Upload
josue-beltran
View
289
Download
5
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
1/232
INFORMATION TO USERS
This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI
films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some
thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may
be from any type of computer printer.
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the
copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality
illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins,
and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if
unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate
the deletion.
Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by
sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and
continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each
original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in
reduced form at the back of the book.
Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced
xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white
photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations
appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly
to order.
University Microfilms International
A Bell & Howell Information Company
300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA
313/761-4700 800/521-0600
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
2/232ro duced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
3/232
Order Number 9137321
M oral renovation of the Californias: Tijuanas po litical and
econom ic role in A merican-Mexican relations, 19201935
C. de Baca, Vincent Zachary, Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego, 1991
Copyright 1991 b y C . de Baca, Vincent Zachary. A ll rights reserved.
UMI300 N. Zeeb R&Ann Arbor, MI 48106
pro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
4/232rod uce d with permission of the copyright own er. Furth er reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
5/232
'N'yERSITYOcr*..__
-5 1-L.
/??/
> 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 Ram6n E. Ruiz, ChairProfessor Carlos Blanco-AguinagaProfessor Jaime ConchaProfessor Ram6n GutierrezProfessor Michael MontednProfessor Eric Van Young
1991
ro du ced with perm ission of the copyright owner . Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
A31822006436737B
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
6/232
Copyright 1991
by
Vincent Z. C. de Baca
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
7/232
The dissertation of Vincent Z. C. de Baca is approved, and
it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on
microfilm:
!_
b.air
University of California, San Diego
QO
rod uced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
8/232
Table of Contents
Signature Page...................................... iiiTable of Contents................................... ivPreface.............................................. v
Vita, Publications and Fields of Study............ viiiAbstract............................................. ix
I Introduction......................................... 1
II Geo-politics of the California BorderRegion....... 24
III Tijuana Rising in the Prohibition Era.............. 70
IV Economic Miracle of Governor Rodriguez............ 110
V The Decline of Tijuana.............................. 139
VI Tijuana's Colorful Legends......................... 173
Bibliography........................................ 183Appendices.......................................... 199Appendix A................. 200Appendix B .......................................... 206Appendix C .......................................... 208
iv
rodu ced with p ermission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
9/232
PREFACE
Human beings are territorial creatures and they
create borders to define real and symbolic limits to their
influence and security. Over time, borders expand or recede
in response to man-made ornatural catastrophes like
depression, war and famine. More important, stronger
nations often impose conditions on weaker 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 between cultures and governments. Yet in
practice, cultural boundaries transcend national borders
whenever different peoples establish formal or informal
social, political and economic ties. Many historians are
concerned with howinstitutions work within given
jurisdictions, as if cultural spheres were fixed to
geographical points. But, in the process, the social and
economic relationships between peoples living on the margin
have been ignored to a great extent. Given the modern
demographic and information revolutions, borders 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 peace if not friendship. By 1848, wars and
treaties had established a 2,000 mile-long border between
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
10/232
the two countries that became both a blessing and a curse.
Families and merchants spread across it while fugitives and
smugglers took advantage of diplomatic vagaries to the
detriment of both societies. Yet increasingly, northern
Mexico and the southwestern United States forged links that
contradicted national values. Some Mexicans and Americans
even began to worry that a bicultural society might be
rising along the border which would become independent of
both nations.
Tijuana, the subject of this thesis, became a
thriving metropolis in the shadow of America's most
prosperous state. Tijuana was created because of its
location near the powerful urban centers of California. Its
proximity to the U.S. and its geographical isolation from
Mexico City left it in the cultural and economic periphery
of cities across the border. Without means of its own,
Tijuana became a sanctuary for American tourists early in
this century. In the interim, Tijuana became thoroughly
dependent on foreign visitors. The resulting society was
disowned by mexico and the U.S., yet both derived benefits
from its existence.
As a life-long "borderlander," I have been curious
about Tijuana's origins and its development. Though born on
this side of the border, I played in Tijuana streets,
attended family parties and accompanied my father to the
Agua Caliente racetrack. Without knowing why, the
vi
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
11/232
bordertown influenced my life, so this study has been a
personal discovery as well as an intellectual challenge.
Luckily, my dissertation advisor, Dr. Ram6n Eduardo Ruiz,
help me narrow the scope of this work. 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. I acknowledge the support of a
University of California President's Dissertation Fellowship
that facilitated study in Mexico City. I am grateful to the
staffs of the Archivo General de la Nacidn, the Tijuana
Public Library, the San Diego Historical Society and the
Special Collections at UCSD and UCR for all their help. The
Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA gave me access to
their newspaper collection. Special thanks goes to Dr.
Arturo Madrid and Dr. Ray Garza at the Tomcis Rivera
Institute for their encouragement. My family and friends
gave me emotional strength during trying time. In the end,
this work is dedicated to the Tiiuanenses who struggled to
build a proud city against all odds.
vii
rodu ced with p ermission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
12/232
VITA
May 29, 1950 Born, San Diego, California
1972 - 1974
1981
1984 - 1986
19861990 - 19911991
U.S. Marine Corps
B.A., University of California, SanDiegoM.A., University of California, SanDiegoInstructor, MIracosta College, Vista, CAInstructor, Mesa College, San Diego, CAPh.D., University of California, SanDiego
PUBLICATIONS
"Review of Dirk Raat and Sara de Mundo Lo," La Red/The Net
72 (September, 1983).
"The Peasant Mystique of the Mexican Revolution," AztleinXII:2 (Fall, 1981), pp. 193-209.
FIELDS OF STUDY
Major Field: History of Latin AmericaStudies in Modern MexicoProfessor Ram6n Eduardo Ruiz
Studies in Colonial Latin America
Professors Eric Van Young and Benjamin Keen
Studies in American SouthwestProfessor Ram6n Gutierrez
Studies in Modern South AmericaProfessor Miguel Montedn
Studies in Spanish American LiteratureProfessors Carlos Blanco-Aguinaga and Jaime Concha
Vlll
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
13/232
A BS TR A C T OF THE D I S S ER TA TI ON
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 "moral reformation" of
California by the American Progressive movement. More
important, the prohibition of liquor in the United States
made Tijuana world-famous for the "high life" of its "golden
age" (1920-1935). Mexico's 1910 Revolution
institutionalized moral renovation yet the government
authorized Tijuana's development as a tourist haven in
exchange for "sin taxes." Not surprisingly, U.S. citizens
usually owned, operated and patronized the saloons,
brothels, drug dens and casinos that grew on Mexican soil.
