Watercolor: Matzatlan 1850 , Edward Gennys Fanshawe , British National Maritime Museum
Yesterday Stella sent this image. ‘Dreamy, isn’t it”, she says.
And that’s precisely what it is. It sets me to dreaming... musing, wondering.
I wonder if this is the port where our great, great grandmother Bata Maltos set out from. Was it also the departure point for Jose Maria Maltos, her miner son, and Antonia Maltos, her daughter, on her way to the northern frontera of California and a cool foggy life of a San Francisco seamstress
Mazatlan. Hot, steamy, busy Pacific port.
Was it where Charles Craig, perhaps father, of Antonia met Bata? Or did they meet later in San
Franciso? Or in San Jose? So many Sans.... So many questions.....
Matzatlan is a fabulous harbor. Long, protected, spacious. Not to
long ago husband Bill and I entered the calm Bahia Mazatlan on a princess, a Norwegian cruise ship. Mariachis met us
with exuberant music. People swarmed
off the boat between the stacks of cargo containers. The scene was all color
and noise and confusion. We watched from the rail, knocked out by the savage
humidity and heat.
Was this the same steamy weather in which Bata departed her
Mexican life? Did she want to go or did she have to go? Did she like the freezing
fog of her adopted North Beach home? Or did she dream of Mazatlan?
Mazatlan. So many things to wonder about.
Linda Allison
February 23, 2014
