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| Jesús García in a photo taken just days before his death. |
Both
the United States and Mexico have national folk heroes who were real railroaders. They were even near contemporaries. James Luther “Casey” Jones of poetry and song was an engineer on
the Illinois Central Railroad who
was killed in 1900 when his speeding locomotive rammed a sitting
freight train. The accident was entirely
Jones’s fault who was trying to keep up a reputation for “always bringing her
in on time” despite weather related delays.
But what Jesús García did
seven years later in the state of Senora will shock and amaze you.
Jesús García y Corona was born on
November 13, 1883 in Hermosillo, Sonora and was one of eight
children. In 1897 his mother moved the
family to Nacozari, a copper mining boom
town. No mention is made of his
father, but there were so many ways for a peon
to die young in northern Mexico in those days—over work, disease, bandits, accidents, bad liquor and sometimes a man with too many mouths to feed would go
off to find a fortune north of the
border and never be heard from again.
The
copper mines were operated by the Moctezuma
Copper Corporation, a subsidiary of American
giant Phelps Dodge which also
had significant operations in Arizona. In addition the original mines near
Nacoazri, another lode was
discovered at Pilares, about five
miles away.
In
1898, a year after the García had
arrived in town the company built a narrow
gauge railroad between the mines and the town. This replaced the mule trains that had originally packed the ore back to a
breaker mill in town and brought
supplied back up the mountain. It was
built on exceptionally steep grades, which was relieved by few switchbacks to save money in construction.
His
mother helped young Jesús get a job on the short line railroad. He started out as a water boy, but quickly advanced because he was hard working, bright, and
could read and write. It was hard work and the hours were long but the railroad saved the boy from a life as a
peon or the dangerous drudgery of the mines and mill. He was promoted in quick succession to switchman, brakeman, fireman, and
finally, by the age of twenty, to maquinista—engineer. He had risen quickly to the pinnacle of the local aristocracy of labor.
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| Jesús García was almost surely in the cab when this photo of Engine #2 crossing a trestle near the mine as taken. |
García
was assigned to Engine #2, a 0-6-0 locomotive built to order in 1901
from H. K. Porter, Inc., a specialist in small engines in Pittsburg.
It was one of three that the line operated. All three made several trips a day between Nacoazri
and Pilares hauling ore one way and supplies for the mine on the return
trip. Starting in 1904 a standard gauge spur had been extended
to Nacoazri so the broken ore could make connections to Phelps Dodge’s smelter
in Douglas, Arizona.
The
young engineer was so well thought of by his employers that they paid for an excursion to the Saint Louis World’s Fair in 1904.
He was also a handsome young
man who was popular in town and cut quite a figure with the ladies cutting a
dashing figure as an accomplished horseman as well. He became engaged to the lovely María
de Jesús Soqu. He made enough money
to regularly hire local musicians to
serenade his novia. Even though it was a
Wednesday evening, he had done the same, on November 6. 1907.
The
next day, November 7, he found that his regular conductor, a German, was
in the hospital. He would have to operate that day with a
brakeman substituting for the conductor.
It may have been fatal. A conductor was in charge of, among other things,
overseeing the safe makeup of the train. For
the run back to the mines from town that day two cars were loaded with crates
packed with 70 boxes of dynamite and
placed directly behind the engine and tender,
a violation of company policy. Behind
those the other cars others were loaded with bales of hay for the
mules used in the mines.
As
the train was being loaded García had enough time to walk to his mother’s
nearby house for lunch. Local lore has it that she had a premonition of her son’s death.
At
2 pm García began rolling out of the
yards for the trip to the mines. He
did not get far when crewmen noticed smoke coming from the cars. A faulty
spark retarder in the funnel was
allowing a shower of sparks to escape from the wood-burning firebox which set fire to hay. That spread quickly to the dynamite
cars. Crewmen tried desperately to beat
out embers on the boxes but they caught fire.
Realizing
that the dynamite would blow with enough force to obliterate the town, García ordered
his crew to jump and opened the
throttle. He hoped to get the train
out of town and over a rise called
the hump after which he probably
hoped to be able to jump himself with the train clear of the town. He was afraid without his hand on the
throttle, the train might lose steam and slide back into town before getting
over the hump.