Over time, an American and Mexican elite made fortunes while
ix
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
14/232
Tijuana residents earned meager wages that were high by
Mexican standards. It was ironic that Tijuana's "black
legend" stigmatized town residents who had no control over
the illicit trade. American puritans and Mexican
nationalists protested against the vice cartels but they had
limited success. In the 1930s, Tijuana's "golden age" was
ruined by global political 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.
x
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
15/232
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
IIn its youth, Tijuana, Mexico became a wild
bordertown due to moral and political changes in the United
States. Once only a sleepy village, it was modernized into
a foreign tourist resort, complete with saloons, casinos,
brothels and drug dens. American capitalists and tourists
lavished riches on the young city during the era known as
Prohibition. Border vice activity, moreover, afflicted
Mexican politics at local, district and national levels of
government. Most importantly, Tijuana's residents, known as
Tiiuanenses. had socio-economic relations with foreign
tourists. The bordertown's social structure was affected
since the tourist resorts hired American and Mexican
employees. Not surprisingly, Tiiuanenses held ambivalent
opinions toward vice activity when moral issues and
pragmatic needs conflicted.
II
Following the "moral reformation" of California
early in this century, Tijuana became the North American
marketplace for vice. Americans and Mexicans quickly
created Tijuana's network of gambling, liquor, drugs and
prostitution. The bordertown grew into an international
fun-spot famous, in its "golden age" from 1920 to 1935, for
1
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
16/232
2
its "high life" and the instant fortunes that could be made
there. Generally, United States citizens dominated both the
supply and demand of illicit commodities sold on Mexican
soil. Although moral reformers condemned conditions in
Tijuana, they could not stop the expansion of vice activity.
The bordertown declined when international political and
economic advantages disappeared. Finally, in 1935, a
Mexican president, L&zaro CArdenas, outlawed gambling and
closed down Tijuana's casinos while he launched a campaign
of national renovation. As a result, Tijuana's development
stagnated until U.S. mobilization 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 to mainland Mexico. Families, friends and
businesses nurtured social and economic links across the
border region; the bordertown also harbored smugglers and
fugitives from both countries. Tijuana's business
activities relied on the demands of American customers.
Since American and Mexican authorities proved unable or
unwilling to stop contraband, Tijuana's location encouraged
investors and criminals alike to expand their activities
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
17/232
3
beyond governmental control.
Tijuana offered no resistance to the spread of
American industry. San Diego's railroad/ electricity and
telephone lines entered Tijuana as almost natural
extensions. In 1885, the Santa Fe Railroad linked Los
Angeles and downtown San Diego and, by 1890, a local line
covered the last 15 miles to the border. San Diego tourists
could take the National City and Otay Railway (NC&O) to the
southern end of the line. The NC&O made its final stop at
Tia Juana, U.S.A., the last settlement north of the border.
Tijuana's urban infrastructure was linked to San
Diego and its industrial leaders. Millionaires John and
Adolph Spreckels, who owned the NC&O and the United Light
and Power Company, also invested in Tijuana's first
ohippodrome. The Spreckels brothers used their newspaper,
The San Diecro Union, to promote a one-dollar, round-trip
fare between San Diego and the border. 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
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
18/232
4
these American systems, thereby linking Tijuana more closely
to the Mexican nation.
Tijuana entered the twentieth century as a quiet
Mexican bordertown, lacking almost any tourist appeal.
American visitors still rode horse-drawn carriages from the
border. Miracle-seeking "one-lungers" suffering from
tuberculosis came to Tijuana's Hot Springs Hotel, eager to
test the curative powers of the town's famous mineral water.
Tijuana's commercial district contained two general stores,
six saloons, some curio shops, two hotels and a few
"Spanish" restaurants spread along the main street called
Calle Olvera. The ruins of Tijuana's adobe church, flooded
in 1895, reminded Americans of the early Spanish missions.
The appeal of the Old West drew vacationers in
search of a bygone lawlessness. Visitors could drink Carta
Blanca beer at The Club, a cantina owned by American-born
Jos6 R. Alvarez. They could purchase postcards from the
George lbs or the Alexander Savin curio stores to satisfy"
doubting friends back home. Traditional Mexican rodeos and
cockfights took place at the Charles S. Hardy livestock
corral. On Sunday afternoons, from June through September,
bullfights attracted crowds to the Calle Olvera arena. Even
these innocent distractions gave rise to a flurry of
criticism of Tijuana's infant tourist industry.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, moral
reformers pressured Mexico to place some restrictions on
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
19/232
5
sports events. In 1903, San Diego's leading spiritualist,
Katherine Tingley, and her theosophical followers sent
Mexico City protests against Tijuana's annual bullfights.^
Local authorities discounted the charge of animal cruelty as
the muttering of cranks. American protests against border
tourist attractions increased over the first quarter
century.
Mexican officials did not have the same passive
attitude toward gambling in their jurisdiction. In 1907,
the territorial government of Baja California, enacted a
gambling law, the Recrlamento de Jueaos. to control gambling
and raise revenue. It explained the fee schedule and the
licensing procedure, and clarified the types of games
considered legal.4 Gambling machines were 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 urban life, resources and national values. The
Progressive movement (1900-1924) wanted to perfect
capitalist America and abolish the monopolies, corruption,
vices, crime, immigration, poverty and fear that polluted
society. With notable exceptions, 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
p rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
20/232
6
believed that the state could effect orderly social change
with progressive guidance.
Movement leaders included Theodore Roosevelt,
Senator Robert La Follette, Woodrow Wilson, writer Ida
Tarbell, Justice Louis Brandeis, muck-racker Upton Sinclair,
reformer Jane Addams and Samuel Gompers. Californians like
Governor Hiram Johnson, financier Rudolph Spreckels,
Stanford president David Starr Jordan, Berkeley president
Benjamin Wheeler, temperance leader Sara Dorr, editor
Fremont Older, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Hichborn, Lincoln
Steffens and Chester Rowell were leaders of statewide
progressive politics. It had support from Republicans,
Democrats, Independents, women's groups, trade unions,
social workers, eugenics societies, Christian
fundamentalists, anti-vice zealots, nativists and civic
reformers among others.
