" We invite you to visit beautiful San Carlos Nuevo Guaymas, for a weekend
or a lifetime"!!
Rafael T. Caballero
History of
San Carlos
Virtual tour of
its Foundation
By John J.
Bartlett
I recently interviewed Mr. Rafael Tomas Caballero Corral ( Rafael T.
Caballero). Founder of the tourist destination of
San Carlos
Bay
,
Nuevo Guaymas
,
Sonora . Don Rafael was born in
Chinipas
,
Chihuahua on the 18th of September 1923 and this year 2005 turned 82.
He
is still active as Executive Director of his Real Estate-Tourist Company
“Grupo Caballero”. Being curious
by nature and having heard many stories floating around town, I invited him to
give me a “sanitized” virtual tour of how
San Carlos came to be, and with a smile and that twinkle in his eye I’ve come to know
answered: “It was conceived purely by coincidence”.
The first of many coincidences came when his parents Rafael Caballero
Anaya and his mother Trinidad Corral de Caballero decided to leave their home in
Chinipas
,
Chihuahua
and brought him to
Guaymas
,
Sonora when he was just one year old.
Years
later when he was 12 years old in the 6th grade in elementary school,
the next coincidence occurred when he began to get to know the area of
San Carlos .
He was exploring the principal
zones of the area, starting with “El Estero del Soldado” the estuary, in the
Bahia of San Carlos around Punta Double and Punta Pelicano, Piedras Pintas, El
Palmar and la Manga, in his weekly excursions with the “Exploradores” (boy
scouts) that his instructor promoted at that time with his students.
These
images were permanently imprinted in his mind, the beautiful, majestic and
magical images of the mountains, beaches and sea.
In his classes of history Rafael learned about the missionaries
Salvatierra and Kino who had initiated at the beginning of 1700’s the
conversion the local Indians, the Guaimas, Seris and Yaquis. He remembered that
in the middle of 1800’s around
San Carlos the invasion by the French Count Rousset de Bourbon of the Guaymas port, who
was then beaten back by the Governor and General Ignacio Zaragoza.
Remembering also that in 1900 what is now known as
San Carlos
, Nuevo Guaymas, were the cattle ranches known as “El Baviso de Navarro”,
and the owner Cayetano Navarro later subdivided the property between his
descendants, which became 4 ranches called El Represo, El Baviso,
San Carlos and Los Algodones.
He remembered
that Cayetano Navarro had been Presidente Municipal (mayor) of the city of
Guaymas .
Many years passed and in 1940 Rafael was working with the English
Vice-Consul John Davidson, also President of various important mining companies
of graphite, manganese, gold and silver, and by another coincidence he promoted
and sent him to be in charge of their new offices in
Nogales
,
Sonora that he successfully administered for many years. In another coincidence he was
invited to be President of the Board for the consortium of Mr. John G. George in
the world of Real Estate, agriculture and industrial enterprises in the “Valle
del Yaqui”, but still retaining his residence in
Nogales . In the 20 years that passed Caballero’s business in Nogales prospered and he
formed a consortium that he named “Empresas Caballero, S.A.” that included
land that was developed in Nogales and Obregon, 500 hectares of seed cultivation
in the Yaqui Valley, 245 hectares of legumes for exportation from Guasave,
Sinaloa, a flour mill in Agua Prieta, a mill for cotton seed oil in Mexicali, a
movie theater, a radio station etc. etc., and also reserves of lands in
Magdalena,
Santa Ana
,
Hermosillo
, and
Culiacan . In his civic activities for more than 12 years he was President of the
Improvement of the Civic, Moral and Material Improvements Board of Nogales, and
in other occasions director of the Chamber of Commerce and International
Organizations, having received the Recognition of the Year of the Arizona-Sonora
Association that was presented in Tucson at that time, by the Governor of
Arizona, Lic. Raul H. Castro.
Continuing the recollections of the world of relations and coincidences
in
Nogales
, Caballero became good friends with Mr. Gaston, Mr. Cayetano, and Guillermo
Mascareñas, heirs of the 4 ranches of
San Carlos that had belonged to Mr. Cayetano Navarro that he had explored as a boy scout
so many years before.
On the death of his partner John G. George in 1960, Caballero decided to
liquidate all his businesses and retire. He purchased his first airplane and
quickly decided “where to go”? “For sure Guaymas! The pearl of my youth”
he said. He stayed in a Villa at “Hotel Playas de Cortes”, where the
administrator Mrs. Eldred Tanar, and promoter of Ocean excursions in that hotel,
Tom Jamison convinced him to buy his first yacht. After liquidating little by
little into cash his various businesses many friends began asking for loans.
And here surfaced the next coincidence, because one of them was Cayetano
Mascareñas who was trying to resolve a problem with his ranch “El Pajarito”
in
Nogales . Completely unexpectedly
he
guaranteed the loan with his ranch
“El Basivo” which contained 4,520 hectares (where the Golf Club and the main
part of town now stands), that he had inherited from his father, who also had
inherited it from Don Cayatano
Navarro. Months later in the next stage of coincidences unexpectedly Cayetano
offered to sell “El Baviso” to Caballero, and even though he had the
intention of retiring, he said”purely by instinct I bought it on the spot”.
