Back in the 1820′s, a Filipino by the name of Juan Nepomuceno Machado showed up in Mazatlan, which was a tiny village at the time. Today, Mazatlan is a tourist destination, thanks to what Juan created in this Mexican town, set on the shores of the Pacific. When Juan arrived, pearl diving was big business, and the area was known for trading, thanks to the deep water port. Silver mines in the Sierra Madres nearby may have also attracted the Filipino man. While the reason is not evident, he did end up in the town and build a plaza designed to look like a European town square. This plaza was a block long and was probably full of beauty, shops and orange trees.
Plazuela Machado may have been built to attract European immigrants, Germans in particular, to help with the mining. At any rate, this was the desired effect. Thousands of immigrants arrived over the next several years and many replaced the dwindling numbers of miners. In 1849, the plaza was particularly popular. A number of miner hopefuls were heading north to California, dreaming of the gold fields. Steam ships would bring them to ports throughout Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico and from there, the miners would head up to California in steam ships or by land.
Ships full of these gold-struck men would pause at Mazatlan so everyone could rest for a short while. By this point, the plaza was a popular place to hang out and it only increased into the 1920′s. Mazatlan was a popular destination, thanks to a change in the US Constitution that means alcoholic drinks were illegal in the US.
Prohibition made it more difficult to get alcohol, but south of the border was a completely different. Mazatlan rapidly became the place to go if you wanted to drink and foreigners showed up in droves on their yachts to enjoy some of the first ever resorts in Mexico. Just a few blocks from the plaza were the beach.While the plaza was the big attraction in Mazatlan, the earliest resorts were also quite popular. Hollywood celebrities, studio bigwigs and oil barons started to flood the country, eager for a taste of the alcohol that was prohibited back home.
Today, several of these old time resorts are still in operation. One is La Siesta which is no longer as elegant as it was back in the day, but it still offers top amenities like air conditioning and cable television. With 57 quaint rooms, the majority of which face the ocean, this is still a hot spot.Plaza Machado is still in the city and has been restored. It is now the center of a 180 block section of the city referred to as the Historic District. The plaza is a pleasant place to be, with trees lining it, iron benches for sitting and three sides of the square have outdoor restaurants where you can sit and eat and soak up the amazing atmosphere of Mazatlan, the city that grew.
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