1930 to 1934

Years of Economic Depression

1930 marks the beginning of the great world financial crisis. Beginning the year, several laws are decreed in the USA taxing importations from Sonora, at the same time that the price of cattle, mexican vegetables as well as copper all plunge. All of this brings with it the firing of many of the Sonoran workers from the USA, as well as the deportation from the USA of thousand of Mexicans.

This crisis arouses nationalistic and xenophobic attitudes among the population. This is handled demagogically by the State Government as well as the great Companies in Northern Sonora, blaming first those deported (some 5,000 a Month) as the originators of the economic crisis, argumenting that they will take their jobs from the sonorenses. Soon after this, the campaign is reoriented toward the Chinese workers. It will culminate with the expulsion of all Chinese from Sonora.

In Nogales, the first days of 1930, Astolfo Cardenas informs the Ayuntamiento that the Compañia Constructora de Sonora, of which he is the President, is starting the development of Colonia Altamira. They will build and sell 132 houses via monthly payments, and he asks, unsuccessfully, to be exempted of paying local taxes for the raffle to assign them.

Those same days, the President asks the Railroad to be allowed to build a bridge to communicate:

"the canyon of El Polvorin with the extension of Calzada Alvaro Obregon [where] a crossing already exists"

To this, the Railroad answers with some conditions to allow the construction. Also those days a new building is about to be started for the State Government offices, where the old Teatro Hidalgo used to be.

While all of this happens, the Presidente continues with his moralizing campaign: On December 9, 1929, the Governor had ordered the closing of all the distilleries, and that the breweries be kept under observation. A few days later, on January 29, he orders the closing of the last ones, starting on February 1.

On February 7, the Governor informs the President that several of the liquor sellers are complaining of the clandestine liquor stores. The President answers on the 13th, that he is proceeding against them, and that he already had warned him against:

"the convenience of allowing breweries that with a permit to sell beer, would sell also strong liquors ... and now, after correcting this anomaly, the Mescal factories are still functioning ... as well as those who not only sell wholesale their product [but] also sell mescal in bottles, both to consumers as to those clandestine resellers"

And he he recommends that they also should be closed.

Those days is established in Sonora the Public Health General Direction, and the Health Code is decreed. Those measures couldn´t be more in time: Ending the previous year an epidemic of meningitis had started in Sonora, and during February, another one in the Altar District also started.

The neighbors of La Arizona ask them the President that a new school be built there, as the existing one is very small, and the previous year the teacher they had died of consumption. However, they not only ask. They also tell him that Joe Wise, La Arizona owner, offered a lot and will colaborate in the construction.

On March 14, the construction of a new hospital is authorized where the City Works plot is located, and a few days later, A. Ruiz asks to be given the exclusivity to sell "iced popcicles" as he is planning to invest one thousand dollars in the enterprise. With a smile, the Council denies his petition.

Those days, the most powerful unions in Nogales are the Union of Proprietors and Chaufferes of Autos Nogales - Mexicali, as well as the Union of Nogales Labourers, while the local businessmen promote the 5 de Mayo celebrations that year as the best so far, although the one of the 4th of July is still better, as an exhibition of planes takes place as well as a fight between a bull and an African leon (the leon flees).

In August, the floods are terrible, with 5 lives lost and enormous economic losses. That same month, the Covarrubias School is opened. It, with the Zeferino Gil Lamadrid School will alliviate somewhat the enormous lack of shool places. which by the following year will be 3,080 students. In November, the Nogales Brewery ends operations when it is sold to the Sonora Brewery, and is closed as soon as is received.

At nightfall, December 30, the Nogales, Sonora firemen go to Nogales, Arizona, to help to fight the fire that has started at the Geo B. Marsh Furniture Store. It will take 24 hours to put down.

In January, 1931, the building of the highway between Nogales and Guaymas is started, although the economic panorama is terrible anyway. Nogales is invaded by expelled Mexicans from the USA, while the winter rains ruin the tomato production of Sonora and Sinaloa.

In February, the Colonia Moderna is included within the Fundo Legal, going East up to Hospital del Socorro, and West up to it´s limits. By November, Mr. Roque Ortiz asks for permission to build a new Evangelist Temple on Obregon 468.

That same Month, on the 16, at 2:30 AM, a fire burns down the Teatro Royal and the International Casino, both located North of Plaza 13 de Julio, and then destroys the whole block. Only the Banco Mercantil Agricola building is spared. A few days later, Maria Tapia, widow of Obregon, through Guillermo Azcona, his administrator, asks for permission to rebuild the theatre.

This fire will be followed by the definitive closing of the Banco de Sonora, fas well as in Nogales, Az, by the Sonora Bank and Trust Co, and the Nogales National. The only one spared is the First National.

The Nogales economy is affected much more than that of other parts of Sonora, because of it´s dependence on the international trade. Trying to help, the Sonora Governor will unsuccessfully try to force those Sonorenses businessmen that live on the US side, to move to Sonora.

By then, the Nogales Gas Co, which resells electricity from Arizona to Nogales, Sonora, has some 1,000 people using their services, while the Water Co, which although officially Mexican, has to buy water every year from the Arizona side to be able to supply Nogales, Sonora.

Starting in 1932, the Venereal Hospital is opened, and in November the President asks for a pension of $4 to be given to the wife of a policeman who was "apprehended, judged and sentenced in the USA, to 16 month of jail, and fined $400 Dlls, under the assumed accusation of contributing to the illegal internation of Chinese into USA territory," and he asks the Chamber of Commerce of both cities to ask the US President to indult of the policeman.

Starting 1933, the President proposes that a Health Inspector be named, under the Municipal Health Unit, to "fight the clandestine selling of alcoholic beverages, the selling of drugs, and prostitution..." His petition is approved. Two months later, the Inspector is accused by the Migration Office of some wrongs, and is fired. By May, the accusations against him dissapear, and he is reinstated. By then, the theater in front of Plaza 13 de Julio has been rebuilt, and is opened with the name of Teatro Obregon.

The following year, the Railroad Co plans to build a railroad station near the border. The project includes to cut Campillo St. which then crosses the railroad tracks. After discussing the problem, the Ayuntamiento can only accept the railroad offer of leaving open a crossing on Vazquez St, to communicate with Colon St. By then, the nearby Escuela Superior has a new name: Escuela Juan Enrique Pestalozzi.

That same year, on March 23, the Minister Roque Ortiz finishes "the building of the Evangelist Church Temple" on Obregon 468, and asks for permission to start religious services. Also that year, the public library closes down, while an "aviation field" is opened between Encinas Pass and Agua Zarca.