landless
Rodriguez
and
but
in
unemployed
received credit
suppressing a Chinese "mafia" that dealt in narcotics.1
for
A
120
Chinese association named the Lung Shing Society allegedly

managed prostitution, gambling and drug operations, catering
to
the
large
Rodriguez
Chinese
used
the
colony
drug
in
scare
Tijuana
as
they
left
behind
were
then
Mexicali.
pretext
hundreds of Chinese men from the district.

jobs
and
to
deport
The agricultural
filled
by
Mexicans.
Allegedly, the Chinaman's opium den in Tijuana remained open

because Rodriguez and owner Patricio Mee Hong were friends.
IV
Abelardo Rodriguez
upon
taking
economic
over
office,
reforms
he
and his biographers

introduced
favoring
Mexican
foreign monopolies.1^
series
workers
Rodriguez
claim that,
of
socio
and businessmen
never
articulated
Tijuana social policy per se, but Tiiuanenses designed the

programs
that
he
signed
into
law.
He
never
acknowledged
that the territorial treasury depended on sin taxes or that

he
pr o f i t e d
from
"Mexicanization"
it
himself.
program
Overall,
raised the
the
standard
Governor's
of
living
through labor reforms, public services, tax exemptions, land

redistribution,
and free-trade zones.
minimu m
laws,
wage
unionization,
programs
and
and
the
labor
agrarian
He decreed the first
e i g h t-hour
arbitration,
colonies.
He
workday,
and
approved
launched
prohibited
job
civil
servants from living in the United States and he had ordered
121
every
business,
including
the
pleasure
palaces,
to
hire
Mexicans as half of their work force.

In the 1920s, the Tijuana labor movement started in
some
occupations
accounts,
age";
labor
workers
related
reacted
wanted
pleasure palaces.
to
tourism.
ambiguously
jobs but
not
According
to
to
Tijuana's
those
most
"golden
available
in
the
The popular classes were not puritans yet
many reportedly avoided working in tourist and vice resorts,

but almost 90 percent of the city's businesses were involved
in tourism or vice.
over
the
decade,
As the city's population grew ten-fold

Mexic a n s
took
any
job
they
could
get
despite the shameful or dangerous working conditions.

Conversely,
preferred
hir i n g
"border barons" and other foreign owners

Americans
in
their
businesses
while
Mexicans were systematically denied employment in the first

years
of the
comparable
worth when
foreign clubs.
the
decade.
popular
Likewise,
Tiiuanenses
were
they managed to get work
not paid
inside the
To add insult to injury, the resorts barred

classes
from
admission
th o u g h
federal
regulations prohibited concessionaires from practicing such

overt discrimination against Mexicans.
the U.S.,
tourists
As was customary in
referred to most Mexicans
as
"greasers"
out of bigotry or ignorance yet "gringos" had no monopoly on

ethnic
slurs.
Given the time and place,
played an unmeasurable,
social,
political
and
racial
attitudes
subjective role in the bordertown's

economic
life
yet
the
participants
122
were
more
concerned
about
material,
not
ideological
issues .20
Professional
organization,
drivers
formed
the Chauffeurs'
Tijuana's
League,
in
first
1922.
labor
Two years
later, the Mexican government urged Ti-iuanenses to join Liga

Nacionalista Obrera
a f f ili a t e d
M exica n a
CROM)
with
the
lead
Musicians'
Rodriguez
by
union
boss
Bartenders'
Union
began
Luis
Regional
de
Uniones
Federation),
the
affili a t e d
with
the
bar g a i n i n g
agents
co-opted
above
the
CROM
was
following
Obreras
under
Morones.
Sindicate
c o n s o l i d a t e d the
Federacibn
thereby,
Confederacibn
League)
which was
de
in
federal
some
labor
be
groups
daily struggles,
opposing
Only
recognized
while
resorts
since their
jobs
as
The
others
unions were often torn between
vice
into
(Tijuana
arbitrations.
the
Governor
groups
CROM umbrella.
could
and
year.
Tijuana
or
1925, the
formed
named
de
In
what they called Mexican working class interests.
and
Obrera
(Regional C onfederation of M e xican Workers,
independent
Union
(Nationalist Workers'
hung
the
Labor
unions
legal
state,
asserted
In their
supporting
in
the
balance.
The Governor would not recognize the workers them if
they
did
not
join.
Some
labor activists
claim that the
Governor blocked radical change because he had no sympathy

for
the
working
particular.
classes
in
general
or socialists
in
More important, his labor policy failed to take
123
into
account
tourism.
Tijuana's
dependence
He blamed the victim.
on
foreign
vice
He estimated that
and
"seventy
percent of the workers were not immoral" and said that they
could serve as good examples to the corrupt remainder of the
class if they were paid an adequate wage.^1
a
dynamic
convince
except
economy
immoral
in
foreign
one
and
good
Mexicans
case,
businessmen
the
jobs
to
were
against
the
regenerate
Governor
the
best
means
themselves.
sided
very
He thought that
with
Yet,
Mexican
workers
to
that
and
should
have benefited from his labor protections.

On May 1, 1924, Rodriguez published his
Mexican workers" decree
in response to the many complaints
he had received that Tijuana bars,

employed
only
foreigners.
At
restaurants and casinos

first,
employers
ignored it by keeping Americans on the job.

workers
who
enforced
American bosses
discovered
the
the
law
immunity.
obscure
"50 percent
after
Pedro
decree
by
the
It was Tijuana
Governor
Fregoso,
accident
simply
for
and
granted
example,
decided
to
test the law on the ABC Brewery owned by Herbert Jaffe and
Ed
Baker.
recruited
Fregoso,
workers
the
and
general
signed
secretary
labor
of
contracts
the
CROM
with
the
authorities.
Rodriguez was enraged and embarrassed that the CROM
organizers had used his name to upset agreements established
between
the
central
He
his
bodyguard,
had
authority
Alberto
and the American

Garcia,
escort
purveyors.
Fregoso
and
124
other CROM members to his office.
A CROM veteran present at
the meeting recalled that Rodriguez

vulgar
and
yelled,
sarcastic
"Hey,
manner.^3
spoke to Fregoso
jn
you son of a bitch,
rage,
the
in a
Governor
you son of a whore; why
are you using my name to recruit workers in businesses owned

by
the
Americans?"
following
the
Fregoso
Governor's
replied
orders
and
Oficial that contained the labor law.

the paper to don Abelardo and asked,
that
he
produced
the
in
town.
Yet
the
Governor
only
Diario
Fregoso then showed
"Is this decree not one
of your orders and is this not your signature?"

workers won this battle as the
was
The Tijuana
law affected every business
took
credit
for
the
popular
reform.
The
Governor's
decree,
therefore,
inadvertently
enlarged the pool of jobs available to Mexican citizens and

displaced some foreigners. But the "border barons" and other
vice cartels survived the Mexicanization programs with their
Ameri c a n
w orkforce
relatively stable.
gradually
changed
Americans
and
virtually
intact
In other words,
the
other
composition
foreigners
and
their
while the
of
labor reform
Tijuana's
continued
to
income
run
workforce,
the
show
without too much hindrance from the government.

Plutarco Elias Calles
president,
appreciated
the
enterprise
and toughness that
don
should
recalled
be
also
(1924-1928),
that
Calles
the next Mexican
q ualities
Abelardo
understood
of
loyalty,
OA
brought.
It
Tijuana's
role
125
because he was
the politico who had written and certified
all the concessions issued by the previous administration,

i n clud i n g the
Carl Wi t h i n g t o n permit.
Perhaps
the
leader wanted to avoid contradicting himself about

vice activity,
2,
Tijuana
or perhaps he desired an informal system in
order to deal with a variety of situations.

Decembe r
new
James
Coffroth's
jeopardized when the Mexican
Hiobdromo
Supreme
track stood on federal land.
In any case, by
Court
concession
was
ruled than
the
The President threatened to
revoke the property lease and issue a new racing permit to

the
highest b i d d e r . ^ But, as
usual,
was
av erted
Club
when
the Jockey
the track foreclosure

p a i d the
higher
fees
demanded by the central authority.

At
the
same
time,
Governor
Rodriguez
had
been
reappointed with more discretionary power to run T i juana.^

The
new
administration
accepted
the
pragmatic
view
that
regulated vice activity was preferable to full prohibition..

Thus, an international elite continued in power.
Rodriguez
moralized
an d
As before,
" n a t i o n a l i z e d Tijuana
wanted to counteract American border policies,
when
he
announcing
to the press that he planned to deport "all women residents

o7
of the u n d e rworld districts
in Lower California."
According to the Governor's clean-up order, an estimated 250
American women qualified as undesirables; Mexican women were
not
affected
permitted
to
by
the
action.
remain if
they
Authentic entertainers
applied
for
were
license;
126
meanwhile,
22
deportation."
women
"married
Mexicans
to
thwart
By April 2, San Diego police had arrested 27
of the deportees, who were forced to leave the border region

under threat of six months in jail.
Moralization
narcotics smuggling.
also
i n c luded
the
s u ppression
of
On April 10, police chief Jesus Chavez
arrested two Mexicans with "several thousand dollars worth

of morphine and cocaine" that had been shipped from German
laboratories via Ensenada for distribution in the U.S.
Tijuana had legal,
the
illegal
trade
Yet
tax paying drug dens in operation while

was
suppressed.
The
Tijuana
moral
campaign was meant to encourage the U.S. to lift the border

oo
curfew but the American order remained in effect.
The
Governor wanted to protect district resources,
lucrative pleasure houses,
destroy i n g
b o rder
vice
including the
from moralistic Americans bent on

activity.
Playing
the
benevolent despot, he increased the tax on gambling,
role
of
liquor,
prostitution and drug operations while using the money for

district
barons"
public
were
services.
The
indispensable
Governor
political
partners who m a x i m i z e d their
and
allies
opportunities
the
and
"border
business
without much
concern for their social impact.

President Calles resolved the moral contradiction by
ending Tijuana's reform in deference to the foreign gamblers
thereby
official
stimulating
support.
the
When
growth
of
on October
illicit
15,
1925,
business
with
the Mexicali
127
Chamber
of
Commerce
complained
that
the
ABW
destroyed the personal savings and businesses

the government
did no t hi n g to help.^
border moral reform achieved the
Corporation
of Mexicans,
Ultimately,
opposite
of its
the
intended
effect by strengthening vice activity with the assistance of

powerful men in Mexico City.
V
In
1928,
the
Compahia
Mexicana
de
Agua
Caliente
began construction of a 10 million dollar gambling resort in

Tijuana.
Wirt Bowman and Baron Long ran the Caliente casino
and hotel
while
they managed the
funds
of
500
investors.
Rodriguez had paid Alberto Argiiello 35,000 dollars

property before
Agua
Caliente
Tijuana
the
former
company
in
resort became
leased
which
the
he
a golden
hot
also
springs
held
symbol
for the
to
stock.
the
The
representing
the
efforts of foreign gamblers and Mexican investors.

The Agua Caliente
project
from both sides of the border.

Abelardo's brother, Fernando,
used
labor
and
services
By coincidence or not,
Don
got the building contract and
hired thousands of Mexican laborers and hundreds of American

craftsmen
a dual-wage
system.
The
Benson
Lumber
Company of San Diego provided building supplies and custom

tile
and
luxurious
bargain,
appliances
decorations
came
were
from
northern
imported
form
California
Europe.
while
In
the
Tiiuanenses received meager wages while foreigners
earned much more.
128
The
Agua
architect's
accident,
Caliente
assistant
Baron
Long
blueprints
and
his
had met
were
artist
Wayne
designed
wife.
and
Corine
by
an
Almost
by
McAllister
through a mutual friend in a San Diego restaurant.

much hesitation,
up
Long commissioned the McAllisters to draw
C a l i fornia
m i s s i on - s t y l e
tourist
center
preliminary sketches were better than expected.

submitted
Without
drawings
that
blended
different
but
the
The couple
cultural
motifs
5 1
w hich
the
Agua
McAllisters
Caliente
directors
supervised every detail
working overtime
approved.
The
of construction,
so they could earn a 15,000
often
dollar bonus
when the first phase was completed on schedule.

After the groundbreaking, Agua Caliente was built in
three
phases
over
three
years.
In
the
first
phase,
the
builders finished the grand hotel, the spa and the casino at
a
cost
of
3,000,000
dollars.
Olympic pool, golf courses,
The
second
phase
a greyhound track,
was
an
gardens with
tropical birds, and Islamic minaret, clinics, work areas and

an
air
field
that
capital outlay.
added
another
3,000,000
dollars
in
Lastly, a new racetrack was built for about
$4,000,000.
Former Agua Caliente
guests,
like Roberta Ridgely,

50
remembered that
214.)
various
The
resort
buildings
Spanish,
interiors
the
that
had
Moorish,
featured
was
a dreamland. ^
Mission
Revival
(See page
exteriors
Italian R e n a i s s a n c e
elaborate
work
in
with
or French
tile,
wood,
129
wrought iron and stained glass.

to
forget reality and relax;
Agua Caliente urged patrons
the resort's attractive rates
and exotic decor were powerful

the
real
activity
at
hand.
aesthetic distractions
The
resort
goods and services on their guests.
lavished
from
quality
The hotel had 500 rooms
plus twenty Spanish bungalows that contained four apartments

each while the daily rent varied between 5 and 12 dollars.
In
com p a r i s o n
to
excellent food,
other
resorts,
Agua
Caliente
served
liquor and entertainment at bargain prices.
It was said that the spa's tile work surpassed that of the
famous
Alhambra
in
Spain.
The
spa
relied
on
Tijuana's
famous hot springs but other special waters were also used
in
hea l t h
massages,
programs
tonics,
that
included
bathes,
mud
exercise and beauty treatments;
the guests were pampered like royalty
packs,
in short,
for a few dollars. J
(See page 216.)

