Heavy bombers go on assembly line
Move continually first time at San Diego plant
….
15,000 women work in plane plants
Number will be raised weekly, Chamber says
…
25 aliens arrested at Philadelphia store
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The Pittsburgh Press (March 16, 1942)
Rambling Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
ENSENADA, Mexico – This is the famous town 65 miles below the California border where tourists used to flock and rich people used to come for their luxurious vacations.
It is a town that I have heard scores of people speak about, and I’ve never heard anyone speak of it except glowingly. It’s known as the gem of the Lower California coast, and its Hotel de la Playa is noted for its lavishness.
But all that is changed now. Plain tourists aren’t coming in droves these days. And no vacationing moneybags are luxuriating in the Hotel de la Playa.
There is a paved road all the way from the border to Ensenada. It has some bad holes in spots, but for the most part it is a good 60-mile-an-hour road. Half the time it runs along the ocean, and the view gives you a sense of isolation and peace.
It’s really no more trouble to get across the border than it ever was, although if you have baggage they do give you a good frisking. We came across at 10 o’clock of a Saturday morning, and had to wait in line 20 minutes before getting to the gate.
The only restrictions I know of now are that you can bring only one spare tire across, no cameras at all, and they take your newspapers away from you. You can buy the same edition when you get on the Tijuana side, but it will have been censored.
On the way down we got a flat tire. Had a nail in it. Before reaching Ensenada we must have passed a dozen cars changing tires. I supposed that was normal, what with tires now getting thin and Mexican roads sometimes having on over-frequency of nails anyhow. But I’ve learned from friends that it isn’t normal. It’s their opinion that maybe saboteurs were putting nails in the road. I wouldn’t know.
No signs of war
Along the way we saw neither Japanese landing parties nor any soldiers to repel them if they did land. Mexico has cleared the Japs out of the whole Lower California area. It used to be filthy with Jap fishermen and farmers, but they’ve been moved to the mainland.
Ensenada is the home of Gen. Abelardo L. Rodriguez, who was president of Mexico before Cardenas, and who is said to be the richest man in Mexico. He has a magnificent home along the highway a couple of miles before you get to Ensenada. All around it are groves of olive trees. He uses the olive oil in his fish canneries.
The Japanese used to have the fishing concessions in these Mexican waters, but now they have all fallen to Gen. Rodriguez. Also he owns a big rubber company in Mexico City, and has countless other holdings.
They say he is a real power in Mexico, possibly THE power. He seems to be well liked and respected. I had hoped to see him, but he was in Mexico City.
Ensenada is lovely to look upon as you come round the last hill on the shelf road and look down across the bay, curved like a South Sea lagoon.
The town is more than 5000, much bigger than I had supposed. Its main street shows what it has lived on for years – tourists. There are many bars and curio shops, and nearly all the signs you see are in English. American money is accepted. Tourists and fish, those were Ensenada’s business. Now it is fish and soldiers.
Dempsey promotion
The beautiful hotel sits alone in the white curve of the beach, half a mile or so from the town proper. It is the one Jack Dempsey helped, promote several years ago. It ran into difficulties, and was closed.
Most of the leading business establishments in town are owned either by Luis Grande or the Hussong Brothers.
Luis Grande is very close to Gen. Rodriguez. He is an Italian, but is now a Mexican citizen. He owns bars and curio shops. He once ran the Italian-American Club in Seattle. He speaks good English. He says he wishes he could get hold of enough money to buy a shark-fishing boat – he’d clean up.
The Hussong Brothers also own bars and curio shops. They are of German descent. Now that the hotel is closed, they own probably the most popular place in Ensenada – a small city of beachside tourist cabins. They say that on week-ends, when San Diegans come down, you have to make a reservation ahead of time to get a cabin.
If the Japs ever try to invade this continent, Lower California may become a very hot spot. It is little populated and the Japs, through their fishermen, know every inch of its coastline. The Mexican and American governments of course are not unaware of this.
Things are being done down here which can’t be told. It isn’t inconceivable that this lovely spot might some day become a battleground. At any rate, Ensenada as a “paradise” is out until peace comes again. It seems a shame. Yet I guess that is one of the least of the millions of things that seem a shame in this world today.