Pompano - 5-6-2005 at 05:56 AM
Thanks, Lindsay, for that very good report on Mulege's museum/prison. It's definitely a unique part of the village and southern Baja history. Often
reminds me of Botany Bay incarceration in Australia. Here the prison inmates were usually petty criminals and not particulary violent. The Mulege
citizens fo the pre-road days often mentioned with casual pride being related to convicts of our prison. Something that has gone out of fashion in
today's wanna-be society.
Here's a story about an event that happened in Mulege when the old prison was still in use, but as a jail. Sometime in the winter of 1973-1974, two
blokes from L.A. had flown down to the Serinadad for a weekend of fun. After a few margaritas, they decided to take a taxi into downtown Mulege for
more partying. For some reason they got into an arguement with the driver and it ended up in a brutal fistfight. Something that rarely ever happened
in those early days between a local and a tourist. The driver was severely beaten by the two gringos and they left him laying next to his taxi. They
went into a local bar (remember CuCa's Las Casitas?) and that's where the police found and promptly arrested them. Off to the prison(jail) they went,
where they were handcuffed with their hands and feet behind them ... hogtied. They sobered up a bit by then, I imagine. Now they would learn just
how severe Mexican justice can be...
They were kept in bondage in the jail for 6 months before seeing a judge who sentenced them to 2 years hard labor in a prison in on the mainland. I
often wonder..but not particulary care... if they ever made it back home...?
Then there was the time that 3 people were wounded by a jealous nutcase one night at the crossroads going into the Serinadad...and the town turned out
for a manhunt in the mountains.......but that might be for another story........ "Mulege... a sleepy village?"
[Edited on 5-6-2005 by Pompano]
KurtG - 5-6-2005 at 08:41 AM
In '75 when my two small children and I lived in Mulege (in the small house now painted pink behind Las Casitas which I rented form Cuca's brother
Alan Gorosave) there was a young guy who was in the prison at night whose wife and child were our neighbors. Very nice guy but he would never discuss
what landed him in the prison. This was at the very end of the prison's use.
Pompano - 5-6-2005 at 09:00 AM
Those were some times, alright. I fondly remember Cuca and the old Las Casitas. Jorge made it a good fisherman and hunter hangout, too.