Then, in late 1909, the California legislature
prohibited book-making on horse races through the Walker-
Otis Act. When California gamblers contemplated their
business options, a Tijuana race track was considered a
viable alternative to the California climate of reform.
However, a San Diego newspaper reported that American
puritans complained to the Mexican government 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
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
21/232
7
situation forever in the second decade of the twentieth
century.
Moral reformers gained political ascendance in
California in 1910, when progressive Republican Hiram
Johnson won the election for governor. Johnson and his
allies took immediate steps to eradicate the 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. In the Harrison Act of 1914, moreover, the U.S.
Congress tried to eliminate the drug trade through its
newly-won power to interdict narcotics smuggling across the
border. California prohibitionists compromised in 1912,
when a Local Option Law continued to tolerate "wet"
communities in the state. When the U.S. entered the First
World War in April 1917, the entire nation went virtually
"dry," especially after the Eighteenth Amendment and the
Volstead Act became effective on January 16, 1920.
California's liquor industry found itself surrounded on all
sides. While the reformers thought they could abolish vice,
its purveyors discovered renewed opportunities across the
border.
San Diego Progressives were intimately linked to
national and statewide political activity. Local leaders
included merchant George Marston, attorney Edgar Luce,
developer Ed Fletcher. As was true of most Progressives,
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
22/232
8
the San Diego group fought against a perceived "secret
conspiratorial plutocracy," in this case, industrialist John
Spreckels and boss Charles Hardy. Local progressives
struggled with the Spreckels-Hardy machine for control of
the city. It echoed the national Republican Party struggle
between the young progressives and the "old guard."
Marston, Luce and Fletcher were founders of the Lincoln-
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 this fact. Other local partisans
included Mayor John Sehon, minister William Crabtree,
physician Charlotte Baker, heiress Ellen Scripps, builder
Roscoe Hazard, horticulturalist Kate Sessions and minister
John Woods. The San Diego movement worked with Methodist
Episcopal churches, Women's Christian Temperance Union
(WCTU), Purity League and Vice Suppression Committee. In
the 1920s, the Law Enforcement League had as its motto:
"Remove the menace of Tijuana and keep San Diego County a
clean, safe, law-abiding community." Sometimes anti-vice
campaigns were supported by local officials, police, the
Chamber of Commerce, the Ad Club, Kiwanis, unions, teachers
and even vigilantes. Democrats, Catholics, Jews, ethnics
and radicals avoided contact with puritanical groups. But
the Progressives had a grass-roots apparatus that could
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
23/232
9
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. During
that time, Baja California, remained aloof from the violent
rebellion by virtue of its physical isolation and its sparse
population. In fact, the entire region enjoyed peace,
stability and prosperity. One strong man emerged to protect
these characteristics. 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 without the benefit of support from national
authorities in Mexico City. He believed that regulating
expatriated American vice could provide the revenue needed
to operate government and fund new public services. When
the time came, Americans paid high fees, taxes and duties to
Cantu, and Tijuana became an oasis of vice beyond the
influence of California laws.
The critics insist that Cantu opened Tijuana to
7gambling and other vice activities. As mentioned earlier,
a primitive level of illicit enterprise already existed. In
1915, as a harbinger of things to come, Cantu issued his
first gambling casino permit to Mexico City financier
Antonio Elosua, who operated card games at his Tijuana
Regional Fair facility. Cantfi granted the concession on
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
24/232
1 0
his own without seeking approval from the central
government, 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 Californians who wished to continue their
illicit endeavors flocked to Tijuana to escape the
reformers. The five most successful American gamblers in
Tijuana became known as "border barons." In 1913, three men
closed their Bakersfield, California gambling halls when
they were outlawed. In 1915, Marvin Allen, Frank Beyer and
Carl Withington opened the Tivoli bar in Tijuana under the
ownership of their ABW Corporation. Two years later,
Antonio Elosiia sold his gambling permit to the ABW
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. The company
found no investors until James W. Coffroth, an influential
boxing promoter from San Francisco, arrived in San Diego to
explore Tijuana's potential. In 1915, Coffroth and Baron
Long took over the Lower California Jockey Club and began
their first racing season in Tijuana on January 1, 1916.
Together, these five "border barons" controlled much of
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
25/232
1 1
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
developments with concern and, in 1920, the central
government of Interim President Adolfo de la Huerta asserted
control over Baja California. Colonel Cantu, who had
offered token loyalty to every president holding 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, displaying such a spirit of independence that
many thought him capable of separatist tendencies, an
accusation he denied until his death. Popular accounts of
the day even referred to the "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 U.S. military intervention. His usurpation of
Mexico's diplomatic initiative drew criticism, as did 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 threat of military force to convince Cantu to
obey. On August 18, 1920, Cantti disarmed his troops,
surrendered his offices and retired to Los Angeles. The
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
26/232
1 2
political stability he had preserved offered new economic
opportunities to subsequent governors.
General Abelardo L. Rodriguez, successor to Cantu,
assumed control of Baja California, on September 1, 1920.^
A native of Sonora, he had the support of the ruling Sonora
clique, and the "border barons" found him to be an
energetic, influential and eager business partner.
Rodriguez helped them to organize Tijuana's vice-centered
economy while illicit activities reached 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 his two years as interim President of the
Republic. Meanwhile, Tijuana's vice activities drew angry
protests on both sides of the border. Throughout Tijuana's
"golden age," protesters condemned activities perceived as
exploitative, immoral and inhuman. A profile of Tijuana's
opponents showed diversity across race, class, gender,
nationality, ideology and religious belief. Rodriguez
usually managed to blunt criticism of his regime, but
occasionally events in Tijuana defied even his ability to
keep the peace.
The liberal Hearst press, a prototype of them,
boldly declared that "Tia Juana is a plague spot and ought
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
27/232
1 3
to be eradicated."1 While Hearst had only shaky evidence
to back his assertion, Tijuana had definitely become a
"problem" for the newspaper and for its 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. Before the
dust had settled, the Peteet case, as it came to be known,
grew into a major diplomatic incident.
The events were clear enough. Thomas and Carrie
Peteet and their daughters, Clyde and Audrey, arrived at
Tijuana's San Diego Hotel on Saturday, January 31, 1926, for
a five-day visit. They seemed to enjoy doing nothing more
than drinking and gambling; witnesses later admitted that
the family drank excessively and gambled all about town.
Mr. Peteet and his two daughters continued "seeing the
sights" until their last Wednesday in Tijuana, when the
three entered the Oakland Bar and drank for a few hours.
