Southern Pacific commissioned a San Francisco writer named H.K. Reynolds to spend three weeks traveling in Mexico and report on his journey. Due to the language barrier, most Americans considered Mexico a somewhat mysterious place. SP hoped to break down that barrier by distributing massive quantities of this booklet: this is the seventh edition, which printed 50,000 copies, and at least one more edition was printed before the war. This suggests at least 400,000 were distributed in all.
Click image to download an 13.6-MB PDF of this 40-page booklet.
Although this edition of the booklet was printed in 1939, Reynolds probably took his trip in about 1930: he says Mexico’s population was “about 16 million” while the country’s 1930 census found more than 16.5 million. After describing the Southern Pacific train called El Costeño, meaning the Coaster, he glowingly reports on Mexico City, various Aztec ruins, a bull fight, and how to negotiate with sales people in Mexican markets. In all, his report and photos fill almost half of the booklet.
Earlier editions of the booklet were only 20 pages, but this one also includes pages describing SP’s Hotel Playa de Cortes, which hadn’t been built when Reynolds took his trip; deep sea fishing, which was a popular activity among guests at the Playa de Cortes; and some more general information including two pages of “helpful Mexican words.” “You don’t have to know Spanish to travel in Mexico,” says the booklet, “but you will find it helpful to know a few words.”