Playa bagdad - reseña histórica

BAGDAD: (Spanish spelling of Baghdad from the middle Persian Bag Dad or “Gift from God”) A seaport during most of the 19th century and a beach resort since the government revival in 1991. It is situated precisely south where the Rio Grande - Río Bravo in Latin America - meets the Gulf of Mexico across the border with Texas Just 38 km (25 mi) east of Matamoros (Municipality seat) and Brownsvillein the American side; it can be reached easily by highway today. A major effort has been taken to clean up the site and turn it eventually into the Mexican equivalent of South Padre Island in Texas a few miles north along the coast. It consists mostly of a series of sand bars where restaurants, aquatic parks, and recreational facilities are being opened in good numbers. Most hotels are locatedcloser to, or in Matamoros itself since the municipal government of the city wants to retain the public park atmosphere of the new Playa Bagdad beaches. Only 26 permanent inhabitants is the result of the 2005 census.
History: It’s a sad fact that so far there has not been a serious in depth study on the origins and fascinating history of this settlement and the two major armed conflicts it sawalmost simultaneously in the 1860’s. The earliest record of a settlement is a vague notation on an early 19th Century map showing a town in the mouth of the river named Real Del Río del Norte. Then there is an 1851 Army report stating there was some action “…in the vicinity of Port Bagdad” fighting rebels trying to establish a “República del Río Grande” in what is now the Mexican States of Coahuila,Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. But there is no doubt that the apex of Bagdad’s importance was during the American Civil War.

The Union Navy sea blockade of Confederate ports stopped the critically important commerce of goods - mainly cotton - to Europe. To get around this action the Confederates moved quickly to circumvent this predicament and provided the means to set up an anchorage facility onthe Mexican side of the border. Since 1848 the border issue had been settled, consequently in 1858 the State of Tamaulipas declared the river a “free trade zone”, President Juarez did not challenge that status even as late as 1861; thus, Port Bagdad enters the US/CS Civil War scenario in a mayor way. The town exploded to 15,000 inhabitants almost overnight. All along the river, boats and caravansbrought downstream goods carried there from Southern states. Some caravans carried salt on Camel backs introduced in Texas by Jefferson Davis in 1857 then Secretary of War of the USA. It is worth mentioning Brownsville citizens soon complained when some camels created havoc in town so the Brownsville Commission immediately enacted an ordinance prohibiting anyone from walking camels in the streets.After the cargo was brought to Bagdad flat bottom boats would service the foreign vessels anchored offshore unable to take the shallow waters. After loading them up and avoiding the Union ship blockade, which was powerless to stop the process without the risk of creating a diplomatic incident, they would sail to Havana transfer the cargo to bigger transatlantic ships and returned to Bagdad foranother run. The money flowing through Bagdad ran into the millions.

The New York Herald described Bagdad as “an excrescence of the war. Here congregated . . . blockade runners, desperadoes, the vile of both sexes; adventurers . . . numberless groggeries and houses of worse fame. [Where the] decencies of civilized life were forgotten, and vice in its worst form held high carnival . . . while inthe low, dirty looking buildings . . . were amassed millions [in] gold and silver.” Ship masts stretched across the water as far as the eye could see.
The double whammy for Bagdad came late in 1864 when the French sized that part of the country. The Mexican side of the border became unstable politically placing it under Imperial military control in the command of General Tomás Mejía who later on,...