Later that night, 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, where
his wife later found him. The couple frantically searched
for their children throughout the night. One daughter was
left in front of the hotel after midnight, and Tijuana
police returned the other to her parents the next morning.
But the family's nightmare was hardly over.
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
28/232
1 4
When the Peteets were finally reunited, they
immediately crossed the border, where Mr. Peteet reported
the outrage to border agents. The family was understandably
upset and reacted impatiently to the slow pace of government
efforts. Peteet even considered getting his pistol to shoot
the Tijuana culprits rather than rely on bureaucratic
justice. Ultimately the family returned to their San
Diego home where, on Saturday, February 6, they committed
suicide.
The family was discovered later that afternoon.
When the police arrived, the parents and their daughter,
Audrey, were dead. The older daughter, Clyde, remained in a
coma for three and a half days before she, too, died.
Investigators found a hastily drawn will and two 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. San
Diegans were shocked to learn that Tijuana's police chief,
Zenaido Llanos, and Oakland Bar owner, Luis Amador, were
among the seven men accused of raping the Peteet girls. Not
surprisingly, the community of San Diego began to
contemplate a proper response to the rampant lawlessness in
Tijuana.
American officials were indignant from the start.
Schuyler 0. Kelly, the San Diego coroner, played a crucial
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
29/232
1 5
role in molding public opinion and directing the course of
political events. Kelly declared to the press that the
Peteet girls had been sexually assaulted, and sent a
telegram to the State Department protesting the Tijuana
tragedy. The California newspapers and the wire services
carried the story. Days later, a San Diego 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 the San Diego City Council, Governor
Friend Richardson, Congressman Phil D. Swing and Secretary
of State Frank Kellogg demanded justice for the Peteets and
a solution to border crime. Congressman Swing also
threatened federal measures if murder charges were not
brought against the defendants.
When San Diego Mayor Frank Bacon chaired a special
"mass meeting of the City Council to discuss the Peteet
case, the large crowd in attendance was unruly. On February
15, the Council passed a resolution directing the federal
government to close the border from dusk until morning to
protect U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, Americans 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. Meanwhile, Governor Abelardo Rodriguez promised
U.S. Consul Frank Bohr that Mexican courts would expedite
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
30/232
1 6
the investigation, and he pledged that the guilty would
receive the "most drastic punishment possible." 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 city. Governor Rodriguez and
Frederico Palacio, the presidente municipal (mayor) of
Tijuana, announced that anyone considered undesirable would
be arrested. Mexican political officials took swift action
while the district judicial system shifted through the
evidence presented in the Peteet case. Americans were
deported and Mexicans sent to the Islas Marias penal colony.
Mexican Judge Saturnino Urias delivered his ruling on
February 17. The state prosecutorsasked that indictments
of rape, assault, concealing a crime and murder be brought
against the seven suspects. But Judge Urias ordered only
four men held over for trial on complaints for rape and
violent assault.
The San Diego Union, oddly, reported the judge's
ruling in one breath, and in the next said that "the
announcement of the indictment came almost at the same hour
with the announcement that the United States Treasury
ro du ced with perm ission of the copyright owner . Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
31/232
1 7
Department had ordered the closing of the international line
at 6 o'clock, the ruling to go into effect at once."11
San Diego branches of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, the Methodist Church and the Law
Enforcement League wanted the border closed altogether, but
President Calvin Coolidge, said that he would not bar
Americans from entering Mexico. Although the evening curfew
was widely evaded and loosely enforced, the order remained
in effect until 1933.
The restriction of American visits to Tijuana
worried merchants whose livelihood depended on border
customers. One interested party, the San Ysidro Chamber of
Commerce, launched its own investigation of the Peteet
affair. Feeling trapped economically between the 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 the curfew.
Although Governor Rodriguez agreed with his countrymen, he
said that he would ask President Calles to close Tijuana and
Mexicali in protest against the "unfriendly attitude toward
19Mexico that prevailed among California newspapers.
Luckily, the crisis did not escalate further. The
Americans began to calm down once they took a closer look at
the Peteet affair. Cooler heads investigated the family's
background and discovered that blame did not rest solely
with the Mexicans. But, in San Diego, the memory of the
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
32/232
1 8
Peteets' shame endured for a generation an incident that
played a subconscious role in the sensual legends that
surround Tijuana.
The Peteet case is illustrative in that it
chronicles the origin and persistence of Tijuana's "black
legend." From 1920 to 1935, Tijuana offered an escape from
the puritanical rules that had spread across California.
But, at the same time, the city was stigmatized by its great
dependence on underground American trade in illicit
activities. Tia Juana, the city's American alter ego,
became synonymous with poverty, crime and lust. Millions of
tourists came to town with the wrong idea that anything
immoral could be had for a price. 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 of Tijuana's history varies
on each side of the border. The governments of Mexico and
the United States have their own explanations. Bureaucrats,
all too often, 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. Legal sanctions have been off
set by the taxes and bribes derived from regulated or
rodu ced with p ermission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
33/232
1 9
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. Yet, politicians have reacted quickly to
crises with all due righteousness and subsequently lapsed
into complacency once public attention shifted to other
matters.
Tijuana's city fathers have recognized their image
problem for decades. In 1926, Governor Rodriguez tried to
blunt Tijuana's bad publicity by renaming it Zaragoza, for
the hero at the Battle of Puebla. However, the idea never
received popular acceptance, so the plan was abandoned and
never mentioned again. The Tijuana tourist bureau, in its
semiofficial capacity, likewise mounted a considerable
effort to improve public relations. Tourist agencies
labeled Tijuana the "Gateway to Mexico." 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 (1934), and Hern&n de la Roca's Tijuana
In (1932). The U.S. print media, moreover, has shown a
marked hostility toward Tijuana. Yet, vivid pictures of
Tijuana's history can be gleaned if one is careful to
account for biases in the press. The Hearst, Spreckels,
rodu ced with p ermission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
34/232
2 0
Otis-Chandler, and Copley newspapers disseminated the
traditional but distorted view of Tijuana, turning the
city's dubious fame into a black legend of untold
proportions. Media coverage of the Peteet case, for
example, showed how public impressions of Tijuana could be
manipulated by an overzealous press. Indeed Mexican
reporters argued that their American counterparts reported
1 ?only pathetic or criminal events m Tijuana. J
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, are
usually slanted yet informative sources. Sanctimonious
reformers have portrayed Tijuana only 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: Urbanization in a Border
Culture, which utilizes a multidisciplinary approach based
on the city's historical context.14 Mexican scholars,
working under David Pinera Ramirez, have published a major
study that supersedes most earlier books. Historia de
1 FTiiuana. relies on extensive archival and oral resources.
My own research of Mexican presidential
correspondence at the Archivo General de la Nacibn revealed
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
35/232
2 1
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 abolish the immoral activity that affected the
entire border region. Before 1920, the two Californias
still resembled a passing frontier, described by the
American Historian Frederick Jackson Turner. Californians
believed that they could still expand south since the
territory below the border included vast, desolate and
unpopulated terrain. Well into the 1920s and 1930s,
Hollywood, a sin city of its own, and Tijuana remained as
wild, vulgar and changeable boomtowns.