Gambling was
always Agua Caliente's main business.
The resort had horse and dog races and three casinos.
casinos offered poker,
luck,
faro and
dice,
slot-machines
black-jack,
in open
roulette,
areas.
chuck-a-
Caliente was
exempt from Tijuana's midnight gambling curfew curfew.

main casino closed at 5 o'clock in the morning.
were
a bonanza
tables
spent.
the
repaid
since the
the
"money
in v e s t m e n t
Gambling produced a
company
after
deducting
The
Its
The casinos
flung across the gambling
almost
as
it
was
net
income
for
exorbitant
costs
of
significant
the
fast
as
130
construction, wages, bribes, taxes, dividends and supplies.

The Agua Caliente casino also had an exclusive inner
sanctum where far richer games were played.
The Gold Room
was a Tijuana playground for aristocrats, tycoons, Hollywood

legends and gangsters like A1 Capone who came to win or lose
fortunes.33
In the Gold Room,
well-dressed "high rollers"
gambled in a regal setting where rose brocade drapes,

mirrors and gold hangings covered the walls. 3
marble
floors
and an
carved
beams,
gold
ornate v a u l t e d
inlay
and
The room had
ceiling
stained
long
with
glass,
b r oad
Louis
XV
furniture and five large chandeliers, which gave the room an

overall French appearance.
Consistent with the room's name,
American gold pieces were used for betting purposes,
adding
both luster and excitement.

The
house
quite large.37
got
the
lion's
share
of
the
bets,
some
For instance, movie mogul Carl Laemmle often
bet 10,000 dollars on the turn of a card.
His partner,
Joe
Schenck, usually risked 100,000 dollars a day. Actress Jean

Harlow distinguished herself by winning thirty-four straight
passes at dice tables for a Caliente record.
At Caliente,
many losers.3
the lucky few were outnumbered by the
For instance,
San Diego playboy John Mills
lost 6,000,000 dollars at the resort in three years.

spectacular tragedy,
three u n lucky b a nkers
lost
In a
company
funds and hung themselves at the resort's hotel rather than

answer for their crime.
It was also said that Caliente was
131
run by dishonest gamblers who would sooner cheat the patrons

than
suffer
big
losses.
In
any
case,
Tijuana's
bad
reputation grew worse since public scandals at Agua Caliente

were publicized across North America.
But tales of sin and
ruin never scared customers away from the Tijuana gambling

resorts for very long.
In its last expansion, Agua Caliente
erected a steel and concrete horseracing plant that seated

20,000
people
on
hill
above
the
main
complex.
James
Crofton became president of the Agua Caliente Jockey C l u b . ^

Agua
Caliente
embodied
the
economic
Tijuana's mythical "golden age" of vice.
miracle
of
It was the driving
force of the local economy yet all businesses did not share
the wealth equally.
tourist
The resort
attraction yet
went
to
the
Tijuana's
it epitomized
that was unattainable even

bonanza
was
for most
"border
most
an elite
"high
Americans.
barons"
and
popular
their
life"
Tijuana's
investors
while government tax collections increased markedly over the

decade.
that
Conversely,
angered
Mexican
Agua Caliente's
workers
and
success was a paradox
small
shopkeepers.
The
Mexican popular classes wanted to partake of the miracle but

most Tiiuanenses watched the
True,
local
"high life"
from the margins.
the Mexicans employed at Caliente were privileged by

standards.
However,
approached Caliente's wage
the
rest
levels.
learned that the resort's prosperity,
The
of
Tijuana
Tiiuanenses
never
early
fun and dreams hardly
translated into a miracle for society as a whole.
132
VI
Tijuana's boom
started when Prohibition
flood of thirsty Americans on the town.
released a
During the
1920s,
Tijuana began with 30 ca/itinas; thirteen years later it had

almost
100
ban.4^
saloons
before
The tourist
the
flood also
repeal
of America's
liquor
fueled the proliferation of
casinos, brothels and drug dens in the bordertown.

Tijuana's economic miracle
and
Ab e lardo
development
Rodriguez
of vice
required
became
activity
Mexican
synonymous
in the
region.
allies
with
As
the
district
chief, he set an example for every bureaucrat who longed to

become wealthy.
the
illicit
The
federal
miracle
government,
b ecause
sin
too,
taxes
encouraged
filled
treasury
coffers.
Tijuana's
boom
was
dependent
on
vice
activ i t y
sponsored by the "border barons" and their Mexican partners.

Agua
Caliente
was
the
pride
and
joy
consummated between foreign purveyors
of
the
marriage
and government.
The
supremacy of vice activity at the expense of the community

increased
as
Caliente
Caliente
r e presented
activity,
while
the
root
into
a n d foreigners
and culture.
The
and
c r o wning
Tijuana grew
illicit businesses
politics
took
blossomed.
achievement
chaotic
Agu a
of
society
vice
where
dicta t e d the economy,
Tiiuanenses
became
servants
or
spectators of an American dreamland built around the zone of
133
tolerance.
In this way,
foreigners transformed the border
town into an immoral refuge without equal on the continent

during the Roaring Twenties.
134
ENDNOTES
-'Abelardo L. Rodriguez, Aut obiocrraf i a (Mexico:
Novaro Editores, 1962), pp. 24, 37, 51. hereafter cited as:
Rodriguez, A u t o . Guillermo Durante de Cabaraga, Abelardo L.
Rodriquez:
El Hombre de la Hora (Mexico:
Ediciones Botas,
1933), p. 28; h e reafter c i t e d as:
Durante, R o d r i g u e z .
Francisco Javier Gaxiola, Jr., El Presidente Rodriquez.
1932-1934 (Mexico:
Editorial CVLTVRA, 1938), pp. 58-59;
hereafter cited as:
Gaxiola, Rodriguez.
Jos Munoz, ed.,
General de Division A b e l a r d o L. Rodriquez
(Ensenada:
Editorial Munoz, 1967), pp. 5, 9, 24, 34; hereafter cited
as: Munoz, Rodriquez. Maria Garibay, Diccionario porrua de
historia
bioqrafia.
v qeoqrafia
de Mexico
(Mexico:
Editorial Porrua, 1976), p. 1783.
Rodriguez,
A u t o , p.
58.
Gaxiola,
Rodriquez. pp.
60-61.
^ Jos6 Vasconcelos,
A Mexican
Ulvsses:_____An
Autobiography. W. Rex Crawford, tr., (Bloomington, Indiana:
Indiana University Press, 1963), pp. 278-279.
Rodriguez,
A uto, p. 139.
4 Rodriguez, A u t o , p. 109..
^ Pablo L. Martinez, A History of Lower California.
Ethel
Duffy
Turner,
tr.,
(Mexico:
Editorial
Baja
California, 1960), p. 522; hereafter cited as:
Martinez,
LC.
Rodriguez, Auto, p. 257.
Braulio Maldonado, Baia
California:
Comentarios Politicos (Mexico:
Editorial B.
Costa-Amic, 1960), p. 63; hereafter cited as:
Maldonado,
BC.
Rodriguez, A u t o , p. 127.
Durante, Rodriguez, pp.
33-34.
"Tijuana Barracks Reinforced with Federal Solders,"
The San Dieoo Union, January 17, 1924.
"Banquet Given
Mexican Official," The San Diego Union, January 20, 1924.
7 Archivo General de la Naci6n, Presidenciales,
Fondo Obreg6n-Calles, R. Rom^n to Alvaro Obreg6n, San Diego,
California, November 11, 1923, Exp. 425-T-7; hereafter cited
as: AGN OC or AR.
Alfonso Salazar Rovirosa, Historia del Estado de
Baia California:
De 1500 a 1980 (Mexico:
E diciones
Econ6micas, 1976), p. 351; hereafter cited as:
Salazar
Rovirosa, H E B C .
Ruiz, G R . p. 251.
John W. F. Dulles,
Yesterday in Mexico (Austin:
University of Texas Press,
1961), p. 263; h e r e a f t e r cited as:
Dulles, M e x i c o .
Josefina Zoraida Vazquez
and Lorenzo Meyer,
The United
135
States and Mexico (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press,
1985), pp. 132-133.
Q
Abelardo Rodriguez to Alvaro Obregbn, Mexicali,
Baja California, March 6, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7. Alvaro
Obregbn to Abelardo Rodriguez, Mexico, March 7, 1924, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
-1- Abelardo Rodriguez to Alvaro Obregbn, Mexicali,
Baja California, March 8, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro
Obregbn to Abelardo Rodriguez, Mexico, March 9, 1924, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
^
Jos6 Ruiz to
Alvaro
Obregbn,
San Diego,
California, March 15, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7. Alvaro Obregbn
to Jos Ruiz. Mexico, March 16, 1924.
19
Abelardo Rodriguez to Alvaro Obregbn, Mexicali,

Baja California, March 14, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
1 *3
x ~> Jose Torres to Alvaro Obregbn,

Los Angeles,
California, March 22, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7. Alvaro 0breg6n
to Jos Torres, Mexico, March 24, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
14
Jose Ruiz to
Alvaro
Obregbn,
San Diego,
California, March 25, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Fernando
Torreblanca to Josb Ruiz, Mexico, March 26, 1924, AGN, OC,
425-T-7.
Josb
Ruiz to
Alvaro
Obregbn,
San Diego,
California, April 1, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7. Alvaro Obregbn
to Jos6 Ruiz, Mexico, April 2, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Comisibn Platt, AGN, OC, 245-D1-P-3.
^
Ruiz, G R . p. 377 ff.
17
Abelardo Rodriguez to Alvaro Obreg6n, Mexicali,

Baja California, May 13 and May 16, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Colonia China to Alvaro Obregbn, Hermosillo,
Sonora, July 21, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Alvaro Obregbn to
Colonia China, Mbxico, July 22, 1924, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Durante, Rodriguez. Pp. 40-41.
Rodriguez, B a c o . Pp. 62-63.
Maria Eugenia Bonifbz de
Novelo,
"Ensenada en los Ahos V e i n t e , " en, Moyano y
Martinez, V H E , p. 239. Evelyn Hu-De Hart, "Sonora:
Indians
and Immigrants on a D e v e loping F r o n t i e r , " in, Thomas
Benjamin and William McNellie, eds., Other Mexicos:
Essavs
on Regional Mexican History.
1876-1911
(Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1984), Pp. 201-203.
Also
see: AGN, OC, 104-Ch-l, 421-B-22, 424-A-9, and 711-J-6.
136
^Rodriguez, Auto, pp. 133-134.

Gaxiola, Rodriguez,
p. 68 and p. 75. Durante, Rodriquez, p. 39.
90
^ M a r j o r x e Ruth Clark, Organized Labor in Mexico

(Chapel Hill, 1934), p. 135. Marco Antonio Samaniego L6pez,
"Surgimiento, Luchas e Instituticonalizatidn del Movimiento
Obrero de Tijuana, 1920-1940."
D a v i d Pinera Ramirez,
Historia
de T i i u a n a . 2 vols.
(Tijuana:
Centro
de
Investigaciones Histdricas, UNAM-UABC, 1989), Vol. 2, p.
123; hereafter cited as: Pinera Ramirez, H T .
O *1
97
Rodriguez,
Vol. 1, p. 101.
A u t o , p.
133.
Pinera
Ramirez,
HT.
9^
^-Rodriguez, Baco. pp. 54-55.
Rodriguez, A u t o , pp.
123-125. Gaxiola, Rodriquez, pp. 68-69.
Durante, Rodriquez,
pp. 67-69.
Martinez, LC, p. 523.
Celso Aguirre Bernal,
Tiiuana:
Su Historia - Sus Hombres (Mexico:
n.p., 1975),
pp. 200-204; hereafter cited as:
A g u i r r e Bernal, T S H .
James W. Wilke, The Mexican Revolution:
Federal Expenditure
and Social Chance since 1910 (Berkeley:
U n i v ersity of
California Press, 1970), p. 70.
^ G u s t a v o Casasola, Seis Siolos de Historia Grafica

de Mdxico, 1325-1925 (6 Vols., Mexico:
Editorial Gustavo
Casasola,
1971), Vol.
IV, p. 2382.
"25,000 Witness
Inauguration of General Calles," The San Diego U n i o n .
December 1, 1924.
^ " P r o b e is Ordered of Tijuana Blaze," The San Dieco
Union, December 2, 1924.
2 6 " g o v . Rodriguez
Re t a i n s
Staff,"
The
San
Dieao
^ 7 "Seize 15 Women Cross Border," The San Diego

