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BAJA CALIFORNIA-CRUSADE AGAINST CRISIS : ... .——... - — _ . — ■ ■ »Sin CityI • •(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of three articles by Press-Telegram reporter Bert Resnjk and photographer Chuck Sundquist covering the Mexican border contra versy and the Baja California governor's plans to clean up the border cities. The Information was qbtalned in an exclusive Interview with 51-y ear-old.Ellgio Esquivel, new governor of Baja California.)ByBERTRESNIK .South-of the border, a few hours drive from Long Beach, sprawls a city shaken by the-tentacles of liist. Infested with greed.• Trembling like a drunk with DTs.' Purveying the pornographic.‘ Weaker than those whose satanic needs they serve. Weak and worried, for the piper must be-paid. And vice's piper has blown too many sour notes.This Is Tijuana, Baja California,,Mexico, described at recent congressional hearings as probably the most sinful city in the Western world.This is Tijuana, a city that is finding the Devil's wages do not guarantee dally bread.‘ For vice-ridden Tijuana, once arrogant, now knows it hasibeen’its. own worst enemy.' “The industry without chimneys—tourists—has been crumbling. •The piddling profits of peddled sin have (proven a catastrophic loss. Tijuana’s reputation has gone before,It, bringing a. thunderbolt of renunciation and fewer and fewer tourists.For the average man, the average tourist, wants no part of filth.And • Tijuana's .l reputation ■ for filth has closed the mental borders to U. S. tourists more'effectively than anylegislation ever could.It Is too bad. For Tijuana is not all evil.There are honest merchants. There Is honest entertainment. There are Old Mexico and Young Mexico holding hands.Throughout Tijuana and all of Mexico there are responsible ‘Mexicans who deplore the sin city’s reputation and the conditions that created It.One such responsible Mexican is Ellgio Esquivel, 51, a man who is in a position to do more than deplore—and is doing it.Esquivel is the new governor of Baja California, Mexico's 29th state. He was inaugurated 23 days ago as head of the six-year-old state in which Tijuana is one of the principal cities.In an exclusive two-hour interview with a Press-Tele-gram reporter and photographer—the longest interviewhe has granted—Gov. Esquivel outlined ‘ his plans for Tijuana’s future.We are going to clean up Tijuana/' he said. We are going to make it clean for families of tourists—not sailors.Anybody, even governors, can bake pie In the sky.Anybody, especially governors, can make high-sounding promises.But Baja California’s new governor i,sno sky-pie baker. If his promises sound high, they are made with-words that are meaningful.For the words are backed with action.In the short time Gov. Esquivel has been In office, he has closed 40 cf that kind of bars in Tijuana.(Continued Page A-2, Col. 3)
Newspaper Details
Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Wed, Nov 25, 1959
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 07 Jul 2019
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