V
The topics are presented in chronological order.
The introduction is followed by a chapter on Tijuana's
regional links north of the border. Chapter 3 examines the
growth of American vice in Tijuana during the first years of
Prohibition. The fourth chapter shows how the Mexican
government balanced economic and moral needs in Tijuana.
The fifth chapter explains the decline of Tijuana's vice
activity in this era. The concluding chapter evaluates
Tijuana's place in California culture, in border history and
in its own "black legend."
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
36/232
2 2
ENDNOTES
Robert R. Alvarez, Jr., Familia: Migration and
Adaptation in Baia and Alta California. 1800-1975 (Berkeley:University of California Press, 1987), p. 8. Hereaftercited as: Alvarez, Familia.
Jose C. Valadez, "Revelaciones del Presidente deBaja 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 SanDieao Union, December 29, 1915. Roberta Ridgely, "The Man
Who Built Tijuana, Part V," San Dieao Magazine. 19:11(September, 1967), p. 55, hereafter cited as: Ridgely,"TMWBT." Ridgely, "TMWBT," Part II, p. 53.
^ "Bullfights," San Dieao Magazine. 22:10 (August1970), p. 52.
^ Archivo General de la Naci6n, Presidenciales,Fondo Obregdn-Calles, David Zarate to Epigmenio Ibarra,Ensenada, Baja California, December 5, 1921, Exp. 425-T-7.
"George E. Mowry, The California Progressives (NewYork: Quadrangle, 1976), p. 38 and p. 88. GilmanOstrander, 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. Joseph R. Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade (Urbana:University of Illinois Press, 1970), p. 104. RichardHofstadter, ed. -The Progressive Movement. 1900-1915 (NewYork; Simon & Schuster, 1986), p. 7. James H. Timberlake,Prohibition 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.
OEsteban Cantu Jimenez, Aountes Historicos de Baia
California Norte (Mexico: n.p., 1957), p. 3; hereaftercited as: Cantti, Apuntes.
q* Abelardo L. Rodriguez, Autobioarafia (Mexico:
Novaro Editores, 1962), p. 105. hereafter cited as:Rodriguez, Auto.
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owne r. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
37/232
2 3
"Tia Juana Is a Disgrace to Mexico, a Menace toAmerica," Los Angeles Examiner, February 11, 1926.
11 "Tia Juana Court Indicts Four in Peteet Case,"
The San Dieao Union. February 18, 1926.
12 "Governor Rodriguez Would Bar Border toCalifornia Trade," The San Diego Union. February 25, 1926.
13 "Mexican Accuses U. S. of DisinformationCampaign," The San Dieao Union. November 21, 1986. Alsosee: "Pressure, Payoffs Curb Mexican Press," Los AngelesTimes. 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).
^John A. Price, Tiiuana: Urbanization in a BorderCulture (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973).
^David Pihera Ramirez, ed., Historia de Tiiuana. 2Vols. (Tijuana: Centro de Investigaciones Hist6ricas, UNAM-UABC, 1989) .
rodu ced with p ermission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
38/232
CHAPTER 2
GEO-FOLITICS OF THE CALIFORNIA BORDER REGION
I
Tijuana's history and culture have been determined
largely by the border frontier that separates two nations
distrustful of each other. Located on the Baja California
peninsula, which extends almost 800 miles south of the
United States, Tijuana sits on the western edge of the
Mexico-U.S. border region.1 (See page 199.) This small
corner of Mexico falls naturally within the "California
region because of its topographical similarity to Southern
California," blending effortlessly into the anonymous
chaparral of the peninsula. The Pacific border region, part
of the greater California land mass, usually enjoys good
weather; there is little seasonal variation between Los
3
Angeles and Ensenada.
In the 1870s, Yankee adventurers following gold
strikes near La Paz and Ensenada passed through Tijuana. And
later, it was popularized as a tourist "mecca" by
advertisements when railroads drove to the border.
Promoters publicized Tijuana's "rough edges" to dramatize
the romance and danger of frontier times. When California
vice operators needed a refuge, Tijuana was selected for its
location and, perhaps, even more for its colorful history.
24
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
39/232
2 5
I I
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 Uto-Aztecan languages and their animistic
religions were influenced by the Yuman and Chumash
cultures.4 In a relative sense, the peninsula's geography
isolated the Tijuana tribes from major American
civilizations; still, they had customs and morality similar
to nearby peoples.^ In 17 69, Spanish friars tried to
christianize and colonize the Tijuana Indian villages from
the San Diego Mission without success. Ultimately, the
Mexican and American nations absorbed the Indians along with
the Tijuana borderlands.
The original Tijuana land title was issued by the
Mexican Republic to develop the region as a national
resource. In 1829, Governor Jos6 Maria Echeandia granted
Santiago Arguello 26,000 acres at Tijuana, including the
Cochimi village of Tecuam. 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.)
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
40/232
2 6
In the nineteenth century, Americans monopolized
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 scheme to derive income from the barren,
unpopulated region. In 1859, President Benito Ju&rez
briefly contemplated selling the peninsula to the United
States, but Mexican law and popular opinion effectively
nblocked the transaction. Indirectly, the Ju&rez government
permitted foreign landholding, yet it reserved a Mexican
sovereignty over the territory.