"Tijuana Women given 'Floaters'," The
San Dieoo Union. April 2, 1925. "Border Girls Wed Mexicans
to Avoid Deporting," The San Dieoo Union, April 2, 1925.
June Nay Summers, Buenos Dias Tiiuana (Ramona, California:
Ballena Press, 1974), p. 40.
Mexico.
Departamento de
Trabajo, "Proyecto de Reglamento para el Trabajo de las
Mujeres en Establecimientos Comerciales, 1923," in, Boletin
del Archivo General de la Nacidn, M e x i c o 111:3 (JulioSeptiembre, 1979), p. 21.
137
? ft
International Drug Ring Revealed by Seizure Made

in Tijuana Arrest," The San Diecro Union. April 10, 1925.
"Mexico to Close Line at 9 O'clock," the San Diego Union.
April 21, 1925. Ridgely, 'TMWBT," Part X, p. 88.
OQ
^Ccimara Nacional de Comercio to Plut a r c o Elias
Calles, Mexicali, Baja, California, October 15, 1925, AGN,
OC, 425-T-7.
Abelardo Rodriguez to Antonio Galvan Duque,
Mexicali, Baja, California, October 28, 1925, AGN, OC, 425T-7.
"Border Resort Birthday," The San Diecro
June 22, 1930.
Union.
50
J
Roberta Ridgely, "When Caliente Was Queen of
Spas," San Diego Magazine, 18:9 (July, 1966), p. 139.
Kay
Kaiser, "Agua Caliente," The San Diecro Union, March 15,
1987.
5 O
"Agua Caliente Casino and H o t e l , " San Dieao

M a g a z i n e . V:III
(February,
1929), pp.
14-15.
"Agua
Caliente, The San Dieao Union, January 1, 1931.
Wirt G.
Bowman, Hotel Aqua Caliente and Casino (San Diego:
Frye &
Smith, 1930), pp. 2-3.
Richard F. Pourade, The History of San Dieao:
Gold
in the Sun 6 Vols.
(San Diego:
Union-Tribune
Publishing Company, 1965), Vol. VI, p. 149.
on
Elena de la Paz Barrdn, "Testimonios de Personas
que Trabajaron en Agua Caliente," in, Pihera Ramirez, H T .
Vol. 1, p. 128.
ft
A l e j a n d r o F. Lugo Jr.,
"El Casino
Caliente," in, Pihera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 1, p. 116.
Gold,"
Roberta Ridgely, "The Glory, The

XETV Channel 6, December 27, 1986.
de
Agua
Glamour,
ftft
The
JO Francisco Jos6 Barrdn, "Testimonios de Personas

que Trabajaron en Agua Caliente," in, Pihera Ramirez, H T ,
Vol. 1, p. 128.
Pourade, H S D , Vol. VI, p. 156.
Hern&n de
la Roca, Tijuana In (Mexico:
Editorial Cultura, 1932), p.
24 and pp. 88-89. Olga Vicenta Diaz Castro, Narraciones v
Levendas de Tijuana (Tijuana:
Lito Editora Fiscal, 1981),
p. 38.
Jorge Soto Fuentes, La Mesa (Tijuana:
Editorial
Accion Cultura, 1976), p. 109.
138
39 Bob
1983), p. 16.
Owens,
"Caliente,"
Reader. 12:28
(July
21,
^Pinera Ramirez, H T . Vol. 1, p. 134.

Oliver McKee,
"Millions Spent by Our Tourists,"
New York Times. June 30,
1929.
CHAPTER 5
DECLINE OF TIJUANA
I
Tijuana
lost
its
golden
glitter
declined in the wake of global changes.

1929/
American
gambling
fabulous
resorts
wealth.
More by
were
undone
Prohibition,
like
by
magnates
Agua
bet
Caliente
Great
vice
activity
Before the Crash of

their
millions
would
chance than design,

the
as
the
always
that
produce
"border barons"
Depression,
the
repeal
of
the legalization of California pari-mutual
horseracing and a Mexican leader of reform principles.
In
1933,
40
American
percent,
visits
resulting
unemployment
in
to
a
and misery.
the
b o r d ertown
general
Yet
increase
Tijuana's
fell
of
vice
about
bankruptcy,
activity was
further centralized and concentrated in fewer hands.

As Tijuana's patron, Abelardo Rodriguez, reached the
highest political
office in Mexico,
that
used the position to bolster his border

His investments,
crisis
His
the
timely
profound
weathered the
intervention
wealth
and
he
economic miracle.
like those in Agua Caliente,
through
assistance.
of President,
power
of
federal
saved
the
gambling resort from market forces but there were limits to

his help.
Ironically,
to the very man who
don Abelardo transferred state power

would dismantle
the
Tijuana
gambling
cartel.
139
140
As
mentioned
in
earlier
chapters,
Tiiuanenses
had
opposed vice resorts for years while the Mexican government

regulated
the
illicit
economy.
When
the
border
boom
stalled, Mexican reformers found their chance to break with

the past.
1940)
Leading the way, President Ldzaro Cdrdenas
closed A g u a
casinos
no
free
Caliente,
Tijuana
foreign gamblers.
the Foreign
and Mexico
Club
from
(1935-
and
other
dependence
on
The presidential gambling ban upset the
town7s economic foundation but the elite fared better than

the popular classes who endured privation
morality and national sovereignty.
vast
majority
of
employees
in exchange
for
Mexicans constituted the
affected
by
the
closure
of
Tijuana gambling casinos.

II
In
context,
Tijuana
had become
popular by
exotic goods and services to foreigners.

liquor
ban
determined
replaced all
Tijuana's
border
consumer goods
fame
newspapers,
the
was
novels
prospered
when
the
Tijuana's
96 saloons
made
and
as
the main
films.
refugees
of
Likewise, the U.S.
economy
legendary
selling
since
domestic
by
Border
booze
p'roduct.
advertisements,
vice
Prohibition
activity
frolicked
at
as though the party would never end.
Mexicans owned or managed only two bars in t o w n .1

Socially,
the "golden age" of Tijuana vice activity
did not trickle-down much beyond the upper classes.
Based
on data alone, Tijuana had the highest income and education
141
levels in the country.
But,
contrary to official figures,
the quality of life was relatively low and mere survival was
difficult
because
pressures.
In
representing
and
about
of
1930,
intense
Tijuana
ten-fold
demographic
had a population
increase
one-third were
over the
economically
Tijuana had almost doubled again;
of squatters
grew
of
active.2
the economy
q u ickly
on
economic
11,271,
previous
5,000 people left over the next two years.

Colonies
and
decade
By
1933,
faltered and
(See page 205.)

society's
margin
without regular work.

In a real sense, Tijuana depended on foreign tourism
from beginning
to
end.
During the
Roaring
1920s,
almost
10,000,000 American tourists painted the town red and they

spent hundreds
the
early
of millions
1930s,
about
of dollars
10,000
in the process.
visitors
twenty times that figure on weekends;
arrived daily
In
and
tourism had increased
five-fold in the first half of the decade.
Significantly,
in fiscal
over
1931,
Ame r i c a n s
crossed
popularity.
activity
U.S.
into
Two
declined
Customs
reported
that
Tijuana
near
later,
border
years
sharply
yet
border
the
apex
tourism
crossing
5,000,000
of
its
and
vice
never
fell
below 3,000,000 people a year.

Ill
In the early 1930s,
Tijuana enjoyed the last fruits
of Prohibition as the Great Depression withered the outside

world.
These were still good times as Tijuana continued to
142
boom
despite
fortunate
the
surrounding
juncture,
econo m i c
Tijuana was
decay.
insulated
At
from the
this
global
decline because of its marginal relationship with the U.S.

economy.
Though
remained
a popular
could
release
dependent
"safety
their
on
American
valve"
frustration
tourism,
where
and
"moral"
fear.
Tijuana
refugees
However,
the
passage from one era to another was not altogether smooth.

As the 1930s began,
Tijuana was the American Monte
Carlo complete with its own version of the famous Deauville

resort.
After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Agua Caliente
opened its new race track which seated 20,000 people.
James
Crofton was the president of the new Jockey Club and among
the
500 track
investors were Wirt Bowman and the Mexicans
Abelardo Rodriguez,
Juan Platt and Plutarco Elias Calles.4
In the end, Caliente became the largest employer in Tijuana

and the company had major influence in local affairs.
The track's
and angry protests.
start was marked by
grand
festivities
On December 28, 1929, the new Hio6dromo
inaugurated racing before a crowd of 25,000 spectators.
The
American
and
Mexican
financial
workers
increases.
collapse
still
pressed
On opening day,
hardly
slowed
Caliente
for
tourism
promised
wage
the Alba Roja racetrack union
launched a general strike demanding fulfillment of the labor

agreement.
The workers'
Agua Caliente
syndicates.
action against "the hateful yankee
company" was
But,
the
supported by
Mexican
the
strike
other
was
Tijuana
brief
and
143
unsuccessful
lines.^
since American tourists
freely crossed picket
The Jockey Club's first profitable season testified
to the
supremacy
of
international
capital
over Mexican
labor.
However,
aggressive
permits,
at
Agua
busin e s s
Caliente
drew
operations,
criticism
its
special
and for selling first-class food,
be low
the
p r e v ailing
prices.
for
its
gambling
liquor and rooms
Envious
business
competitors grumbled that the famous resort was a "sponge"

that
absorbed most
often
of the tourists.
a c cused management
of
Furthermore,
cheating
these
bettors
rumors
were
confirmed when Baron Long won 250,000 dollars manipulating

odds in the infamous 1932 Linden Tree race.
barred Long
American tracks
for life but Caliente restored his good track

r
standing after a year.

convinced that
thoroughbred,
In another case,
Caliente
Phar
Lap,
winning too many races.
gangsters
to
the public was
poisoned
punish
the
the
horse's
Australian
owners
for
But Mexican officials did nothing
and local complaints fell on deaf ears.

Not
surprisingly,
Mexican
problems.
dollars
freely
observer
for
recal l e d
Worse
a
tourists
still,
chance
that,
to
"For
cared
little
about
gamblers
risked
their
jackpots.
One
win
some
the
D e p r e s sion-worn
San
Diegans with a few bucks in their pockets, Agua Caliente was

the golden lining through the dark clouds hovering at home,
an escape from the chill of reality."7
Visitors behaved as
144
though
their
repatriated
dollars
their
crisis worsened,
money
ruled
Tijuana
to
Diego.
San
while
As
Mexicans
the
economic
the tourist dollar circulated more
freely
while the peso lost half its exchange value.

Eventually, Tiiuanenses learned how to cope with the
border reality.
Popular classes watched the tourist "high
life," and got little in return.
Mexicans
protested that
foreign vice activity distorted their society. Rsident were

certain that
Mexican authorities treated foreigners better
than compatriots so the the popular classes had to fend for

themselves.
Most of these people resented the poverty, vice
and
corruption
that
Yet
politicians
also
resulted
per s i s t e d
in
from American
blaming
poor
in shanty towns
like
tourism.
people
for
Tijuana's moral condition.

Mexicans
(cardboard land)
River.^
lived
Cartol a n d i a
located under Puente Mexico by the Tijuana
They took what jobs were available and many became
beggars,
criminals
coercion.
Since
pathology,
officials
and prost i t u t e s
their
poverty
chased
beggars
Avenue and troops evicted squatters

poorest worked in vice
resorts
due
was
to priv a t i o n
deemed
away
from
or
social
Revolution
from Cartolandia.
The
as the last alternative
to
abject misery.
Indirectly,
the
Dep r e s s i o n
aggravated
Tijuana's
urban problems when American nativists
forced over
Mexicans
In
out
of
the
United
States.
the
500,000
1930s,
U.S.
145
officials shipped deportees to the bordertowns where Mexico

struggled to provide them passage home;
Tijuana
or
near
repatriates
resorted
land.
erected
to
border.1
shelters
illegal
New
Tijuana,
the
in
colonies
racetrack.
barons"
In 1930,
Socie d a d
Landholders
community
in
that
slums
vacant
on
while
and
the
the
some
abandoned
margins
of
possession
of
the
a b andoned
de
11
Society).
asserted
Tijuana
Pequenos
but
its
Poseedores
For
right
to
territorial
one
(Small
year,
b uild
the
workers7
authorities
rejected
When the families lost patience, they seized the
stalls
Agua
than most
repatriated families fought
a group of 20 Mexican families formed
Cooperative
society
the plan.
for
Cooperativa
landless
horse
of
resources,
far away from the zones of tolerance.
"border
the
cramped
appeared
In one celebrated case,

the
W i thout
occupations
squatter
yet many stayed in
of
the
Caliente
old wooden
treated
Tiiuanenses.
The
Hio6dromo.
American
society
They
believed
thoroughbreds
defied
better
government
and
the Jockey Club by remodeling the stables into family living

quarters.
Caliente asked the government to evict the squatters
from its property.
garrison
the
So governor Jos Tapia and the Tijuana
removed the occupants but
commotion
the
and evaded later traps,
leaders
too.
The
escaped
in
fugitives
became folk heroes to landless Mexicans as they were chased

across the Californias for months.
To settle the dispute,
146
Mexico City replaced Tapia with a partisan of land reform/

Arturo
Bernal/
who
abandoned track.
allowed
the
society
to
homestead
the
As a result, the society erected Tijuana's
first working class neighborhood,
Colonia Libertad
(Liberty
Colony), at the expense of the foreign gamblers.