He
got the train 3 ¾ miles and was rolling past Camp 6, a secondary loading
area on to the way mine cluster of miner’s cabins and tent, when the
dynamite blew. He was killed instantly, just days short
of his 24th birthday. Twelve workers at Camp six were also killed,
but hundreds probably would have died had the explosion happened in Nacoazri. The explosion was heard 10 miles away, debris rained down over a wide radius, and most of the glass windows in Nacozari were shattered.
Remarkable
Engine #2 was not destroyed. It was
later repaired and sold to the Mereci Southern Railroad in Arizona.
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| One of the most impressive of the many monuments to Jesús García |
García
was proclaimed a hero across Mexico.
Nacoazri dedicated a monument to him in its central Plaza in 1909. It was just
the first of many. Others can be seen at
Hermosillo where the Héroe
de Nacozari Stadium was home to the Coyotes
de Sonora football [soccer] team), Mexico City, Zacatecas,
Veracruz, Tapachula, Guadalajara, Mazatlán, Naco, Aguascalientes, Ciudad Obregón, Empalme, San Luis Potosí,
and Tierra Blanca, as well as in
other countries—Cuba, Guatemala, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
But
all the accolades in the world were
not enough for his fiancé María who was said to have died of a broken heart only a year after the love
of her life.
The
State Congress of Sonora changed the
name of the town to Nacozari de García as
it is known to this day. He was named a Hero of Humanity by the American Red Cross. In 1944 the Mexican Federal Government declared November 7 would become the Día del Ferrocarrilero [Railroad Worker’s Day.] He has also been commemorated on Mexican post stamps,
After
the old narrow gauge railroad ceased operation in 1949 its last locomotive, #501
was moved to the Plaza of Nacoazri next to his monument and re-named Jesús
García.
García
has inspired numerous works of art, novels, non-fiction books, film, and song.
The 1935 film El Héroe de Nacozari
directed by Guillermo Calles.
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| Believed to be a publicity illustration for the 1935 film El Héroe de Nacozari. |
The
best known of many songs is the Corrido de la Máquina 501, sung by
one of the country’s greatest singing
stars, Pancho “el Charro” Avitia. The title mistakes the engine on
display in Nacoazi with #2 which García actually drove. Below are the Spanish words followed by a
loose English translation?
Corrido de la
Máquina 501
Máquina
quinientos uno,
la que corrió
por Sonora,
por eso los
garroteros
el que no
suspira, llora.
El fogonero le
dice:
"Jesús,
vámonos apeando,
mira que el
carro de atrás
ya se nos viene
quemando."
Era un domingo,
señores,
como a las tres
de la tarde,
estaba Jesús
García
acariciando a su
madre.
Jesús García le
contesta:
"Yo pienso
muy diferente,
yo no quiero ser
la causa
de que muera
tanta gente."
Dentro de pocos
momentos:
"madre
tengo que partir,
del tren se
escucha el silbato,
se acerca mi
porvenir."
Le dio vuelta a
su vapor,
porque era de
cuesta arriba,
y antes de
llegar al seis
allí terminó su
vida.
Cuando llegó a
la estación
un tren ya
estaba silbando
y un carro de
dinamita
ya se estaba
quemando.
Desde ese día
inolvidable
tú te has ganado
la cruz,
tú te has ganado
las palmas,
eres un héroe
Jesús.
Engine 501
Engine 501
rolls through Sonora.
And the brakeman
who won't sigh will cry.
One fine Sunday, gentlemen,
‘round three o’clock,
Jesús García sweetly
caressed his mother.
“Soon I must depart,
kind mother,
the train whistle
draws the future near.”
Arriving at the station
a whistle blew shrill.
The wagon with dynamite
menaced with its roof afire.
The fireman says,
“Jesús, let’s scram!
that wagon behind
will
burn us to hell.”
Jesús replies,
“That I cannot own—a
this conflagration
will kill the whole town!”
So he throws it in reverse
to escape downhill
and by the sixth mile
into God's hands he’d arrived.
From that unforgettable day
You’ve earned the holy cross
You’ve earned our applause.
Jesús, you’re our hero.
Engine 501
rolls through Sonora.
And the brakeman
who won’t sigh will cry.
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