It is a proud thing to have been
born in La Paz, and a cloud of delight hangs over the distant city from the
time when it was the great pearl center of the world
—John
Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1941)
The
famous American writer John Steinbeck thought highly of Modesto C. Rolland’s
home town of La Paz. During Steinbeck's fabled expedition with biologist Edward
F. Ricketts along the coasts of Baja California, the author
waxed poetically about the long and inviting history of the port during its pearl-filled glory days. The locals, Steinbeck recalled,
considered the city "a huge place—not of
course as monstrous as Guaymas or Mazatlán, but beautiful beyond comparison." Size and
beauty are relative, perhaps. But in a desert peninsula "unfriendly to
colonization," La Paz had drawn the adventurous from around
the world.[1]
In 1940, the
same year that Steinbeck scoured the Baja coasts for marine (and human) life, Rolland
was pressing desperately for the need to develop the peninsula, to “conquer”
it. He stressed the need for dams,
irrigation, roads, and free trade. “All Mexicans,” he said, “are obligated to
think of the problem of Baja California and aid with affection and love in its
development, since a chain is no stronger than its weakest link.” In an increasingly modern Mexico, the land
remained a beautiful but feeble appendage. Its future lied not in
pearls or biology expeditions, but in development. [2]
.JPG)
Book cover from the Log from the Sea of Cortez, 1995 Penguin edition
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