Similarly,
class
public
interests
works
organized
during
programs
the
for
labor
tried to p rotect
business
the
decline,
unemployed.
government hired Mexicans to install pavement,
its
dema n d i n g
In
response,
water,
gas,
electricity and sewers in the tourist areas while residents

did without
such conveniences.
For
instance,
in
1932,
building contractor Fernando Rodriguez laid Tijuana's first

sewer system with the approval of his brother, Abelardo, who
was
president
at
the
time.
10
The
40,000-dollar
contract
served businesses along Revolution Avenue without connecting

residential areas.
Tijuana's largest works project benefited foreigners
more than residents.
Rodriguez,
storage
promised
for
One dam project,

local
Tijuana's
jobs,
farm
resorts.
The
named after Abelardo

irrigation
Amberson
and
Dam
water
Company
hired skilled Americans on a U.S. scale while unskilled CROM

laborers earned 5 pesos a day
minimum
wage
stopped work
was
only
(2.50 dollars),
pesos.^
for three years when
Under president don Abelardo,
In
1930,
it exceeded
Mexico
yet Mexico's
the
company
its budget.
financed construction
and supported the Amberson Company against worker grievances
147
and injury claims.
In one case,
Mexico City and Amberson
refused to
indemnify Julio Mendoza after his only son was
killed
the
on
j o b . 14
As
Tijuana's
unemployed men took whatever work
economy
was
slowed,
available
out
of
necessity.
In the private
discrimination
and
sector,
Tiiuanenses
dual-wage
system.
faced hiring
By
the
1930s,
Tijuana resorts still preferred hiring Americans but
labor
laws gradually increased the Mexican component of the local

work
force.
workers
Yet
doing
Mexicans
similar
earned
j o b s . 1^
much
For
less
than
instance,
foreign
Fernando
Rodriguez built the Agua Caliente Hipbdromo using 2,000 CROM

laborers who received 5 pesos
American
carpenters
were
(2.50 dollars) every day while
paid
6 dollars
for
comparable
effort.
Increasingly,
the
local
managers to employ more Mexicans.
unions
pressed
resort
Casino employees got the
best wages in Tijuana and, at last, some Mexicans worked the

gambling
tables.
One,
Francisco
dollars a day plus tips to average

the Agua Caliente casino.1^
that
90 percent
of their
M.
Rodriguez
150
earned
60
dollars working at
Major Tijuana resorts claimed
employees were
Mexican
when
the
border boom started faltering.

Meanwhile,
shifted.
Americans
the
moral
tired
regard for border saloons.
of
support
puritanical
If anything,
for
P r ohibition
reforms
without
Tijuana's success
148
was
In
further proof that Prohibition

1932,
Franklin
mandate
raise
to
legalize booze
revenue
level',
San
Roosevelt
by
taxing
Diego
was
enforced.
elected president
and the
alcoholic
chauvinists
could not be
new
regime
promised to
beverages.
s u pported
with
On
repeal
another
on
the
erroneous grounds that Mexican saloonkeepers became rich by

exploiting "innocent" Americans.
In
fact,
Americans
still
controlled the supply and demand for border liquor.

Mexico
headaches,
as
gained revenue
well.
from Prohi b i t i o n
Certainly,
the
government
and
some
taxed
the
border liquor trade but the nation lost untold millions of

dollars
through
In general,
fruits
of
fraud,
smuggling
Americans
and
Prohibition
degraded,
lawless,
other
while
violent,
and
official
foreigners
Ti~iuanenses
corruption.
enjoyed
existed
the
in
and seductive environment.
a
On
the matter of the repeal of Prohibition,
Mexicans had mixed
feelings
and what
stability
Tijuana's boom collapsed abruptly in the
Spring of
since it would cost
them
jobs
they had enjoyed in the frazzled town.
1933.
law,
On April
the
liquor
"near
Wright
ban
beer"
ended.
8,
California
Act,
17
about
At
nine
first,
(3.2 percent
laws were soon relaxed.
terminated
alcohol
months
its
before
California
content)
anti-liquor
only
but
the
U.S.
legalized
all
liquor
The impact on Tijuana was profound.
In the month of June, 150 businesses closed, including 60 of

the
100
saloons.1
Not
surprisingly,
the
"border barons"
149
still
attracted
crowds
and
competition went bankrupt.
made
money
their
Finally, on December 5, the U.S.
Congress
repealed the Eighteenth Amendment
book
Prohibition.
on
while
Tijuana
lost
its
and closed the

hegemony
in
the
Tijuana
and
liquor trade and more saloons closed down.

The
foreign
purveyors
resume operation in the U.S.

others did not.
began
to
leave
Some relocated with ease while
Herbert Jaffe,
Ed Baker and James Crofton
closed their Cerveceria A.B.C. in Tijuana upon completion of

their Aztec
B rewery
in
San
1 9 3 3 . It was said that

saloons
in order to
mafia
collect
Follies
and
insurance.
godfather,
part
of
during
the
Summer
of
foreigners burned-down their own
recouping their investment.

Diego's
Diego
on
fire
insurance,
thereby
In this way, Tony Mirabile, San

a l legedly
Tijuana's
burned
to u r i s t
the
zone
Midnight
for
the
He bought in San Diego saloons and parlayed his
profits until he controlled thirty bars by the time he was

OA
murdered, thirt y - f i v e years later. u
In any case, the
American
purveyors
e s caped
Tijuana's
busted
economy
by
returning home after morality laws were lifted.

However, Mexicans could not flee to the U.S.
lives went
from bad to worse.
According to
Their
one observer,
1933 was the "poorest year in the history of Tijuana."

the Depression finally engulfed the bordertown,
91
As
Tiiuanenses
lost their jobs, thereby triggering shortages of cash, goods

and food.
At the time, unemployed workers competed for jobs
150
at
minimum wages.
work.
Chronic
starved that
resolve
the
credit,
hunger
summer
crisis
Tijuana
resources
The
lucky
were
afflicted the
while
local
food
together
in
San
grateful
community
government
and charity was
pulled
to bu y
ones
for
and
was
poo l e d
Diego,
but
To
its
the
dozens
unable
insufficient.
and
the
to
its
meager
e mergency
supplies were soon exhausted.

Tijuana sank into a terrible Depression.
Given the
prevailing capitalist ethos, Tijuana business was reduced to

the fittest competitors while labor took what it could get.
In
time,
collapse
Mexico
City
of
border
the
intervened
to
economy,
prevent
but
only
the
total
b e cause
of
Rodriguez.
IV
For Tiiuanenses. Abelardo Rodriguez was,
man of the hour.
made
Tijuana
financial
lived
at
esti m a t e d
(31,600,000
El
in
included
other Mexican casinos.

he
the
He epitomized the very success that had
possible
empire
again,
first
holdings
in
place.
Agua
His
vast
Caliente
and
After retiring from Baja California,
Sauzal
personal
the
for
fortune
dollars)
His
Tijuana for generations.
year
where
w o rth
wealth
he
managed
100,000,000
and
power
an
pesos
influenced
He was in a position to help the
bordertown during its greatest need.

His role in cultivating Tijuana vice activity cannot
be
minimized.
He
claimed
to
be
benevolent
if
not
151
progressive
leader
autobiography,
create
of
the
Rodriguez
said
businesses,
to
open
border
that,
new
region.
"my
sources
In
his
intention
was
to
of
and
to
labor
cooperate in national economic development."
His admirers
claim that Baja California "realized more economic progress

than any other region in Mexico" during his rule,
forgot
to
mention
p r o s p e r i t y . 24
the
One
moral
historian
Rodriguez
e n c o uraged
beginning,
vice was the only
death" for Tijuana.

any
case,
price
paid
explained
illicit
for
that
candidly
that
"in
the
life
and
Many dispute this interpretation.25
In
Tijuana prospered
activity
but they
since,
alternative between
and the territorial
strongman
made the trains run on time, as well.

By
1931,
Rodriguez
national politics
His
successful
as
the
was
Depression
management
meteoric political
drawn
career.
into
the
vortex
effected the
of
Baja
California
On October 16,
of
economy.
launched
he was named
Subsecretary of War; three months later, he became Secretary

of
Commerce
Secretary
and
of
resigned the
War
Industry;
and
Navy.
Presidency
remaining
and,
finish
the
term.
On September 4,
In
finally,
1932,
and Congress
twenty-six
he was
President of the Republic,
he
Pascal
was
made
Ortiz
Rubio
elected Rodriguez
months
of
sworn in as
the
the
to
unexpired
Substitute
less than a year after his first
cabinet appointment.
152
The
rise
of
Rodriguez
was
no
Plutarco Elias Calles,

who
selected
accident.
the Jefe Maximo

o7
Mexican presidents.
of the
It
Revolution,
Admittedly,
substitute leader managed routine federal operations,

Calles determined national policy.
was
the
while
The two Sonoran generals
worked well together and Calles often rested at El Sauzal,

thereby
transforming
political Mecca.
the
Ensenada
ranch
into
a Mexican
Jos6 Vasconcelos, a disgruntled candidate,
claimed that Rodriguez bought the presidency by sharing his

immoral
Mexico
border
City
profits
with
journalists
Tijuana into the
three
warned that
"Mouth of Hell"
same thing to the country.
former
presidents.
Rodriguez
had
changed
and that he would do the
The press was convinced of his
immoral intentions when two major casinos opened around the

capital one month after he took office.
He was roasted in
editorials with nicknames like the "gambling President," the

"millionaire President" and the "country club President.
Critics
ridiculed
his
qualifications
and
the
regime
was
smeared with accusations of corruption, gambling and Tijuana

vice activity.
Two
commentators
thoroughly immoral.
charged
that
the
President
was
His persistent labor nemesis, Francisco
M. Rodriguez, wrote that don Abelardo was the cruelest, most

decadent governor in the history of Baja California.^
Tijuana
dissident
also
claimed
that
Rodriguez
proteges like Soo Yasuhara and Patricio Mee Hong,
The
cultivated
owners of
153
the
Molino
Rojo
brothel
and
the
Chinaman's
Historian Edwin Lieuwen wrote that,
drug
"Governor Rodriguez was
the principal entrepreneur in the horseracing,

brothel
business"
of Tijuana.^1
complaints valid?
his
later
den.
To what
casino,
extent
and
were
the
The answer requires an understanding of
struggle
to
sustain
the
illicit
border
economy
against a tourist decline.

In 1933, President Rodriguez intervened on Tijuana's
behalf,
local
ostensively
economy.
to
The
prevent
central
the
total
auth o r i t y
collapse
hel p e d
of
the
Tijuana's
surviving businesses, albeit vice activity, in the hope that

a vigorous
economy would
stimulate
the local consumer crisis.

remove
City
barriers
urged
the
employment
and
relieve
The Mexican government tried to
that
impeded
U.S.
to
Tijuana's
cooperate
in
recovery.
this
Mexico
venture
since
American moral shifts had disrupted the bordertown.

To stimulate greater tourism,
Mexico had long urged
the U.S. to reopen the border to night traffic.

be recalled that the Americans
had
It should
imposed a dusk to dawn
border curfew in reaction to the Peteet case of 192 6 . ^
The
curfew was a symbolic reminder to Mexico and Rodriguez,
in
particular,
On
that the Peteet
ghosts
the one hand, American officials
haunted the
refused to lift the order
until Tijuana vice activity was
cleaned-up.
Rodriguez
angry
business
never
was
appeased
affected,
he
his
scene.
rallied
On the other,
neighbor,
Tiiuanenses
but
to
when
boycott
154
Amer i c a n
merchants
border.^
and
stop
the
SD&A
Railroad
at
the
The symbolic protests polarized the stalemate on
national l i n e s . Through it all/ the curfew did little to

stop
determined
hours.
Americans
After
eight
from
crossing
years,
the
the
border
after
was
moot,
pol i c y
anachronistic and harmful to mutual interests.

The
for normal
Tijuana
relations
C&mara de Comercio
the
business
Mexican
community
at- the border.
had
At
(Chamber of Commerce)
Embassy
stalemate continued.
to
resolve
the
always
first,
pleaded
Tijuana's
cabled the U.S. and

conflict
but
the
Once, in desperation, it began a rumor
that planted false reports of the curfew's end in American

newspapers.
For
example,
in
1931,
the
San
Diego
press
printed news that U.S. Treasury Secretary Seymour Lowman had

ordered 24-hour service at the San Ysidro Port of Entry . ^
Officials denied the story immediately.
D ur i n g
Commerce
begged
border curfew.
Tijuana's
1933
crisis,
Calles,
Mexico's
the
strongman,
C h amber
to
of
lift
the
On April 4, the merchants gave him a party
at Tijuana's Foreign Club where he was asked to correct the

situation.
During
the
party,
one
Calles turned to his son-in-law,

Torreblanco,
observer
recalled
Mexican diplomat
that
Fernando
and told him to raise the issue with President
Franklin Roosevelt during their forthcoming m e e t i n g . On

the next day,
Torreblanco
flew to the American capital
his first meeting with the new president.
At long last,
for
on
155
June 1, the U.S. government opened the Port of Entry aroundthe-clock for the first time in history.
The curfew ended
and the Chamber thanked the Mexican president.^7

In 1933/
the Chamber of Commerce also asked Mexico
City to reduce Tijuana's fiscal burden, saying that business

was bad.
AT the time,
group
Agua
and
Wulfrano Ruiz was president
Caliente's
Wirt
Bowman
was
vice
of the
president
while the membership included Mexicans and foreigners.
Ruiz
and Bowman explained their sin tax reduction plan to Calles

at
El
Sauzal.
Gonz&lez
Next,
Ruiz
and
carried the plan to
Tijuana
the
magnate
National
Palace,
travel expenses covered by the "border barons."3

in
late
June,the
Tijuana's
delegation
sin tax.
convinced
Miguel
with
Finally,
Rodriguez
to
lower
The President was mindful that border
tourism was important to Mexico
since it was equivalent to

oQ
4.5 percent of the trade with the U.S.
Ruiz and Gonz&lez
were invited to draft the fiscal reform.

