EDITION 86

APRIL 2008

Brief Histories of Mazatlan

By Enrique Vega Ayala
Official Chronicler of Mazatlan

• Mazatlan Historical Museum in the Works
• An Artistic Coffee-table Book on the History of Mazatlan

Since at least the 1940s, there have been several projects to build a Historical Museum of Mazatlan. The first of these came from the Mazatlan historian, politician, and diplomat Jose C. Valades Rocha. Valades promoted the idea through his newspaper El Correo de Occidente. In fact, various objects related to local and regional history began to arrive at the daily's office, where they were to be analyzed, assessed and finally placed in an exhibit. Alas, in the end, the project never came to fruition.

Toward the end of the twentieth century, when the effort to recover the historical city center began to gain traction, demand resurfaced for a museum in which locals and visitors could explore the different stages of Mazatlan's evolution. The state government took on the project of remodeling an old mansion and installing what became the Mazatlan Archaeological Museum of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, located downtown at 76 Sixto Osuna Street.

Although this fulfilled the need for a museum, the focus was limited to the region's pre-Hispanic cultures. It did not satisfy the collective demand for a museum that included more recent epochs as well. Such has been the situation for the last 20 years.

The development of cultural tourism, so important in Mazatlan, requires attractions that complement the architectural profile of Mazatlan. In response, there is now a small exhibition in the Angela Peralta Theater that tells the city's history. You may also find there a small book featuring the visual materials and texts that are on permanent display in the exhibition. The book is also available at the Caracol Bookstore.

The authors, curators, and the Municipal Institute of Culture, Tourism, and Art hope to provide information about the history of Mazatlan in a way that is pleasant, interesting, and accessible. The exhibition and the book are part of the development of an idea, which is gaining strength in our collective identity, based on the creation of cultural entertainment alternatives that are both attractive and profitable.

The design of the exhibition and the images in the book are the work of Beatriz Molins de Salomo. The texts were written by yours truly. We were both seduced by the idea of contributing to the future Museum of the City.

The Cultural Institute, under the direction of Raul Rico, decided to promote the renovation of the Angela Peralta Theather as a special place for this type of activities. The idea is to take advantage of the theater's status as Mazatlan's cultural heart. Its corridors and rooms will exhibit the multiple facets of the city's creativity and highlight the valuable heritage built by generations of Mazatlecos.

We hope that our proposal will thrive and benefit all Mazatlan residents. We do not want the exhibition to be seen as an improvised affair, stuck in a hallway for emergency evacuations. Rather, it should be a part of the normal flow of the theater-itself an emblem of nineteenth-century architecture-for children, young people, and the public from near and far.

It was not easy to put together the book and the exhibition. Both will certainly attract salutary debate. Old photographs play a very important role. We cannot discover anything in them, not even nostalgia. They are but a small sample of a rich collection. The exhibition and book especially showcase portraits, which the designer respectfully used to create bright and colorful graphic displays.

The book and the exhibit tell the history of Mazatlan through images and simple, brief texts. Our hope is to catch the reader's or the visitor's attention. In a single phrase, he can take home a piece of the past that emerged here on the edge of the sea.

A chronology provides an account of many of the memorable days in the life of Mazatlan. As the editor, I tried to include the most representative dates; no doubt, each reader would add some and subtract others. The same happens with the people and events featured. Some may wonder, Why these and not others? The personal judgement of the chronicler was one factor; even more decisive was the limited available space within the building. Many things simply did not fit.

The exhibit includes 32 displays. The book has 64 pages. There are, then, 32 brief accounts of the most relevant events that have occurred in this land. The point of departure, of course, is the indigenous past and the figure of the deer that gave our city its name. Next come the first incursions over land and sea by Spaniards and other Europeans. Some were conquistadors and explorers; others were pirates.

Next is the description of the city's foundation: the first government installed to provide the Spanish crown better control over the port; the legend of the first settlers; the establishment of the maritime customs office; and the first city government council.

Another section contains information about the construction of the first church and the establishment of a branch office of the longest standing German trading house in Mazatlan. Next come the foreign military occupations of the region-first the U.S. invasion and then the French.

Information about two early theaters illuminate the old forms of entertainment. In addition to the Angela Peralta, there was another theater that no longer exists. Visitors can also learn about the tragic death of the Mexican opera diva in the 1800s during a tour through Mexico's Pacific Coast cities.

There is also a section on the modernization that Mazatlan underwent during the long period in which General Porfirio Díaz governed the country. The display features photographs from the most influential local newspaper and shows how potable water from the closest river was brought to the city streets. It tells the history of the most prominent local family, as well as the inauguration of the region's emblematic brewery. Visitors can learn about the epidemics that hit the population and about the most celebrated doctors who helped eradicate them. They can also see how Mazatlan celebrated the hundredth anniversary of independence from Spain.

The Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) raged through Mazatlan on the train and in the airplane, just as our chronological display shows. And, of course, there had to be a special section on two native sons of international fame, Pedro Infante and Genaro Estrada.

The section on the 20th century describes a dark episode in our history-the fratricidal wars of the 1930s. On the other hand, we also included information about Mazatlan's achievement in gaining the designation as regional headquarters of the Catholic church. Finally, the display discusses the origins of the two economic pillars of Mazatlan, deep-sea shrimp fishing and tourism.

The chronological narration, which includes 158 historical events and facts, concludes in the year 2000, simply because we had to end it at some point.

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