1950 to 1954:

We need to change Nogales

Beginning in 1950, due to the continuous complaints, the Jail Administrator, Alfredo Chavez Garcia is removed and replaced by Jesus Gonzalez Gallo. When the inmates know this, they have firecrackers to celebrate the change.

Also those days the Northern Sonora cattle raisers are complaining against the taxes charged to them, which are given to the Union Regional de Sonora. For every head of cattle, the taxes are: $5 to IRS, $2 to the Union, 25 cts to the University, etc. They say that, while the University of Sonora receives only around $60,000 yearly, the cattle union is given some $365,000. However, their protests aren´t heard by Governor Soto, and the northern Sonora cattle raisers will have to wait two more years to act on their grievances.

In Nogales, and because the previous firefighter group Commander, Antonio Martinez had died, Miguel Noriega is elect as their new First Commander. In the Sonora movie theatre one of the first US movies filmed in Nogales. Johnny Stool Pigeon is shown. With Howard Duff, Shelly Winters, Dan Duryea and Tony Curtis. It is a movie in which an ex inmate acts as a lure to catch a band of drug dealers. In other words, the border stereotypes are not of recent creation.

In February 13, the radio stations of Cananea (XEFQ), Agua Prieta (SEAQ), Naco (XETM), and Nogales (XEHF) transmit together for the first time, from Hermosillo, a baseball game between Guaymas and Hermosillo. The presenters are Juan de Dios Velasco and Miguel Angel Martinez. During the Fiestas de Mayo, the library built by the Lions Club right next to the plaza at the entrance to Cañada Heroes is opened.

The following year, 1951, on January 8, the post office is moved temporarily to the Edificio del Estado. The reason, their regular offices on the corner of Campillo and Juarez are being remodeled. A few days later, CANACO approves new top prices. A liter of milk will cost $1.20, a load of firewood $23. On February 15, leaves the first bus between Nogales and Mexico City. It belongs to Transportes Norte de Sonora.

Also then, there is worry in many of the liquor stores of Nogales. The reason, in Arizona is being discussed a bill against the allowance to import 1 gallon a day of liquor by anybody crossing the border. Ending February, somebody steals during the night $58,734.79 at the offices of Aeronaves de Mexico, although the perpetrator is discovered.

Around those days, three young men from Phoenix are arrested with a cargo of 3 pounds of pot. As the newspaper Accion says, Nogales has turned into the supply center of drugs for the cities of the Southwestern US, as they can be acquired in bars and billiards of Nogales, in any quantities.

This way, Nogales continues advancing towards modernity. It is a modernity full of dialectics which inspire, on August 19, Mosen Francisco de Avila to finish his poem El Loco:

¡Si tú supieras!

Me llaman loco

porque, desolado, hablo con el silencio de las cosas;

porque digo que con el aroma regresa la presencia:

porque al tumulto de la sangre le llamo

agua geométrica, y digo que el día

cuando vuelve, es transparente ausencia

de otro amanecer que no se acaba nunca : ...¡Si tú supieras!

Me llaman loco los de la fácil ignorancia;

me llaman loco porque digo que lo sombrío ilumina,

y que hay tristeza en el árbol del crepúsculo;

porque digo que sobre las aceras de la noche están tendidos

los niños del hambre que son el huracán de mañana...

It is that in postwar Nogales as well as in Mexico, the dialectic of what it means modernity hasn´t been solved yet: the individual and the social, the right to being different and the trend towards social homogeneity. And above all, social justica hasn´t been solved.

Trying to solve the problem of car traffic, in downtown Nogales Ingenieros St. is opened between Ochoa and Pierson, while at La Arizona, the Ayuntamiento builds another school, and on Canal St. a new hospital is being built.

The following month, President Aleman signs the decree that establishes the Perimetro Libre in Nogales, while at the end of the year, again Accion deals with one of the eternal problems of Nogales: When Gral. Rodriguez assumed office in 1943, among his first orders was to send a message to the then Presidente Municipal, "...ordering the closing of the red light district, but his order was only a decoy, as it was never closed. On the contrary, during his government it grew and modernized with new establishments..." and adds that it is urgent to remove it from downtown Nogales.

Beginning 1952, in February, the Supreme Court declares that the argument of the occupants of Calle Ochoa, that if they are removed it will be against the freedom of commerce, is not a valid one. This means that the moment of reopening of this street to transit nears. Also then, Pedro Gonzalez rents for 10 years the bull fight ring and remodels it. It will open on April 20 with a bull fight in which Luis Procuna and Antonio Velazquez are presented.

And after the Perimetro Libre in Nogales is established, it is obvious that the closing of the border to the acquisition of foreign articles was not a solution, but to establish stores on the Mexican side, to compete with those on the US side of the border. It is almost impossible for Nogalenses to travel to a city in central Mexico to buy their refrigerators, cars, etc. when they have the stores a few steps from home, on the US side, and after paying a bribe they will have them at home.

To implement the Perimetro Libre, it will be necessary to build checkpoints 5 Km from te border at the Southern end of Nogales, as well as in the Mariposas, Mascareñas and Saric roads. Besides this, a fence will surround the population. These works are finished in April, 1952. Now the problem will be the contrabandists attempting to violate this restrictions

And somewhat related, criminality finds another way of expression. That year, 1952, an international band of car thiefs is discovered. They steal cars from Arizona and resell them in Central Mexico, passing through Nogales.

On October 18, 1953, the new Fire Fighters building is opened. It cost $477,000 to the Junta Federal de Mejoras Materiales to build, while the new Post Office will cost $450,000. And in health improvements, the hospital built on Canal Street will be opened on July 11.

Ending 1954, the Northern Sonora cattle raisers finally achieve that Customs distribute the exportation permits of cattle to the US, which previously the Cattle Union of Sonora monopolized.

And although there is no lack of complains against the Ernesto V. Felix government, as he spends months in Mexico City, what really happens is that he is working there, trying to get the Federal Government to build a new federal building, a new Customs House, Tourism, Health, as well as to move the railroad station to Lomas, to cover the Arroyo that crosses Nogales, and to build a boulevard through Nogales all the way to Km. 14.

Then the news comes that on April 15, 1954 will be formally announced the initiation of the construction of these projects. However, on the 19th, the Peso is devalued from $4.85 to $8, and with it, the architectonic modernization of Nogales will have to wait until the sixties.

Anyway, Felix achieves something: As the number of autos has increased enormously, he buys two patrols with radio, besides the Commander car, also with one. Two stop lights are installed, as well as the opening of the following streets: Calle del Puerto between San Martin and Moctezuma, the extension of Cubillas to Cabrera, and the continuation of Dinamarca up to Victoria Street, who already has an exit to Canal St.