On August
was
published
border
areas
Rodrigu e z
in
1933,
the
Diario
duty-free
said
ne i g hbo r i n g
30,
that
country
the
Oficial
import
"the
Decree
granting
status.
repeal
caused
of Free Perimeters
of
deep
In
Tijuana
the
Prohibition
depression
and
order,
in
the
for
the
bordertowns; it was necessary to establish free zones as the

only
recourse."4
The new law
allowed American
enter Tijuana without paying customs.

other
vice
resorts
paid
25
percent
Saloons,
less
in
goods
to
casinos and
monthly
tax
156
contributions
effect/
the
while
old
surcharges
"border barons"
were
terminated.
got tax breaks
In
while Mexicans
with no money to import food gained nothing.
Foreign vice
purveyors benefited, but the Tiiuanenses got precious little

help.
President
Rodriguez,
toward prostitution.
legal brothels,
were
owned,
meanwhile,
was
ambivalent
Since the early 1920s, Tijuana had two
the Venus
and Molino Rojo,
operated and pa t r o n i z e d by
but
the houses
foreigners.
As
president, Rodriguez enacted the Sanitary Code of 1934 which

required
The
that
decree
prostitutes
declared that
receive
venereal
monthly
disease
health
checks.
eradication
was
the first step toward abolishing prostitution throughout the

country.41
Legal
brothels
obeyed
the
law;
however,
the
campaign was resisted by widespread unlicensed prostitution.

In one sense,
affected
by
prostitution was
Tijuana's
slump.
registered
prostitutes;
two
still
licenses.
had
"were
border"
officials
AO
nationality. ^
all
Other
1932,
years
Wulfrano
public women
yet
In
later,
Ruiz
foreigners
wrote
who
disre g a r d e d
observers
just another
Tijuana
only
that
lived
their
were usually
and Latinas also worked the bordertown.
200
500
women
Tijuana's
of the
residence
concluded that
White women
had
north
were Europena, Asian and American, in particular.

born prostitutes
sector
90
and
percent
The U.S.-
although
Blacks
Before the decline,
few Mexican women had worked as Tijuana hookers;
officials
157
"rehabilitated"
the
nationals
at
the
Islas
Marias
penal
colony.
Apparently,
Mexico and the United States reached a
private modus vivendi dealing with American girls in Tijuana

dens.
The governments could not outlaw sex yet both sides
wanted no more problems with American women abused in vice

resorts.
The problem was reduced since many prostitutes and
entertainers left town in 1933.

but
the
"good
confidence.
neighbor"
For example,
The past was not forgotten
relationship
in May,
1934,
was
tested
in
the Ruiz brothers
hired some young women in Los Angeles to work as bar girls

in their Tijuana saloons.
However,
officials were able to
nip a potential scandal in the bud through informants.
The
American border guards caught the girls and sent them home
while
Mexican
time.
With
officials
the
re l i e f and pride,
informed Rodriguez
since
closed
American
that
for
Governor Ag u s t i n
"the Peteet
authorities
cabarets
case was
cooperated"
in
not
brief
Olachea
repeated
concealing
the
affair from the p u b l i c . ^

After
Repeal,
Rodriguez
helped
the
border
liquor
industry and made feeble attempts to prevent bootleggers and

smugglers
from evading
magnates,
adulturated,
like
they
However,
Romandia,
Tijuana
con t i n u e d
untaxed booze through a network
street peddlers.
when
Rafael
taxes.
liquor
selling
of unlicensed
Officials suppressed some illegal vendors
a p plied
for
permits.
In
one
case,
Ignacio
158
Luevano's
Tijuana
application was
Mexico City only because his

The
administration
was
rejected,
supply
hard
on
came
sellers
on appeal,
by
from Romandia.44
but
it
tolerated
larger crimes committed by some wealthier Mexicans.

Likewise,
criticism over
1934,
action.
by
central
its approval
Sec r e t a r y
Rodriguez
the
of
faced
internal
of gambling permits.
In May,
G obernacidn
submitting
After
authority
an
Narciso
anti-casino
reading the proposal,
Bassols
law
the
for
shocked
executive
President
asked,
"'But, Licenciado. don't you realize that these casinos are

mine?'"
Bassols
document
for
answers,
your
"'Yes
signature
precisely
Expecting a summary rejection,

resigna t i o n
congress,
in
sir.
protest.4^
for
b rought
that
this
reason.'"
Bassols handed his prepared

Months
later,
the
Mexican
too, tried to ban casinos yet the President put a
quick stop to the legislation.

Tijuana's vice inspired a popular contemporary novel
based on aspects of the "black legend."
In 1932, Hern^n de
la Roca finished writing Tiiuana In. which was published the

followi n g year.
met a p h o r
of
This
fatal
book
degeneracy.
characters at Agua Caliente,

Follies,
Foreign
t r a n sfigured
Club
languished in an orgy
The
Blue Fox,
and
of sex,
other
drugs,
Tijuana
novelist
Chinaman's,
resorts
into
put
his
Midnight
where
they
liquor and gambling.
Through God's mercy, Tijuana and its lost souls were finally
redeemed by a cataclysmic fire that cleansed the benighted
159
land
of vice
and
sin.4 ^
Surprisingly,
the
government
permitted the printing of the novel three times despite its

criticism of the ruling elite.
From the border to the
against
capital,
leaders who tolerated Tijuana
many voices
vice
spoke
activity.
sad fact was that don Abelardo's government
The
helped border
resorts survive while society did without basic necessities.

When the crisis hit, the popular classes lost confidence in
Tijuana's golden idols.
The miracle had become a nightmare
and society was anxious about its future.

V
Meanwhile,
new
leader
challenged
the
ambiguous
methods used by the state to achieve social progress.

hindsight,
the
Sonora
clique
General L&zaro C&rdenas,

as
its presidential
miscalculated when
the former governor
candidate
in the
1934
With
it picked
of Michoac&n,
election.
The
ruling elite endorsed Cardenas because he was loyal, dynamic

and popular,
but he had his own vision for Mexico.
In his
diary, he outlined a plan to moralize the nation and Tijuana

because vice activity ate away at the strength of workers,
government
and
the
Revolution.
benefactors
could not
renovation.
As
opposed to
the
to
ban
pledge
sway him
His
from the
path
former presidents,
gambling
while
casino-owning
crusades
of
he
national
fulfilled
against
other
vices faltered.
160
In July,
when
he
1933, C&rdenas had seen Tijuana first hand
v i sited
Calles
at
El
Sauzal.
A f ter
public
ceremonies, the two men relaxed at the Agua Caliente resort

while
the
them.
"border
barons"
lavished
royal
treatment
upon
On July 12, their talks resumed aboard Baron Long's
yacht while
sailing to Mazatl&n
en
route
to
Mexico
City.
Reportedly, the candidate discussed banning casinos.

Tijuana's
worst suspicions.
"high
life"
c o nfirmed
the
candidate's
During the next year, C&rdenas outlined a
campaign against gambling casinos to be instituted after his

election.
He knew that political allies like Rodriguez and
Calles had invested in casinos around the country.

point, Cardenas recorded that,
On this
"Nothing justifies vice.
The
Revolution must put an end to this.
I will do it when it is
in my
the
power.47
powerful
He
opposition,
expected
but
he
that
had
faith
reform would
that
most
face
Mexicans
would support the program.

On
President
December
of
the
1,
1934,
Republic.
C&rde n a s
His
was
first
sworn
radio
in
as
broadcast
condemned vice and corruption,
and, he outlawed casinos and
ordered
24-hours
them
closed
within
of
the
speech.4
Gambling stopped even at the Penafiel Hotel and Casino de la

Selva without
Calles.
opposition
from their
owners,
Rodriguez
and
The new regime hoped that the reform would restore
public confidence in government and it succeeded everywhere

except in Tijuana where more was at stake.
161
When he
Tijuana
closed the
experience.
casinos,
C&rdenas
The President's
diary
recalled
his
identified
the
"border baron" casinos asi

.prime targets of law.
On January
1, he wrote that, "The Revolution suppressed centers of vice

and
exploitation
in
its
first
noble
impulse,
but
the
moralizing drive was lost and culminated in the opening of

gambling casinos like Agua Caliente,
and others
in Baja California."4
Tecolote,
Foreign Club
Tijuana's
casinos
also
operated for seven months after C&rdenas' deadline.

C&rdenas did not want to kill tourism.
wanted
to
free
activity.^
Tijuana's
In 1934,
economy
from
the
He
grip
simply
of
vice
Tijuana represented an investment of
15,000,000 dollars which produced an equivalent of 2 percent

of Mexico's trade with the U . S .^1
spent about 20,000,000 dollars
Mexicans
Over 4,000,000 Americans
in Tijuana,
(one-third of the population)
resorts bought
300,000
dollars
providing 5,000
with
of supplies
jobs.
from
The
San Diego
each month.
On
Friday,
July
19,
Tijuana gambling permits;

the
casinos
at
Midnight
between Tijuana and the
1935,
then,
on
C&rdenas
revoked
all
Governor Olachea padlocked
Sunday.
The
unholy
marriage
"border barons" had dissolved.
It
happened so fast that merrymakers did not realize that the

"golden
age"
operators
opinions
had
and
about
ended
M e xican
the
right
before
officials
relative
their
eyes.
e x pressed
value
of
the
Casino
c onflicting
ban.
Not
162
surprisingly,
Caliente,
Alberto
Aldrete,
complained that,
general
"'The order
ma n a g e r
came
as
of Agua
a distinct
CO
surprise.'
Gambling magnates
Tijuana resorts
"catered to American visitors
90 percent Mexican help."

the
Mexican
defended
Fish
the
an d
ban.
Conversely,
Game
the
and employed
in
San
Diego,
Presid e n t ' s
logic,
"'His idea is not to hurt.
for the workers that are out
since
Fernando Villasenor,
Commissioner
Explaining
Villasenor said that,

sorry
demanded exemptions
of work,
He feels
but he
knows
that no country can be built on a false basis, and vice is a

false basis.'"53
Management,
meanwhile,
unprofitable without gambling.
arg u e d
that
In protest,
resorts
were
therefore, they
closed everything and the result was that workers lost their
jobs and taxes were not
A gua
Caliente
Likewise,
the
shut-down,
Jockey
cancelled the entire

legal.
collected.
forcing
Club
For example,
guests
president,
season though horse
in July,
to
leave.
Joseph
Schenck,
racing was
still
The Hollywood mogul appeared to liquidate his Agua
Caliente stock at a loss,
but he retained secret ownership
to evade U.S. taxes.

The
they
stood
"border barons"
pat,
using
had
called Mexico's
economic
Tiiuanenses against the decree.
leverage
bluff
to
and
incite
It was a classic lock-out.
At the same time, the "border barons"
appealed the gambling
163
ban thinking a deal
could be
struck with the
new regime.
They were wrong.

As
became
panic
spread/
supporters
Caliente
had
of
fired
the
labor
"border
1,500
Tijuana's workforce)
Alba Roja,
Tijuana
Mexican
unions
barons"
workers
suddenly
and
casinos.
(one-third
of
without concern for the wider impact.
the bartenders'
and the musicians'
unions,
held
an emergency mass meeting where angry members called for a

border blockade until they were rehired.
Authorities kept
labor protests under control; militants were suppressed but

tensions
ran h i g h . ^
The w o rkers
recei v e d
one
month's
severance pay, averaging 50 dollars per person though labor

contracts
had
provided
.for three
months'
pay.^
Agua
Caliente was expected to honor its agreement.

Meanwhile,
seeking
relief
union
from
delegations
their
went
unemployment,
to
Mexico
hunger
and
City
fear.
The regime stressed that only casinos were banned and that
the resorts could resume operations.
C&rdenas agreed that
the
Caliente
Club
former
without
abandoned.
that the
the
employees
could
gambling,
if
run
the
Agua
resorts
and Foreign
stayed
closed
and
On August 5, Tijuana union leaders were notified

"government will
establi s h m e n t s
an d
support the
laborers
constituting
in opening
themselves
as
cooperative societies," since management refused to open .^7

W orkers
liked
the
idea
and
they
pl a n n e d
to
make
the
agreement a reality despite their managerial inexperience.
164
Wirt Bowman, Baron Long and Joseph Schenck condemned

the workers'
plan because it amounted to a confiscation of
their private property.

warned
that
Mexicans
the
took
U.S.
In veiled threats,
had
seized
over American
Hipbdromo manager,
said that
Tampico
property.
resort
the
Lou
"'the business
and we will operate it as we see fit.'"^
owners
last
time
Anger,
belongs
the
to us
Meanwhile,
when
Caliente closed, reporters asked Calles, then in Tijuana, if

he
was
there
to
protect
his
gambling
strongman denied the insinuation,
investments.
saying that
"No,
The
no,
no!
Whoever started that rumor made a false political m o v e . ' " ^

Yet, by years'
other
the
political
cause
of
end, Calles had broken with the regime over

disputes.
government
personal interests.
Strangely,
and
the
Rodriguez
workers'
He and C&rdenas
supported
despite
his
stayed good friends
despite the legal quagmire that engulfed Agua Caliente.

