page_title: Puerto Vallarta
section_title: The early municipality - early 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Puerto Vallarta / History / The early municipality - early 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: The Crown of Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral — Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco state, México. Author: Sculptor and painter Carlos Terres. 10.00 m in diameter and 15.50 m in height; sculpture in terroca (terres stone). The master sculptor and painter Carlos Terres made The Crown of Our Lady of Guadalupe basing his monumental sculpture in Nahuatl world Tecuntlanopeuh which means "that which has its origin at the peak of the boulders", alluding to the original name of the port, presently known as Puerto Vallarta. Symbolic elements of the sculpture are as follows. Eight angles wearing Marian symbols on their breast are holding the crown. The gems of the ring represent the 24 hours of the day. The five small palms represent the joyful mysteries of the Marian rosary. The five large palms represent the founding of Puerto Vallarta on December 12, 1851. Construction of the parish church began on April 15, 1883. The second phase of construction in 1915. The naming of the parish church in 1921. The borders of the sculpture are formed by a world of glass and a cross. Benediction by Bishop P. Ricardo Waty on October 12, 2009. Parish church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Puerto Vallarta, Jal. Mexico.Русский: Корона Нашей Девы Гваделупской. Автор: скульптор и художник Карлос Террес.
context_page_description: Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
  PV is the second largest urban agglomeration in the state after the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area. The City of Puerto Vallarta is the government seat of the Municipality of Puerto Vallarta which comprises the city as well as population centers outside of the city extending from Boca de Tomatlán to the Nayarit border.
  The city is located at 20°40′N 105°16′W. The municipality has an area of 1,300.7 square kilometres. To the north, it borders the southwest part of the state of Nayarit. To the east, it borders the municipality of Mascota and San Sebastián del Oeste, and to the south, it borders the municipalities of Talpa de Allende and Cabo Corrientes.
  Puerto Vallarta is named after Ignacio Vallarta, a former governor of Jalisco. In Spanish, Puerto Vallarta is frequently shortened to "Vallarta", while English speakers call the city P.V. for short. In Internet shorthand, the city is often referred to as PVR, after the International Air Transport Association airport code for its Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport.
context_section_description: In 1918, the village was elevated to municipality status and renamed after former state governor Ignacio Vallarta. During the early years of the 20th century, most of Puerto Vallarta was owned by the Union en Cuale company controlled by the American Alfred Geist. Geist sold land only in large plots at prices that were quite high for the time and otherwise leased the land on short-term leases. To remedy this situation and to enable the new municipality to develop, the citizens petitioned the government for a land grant based on the new constitution's provisions.
  In 1921, the Local Agrarian Commission approved a grant of some 9,400 hectares (23,000 acres; 36 square miles), with the land to be expropriated from the Union en Cuale company.  The grant was established as an ejido holding (a farming cooperative administered by the government). Legal squabbling over the size of the land grant, and the ejido status of the properties involved would stymie growth in Puerto Vallarta into the 1960s, as developers were reluctant to build anything too substantial on land for which one could not obtain clear title.  (Ejido land is controlled by individuals who are given licenses to use it, but it could not be sold, subdivided or leased.)
  During the Cristero War, the municipality was twice taken over by Cristero forces (April 1927 and January 1928). After it was recaptured for a second time, the national government stationed a small garrison there under Major Ángel Ocampo. The garrison was stationed near the mouth of the Cuale River and is responsible for planting many of the palms that now line the beaches near the mouth of the Cuale River to help limit beach erosion during heavy rains in October 1928. One casualty of the skirmishes was local pastor Padre Ayala who was exiled to Guadalajara for his role in fomenting the local revolt. He died there in 1943, though his remains were returned 10 years later and interred in the main parish church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
  As mining activities in the Sierra waned in the early years of the 20th century, Puerto Vallarta and the agricultural valley to the north of the city became important destinations for those leaving the Sierra towns and looking for a place to settle. Many of those who arrived had family members already living in Puerto Vallarta, and the pattern of migration that ensued turned the town into a collection of more or less extended families, giving it the cohesion of a typical sierra town.
  From 1925 until 1935, the Montgomery Fruit Company operated in the area around Ixtapa. Friction with the state government over labor issues eventually led to the venture being abandoned, but for ten years it provided an important source of employment in the area.
  The first airplane service arrived in 1932, with electrical service on a small scale arriving about the same time. The first suspension bridge over the Cuale went up in 1933. The city's first plumbing system was started in 1939. In 1942, Puerto Vallarta was finally connected by road to Compostela, Nay. Until then the only access to Puerto Vallarta was by sea, air, or by mule trails to the sierra towns. Also in 1942, in the New York-based magazine Modern Mexico the first advertisement for a Puerto Vallarta vacation appeared, sponsored by the Air Transport Company of Jalisco. By 1945, the company was landing DC-3s in Puerto Vallarta (carrying 21 passengers).
  By the 1950s, Puerto Vallarta had started to attract Americans, mostly writers and artists in search of a retreat from the USA of the era of Eisenhower and McCarthy. Gringo Gulch began to develop as an expatriate neighborhood on the hill above the Centro. The city also attracted Mexican artists and writers who were willing to trade the comforts of life in the larger cities for its scenic and bucolic advantages.
  In 1956, the Mascota mule trail was replaced by a packed dirt road. In 1958, 24-hour electrical generation arrived. A new airport arrived in 1962 connecting Puerto Vallarta with Los Angeles via Mazatlán, and the Mexican Aviation Company began offering package trips.
  By the ear
caption: The Crown of Our Lady sculpture on top of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe
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