could rely on funds or personal contacts had no problems reaching their destinations. Such was the luck of the Bernal family.
At the time of Facundo’s and Francisco’s arrival, Los Angeles confined the Mexican minority population to barrios located east of the Los Angeles River, despite the community’s growing influence on the city’s economy and social life. The Bernal family permanently settled in the house of Pedro, a humble clothing merchant. Facundo soon found employment in a tomato cannery, but he wasn’t cut out for the daily grind; sensing his impending failure as a worker, he decided to help his brother with his business instead. Soon, however, he found an even more suitable occupation, becoming a stringer for the most important Spanish-language newspapers of the time, such as El Eco de México, La Prensa, and El Heraldo de México.
Facundo’s stay in Los Angeles lasted from 1913 to 1917. As Pedro’s clothing business provided more dividends, he asked his brothers to establish a similar storefront in Mexicali — a first step toward sending the entire family back to Mexico. Mexicali, which had been founded in 1903, was a perfect choice for this plan: it was a border town from which one could reach Los Angeles in a few hours by train or car, and although it had been declared the capital of the Northern District of Baja California in 1915, it was peaceful, far from the upheavals taking place in the rest of the Mexican Republic. Another attractive feature was it geographic proximity to Sonora, not to mention their similar climate and desert landscapes, which the Bernals missed a great deal. Another compelling factor was that business competition was scarce, and the border market demanded clothing for the city’s growing population.
Pedro, who took on all the financial risk for this venture, decided that Facundo and Francisco would run the new business. Before leaving, Facundo married Rosaura Metzler, a young woman from Sonora who was living in Los Angeles. Her bloodline was profoundly mestizaje: Yaquis, Spanish, and German. Immediately after their marriage, Facundo and Rosaura, accompanied by Pedro and Francisco, took the train to the border. The entire family gathered on the platform to say farewell and wish them luck. Although they did not suspect this, their days of wandering were coming to an end.
Pedro and Facundo arrived at their destination on November 27, 1917. Mexicali would remain their place of residence for their rest of their lives. The business they started — the first of a long chain of clothing outlets, shoe stores, and suit emporiums — was called “Trajes a la Medida,” and located next to Hotel del Norte, just south of the international border and in the very commercial heart of Mexicali. This was a bonanza period in the valley of Mexicali, but it was fleeting. The coming years would see the collapse of the cotton market, the principal regional crop; social tension between Chinese immigrants and Mexican residents; the lamentable practices of the Colorado River Land Company, the American corporation that essentially owned the valley; as well as political upheaval under the rule of General Esteban Cantú (1881-1966), whose regime in Baja was terminated in 1920.
But even with the economic setbacks and political troubles, the 1920s saw Mexicali grow and expand. Facundo and Rosaura contributed to these changes by having five daughters, all of them proud Mexicalenses: Obdulia, Ofelia, Angelina, Estela, and Margarita. Once the businesses were consolidated, Pedro and Ricardo kept them running, while Facundo returned to journalism and literature, especially after 1923, with the arrival of General Abelardo L. Rodríguez (1889-1967) as the Governor of the Northern District. Both Facundo and the General were of Sonoran origin, and they also shared the same pragmatic and mercantile spirit.
Mexicali was a young city when the Bernal brothers settled there. Its newspaper tradition was even younger: two years prior to their arrival, the city had seen the founding of its first newspaper, El Noticiero del Distrito, which was actually printed in the nearby city of Imperial, California. The first true native newspaper was La Vanguardia, which first appeared in 1917. General Cantú himself was its owner. Ever since, journalism in Baja California has been the tool of those in power. That being said, there was never a lack of opposing voices in the press, nor a dearth of newspapers critical of mainstream politics.
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