In 1935, C&rdenas had ended the twenty-year reign of
American gamblers
when
he
expropriated Agua
a public
ranches
over Tijuana.
school.
Caliente
Likewise,
along the border
The defeat
and
for the homeless population.
he
and
seized
founded
was
completed
converted
illegal
it
into
American
cooperative
colonies
He provided emergency relief
in food, jobs and tax reductions to help the popular classes

cope with the resulting economic decline.
He had used the
power of the state on behalf of the popular classes.
165
VI
In
summary,
determined
by
tourism
foreign purveyors
status
Tijuana's
quo was
and
vice
some
upset
internal dynamic.
and
by
the
history
activity
Mexican
three
First,
local economic growth.
early
that
Great
Tijuana's
variables
Depression
the
repeal
been
enriched
officials.
external
Second,
had
and
had
one
slowed
of Prohibition
had bankrupted almost half the businesses in town.
Third,
California horseracing and Nevada gambling had given Tijuana

new
competition.
thereby
closing the
combination,
Cardenas
town's
international
Tijuana's boom.
when
Finally,
Mexicans
The
assumed
had
banned
most p r o d uctive
and
national
"border barons'"
greater
sector.
events
hegemony
control
of
casinos,
had
had
their
In
ended
eroded
economy.
However, the story of Tijuana's main actors deserves closer

scrutiny.
In retrospect, the "border barons" had built Tijuana
then most
loss
and
of them abandoned
returned
Tijuana.
James
to
the
Crofton
it.
U.S.;
Most
investors
however,
resis t e d
the
some
ban
took
the
stayed
until
he
in
was
declared persona non grata for meddling in Mexican internal

and foreign affairs.
In 1937,
Joseph Schenck reopened the
Hipddromo though he never shied away from crime to protect

his assets.
The "border barons" and their Mexican partners
probably lost millions on their Tijuana holdings,

was
an
insignificant
sum
to
wealthy
men
like
but,
that
Abelardo
166
Rodriguez.
Ultimately/ he took away more Tijuana gold than
he lost in the confiscation.

LcLzaro
Cardenas,
meanwhile,
was
inducted
Mexican pantheon of revolutionary heroes.

Tijuana
gamblers,
activity.
imposed
Agua
but
he
failed
to
economic
Caliente,
limits
one
on
reform.
newspaper
When
w r ote
the
He defeated the
suppress
He pledged to moralize Tijuana,
into
all
however,
reality
C&rdenas
that
' it
vice
barred
is
the
reformer's typical weakness to try to remedy what shouldn't

61
exist by a decree to enact what can't be done ."0

won an ideological victory against
He had
foreign purveyors while
he lost the economic war with American neo-colonialism.

a personal tribute,
As
the school at Agua Caliente was renamed
in his honor.
Tiiuanenses were the true protagonists in this epic
since
they
"border
risked
barons."
their
livelihood
After
decades,
prevailed over the foreigners;

and bitterness
odds,
struggling
Mexican
unions
but bankruptcy,
resulted from their efforts.
with
the
finally
unemployment
Against
great
the popular classes repaired the economy with meager
local resources.
Yet ironically,
Tiiuanenses based the new
society on tourism and partly on vice as in bygone days.
167
ENDNOTES
^Wulfrano Ruiz Gonzalez, Por Fin Habla Buchito Sobre

La Zona Libre
(Tijuana:
no.p., 1988), p. 240, cited as:
Ruiz, Buchito.
"Survey Shows Big Growth of Tijuana," The
San Diego Union. August 2, 1930.
2David Pihera Ramirez, ed., Historia de Tiiuana
2 Vols.
(Tijuana:
Centro de Investigaciones Histdricas,
UNAM-UABC, 1989), Vol. 2, p. 115, 389> cited as:
Pinera
Ramirez, HT.
Niles Hansen, The Border Economy (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1981), pp. 36-37.
2John Price, Tiiuana (Notre Dame:
University of
Notre Dame Press, 1973), p. 57, cited as: Price, Tiiuana.
^"Free Port Move for Tijuana," The San Dieao Union.
June 10, 1933.
"Rodriguez Files Claim in Race Track
Contest," The San Diego Un ion. January 6 , 1944.
Bob Owens,
"Caliente," Reader. 12:28 (July 21, 1983), p. 17.
^Pihera
Ramirez, H T . Vol. 2, p. 128.
Francisco M.
Rodriguez, Baco
v Birin (Mexico: B. Costa-Amic, 1968), p.
102, cited as: Rodriguez, B a c o .
^Tom Gwynne, "Bookies W i t h d r a w , " The San Dieao
Union, December 4, 1931.
Tom Gwynne, "Baron Long Back in
Good Turf Rating," The San Diego Union. March 11, 1932.
"Phar Lap," The San Diego U n ion, January 28, 1932.
7Arthur Ribbel, "Agua
Dieao Union, March 28, 1982.
Caliente
H e y d a y , " The
San
^Mexico.
Secretaria de la Presidencia, 50 Anos De
Revolucion
Mexicana
En
Cifras
(Mexico:
Nactional
Financiera, S.A., 1963), p. 115, cited as: Mdxico, 50 Anos.
Price, Tiiuana. p. 9.
Eliseo Mendoz Berrueto,
"Algunos
aspectos soc i o e c o n o m d m i c o s de la frontera norte de la
Republics Mexicana," in, Roque Gonzalez Salazar, ed., La
Frontera del Norte (Mexico:
Colegio de Mexico, 1981), pp.
56-58.
^Pihera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 1, pp. 185-186.
Ray
Hebert, "Booming Tijuana," Los Angeles Times. November 5,
1972.
Vi Murphy, "Cartolandia Dies as Tijuana Cheers," The
San Dieao Union, May 16, 1973.
Ronald Jensen, "Resettled
Tia Juana Flood Refugees," The San Dieao Union, February 12,
1979.
168
^ A b r a h a m Hoffman, Unwanted Mexican Americans

Great Depression (Tucson:
University of Arizona
1976), p. 103.
Francisco E. Balderrama, In Defense
Raza (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1982), p.
in the
Press,
of La
20.
11
"Jorge Bustamente, "Surgimiento de la C o l o m a

Libertad," in, Pinera Ramirez, HT. Vol. 1, p. 319. Josefina
Rendon Parra, Anuntes Historicos De Tiiuana
(Tijuana:
Talleres de Papeleria del Noroeste, S.A., 1972), p. 101,
cited as Rendon Parra, A H T .
19
- ^ " T i u u a n a
sewer
Contract,"
The
San
Diego
Union.
October 4, 1932.
^Francisco Javiers Gaxiola, Jr., El Presidente
Rodriacruez (1932-1934) (Mexico: Editorial "CVLTVRA, 1938),
pp. 75-76, cited as:
Gaxiola, Rodricruez. "Mexican Trade
Seen as Great Business Boon," The San Dieao Union. August
24, 1929.
Antonio Padilla Corona, "La Presa Abelardo L.
Rodriguez," in, Pinera Ramirez, HT. Vol. 2, pp. 102, 103.
Nathaniel and Sylvia Weyl, The Reconcruest of Mexico (London:
Oxford University Press, 1939), p. 180, cited as: Weyl, K M .
14Archivo General de la N a c i 6 n, Presidenciales,
Fondo A b e l a r d o Rodriguez,
Julio Men d o z a to Abelardo
Rodriguez, Tijuana, Baja California, November 16, 1933, Exp.
561.6/86-1; hereafter cited as: AGN, AR.
^ A b e l a r d o L. Rodriguez, Autobi o a r a f i a (Mexico:
Novaro Editores, 1962), p. 134, cited as:
Rodriguez, Auto.
Guillermo Durante de Cabarga, Abelardo L. Rodriaauez
(Mexico: Ediciones Botas, 1933), p. 68 , cited as: Durante,
Rodriguez. Pinera Ramirez, H T . Vol. 2, p. 123.
^Francisco M. Rodriguez, "Testimonios de Personas
que Trabajaron en Agua Caliente," in, Pinera Ramirez, HT.
Vol. 1, p. 123. Pinera Ramirez, HT. Vol. 2, p. 151.
17"Wright Act Striken from Books," The San Dieao
Hernin de la Roca, Tiiuana In
(Mexico:
"CVLTVRA, 1932), p. 60, hereinafter cited as:
De
la Roca, Tiiuana I n . Wendall E. Harmon, "The Bootlegger Era
in Southern C a l i f o r n i a , " Southern California Quarterly
XXXVII:4
(December, 1955),p. 339.
Roberta Ridgely, "U.S.
Grant," San Dieao Magazine 30:8 (July, 1986), p. 245.
Ûlises Irigoyen, "El problema econ 6mica de las
ciudades fronterizas," Boletin de la Sociedad Chihuahuense
de Estudios H i s t 6 ricos IV (July 20, 1942), pp. 65-66.
Rendon Parra, AHT. p. 115. Rodriguez, Baco. p. 102. Pinera
Ramirez, H T . Vol. 1, p. 134.
169
IQ
J"New San Diego Brewery Will Start Saturday," The

San Dieoo Union. June 7, 1933.
"33 Stolen Cases Crossed
Border Line from Tijuana," The San Diego Union. January 28,
1932.
^ P i n e r a Ramirez, HT. Vol. 2, pp. 327-328.
Ruiz,
Buchito. p. 15. Homer Clance, "Slain Mobster's Record," The
San Diego Union. February 14, 1977.
21"Tia Juana Hard Hit by Our Liquor Law," The New
York Times. F e b r u a r y 25, 1934.
Ruiz, B u c h i t o . p. 18.
Pinera Ramirez, PHBC. p. 712.
Pinera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 1.,
p. 133.
oo
^F r a n c i s c o Naranjo,
"Los M i l l i o n a n o s
Revolucidn," Diario de Yucatan. September 3, 1948.
de
la
^Rodriguez, Auto, p. 162.

94
142.
Durante, Rodrlcruez. p. 27. Gaxiola, Rodriguez, p.

Rendon Parra, AHT. p . 98. Price, Tiiuana. p. 49.
^Fernando
Jordan, El
Otro
Secretaria de Educacidn, 1987), p. 101.
M e xico
(Mexico:
^ D u r a n t e , R o d r i q u e z . p. 27.
Fran c i s c o Javier
Gaxiola, Memorias (Mexico: Editorial Porrua, 1975), p. 146,
cited as:
Gaxiola, Memorias.
Alfonso Taracena, Historia
Extraoficial de la Revolucidn Mexicana (Mexico:
Editorial
JUS, 1972), pp. 369-370.
Jestis Silva Herzog, Una Vida en la
Vida de Mfexico (Mexico:
Siglo Veintiuno, 1972), p. 149,
cited as:
Silva Herzog, V i d a . Lorenzo Meyer, Historia de
la Revolucidn Mexicana:
1928-1934 (Mexico:
Litogr&fica
Delta, 1981), Volume 12, pp. 271, 159, cited as:
Meyer,
HRM.
97
Rosendo Salazar, Del Militarising al Civilismo en

Nuestra Revolucidn (Mexico:
Libor Mex Editores, 1958), p.
328.
Meyer, HRM. p. 160. Dulles, Yesterday,
p. 569.
Francisco Martin Moreno, Mexico Negro
(Mexico:
Joaquin
Mortiz, 1987), p. 546.
Tzvi Medin, El Minimato Presidencial
(Mexico:
Ediciones Era, 1982), p. 121, cited as:
Medin,
Minimato.
^Jos Vasconcelos, A Mexican U l v s s e s . W. Rex
Crawford, tr., (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press,
1965), p.279.
Silva Herzog.^Vida. pp. 149-150.
170
29
^James W. Wilke an Edna Monz 6n de Wilke, eds.,

Mexico Visto en el Sialo XX (Mexico:
Instituto Mexicano de
Investigaciones Economicas, 1969), p. 659.
J. H. Plenn,
Mexico Marches (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1939),
p. 1 2 0 .
3 Rodriguez,
Baco. pp. 27, 23, 62.
31 Meyer, HRM. p. 163.
33"Three Killed by Gas after Visit to Tijuana," The

"Tijuana Gloomy as U.S.
Enforces Border Curfew," New York Daily N e w s . February 18,
1926.
"Chastened Tijuana Exudes Deep Gloom," Ne w York
Times. February 21, 1926.
33Tijuana Gathers Facts Against Closing Order," The
Will Rogers, "American
Money-Makers' Place Is Home If They Can't Protect Selves in
Mexico, in, James M. Smallwood, ed., Will Rogers' Weekly
Articles (Stillwater, Oklahoma:
Okalahoma State Unviersity
Press (1980), Vol. 2, p. 164.
"'Shame Suicides,'" The New
York World. February 21, 1926.
"El Gobernador Rodriguez
Prometib Hacer Justicia," La Prensa (San Antonio), February
21, 1926.
"Peteet Trial Asserted Just," Los Anceles Times.
July 31, 1926.
34A b e l a r d o Rodriguez to Plutarco Elias Calles,
Mexicali, Baja California, February 26, 1926, AGN, OC, 425T-7.
Rafael Romandia to Abelardo Rodriguez, Tijuana, Baja
California, April 17, 1926, AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
Plutarco
Elias Calles to Abelardo Rodriguez, Mexico, May 24, 1926,
AGN, OC, 425-T-7.
"Las Alarmas del Puritanismo Americano,"
Excelsior. February 9, 1926.
"Tijuana's Business Men to
Appel Early Closing," The San Dieao Union. February 19,
1926.
"Gov. Rodriguez W o u l d Bar Border to California
Trade," The San Dieao Union. February 25, 1926.
"Trouble at
the Border," The New York Times. June 30, 1929. De la Roca,
Tijuana In, p. 24. Rodriguez, Baco. p. 21. Pinera Ramirez,
HT. Vol. 1, p. 282.
3C
"24-Hour Border Plan Denied by Lowman," The San
Dieco Union. April 17, 1931.
3 Ruiz, Buchito. pp. 30-31.
"Border Closes at 9 to
Reopen at 12 Midnight," The San Dieao Union. June 1, 1933.
171
3 Archivo General de la N a c i 6 n, P r e s i d e n c i a l e s ,
Fondo Abelardo Rodriguez, C&mara de Comercio to Abelardo
Rodriguez, Tijuana, Baja California, June 2, 1933, Exp.
224.1/5, hereafter cited as:
AGN, AR.
E. David Cronon,
Josephus Daniels in Mexico
(Madison:
University of
Wisconsin Press, 1960), pp. 59-60. Ruiz, Buchito. p. 241.
38*Tijuana to Start Fiestas at Noon," The San Dieao

Union. June 24, 1933.
39Meyer, H R M . p. .271.
Ôpiario Oficial.
August 30,
1933.
Rodricruez. pp. 359-361. Ruiz, Buchito. p. 103.
Gaxiola,
^Gaxiola, Rodriguez, pp. 333-334.