In the meantime, American mining companies pledged
to develop Baja California, in exchange for lands granted by
the Mexican government. On March 30, 1864, President Ju&rez
approved a concession to an American, Jacob Leese, that
included two-thirds of Baja California, in exchange for
Q"one hundred thousand pesos."0 Leese claimed the land,
water and minerals 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 Colonization and
Mining Company incorporated with 40,000 dollars in capital
to extract silver from the Triunfo mine north of La Paz. By
1866, the Lower California Company had absorbed all the
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
41/232
2 7
holdings of the Leese group. The company hired John Ross
Browne, a California mining pioneer, to locate ore deposits
and other useful resources.^ While Browne found little of
mineral value, he saw an "embryo American town" on the
peninsula that bespoke a new destiny for the region. Browne
publicly advocated U.S. annexation, noting that Baja
California's "geographical position gives it a value . . .
1 Dto 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 returns caused the mine's closure.
Because the company failed to meet its obligations, the
Mexican government canceled the concession and the land
reverted to the state.
In the 1880s, the Mexican government approved
development schemes underwritten with foreign capital, and
the regime encouraged any company willing to industrialize
the peninsula. George Sisson, an American, lobbied
President Manuel Gonzalez to gain the Baja California
concession through Luis Huller, his Mexican partner.
President Gonz&lez provided fiscal incentives and relaxed
laws against foreign ownership, thereby paving the way for
American land monopolies.
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
42/232
2 8
On July 21, 1884, Sisson and Hiiller organized the
International Company of Mexico to develop 17 million acres
(6.9 million hectares), including the territory between
Tijuana and the twenty-eighth parallel. Based on the
Colonization Law, the International Company paid Mexico a
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, advertised that 18
million acres were for sale through its San Diego land
1 9agents. The large grant was subdivided and many eager
buyers purchased tracts suitable for small farms.
President Porfirio Diaz tolerated flexible law
enforcement in case Baja California should become
productive. Francisco Bulnes, a Mexican senator, admitted
that the Diaz government conducted some shady deals, "but
they were not allied with foreign enterprise, nor were they
disadvantageous to the country. Ultimately, Mexico
retained the peninsula, and the nation got funds to meet its
obligations.
ro duc ed with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
43/232
2 9
I I I
Tijuana's development was hampered by isolation and
poor transportation. Since no close harbors existed/
Tijuana had few apparent resources and little commercial
value. Merchant ships ignored the city in favor of the
ports of Ensenada and San Diego. When rich ores were
discovered near the Ensenada area, Yankee "gold diggers"
passed through Tijuana. Prospectors walked along the old,
desolate trails and used the bordertown as a rest and re
supply depot. With improved travel, the settlers helped
organize the scattered adobe ranches into a community with
economic activity. At the same time, American railroads
integrated Tijuana with the economy of the 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, and Mr. J. Gould for
seven years."14 David Hoffman and associates operated a
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 transferred
to stage coaches bound for the border. In the 1880s, Asa
Adams ran the White Sulfur Springs Hotel, located less than
two miles south of the U.S. customs house. J. H. Averill
brought visitors to Tijuana from downtown San Diego aboard
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
44/232
3 0
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. Thus, trains finally delivered Americans
directly to the border from where they traveled the last
miles by foot or horse to the Tijuana mineral baths.
As California filled with new settlers and tourists,
Tijuana acquired a reputation as an exotic, foreign land
beyond the reach of American laws. During California's
first land boom, Tijuana hosted sporting events that were
banned north of the border. On May 27, 1888, for example,
the O'Neal-versus-Nugent boxing match occurred in Tijuana
with Wyatt Earp as referee. The spectators arrived by train
and sat on the American side in bleachers separated from the
boxing ring by a rope that represented the borderline.
Afterward, hundreds of Californians crossed the border and
spent the rest of the day in Tijuana. Prostitutes from San
Diego's zone of tolerance, the Stingaree, walked among the
Tijuana visitors seeking customers. J
As Tijuana hosted more spectacular events, the
town's new role in the American vice economy stimulated the
construction of saloons, hotels and a bull ring. Americans,
however, did not build casinos, brothels and race tracks as
long as these activities remained legal in California.
Still, few American "go-getters" could have predicted that
Tijuana would soon draw millions of tourists. But, then,
California land values suddenly rose as the railroads helped
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
45/232
3 1
populate, urbanize and industrialize the West Coast. On the
U.S. side, land parcels sold for 150 dollars an acre in 10-
and 40-acre tracts.1^ In 1888, a new Tijuana resort called
the Hot Springs Hotel stimulated further development. The
Arguello heirs had sold the land surrounding the Agua
Caliente springs to the Hart and Stern Land Company.17
Hotel publicity emphasized the medicinal waters and the
resort's beautiful Mexican setting, but the bordertown grew
slowly.
Soon, new social groups won economic and political
control of Tijuana. Government officials, merchants and
American investors displaced the Arguello family from its
pre-eminent status in the community. In the 1880s, Ti'juana
had less than 100 residents. The Diaz government ruled Baja
California through a civil official called the iefe
politico. ^ Most often, the appointee was also military
chief of the territory as well. European immigrants moved
to the border region, where they opened saloons and curio
stores that catered specifically to American tourists.
In 1886, Alejandro Savin, the Mexican son of a
French immigrant, moved from La Paz and opened the first
curio shop in Tijuana. Later, two German immigrants started
small businesses near the border that would blossom into
commercial dynasties. By 1890, George lbs owned stores in
San Jos del Cabo, Ensenada and Tijuana. In 1892, another
German named John Hussong, opened a saloon in Ensenada,
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
46/232
3 2
where gold miners came to "weigh their gold and spend it."
These merchants became wealthy in Baja California's land
boom, many kept homes and savings in San Diego.^ Some
Americans made a profit from their Tijuana investments
although most reduced their losses and returned to San
Diego. w The new economic leaders of Tijuana subordinated
the hereditary elite by further monopolizing land and
markets.
Subsequently, in the 1880s the Porfirian regime
nullified the Tijuana grant and attached the ranch to land
91concessions sold to American investors. To postpone an
inevitable government seizure, two Arguello heirs 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. Ricardo Romero Aceves, a
local historian, regarded the court decision as Tijuana's
00official founding. ^ Soon land speculators realized that
Tijuana's value depended on its location, not on its
resources.
American land speculators flocked to San Diego to
capitalize on the real-estate boom. A slick-talking man,
William "Smiling Billy" Carlson caused a stir when he
promoted a tourist resort called Monument City. Carlson
situated the project near the mouth of the Tijuana River to
compete with the Hotel del Coronado, then under construction
roduc ed with p ermission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
47/232
3 3
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. To celebrate, he and his
Mexican wife traveled on a pleasure and business trip to
Mexico City, where he met President Diaz and personally
negotiated a concession to build a railroad across northern
Baja California. "Smiling Billy's" plans came to a halt
when he ran afoul of American fraud laws and spent four
years in federal prison.
