January in the History of Puerto Vallarta Juan Manuel Gomez Encarnacion - Visit Puerto Vallarta
go to original January 31, 2015

There are three very important dates in January that mark historic occurrences in Puerto Vallarta.

The decade from 1960 to 1970 was a period of transition from the agricultural Puerto Vallarta to the tourist Puerto Vallarta. It was during this decade that state and federal governments carried out important infrastructure projects, such as the highway to Compostela, the bridge over the Ameca river, the Marine Terminal, the connection to the regional grid of the Western Electric System, and the inauguration and expansion of the Gustavo Diaz Ordaz international airport.

Puerto Vallarta was in fashion in both national and international circles and many people had come here to establish their homes and/or their businesses. This caused a sudden population growth and the buying and selling of land, that by law, was not able to be bought and sold given its “ejidal” (community property) status. At that moment this meant a legal problem and the uncertainty of land ownership, a gigantic obstacle in the way of the rush of investments which came and the establishment of various tourist oriented companies. Such was the case that the federal government solved the problem with the creation of a Property Transfer Trust of the Bay of Banderas in 1970, and subsequently with a Trust of the same nature for Puerto Vallarta on the 8th of January of 1973, splitting from the previous one.

1026 hectares were expropriated from the ejido of Puerto Vallarta, in the tourist fringe bordering the shore, with the agreement to compensate the ejidal community, regulate this, and put them on the market; with the profit of such transaction appropriate projects for the benefit of the population were to be made.

In January 1992, due to the effects of the natural phenomenon known as “El Niño,” the area suffered intense rains that caused the flooding of the Ameca and Mascota rivers, as well as the water supply of the Corrinchis dam, which borders the town of Mascota, Jalisco. The unusual influx of water would on the 18th, cause the collapse of the bridge over the Mascota River, in front of the area of La Desembocada, and cracks in the bridge over the Ameca river, near Las Juntas area, thus threatening Puerto Vallarta with severe isolation by land. This phenomenon caused large losses in various crops, particularly the frijol, and resulted in hundreds of people affected.

However, development would not be stopped, in spite of this unfortunate event, as a year later, on January 29th, 1993 the Governor of Jalisco, Carlos Rivera Aceves, opened the new Par Vial link that would join the streets of Allende and 31 de Octubre with the Libramiento. This important road considerably lightened the growing traffic of automobiles due to the natural growth of the city and the increase of tourists arriving by car.

Juan Manuel Gómez Encarnación - Professor and B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature; National Award for Children's Literature 2002 and author of numerous books. Currently Chronicler of the City of Puerto Vallarta.