4^Ruiz, Buchito. p. 18.
Rodriguez, Baco. p. 23.
43Clifford Alan Perkins, Border Patrol (El Paso:

Texas Western Press, 1978), pp. 122-123. Agustin Olachea to
Abelardo Rodriguez, Mexicali, Baja California, May 5, 1934,
AGN, AR, 622.2/4.
44Agustin Olachea to F. Javier Gaxiola,
Baja California, May 16, 1933, AGN, AR, 562.6/11.
Mexicali,
45Silva Herzog, Vida, pp.l 49-150.

4De la Roca, Tiiuana In. pp. 121-122,
149-150.
47Lizaro C&rdenas, Apuntes (Mexico:

UNAM,
pp. 286, 297, hereafter cited as: C&rdenas, Aountes.
1972),
43W i l l i a m Cameron Townsend, Lazaro Cardenas (Ann

Arbor:
George Wahr Publishing, 1952), pp. 100, 108.
Jesus
Romero Flores, Lazaro Cardenas (Mexico:
Costa-Amic, 1971),
pp. 53-54.
Silva Herzog, Vida, p. 150. Medin, Minimato. p.
152.
Rodriguez, Baco. p. 102.
Pinera Ramirez, HT. Vol. 1, p. 134. Demaris, Poso. pp. 119120 .
AQ
^ C & r d e n a s , A p u n t e s . p. 311.
Leizaro C&rdenas,
Ideario Politico (Mexico: Ediciones Era, 1984), p. 18.
3 C&rdenas, Apuntes. p. 293.
31,,Expecting War Between L.A., Border Track," The

San Diego Union.
November 2,
1934.
"All
Caliente
Padlocked," The San Diego Union, July 22,
1935.
Ted
172
Steinmann, "This 'N That," The San Dieao Union, July

1935. Mexico, 50 Anos. p. 115. Meyer, HRM. p. 211.
24,
52"Caliente Gambling Banned," The San Diecro Union.

July 21, 1935.
5 2 "Cardenas Unapproachable
Honest, Is View of S.D. Aid," The San
1935.
"Mexico:
Ex-Iron Man's Exit,"
3, 1935), p. 11.
Editors, "True to
Union. August 7, 1935.
on Gaming,
Rigidly
Dieao Union. July 25,
Newsweek VI:5 (August
Type," The San Dieao
^ 4 "A11 Caliente Padlocked," The San Dieao Union.

July 22, 1935.
"Ensenada Hotel to Open," The San Dieao
Union. August 7, 1935.
Pinera
Ramirez, HT. Vol. 2, p. 142.
Kathleen Mader and Marvin
Wolf, "Thelma Todd's Murder Solved!," Los Anaeles. 32:12
(December, 1987), pp. 226, 228.
Barbara Learning, If This
Was Happiness:
A Biography of Rita Hayworth (New York:
Penguin Books, 1989), pp. 15-16.
^ " B o r d e r Blockade Latest
Threat
in Gambling
Battle," The San Dieao Union. July 24, 1935.
"Olachea
Ouster Demanded," The San Diego Union. July 28, 1935.
Pinera Ramirez, HT, Vol. 2, pp. 143-144, 326.
56"Tijuanans Leave to Plead with Cardenas," The San
Dieoo Union. July 23, 1935.
^ 7,,Opinion Divided as Border Resorts
Reopened," The San Diego Union. August 6 , 1935.
58"01achea
August 8 , 1935.
Urges
Reopening,"
The
San
Ordered
Dieoo
^ J o e Morgan,
"General Calles Goes into
Retirement Here," The San Dieoo Union, July 24, 1935.
Union,
Real
"Agrarian Revolt No Surprise for Ex-President

Rodriguez," The San Dieoo Union. July 24, 1935.
61True to Type," The San Dieoo Union. August 7,
1935.
"Revenue Then Ruin," The San Dieoo Union. July 23,
1935.
"Tijuana Business Gains Reported," The San Dieoo
Union. July 26, 1935.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission of th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
CHAPTER '6
TIJUANA'S COLORFUL LEGENDS
I
American
financiers
fortunes during Tijuana's
and their Mexican cohorts made
"golden age."
Between
1920
and
1935/ the foreigners transformed the sleepy bordertown into

America's
"sin
city.
tourist potential,
U.S.
banned
Promoters
had
foreseen
Tijuana's
but resorts were not feasible until the
liquor;
then
border
havens
appeared.
The
foreign owners of saloons, casinos, dens and brothels struck

it rich but local residents got menial jobs as their reward.
Meanwhile,
Tijuana's
social
structure grew dependent
on
liquor, gambling, sex and drugs with the blessing of Mexican

officials who tolerated vice for fiscal reasons.
II
This
Tijuana
study
their
social costs.
resorts
that,
for
shows
that
economic
foreign purveyors
gain
without
colonized
concern
for
the
Americans and other foreigners built pleasure

in turn,
changed
local
history
activity became Tijuana's economic foundation.
when
vice
The tourist
scheme was successful because foreign antagonists dominated

border
society
p rotago n i s t s
along
of this
with
the
economy.
study were the
loyal
The
real
Mexicans
who
resisted the dependent relationship with foreign purveyors.

The Mexicans who made money from their government positions
also played an important role but not a good one.
173
174
Tijuana's
Mexicans
This
"golden
age"
created
its
own
dliemma
when
demanded an ever-increasing share of the bonanza.
study
introduced
the
thesis
Tijuana into America's moral

were blamed for the
margin a l
Tijuana
instead
of Mexico
transportation
foreigners
built
"safety valve" while Mexicans
resulting
was
that
orgies.
h i s torically
City because
connections.
shown
linked to
of
But
It was
family,
it
was
that
California
economic
and
Prohibition
that
caused Tijuana's boom in 1920 while the unlimited growth of

vice
raised
border.
serious moral
questions
Then Abelardo Rodriguez,
politico,
and
Mexico's
ruling
sides
a military
clique
miracle based on the regulation

and brothels.
on both
of
created
casinos,
of
the
governor
and
an
economic
saloons,
dens
Tijuana's boom ended in the mid-1950s
when
economic crisis in the 1930s and social protests bankrupted

vice activity.
Ill
Tijuana's general history was more colorful than all

the
fantasies.
century ago,
Tijuana was born
innocent,
but American railroads soon penetrated the border and left

their mark on the young town.
become
California's
By 1915,
pleasure
it was starting to
refuge
as
trains
and
automobiles rushed tourists to the forbidden garden.
From
1920
over
to
1935,
its
great
boom
20,000,000 visits by Americans.
was
generated
by
The Mexican government let
Tijuana become an outpost of American vice activity because
175
the marginal
town ha d been
almost
worthless
taxes" flowed into federal coffers.
until
The degradation of an
isolated bordertown provided Mexico with a reliable

of cash to meet its obligations.
"sin
source
Tijuana's niche in Mexican
and American life was established.

More
social
important,
history.
vice
activity determined
Society became
Tijuana's
s t r a tified with
resort
owners, Mexican officials and the rich commanding wealth and

power.
American
workers
occupied
the
next
lower
because they were paid better than the nationals.
strata
At the
bottom, Tijuana's popular classes included laborers, service

workers
and shopkeepers,
but
many
unemployed
or underemployed because
preferred.
Given Mexico's economy,
opportunities
yet
their
residents
American
were
often
workers
were
Tiiuanenses had better
choices were
limited to
demeaning
jobs or destitution.
Culturally,
bord e r
life.
vice activity dominated every aspect of
It has
been
documented
that
the
popular
classes protested Tijuana's condition and moral and economic

grounds.
Vice
atmosphere
accepted
of
activity
crime
and
responsibility
Puritanical
Americans
oppressed
shame.
for
and
these
Mexicans
The
the
city
border
prevailing
agreed
on
with
elite
an
never
conditions.
one
point:
Americans and other outsiders owned the tourist resorts and

they created Tijuana's peculiar class structure.
176
The economic winners of this saga were the American

"border barons" who monopolized Tijuana vice
Mexico's
ruling Sonora
granted exclusive vice
clique.
annual
government
to the ABW
Corporation
concessions
In 1925,
Governor
administered the A B W concession that produced
"sin
collected
s a m e .1
of
The Mexican
and later to the Agua Caliente company.

Rodriguez
and parts
taxes"
from
By
of
other
the
about
permits
1930s,
Agua
900,000
may
have
dollars
and
totaled
about
the
and
tax
Calie n t e
profits
fees
contributions probably doubled over the earlier ABW amount.

It was
a time when
investors made
millions
of dollars
in
Tijuana vice resorts.

Governor Rodriguez personified the Mexican self-made
millionaire
pacified
who
administered Agua
Tijuana;
activity;
and,
by
by
1924,
1928,
he
was
Caliente.
had
earning bundles
for his political and financial successes
ups
he
vice
of money
from
He- won praise
in Tijuana,
took
for the border boom but blamed Prohibition for its
and
downs.
Don Abelardo
Mexican
gambling
belief,
he
did
collected fees
personal
dollars
1920,
institutionalized
Agua Caliente while still in public office.
credit
In
not
own
However,
drug
from them.
fortune
at
resorts.
that
the time
invested
was
of his
His
dens
death
at
least
contrary
and
Tijuana
worth
in
an
in
to
brothels;
earnings
estimated
1967.^
five
popular
yet
he
started a
800,000,000
When
Mexico
needed miracles, Rodriguez got the job done.
177
At first, Tijuana and the "moral refugees" enjoyed a

cozy relationship,
their
"high
"border
but the outside world soon
life."
barons"
n at i o n a l i s m
Amid
the
prospered
and
class
chaos
while
of
intruded on
Prohibition,
Tiiuanenses
interests.
The
de ter i o r a t e d when the Great De p r e s s i o n
the
a dvocated
foreign
enclave
slowed Tijuana's
growth; America's repeal of Prohibition and Mexico's ban on

casinos devastated the economy.
By 1935,
of
ended
Tijuana
vice
activity
had
purveyors had returned home.
the
and
"golden age"
its
Ameri c a n
Mexicans were left to repair
the remnants.
Mexican workers had long fought the "border barons"
yet both groups relied on the same livelihood.
Throughout
the era, unions protested how tourist resorts paid residents

less than Americans,
progress
occurred
best jobs.
if they hired Mexicans
yet
the
popular
seldom
Some
got
the
In late 1934, Tiiuanenses welcomed the national
leader who w o u l d mora l i z e
an d
against the American racketeers.

outlawed all
classes
at all.
casinos
"Mexicanize"
the
economy
President L&zaro C&rdenas
and expropriated Agua
Caliente
which
was owned, in part, by Plutarco Elias Calles, Jefe Maximo of

Mexico,
and
Rodriguez.
It
has
been
said
that
C&rdenas
closed Tijuana casinos as a "power play" against the Sonora

cabal,
but the President was more concerned with improving
Mexico and eliminating American influence.^

their
life-long
friendship,
C&rdenas
was
As testimony to
the
only
former
178
p r esi d e n t
to
visit
Rodr i g u e z
at
his
death
bed
or
who
attended his funeral at El Sauzal. The casino ban drove the

gamblers
away,
growth.
but
it
also
stopped
Tijuana's
spectacular
Yet workers' gains were more symbolic than real.

Surprisingly,
American tourists,
though in
smaller
numbers,
kept coming to the bordertown despite the Mexican
gambling
ban.
gamblers,
One
Chamber
pilgrims,
now
no
longer
big-time
stopped at the old casinos as if they were sacred
shrines.
Avenue
Curious
week
after
the
of
Commerce
reported
had
returned
to
resorts.
The
Chamber
ban
that
normal
of
took
effect,
tourism
even
Commerce
on
without
stated
Tijuana's
Revolution
the
that
alluring
"'Tijuana
today is the same picturesque Mexican village as it was last

w e e k .'"4
the
To
town's
invaders
attract
rustic
visitors,
image
of
these boosters
adobe
and lost treasures.
ruins,
resurrected
rebels,
The revival
bandits,
of tourism kept
Tijuana from becoming a ghost town.