American developers considered many profitable
alternatives for the use of Tijuana. The theme of "Tijuana,
the tourist mecca," gained wide exposure in the local press.
Visitors to San Diego read about Tijuana, and even the
Victorian elite rode the railway shuttles that toured the
border. In the 1890s, local papers regularly advertised
that "a tally-ho party will leave Hotel Del Coronado for Tia
J u a n a . T h e hotel guests played on Coronado beach, hunted
at Otay Lakes, bathed at Agua Caliente, cruised Mexican
waters and explored the borderlands. But the "red-blooded"
Yankee tourist who enjoyed the "sporting life" found little
amusement in trips to the ruins of Tijuana's old adobe
mission. Shrewd businessmen realized that gambling and
other vice operations might be of more interest.
Southern California newspapers publicized every
attempt to put gambling resorts in Tijuana. In 1897, a
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
48/232
3 4
media scandal erupted from rumors that Jesse Grant, the son
of Ulysses Simpson Grant, had purchased the Hot Springs
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. It was said that the Tijuana casino would
become the "greatest sporting center on the continent."
California newspaper reporters dismissed the story as false
but admitted that "this rumor, with variations, has gained
currency occasionally for the past ten years, whenever
attention has been directed to the development of the
peninsula." The fact that Grant owned a gold mine near
Ensenada only lent further credibility to the report. The
Los Anaeles Times printed an exclusive statement that "Mr.
Grant applied for no concession whatever for privileges of
any kind at Tia Juana. It is true that he was asked to04
apply for a concession, but he refused to do so." A
"horseman and plunger" named Phil Dwyer had fabricated the
Jesse Grant story to awaken investor enthusiasm for a
similar scheme of his own. The news media eventually lost
interest in Dwyer's scam but Tijuana got an undeserved
reputation in the process. In the press, Tijuana became a
symbol for world-class tourist resorts, gambling casinos and
other vice operations. Meanwhile, wealthy Americans found
other ways to gamble their money by purchasing land below
the border.
rodu ced with p ermission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
49/232
3 5
I V
After 1900, four industrialists monopolized the
California border region through direct ownership and
investments. Wealthy Americans like Harrison Gray Otis,
John Cudahy, Edward H. Harriman and John D. Spreckels
extended their California holdings south by purchasing
enormous Mexican estates. The financiers often pooled
OCresources to defend their investments m Ba^a California. J
Otis owned newspapers and real estate in Los Angeles; Cudahy
founded a meat-packing industry in Los Angeles; Harriman
controlled the Southern Pacific Railroad and its
subsidiaries; and Spreckels ran a financial empire that
included sugar factories,. public utilities, ships, banks,
hotels, railways and newspapers in Hawaii, San Francisco and
San Diego. These men exerted powerful influence in the
Republican Party and wielded tremendous economic and
political power across the Californias.
Harrison Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, began
purchasing land in the Imperial Valley when he discovered
its fertility. On June 25, 1878, the Diaz regime sold
General Guillermo Andrade 850,000 acres in the Colorado
River Delta at 10 cents an acre. In 1902, 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, Harry Chandler, had formed
the Colorado River Company in Mexico and then created the
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
50/232
3 6
California and Mexico Land and Cattle Company (C&M Land Co.)
to meet U.S. laws. By 1907, they had accumulated one
million acres in a ranch that extended across the border.
The C&M Land Co. lobbied both the U.S. and Mexican
governments to build canals diverting Colorado River water
to their property at public expense. With the labor of
Chinese sharecoppers, the company prospered by introducing
cotton production, fulfilling the prediction of J. Ross
Browne. Chinese merchants operated establishments in
Tijuana and Mexicali catering to Asians like the Casino
Chino where gambling, liquor, opium use and prostitution
flourished.^7 Although the C&M Land Company controlled
Mexicali, it never hindered Chinese vice operations in its
domain.
But the Otis-Chandler group did intervene in
Mexican affairs to protect its Baja California holdings
until the government tired of the foreign intrigues and
nationalized the property.^ The 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, a
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.
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
51/232
3 7
Duroc-Jersey hogs raised at the ranch were butchered at the
Tijuana slaughterhouse owned by Charles S. Hardy, the "boss"
OQ
of San Di ego .^ 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 Mexican government especially welcomed the
construction of railroads and the state gave generous
concessions to such endeavors. At the turn of the century,
an American railroad company, the Southern Pacific, became
the second largest landowner in Baja California. By 1904,
Edward H. Harriman owned the Southern Pacific which, in
turn, owned 55,000 acres along the tracks of the Ferrocarril
Inter California. In Mexico, Harriman's company operated as
the Compahia de Terrenos y Aguas de la Baja California,
S.A., with rights to "one-half of all of the water passing
through Mexican territory to the United States."^ 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, rendering worthless the paper fortunes of
speculators. Spreckels amassed discounted land and bought
delinquent county tax liens as he foreclosed on properties
at Coronado Island, the downtown area and southern San Diego
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
52/232
3 8
County. Meanwhile, Tijuana and the border region fell into
the lap of San Diego's new first citizen like ripe fruit.
Spreckels transformed San Diego and Tijuana into
winter tourist centers. The jewel of his empire was the
Hotel del Coronado, where wealthy guests enjoyed the Casino
Bar, a horse track and private but illegal gambling.
Spreckels bought and improved the local railroad systems
that operated daily from Coronado and San Diego to the
30
border. ^ Thus, he monopolized the nascent tourism.
Meanwhile, Spreckels planned to connect San Diego
rail 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 organized vice activities around
Tijuana in its wake. By January 1, 1910, the SD&A had five
different construction camps laying tracks out of Tijuana
through the eastern mountains. 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 attracted many
gamblers and prostitutes to Tijuana. Where only a "cottage
industry" had previously existed, Tijuana, became a major
center for vice. The Spreckels' companies never tried to
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
53/232
3 9
stop border vice; indeed, the family lavished time, money
and publicity on Tijuana horse-racing for decades.
