Medical Research in Latin America (Part II)......---- By A. A. Moll, Ph. D., Scientific Editor, Pan American Sanitary Bureau. The Sixth Refrigeration Congress and the Argentine Meat Industry...-- Note on some of the Jewels Contained in Tomb 7 at Monte Alban_____ (The contents of previous Issues of the BULLETIN OF THE PAN AMERICAN UNION can be found in the READERS' III Elected by the Mexican Congress September 4, 1932, to fill the unexpired term of President Ortiz Rubio ending November 30, 1934. G GENERAL ABELARDO L. RODRÍGUEZ, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO ENERAL Abelardo L. Rodríguez, President of Mexico, is one of Ithe youngest men to have held that important office. He was born on May 12, 1889, in San Jose de Guaymas, Sonora, his parents being Nicolás Rodríguez and Petra Luján de Rodríguez. Since his father was one of the founders of the city of Nogales, in the same state, it was there that the young Rodríguez attended school and engaged in business until he entered the Revolutionary Army in 1913. His rise to his present rank of General of Division-the highest in the army-was the due recognition, step by step, of his military ability and valor in the field. He fought in the bravest regiments of Sonora and was wounded at the battle of La Trinidad. As commanding officer of an expedition to Lower California he won further military repute. As a result, he was holding the portfolio of Secretary of War and Marine when he was elected President by Congress on September 4, 1932, to fill out the unexpired term, ending November 30, 1934, of President Pascual Ortiz Rubio, resigned. From 1924 to 1929 General Rodríguez was Governor of Northern Lower California. His administration of this office brought him welldeserved praise from Mexicans and foreigners alike, because of his successful efforts to promote industry and agriculture, construct highways, sanitate and improve towns, build and maintain schools, and rehabilitate public finances-all measures which converted that Territory into one of the most flourishing sections of the country. General Rodríguez entered the executive branch of the Federal Government in 1931 as Assistant Secretary of War and Marine, but not long after became Secretary of Industry, Commerce, and Labor. In this capacity he worked energetically for industrial development in harmony with the rights of both labor and capital. From this cabinet post he passed to that of War and Marine, and thence, as has been said, to the Presidency. He has outlined the main objectives of his program as the creation and maintenance of a stable government and the union of all Mexicans in productive labor for the economic reconstruction of their country. LITTLE MEXICO NOTE By THEA GOLDSCHMIDT ETWEEN the houses of José García and Pedro Mendoza in San Antonio, Tex., lies a strip of ground, 12 feet long and 24 feet wide, which belongs to José. It is a barren bit of ground, beaten hard by many generations of footsteps and many footsteps to the generation. To-night it is a festive little spot. On either side is a row of benches, supplemented here and there by kitchen chairs. Already the rows are filled with placid Mexican women, holding their babies on their ample laps and gazing about them with an incurious expression. The men stand about in clusters of twos and threes, their teeth flashing in the light of the smoky kerosene lamps in keen appreciation of some witticism. Children line the fences and roost upon the chicken coops and woodpiles, and from the darkened windows of José's house his numerous progeny peer into the lighted yard. José and his wife, however, are busily arranging last-minute details and exchanging greetings with their friends and neighbors. Los Pastores, that hybrid Spanish-Indian, medieval, and contemporary mixture of a passion play, is about to commence. No definite time, however, can be set for its beginning, for who can say but that Juan, who is to play the part of the Archangel Gabriel, had a bit too much tequila to-night (it being Christmas, after all), or that Antonio, the director, prompter, and hermit, is detained at his fruit stand? Neither can one predict how long this show will last. Perhaps the actors are tired and decide to stop at 10.30, or they may feel fresh and continue until 3. The play itself is rather elastic in this respect; the songs may be repeated again and again, or some of the verses may be cut to shorten them. Ritual can be sacrificed to suit the temperaments of the players. Los Pastores is drama in its crudest form. There are no curtains and no "props," and the setting is almost Elizabethan in its simplicity. Perhaps its first setting, when it was introduced to the Mexicans by the Spanish monks, was in the church, but now it has migrated to the privacy of just such a yard as that which belongs to José. Throughout the Christmas season, from Christmas until Candlemas (February 2), the little band of players goes about to various homes, presenting Los Pastores. There is a curious uniformity in the back yards in "Mexican town." Ordinarily they are merely dull rectangles, useful for hanging out clothes, but at Christmas time they serve adequately for a runway, up and down which the actors may tramp, singing out |