viernes, 19 de diciembre de 2014



    A Little More from "Modesto Rolland and the Baja California Peninsula"

      Modesto Rolland was born and baptized in La Paz, but he spent most of his childhood in the small but bustling mining community of Santa Rosalía.[1] His family was part of a contingent of fifty Mexican and sixteen foreign, mostly French, families with which the company El Boleo founded the townsite.[2]  Santa Rosalía was a mix of ugly and beautiful. The miners stripped the hillsides, filled the air with smoke, and contaminated the soil with heavy metals and processing chemicals. Boats came and went regularly, bringing new people and supplies. These ships also brought wood from Canada and the United States, with which carpenters, including Rolland's father, built stylish French-style buildings along the coast and hillside. Many of these structures still stand today as homes, hotels, and a museum, giving the city a look unique to most of Mexico. The miners and mixed-ethnic community breathed a rough but always interesting life into the community. Bajacalifornianos mixed daily with Mexicans from other parts of the country and French, German, American, and Chinese immigrants. The sun was hot. The air was humid next to the water, but dry beyond the hills. The stars in the night sky pulsed with an amazing brilliancy, their light reflecting off the Sea of Cortez.



                [1] Baptismal record of José Modesto Rolland Mejía, Catedral de Nuestra Señora de La Paz, Libro de baptismos, no. 4, pg. 337, part. 1942; Pablo L. Martínez, Guía familiar de la Baja California, 1700-1900 (México: Ediciones Baja California, 1965), 479, 502, 549, 553, 577; Max Calvillo Velasco, “Prólogo,” Informe sobre el Distrito Norte de Baja California (México: Secretaria de Educación Pública y la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, 1993), 5-7.  Although baptized as José, Modesto Rolland never publicly went by that name.
                [2] Juan Preciado Llamas, En la periferia del regímen: Baja California Sur durante la administración porfiriana (La Paz: Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, 2005), 179.



                                                    
The old El Boleo post office, now a museum. It is typical
of the carpentry work of French immigrants. Photo by author.


Saludos,
Justin Castro

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