V
By the turn of the century, however, Tijuana vice
paled in comparison to operations in San Francisco, Los
Angeles and San Diego's Stingaree district.^4 The Savin and
lbs curio shops sold tourist items, but liquor sales also
provided a good share of business. Unscrupulous liquor
dealers sold local whiskey and tequila labeled as expensive
imported brands of liquor.
An American citizen, Jos R. Alvarez, figured
prominently among the Tijuana vice purveyors of the day.
Alvarez owned a popular cantina, The Club, where tourists
drank American liquor or Carta Blanca beer and gambled on
faro, monte and dog races. He also owned Tijuana's second
bull ring and other local property. 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 brothers and that he had "expatriated
himself" by virtue of holding land and public office in
Lower California. He used considerable influence in San
Diego to retain his citizenship, but he had to relinquish
his Tijuana property. J
At the same time, other Americans ran a variety of
gambling operations in Tijuana. Gambling became a popular
ro du ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permissio n.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
54/232
4 0
industry and the district government regulated it very
closely. In December 12, 1907, the northern district of
Baja California authorized most races, dice, card games and
lotteries after payment of monthly fees but roulette and
slot machines were illegal. John Russell, managed a
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 never succeeded because of insufficient
capital. A Los Angeles native, Juan V. Apablasa, owned a
Tijuana liquor store and customs brokerage and he
represented the Spreckels' companies in Tijuana. Yet he was
empowered to inspect the bullfights. (See page 207.) The
-iefe politico also appointed J. L. Smith, another American,
as inspector of the lottery known as the rifa de alha-ia'*
(raffle of jewels) . At this point, gamblers had not
overwhelmed Tijuana and the territorial government saw no
reason to ban a lucrative source of income.
The domination of Tijuana commerce and Baja
California landholding by American citizens and European
immigrants left Tijuana politically weak and vulnerable to
military invasions from north of the b o r d e r . ^ To make
matters worse, Tijuana became an unwilling participant in
the rebellion against President Porfirio Diaz.
ro duc ed with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
55/232
4 1
On May 8, 1911, insurgents loyal to the Mexican
Liberal Party (PLM) and the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) disobeyed direct orders and captured Tijuana after a
brief engagement. In a fit of moralistic zeal, the rebels
looted the lbs and Savin stores and destroyed all their
liquor. San Diego witnesses said that "so much liquor was
destroyed that it ran out of the front doors, trickled down
onthe steps and was absorbed by the ground.,IJ Insurgents and
sightseers alike were reduced to frenzied looting of
abandoned homes and businesses.
A week later, rebel commander Carl Ap Rhys Pryce,
transformed Tijuana into a "wide open" border town. Liquor
sellers, were welcomed back. Pryce extorted money from
merchants, opened brothels and sold gambling permits to
Americans in the name of the "revolution." He also demanded
that gambling houses pay him 25 percent of their daily
winnings and charged each tourist a quarter to enter town.
Pryce tried unsuccessfully to extort money from Spreckels,
Otis, Cudahy and the Southern Pacific by threatening to
destroy their Mexican properties if they helped the Mexican
gov ern ment. ^ 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. Prior
to battle, Mosby ordered prostitution, gambling and liquor
ro duc ed with permissio n of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission .
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
56/232
4 2
banished from town without realizing that vice had already
dissipated his m e n . I t was too late for Mosby to stop the
fun. According to historian Alejandro F. Lugo, Jr., the
Revolution of 1911 introduced organized of vice to Tijuana.
He contended that the PLM marauders left Tijuana wide open
to "gambling, drinking and prostitution, imported from the
United States, which proliferated for the first time on this
border like a novelty."4 Yet no one accepted
responsibility for the violation of sovereignty or anything
else.
On June 14, Governor and Colonel Celso Vega forced
Mosby's troops off Mexican soil and prepared a victory
ceremony. On June 26, the Governor hosted dignitaries
representing the San Diego Common Council and a group of
Spanish-War veterans. The SD&A hauled eight coaches filled
with conventioneers eager to toast Tijuana's return to
Mexican control. Although the PLM battles had heightened
the mystique of Tijuana as a tourist mecca, visitors were
uneasy with so many armed soldiers guarding both sides of
the border. (See page 208.) After the battles, the Mexican
government promoted Vega to general and transferred him to
the Veracruz garrison.
VI
Major Esteban Cantu, who had occupied Mexicali
during the PLM unrest, emerged after 1913 as the iefe
politico of northern Baja California. Esteban Cantti ruled
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
57/232
4 3
Baja California with a strong hand and with a pragmatic
attitude toward American investments. California
industrialists and vice purveyors grafted their operations
on the border tourist industry when a moral crusade
suppressed zones of tolerance for vice across the state.
Between 1910 and 1915/ progressive legal reforms added more
stringent punishment for crimes against California
morality.
Professional gamblers, pimps, opium dealers and
barkeepers considered Tijuana the best place to rebuild
their businesses. 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, where they
formed the ABW Corporation (ABW). The corporation owned the
Tivoli Bar in Tijuana and the infamous El Tecolote (Owl
Club) in Mexicali.
American industrialists like Otis and Spreckels
resigned themselves to bordertown vice with few complaints
in their newspapers. Colonel Esteban Cantu regulated and
heavily taxed the ABW, except that he kept national receipts
AOfor regional uses. The territorial government became
prosperous as more and more saloons, brothels, opium dens
and gambling halls paid due consideration to the "Kingdom of
Cantu." The governor became an enigmatic figure who
inspired both praise and contempt in the Californias.
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
58/232
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
59/232
4 5
Association wrote to the American National Bank, a
Spreckels7 company, that it had stopped payment on four
traveler's checks cashed in San Diego by "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 San Diego mayor received another protest from
May C. Bliss, the sister of Michigan's governor, who had
seen Tijuana before, but found that "the place is not fit
any longer for decent people to go to, as it has resolved
itself into a gambling hell-hole. "4^ Mayor 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 the mayor had no power in
Tijuana anyway. The newspapers editors said that there was
"no reason to suppose that suggestions for putting the lid
on Tijuana would bring the desired results," given the
instability of Mexico's government.4^ The Spreckels
Companies concluded that "what cannot be cured must be
endured" since "more persistent publicity" would not deter
visitors to Tijuana.
The presence of American gamblers in Tijuana
continued to draw minor protests until two runaway girls
caused a major crisis. On April 21, 1915, the boyfriends of
rodu ced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
8/9/2019 Cabeza de Baca-Moral Renovation-Tijuana Role
60