The Federal Government presents

a project for Nogales

On May 9, 1955, the first park meters start operating in Nogales: 10 cts for 12 minutes. A month before, the Candidate for the Governorship of Sonora, Alvaro Obragon Tapia, had arrived at Nogales.

In the welcoming meeting, organized by Ernesto Elias C, recently named coordinator of his campaign in Northern Sonora, as well as Bernardo Salazar A. and Miguel Amador Torres, local President and Vicepresident of his campaign, Amador asks him "...the creation of labor sources for the population, with the formation of small industries, as our city lacks labour offer..." while other petitions go from the construction of a horse race track and a boulevard to cross the whole of town, to the removal of the restrictions of the Perimetro Libre. To all of these, Corral Ruiz answers in the name of Obregon:

"...the population of Nogales has already established the bases of a rehabilitation program. The population of Nogales has already the Perimetro Libre, which is the basis on which you must base your future. But: What is needed to make the Perimetro Libre fully and rationally useful? The communion between population and government is needed within a rehabilitating program. It is needed to industrialize the population of Nogales... Population of Nogales: You can be certain that here, when we are speaking about problems, we have thought about solutions. When we speak about the need of self suficiency, we have thought on a communion of the governmental program with your backing, through the private enterprise. Because if you, in the private enterprise don´t contribute to make this program bigger and more vigorous, this action won´t be able to be coordinated, which is the supreme ambition of Alvaro Obregon"

In other words, to the local petition of architectonic modernization of Nogales, as well as more tourism offer, the government answers with an integral project of modernization, not only of facades, but a structural change in the local economy through industrialization. To achieve it, the local groups of private enterprise will be asked their participation. Otherwise, this will be achieved through input from other regions.

A few days later, as a symbol of the end of that old order: an economy based totally in the offer of diversions, the Sonora movie theater has it´s last projection. The Secret Garden and The Father of the Bride, besides an exhibit of local artists. At eleven PM in the night of the 22th, a fire burns down the building.

By then, some local groups answer to the governmental petition. The hills located West ot town have been seen how machinery clears some 9 Hectares of roads and boulevards.

On June 19, the Bishop of Sonora, from the heights of Camino de Chula Vista, gives his blessing to the works of the new Colonia Lomas de Fatima.

The group of dignataries will travel along the development, going down through Boulevard del Ensueño and come out through Vazquez St. They will leave the Bishop at the Santuario de Guadalupe, and return again to Boulevard del Ensueño, where the official inauguration of the works will take place, along with a new school, a park, lands for a new temple as well as a monument to Christ, a medical station, and the construction of:

"Intern school for boys, an intern school for girls and, above all, to build a Technological Institute, that we need so much"

This development, differently from the traditional urbanization model in Nogales, will follow the land contours, adapting the streets to the local topography. It is the Rafael Caballero development.

In 1956, Ernesto Felix, now Director of the Junta Federal de Mejoras Materiales, announces in April that a budget of 2.5 million pesos was approved to cover the Nogales Arroyo, in downtown Nogales, while the new Presidente Municipal announces that the Presidency building will be remodeled and turned into a two level construction. Meanwhile, the municipality offices will operate at the Firesatation. Also that year there is more work to improve the circulation in Nogales. Aldama St. is connected to Maclovio Herrera, and Artes St is extended from Rosario to the Railroad, Triunfo from Sonora to Cuauhtemoc, and Galeana is also extended.

One month later, on May 22, a new routine is established in Nogales. At 9 PM that night, the firefighters alarm sounds, as a warning for children that they should be indoors at that hour, otherwise, they will be picked up. Besides this, all Obregon Ave. is lighted with mercurial lamps, as well as several nightly education centers will start operating, whose director will be Prof. Campos Varela.

In the dimension of ideas, we would say philosophically, Oscar Monroy Rivera writes that year Anthology of Sacro-Criminal Poetry. followed the next year by Anthology: Crime in Poetry. Two subjects in which are mixed ethic and it´s symbols on one side, and sin on the other.

In other words, already since then, Monroy is worried about the dialectic between good and evil; between the order of metric and the ethic action, and the chaos that crime means. All this, as a deeper worry: how is it possible that good could result out of bad, order out of disorder....

Starting 1957, the rumor is that soon Social Security will arrive at Nogales. During 1955, the two most prevalent sicknesses had been the fly and syphillis, while the following hear fly and measles.

On May 4, the reconstructed City Hall is reopened, with a total cost of $570,000, and the work was directed by Ing. Guillermo Wolf, while in May, the building of the new railroad station in Lomas is started.

The same month, Prof. Acosta announces that the following school year at the high school, it will be turned into a military school. The most visible outcome of this reorganization will be that all the students will dress in brown uniforms, which will erase the class distinction among them.

That same year, Ernesto Felix, still President of the Junta Federal de Mejoras Materiales, opens Colon Street (today´s Ruiz Cortines) between Buenos Aires and Heroes, and to accomplish this, the hill between is carved. He also builds two bridges, one at the Heroes canyon, and the other at Obregon Ave, where it crosses the Granja creek. He will also build the "Bonillas" water reservoir, as well as start covering the Nogales Arroyo next to the border. However, on September 20, he will have to resign his position due to attacks coming from the workers of the Junta.

On August 31, the Public Health Institute delegation in Nogales is inaugurated.