This would not have been of consequence had it not been for the next domino of
coincidence falling when his friend Gaston Mascrareñas presented him to his
brother in law Antonio J. Bermudez Director
General of Petroleos Mexicano, who quite unexpectedly also offered the
adjacent “Rancho San Carlos” with another 4,520 hectares, that naturally he
bought by instinct also. Then the next incredible coincidence, Mrs. Irma
Fleischer Mascareñas offered the ranch “Los Algodones” with another 4,520
hectares! In other words, without ever even looking he purchased 13,560
hectares, all the lands he had so loved exploring as a boy.
He then understood the message of all these coincidences. “It came to
me like a bolt from the blue” he said with that twinkle in his eye, “Create
a new tourist destination in the Bahia San Carlos”!
In the first years he decided to understand, define and resolve all the
legal problems involved and simultaneously hired consultants for urban planning.
He started modestly with the first phases, opening a highway, electricity
cables, water lines, an air strip, building the initial Yate Club, residential
lots on the Caracol, RV park, the Hotel la Posada, up to 1963 when the Governor
of Sonora Luis Encinas and the Governor of Arizona Paul Fannin inaugurated his
first installations.
In 1968 Caballero voluntarily donated to the Federal Government
some lands in the Presidential Resolution for the
endowment of the Ejido “13 de Julio”, 4,979 hectares
were
recognized and respected as “Pequeña
Propiedad” (Small properties), later rectified by the Secretary of Agrarian
Reform in 1976,
and later complimented and declared a “Zone for National Tourism
Development” for the same surface area published in the official newspaper
“Diario Oficial de la Federacion” in 1980 by the Secretary of Human
Settlement and Public Works and
Agrarian Reform and Tourism.
Of the 4,979 hectares
retained as “Small Properties”. The Congress of the State set forth in 1963
the town and country estate of Bahia San Carlos, Commissariat of Nuevo Guaymas
2,774.60
hectares of the lands known as “El
Baviso”, and in 1973 the Congress broadened
the country estate to include the properties of “Rancho San Carlos and
Los Algodones”. Currently it is
all part of the Plan Conurbado (Urban Planning) de Desarrollo Empalme-Guaymas-
San Carlos . The orderly growth of the community was made feasible by virtue of the
planning and urbanization with potable water resources, electrical energy supply
and roads constructed for the first
phase of growth of up to 36,000 habitants, even though up to now there are only
about 7,000 habitants.
Sr. Caballero continues on as the principal investor or “Macro
Developer” and in that way has enticed many “Micro Developers” such as;
the group of Tom Childers for the formation of the Hotel Posada, and the group
of Don Alfonso Estrada for the formation of the Club de Golf (Golf Club) that
was run locally by Ing. Cesar Estrada. David Perez for the construction of the
Hotel Fiesta and the Condominium “Triana”. Donald Rastvold for the
construction of Condominiums “Conquistador”. Dr.
Enrique Rodriguez
MotaVelasco of the RV Trailer Park “Tetakawi”. Mr.
Mauro Felix who constructed the Plaza and Hotel Los Jitos and the condominiums
Loma Bonita. Marcos Russek and
Octavio Llano
Zaragoza who built “Club Med”. Sr. Llano also built the Torre Guaimas, and
his projects of Marina Real, Condominiums Solymar, the housing developments
Costa del Mar, Puesta del Sol and Vista Marina. Mr.
Jorge Escalante who built the “Yaqui” Condominium.
Edward
and Teresa Grossman who purchased the original Marina of San Carlos and
transformed it into one of the best Marinas in Mexico with the Group “Situr”
of Mr. Jose Martinez Huitron, who also built the Hotel Plaza las Glorias (Marina
Terra Hotel whose owners now are Eduardo and Roberto Lemmen Meyer), and the
residential development Caracol Peninsula built by Jim Lancaster. The housing
development in Sector La Bahia that was built by Ing. Hector Lopez.
Mr. Caballero also
enticed the Group “Asag” that
built the initial highway to San Carlos that was done in stages by Fernando,
Carlos Benito and Alejandro Astiazaran Aguilar, who also built the lavish hotel
“Plaza San Carlos”, and Mr. Manriques Gonzalez
who built the El Mirador RV park: and in his time Ing. Oscar Ruiz Almeida
who built the runway for the classic film “Catch 22”, and so many more
people who have escaped his memory.
To end the virtual tour, Don Rafael confessed to me that he is writing a
book on
San Carlos
based in 3 chapters; first,
San Carlos before his arrival. Second,
San Carlos now.
Third,
San Carlos as it may be, 100 years after it’s founding in 2063.
The first part will contain notable details since the creation of the Sea
of Cortes, the San Andres fault, the creation of volcano petrified Tetas de
Cabra (Tetakawi mountain), the legend of Lola Casanova, etc. The second part
contemplates inserting testimony with photographs of the residents and their
homes, histories on how they came to live here. The third part will contain
architectural projections and statistics on the visualization of
San Carlos in the year 2063.
Mr.
Caballero also confided in me his feelings of sublime satisfaction with our
developers, contractors, service providers, residents and visitors. With that
ever present smile and twinkle in his eyes he said
“It
is precisely them who put such a vibrant imprint on this community, so all can
enjoy the beauty and magic of
San Carlos ”.
I was also enticed into his
plan, first I came as a visitor and now I’m a participating resident, and
consider myself fortunate to be here raising my own Mexican family, but I must
admit I first met my friend Rafael T. Caballero 17 years ago, purely by
coincidence, but that’s another story.
Written
by
