Did you know Eliodoro Arce?

In 1993 a friend and I were preparing to depart on a kayak trip to Angel de la Guarda from a lot next to Greg and Sandy’s house at Bahia de Los Angeles. I admired Sandy’s desert collection, particularly a cardon cactus “boot”. She told me she got it from Eliodoro Arce, that lived alone in the desert and collected things. After the kayak trip I visited him on the old northwest road from Bahia de los Angeles to Highway 1, a few miles NW of the Desengano mine. He was friendly, showed me around, and invited me for coffee. He lived in a thatch-roof cardon-rib shack complex with a early 70’s Corvair station wagon body spliced in. He had no running car or animals.


Eliodoro Arce

I visited him a few times over the years thereafter. I’d bring him cigarettes, instant coffee, and some canned food, but he never seemed to want or need anything. We’d talk sitting around his fire and coffee pot. He said he never drank water, only coffee. We did some walks. Over time I collected various cactus skeletons from him, including a cardon boot. One afternoon we had a party when two of his nephews (?) showed up with ceviche, beer, and comradery. I think one had a tire shop in Tecati, and the other managed a store in a US border town.


Eliodoro in 1994.

I don’t think I ever learned much about Eliodoro’s past, partly because of my poor Spanish. Although I surely asked him, I don’t remember if he had been a worker at Desengano. I don’t recall seeing mining equipment around. There may have been a dry gold washer, but nothing operational.


Me (Phil Niles) and Eliodoro

I think it was 1998, or so, that I somehow heard that Eliodoro got sick and went to stay with relatives in (El Nuevo) Rosarito, where he subsequently died. My wife and I visited his grave there, guided by a delightful niece (?) of his living there.


Eliodoro going home with a bundle of cardon ribs in June, 1994.

Searching Google I found five May 1961 photos of Eliodoro in Howard E. Gulick’s Baja Photographs, taken at Tinaja de Yubay, and on the El Camino Real nearby. These places are about 5-miles, as the raven flies, from Arce’s home. He is identified by name in three of the photos. (David Keir has posted two of those photos showing Eliodoro (unnamed) in a tan shirt. http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=44034).

The other person shown in these photos with Eliodoro is Faustino Perez. In a bio note, Gulick is quoted as saying that Faustino Perez, from Ensenada, accompanied him on many of his 50’s and early 60’s trips to explore the “old roads, missions, amd ranches”. Many of Gulick’s northern baja photos feature Faustino Perez. This suggests to me that Eliodoro was probably the local quide to the Tinaja de Yubay area for Gulick and Perez in 1961.

Ironically, during the years I had visited him, I had unsuccessfully looked for the Tinaja de Yubay using pre GPS directions, but it never occurred to me to ask Eliodoro how to get there. This is despite having driven up the road toward Yubay with Eliodoro to look at pictographs he wanted to show me.

The only other references I have seen are some photo(s) at the Bahia de LA museum of he and some family. I remember that one sister had an old-fashioned perjorative sounding name. Another thing, when I first met Eliodoro, I could swear he proudly showed me a picture of himself in a stained and tattered copy of Life Magazine. Maybe a Gulick photo was published in Life? The magazine was stored in the Corvair, with other stuff, like a big box of Mexican coins (he said were worthless), and some correspondence, I think maybe with botany collectors.

If you look on Google Earth for what I think is the location of his home (29 deg 7.822 min, -114 deg 2.966 min), all you see is a wide spot on the north side of the road, and what I think is what is left of his huge ash pile, where he tossed his ashes out the back door for years. I see no buildings or Corvair.

I expect some of you knew Eliodoro and his history much better than I. I’d love to hear your recollections. I apologize for any errors in mine.

Mando sent me three photos but no details other than what was on the photo itself. I hope he will send me (or post himself) the Who, What, When, Where, Why that would be so interesting...

WELCOME MANDO!

Quote: Originally posted by MOTHERSHIP

CAFE ! CAFE ! It's only fitting starting out that greeting. Those were the first words Eliodoro uttered every time we pulled up to his casita. Didn't matter what time of day it was...there was always a pot of coffee on the embers. That was and will always be the best "cowboy coffee" around ! Eliodoro was many things...most of all he was in tune with life. A minimalist. He showed Ivan and myself that less is more. Not because he lived alone...he had many "friends". The coyote who would sit close to us during morning cafe and the little bird who would perch on his shoulder. Time spent with him was always a treat. I would like to share these adventures of Eliodoro so that he will never be forgotten. Mando