After 1935, Mexicans tried to stimulate industry and
family tourism
away.
Civic
Tijuana's
in the
groups
sullied
hope
and trade
reputation,
home to shores and bars,

part,
border
foreign
investors
schemes.
Tiiuanenses
that
vice
activity
unions
but
would
also tried to
tolerance,
continued to function.
For their
After
nothing
decades
of
zone
clean
of
wanted
the
fade
to
do
with
social
had repudiated their past dependency,
risky
protest,
only
to
179
see their
dreams
whither
for
lack
of money
and
official
ambivalence.
IV
Tijuana's "black legend described the population as
immoral,
violent
stigmatized
by
and
impoverished.
half-truths
as
evaluations of border society.
Tiiuanenses
myths
replaced
were
objective
Conversely, American society
looked the other way when its citizens wrecked havoc on the
hapless town.
It was easy for Americans to dictate morality
in Tijuana because they already controlled the economy and

Mexicans
were
willing
to
do
dollar.
Long-standing racial
anything
for
stereotypes
the
almighty
somewhat
explain
why foreigners criticized Mexicans, and vice-a-versa:

Tijuana's
distorted
example,
owned,
h alcyon
certain
basic
m y ths
facts
and
about
haun t i n g
local
legends
history.
For
collective memory ignored the fact that foreigners

operated
and
Likewise, Americans
patronized
the
"red-light"
judged Tijuana by two moral
one for their compatriots,
and another
zones.
standards;
for Mexicans.
When
foreigners got themselves in trouble, it was Tiiuanenses who

were
punished
restrictions.
Americans
by
the
U.S.
government
with
Truth was lost among the fables;
c ondemned
Mexicans,
knowing
full
border
meanwhile,
well
that
outsiders controlled border affairs.

Tijuana's
allegations
lusty m y s t i q u e evolved from wi d e s p r e a d
of wanton
sexuality.
The myths
had some
real
180
basis yet many Tijuana horror

fabricated.
Chauvinists,
stories
were
moralizers
embellished or
and
gossips
Mexican womanhood the scapegoat of lewd behavior.

minds,
Tijuana
although
women
epitomize
contemporaries
the
typical
claimed that
prostitutes were foreign nationals.
In many
border
90 percent
Clergy,
made
whore
of the
writers,
film
makers and tourists popularized the darker side of life even

if
commentators
never
actually
saw
the
purported
evils.^
But details were of little consequence in sex scandals like

the Peteet case when Americans went off "half-cocked.
With the benefit of hindsight,
it has been said that
the "black legend" anticipated modern Tijuana more than it

described the bawdy past..
activity
survi v e d
and
Though illegal,
the
public
soon
moralization had hardly changed behavior.

Francisco
Bulnes
once
wrote
that
clandestine vice
realized
that
Mexican historian
"Each
step
in
moral
progress takes at least a century and measures at the most

one centimeter."^
The immoral legacy will plague Tijuana as
long as gambling,
liquor, drugs and sex lure Americans over
the border.
Tijuana does not depend on vice activity as it
once did, but Mexico still gets vital foreign exchange from
thrill-seeking tourists.
V
In
conclusion,
Americans
and
other
foreigners
exported commercial vice activity into Tijuana for the first

time.
Mexico had its own way of doing things, but Tijuana's
181
vice enclave was conceived and built according to American

specifications.
As
tourists
Supermarkets" beyond U.S.

the only ones blamed
law,
browsed
the
"Cyprian
Tijuana and its people were
for moral
conditions.
From
1920
to
1935, American magnates held legal monopolies over the trade

in
drugs,
sex,
gambling
and
took over such businesses.
liquor long
Reportedly,
before
Mexicans
American purveyors
still retain a discrete role in illicit operations south of

the border.
In Tijuana's
case,
to expel alien influences

progress.
the Mexican Revolution promised

so the Nation could improve
But the Revolution never
and
fulfilled its goals in
Baja California because vice purveyors negated reforms that

threatened Tijuana's capitalist order.
In time, the "border
barons" were ousted from their prominent positions yet they

were eventually replaced by a comprador elite that was all
too willing to please American clients.
182
ENDNOTES
Ârchivo General de la Nacidn, Presidenciales, Fondo
0breg6n-Calles, Gilberto Valenzuela to Jos 6 Lugo, Mexico,
July 28/ 1922/ Exp. 425-T-7.
"Death Ends Colorful Life of
Border Pleasure Prince/" The San Dieao Union. October 24,
1925.
2
Dial Torgerson, "Former President of Mexico Gen.
Rodriguez Dies in La Jolla," Los Angeles Times. February 14,
1967.
^Ted Proffitt, "The History of Tijuana," Lecture,
San Diego Historical Society, March 18, 1989.
4,,Tijuana Business Gains Reported," The San Dieao
Union. July 26, 1935.
C
Gustavo Garcia, El Cine Mudo M e x i c a n o (Mexico:
Cultura/SEP, 1982), p. 64.
Herncin de la Roca, Tiiuana In
(Mexico: Editorial "CVLTVRA," 1932), p.96.
Carroll Graham,
Border Town (New York:
Vanguard, 1934).
Raymond Chandler,
the Long Goodbve (New York:
Ballantine, 1984), p. 28.
Dashiell Hammett, "Tulip," in, Lilliam Heilman, ed., The Bio
Knockover (New York:
Vintage books, 1972), p. 343.
Budd
Schulberg, What Makes Sammv Run? (New York:
Modern Library,
1952), p. 292.
Federico Campbell, Tiiuanenses
(Mexico:
Joaquin Mortiz, 1989), p . 80.
Manuel Puig, R e c u e r d o de
Tiiuana
(Mexico:
Seix Barral,
1985), p. 132.
Jos6
Revueltas, Los _Motivos de Cain (Mexico:
Eidtorial Novaro,
1975), p. 24.
Naomi Baker, "All is Happy on Location 'In
Tijuana,'" The San Dieao Union. January 20, 1935.
Kenneth
Anger, Hollywood Babylon II (New York:
E.P. Dutton, 1984),
p.72-73.
^Francisco Bulnes, Whole Truth About Mexico. Dora
Scott, tr., (New York:
M. Bulnes Book Company, 1916), p.
301.
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"The Grandeur and the Lore
Grant."
San Dieao Magazine 30 (1986).
"Tijuana."
Rodriguez, Richard.
"Across
Harper's 274 (1987) .
Diecro
of the U.S.
Ridgely, Roberta.
"The Man Who Built Tijuana,"
San Diego Magazine 19-21 (1966-1969).
Roberts, Kenneth.
1924.
El
11 parts.
Saturday Evening Post. March

the
Borders
of
History."
Sandos, James A.
"Prostitution and Drugs:
The United
States Army on the Mexican-American Border, 19161917." Pacific Historical Review XLIX (1980).
Sandos, James A.
"Northern Separatism During
Revolution."
The Americas XLI (1984).
the Mexican
Schiesl, Marin J.
"Progressive Reform in Los Angeles under
Mayor Alexander, 1909-1913."
California Historical
Quarterly LIV (1975).
Shover, John L.
"The California Progressives and the 1924
Campaign."
California Historical Quarterly LI
(1972) .
Tams Le6n, Luis.
"Agua. Caliente."
"The Morals of San Francisco."
Gaceta
Sunset 34
(1979).
(1915).
Vanderwood, Paul.
"Writing History with Picture Postcards:
Revolution in Tijuana."
The Journal of San Diego
History XXXIV (1988).
Warburton, Clark.
"Prohibition."
Social Sciences 12 (1937).
Encyclopaedia
of
the
Wasserman, Mark.
"The Mexican Revolution:
Region and
Theory,
Signifying Nothing?"
Latin American
Research REview XXV (1990).
Werne, Joseph Richard.
"Esteban Cantii y; la soberania
mexicana en Baja California." Historia Mexicana XXX
(1980).
A P P E N D IC E S
199
APPENDIX A
MAPS
200
TO W #.
<^
,
!!i=l
= y ,s
.fjul qs
Hrjp^rap:can3
Maps
of
Baja
California
with
North
America
KîsaiEDEgB^
insert
and
modern
Tijuana.
2 0 1
Map
of Tijuana,
U.S.-Mexico
Border
and
San
Diego
Bay
(1850).
202
Reproduced
with
permission
of the copyright ow ner.
&
Further reproduction
lo i
prohibited
without p erm is sio n .
> .
'
Map of Tijuana (1921) with Puente Mexico connecting Border and old Town. The
Bridge merged with the intersection of Avenida Revolucion and Calle Primera.
Also shows Hipodromo and Monte Carlo along the SD&A Railroad.
203
Map
of Tijuana
(1937)
with
street
names
204
Reproduced
with
permission
HO.Mt
prohibited
048522
205
Map of Tijuana (1935) with Agua^Caliente resort in lower right corner and
Colonia Libertad at the old Hipodromo site.
APPENDIX B
POPULATION TABLES
206
207
Population of Tijuana, San Diego and Los Angeles

1900-1940*
1900
Tijuana
San Diego
Los Angeles
1910
1920
1930
1940
350
969
1,228
11,271
21,977
17,700
39,578
74,683
147,897
203,341
102,479
319,198
576,673
1,238,048 1,504,277
Population of Baja California Norte, Southern California

and California, 1900-1940*
1900
1910
1920
1930
48,327
1940
Baja Calif.
7,853
9,760
23,537
So . Calif.
304,211
751,310
1,347,050
2,932,795 3,572,363
1,485,053
2,377,549
3,426,861
5,677,251 6,907,387
Calif.
Source:
78,907
Richard F. Pourade, The History of San Dieao. 7 Vols.

(San
Diego, 1960-1977), Vol. V, p. 264 and Vol. VI, p. 249.
David
Pifiera Ramirez, ed.
Historia de Ti-iuana. 2 Vols. (Tijuana,
1989), Vol. 1, p. 334.
APPENDIX C
TIJUANA PICTURES AND POSTCARDS
208
Tijuana (cir. 1S00), Calle Olvera, renamed Avenida

Revolucion andCalle Primera.
609c.
rPLA
LAKINW
C JSC Ti nHc2. I'A
I'-V
NU
H'EK
U MILLO
LtV N
?, MEXICAN MbLL
UVLL M
FIGH'
OHI,
Mex} co'_\
Tijuana Bullring (1902), Avenida Constitucion and
Calle Sexta.
2 1 0
r?V?.Teuiooocowitt p c w
mm
Postcard
of Mexican
border
guards
at Tijuana
(cir.
1912).
r n s s m m m
James
Coffroth's
flooded
Hipodromo
(January,
1916),
looking
north
west.
2 1 1
Reproduced
with
permission
Friendship Fiesta (June 23, 1917) at Border Monument.

(From right: Tijuana Mayor
Ricardo Lopez, Mexican Consul Teodoro Frezieres, Governor Esteban Cantu, San Diego
Mayor Louise Wilde, John Spreckels, Unknown.)

prohibited
212
Sunset
Inn
attached
to Monte
Carlo
casino,
looking
north
to
Border
(1920s)-.
213
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ro
M
Hipodromo and Monte Carlo Parking Lot, looking north to the Border (1920s).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Governor Abelardo Rodriguez
(1926)
Mae McGarvin, entertainer at Green Mill

saloon and Peteet case witness (1926).
216
'MEXICAU" 0EER HALL. THE LONGEST n* IN JHt WORLO. TIJUANA. MEXICO
La cantina mis grande de Tijuana, B.C.
C O H X ER dA L HOTEL ON SECOND BLOCK. TUUANA. N EB C O .
217
Agua Caliente Postcards
(cir. 1930).
LA CAMPANULA (CHIMES B O X TOWER)
218
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission of th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .

Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role

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University Microfilms International

Order Number 9137321

M oral renovation o f the Californias: Tijuanas political and

Copyright 1991 by C. de B aca, V incent Zachary. A ll righ ts reserved.

300 N. Zeeb R&

-5 <822 00643 6737

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

Moral Renovation of the Californias:

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the

Ram6n E. Ruiz, Chair

The dissertation of Vincent Z. C. de Baca is approved,

Geo-politics of the California Border Region.......

Tijuana Rising in the Prohibition E r a ..............

Economic Miracle of Governor Rodriguez............

The Decline of Tijuana..............................

Tijuana's Colorful Legends.........................

create borders to define real and symbolic limits to their

Over time, borders expand or recede

reduce the political and economic significance of borders.

exposed as a political fiction.

whenev e r different peoples e stablish formal or informal

economic relationships between peoples living on the margin

cultures rather than isolate them.

the two countries that became both a blessing and a curse.

Mexico and the southwestern United States forged links that

rising along the border which would become

location near the powerful urban centers of California.

Mexico City left it in the cultural and economic periphery

for American tourists

disowned by mexico and the U.S.,

yet both derived benefits

from its existence.

help me narrow the scope of this work.

Dr. Ruiz deserves my eternal appreciation for urging me to

University of California President's Dissertation Fellowship

Special Collections at UCSD and UCR for all their help.

Studies Research Center at UCLA gave me access to

for their encouragement.

gave me emotional strength during trying time.

this work is dedicated to the Tiiuanenses who struggled to

May 29, 1950

Born, San Diego, California

U.S. Marine Corps

Moral Renovation of the Californias:

Tijuana, Mexico became a North American marketplace

the prohibition of liquor

made Tijuana world-famous for the "high life" of its "golden

exchange for "sin taxes."

drug dens and casinos that grew on Mexican soil.

Over time, an American and Mexican elite made fortunes while

stigmatized town residents who had no control over

nationalists protested against the vice cartels but they had

ruined by global political

"golden age" was

and economic changes.

minds, the "sin city" declined to a second-rate "hell-hole"

owners and staff.

bordertown due to moral and political changes in the United

Once only a sleepy village,

and drug dens.

it was modernized into

American capitalists and tourists

lavished riches on the young city during the era known