Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM
Serving The Communities Of Portal and Rodeo (www.portal-rodeo.com)
Agua Prieta Tour
On a lovely Saturday (October 22), 30 people from Portal and Rodeo embarked on an “expedition” to Agua Prieta. Arranged by Howard Topoff and his teaching colleagues at the Center For Academic Success school in Douglas, we had a delicious lunch at La Abeja. We were able to commandeer the entire restaurant! After lunch, we piled into a bunch of vehicles for a tour of the city, led by Oscar, the official Agua Prieta Historian.
Agua Prieta is a sprawling city of about 90,000 people.
The Arch At The Port Of Entry
La Abeja Restaurant
El Moro (see below)
Oscar - Agua Prieta Historian
The Cultural Center
Not Ready To Join The Dead
You Can Advance The Slides With The Right & Left Arrows, On Either Side Of The Thumbnail Images
Two highlights of the Tour were :
1. A visit to the Cultural Center, with a resident artist present to show us his beautiful, colorful paintings (see the slide show above).
2. The photograph of the Plan Of Agua Prieta (see slide show)
The Plan of Agua Prieta (Spanish: Plan de Agua Prieta) was a manifesto, or plan, that articulated the reasons for rebellion against the government of Venustiano Carranza. Three revolutionary generals from Sonora, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles, and Adolfo de la Huerta, often called the Sonoran Triumvirate, or the Sonoran Dynasty, rose in revolt against the civilian government Carranza. It was proclaimed by Obregón on 22 April 1920, in English and 23 April in Spanish in the northern border city of Agua Prieta, Sonora.
Agua Prieta,Sonora, Mexico
Agua Prieta is a bustling city of 70,000 located in the northeastern corner of Sonora, adjoining the southeastern Arizona town of Douglas.
The town’s origins date back to its proximity to the railroad constructed in the late 1800’s by the Phelps Dodge corporation to transport copper to the United States from its mine in Nacozari, Mexico. It was originally established in 1899, but did not become a municipality with its current name until 1916.
Although the town has not been around as long as most Sonoran municipalities (which were typically founded centuries ago), it has a storied history. Mexican presidents Plutarco Elias Calles and Lázaro Cárdenas both lived in the town, and it played a part in the Mexican Revolution – in fact it was once attacked by the forces of Pancho Villa (who famously rode his horse up the staircase at the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas).
Today’s Agua Prieta has several maquiladoras, or cross-border factories, that assemble a variety of products such as window blinds and auto seatbelts. The factories draw many workers from all parts of Mexico.
Agua Prieta’s shopping district is within walking distance from the border, so many tourists choose to park in a nearby lot and walk across. If you choose to drive across the border crossing to the shopping district (a couple of blocks south of the border), to make the return trip to the U.S. you’ll need to join the line of cars on the street bounded by the border fence, just to the east of the US border entry.
