"...One of our proudest purchases is the vehicle that Mexican President Porfirio Diaz ordered built for himself. It is an impressive automobile and fills everyone with awe when they observe it initially," Priscilla Rodriguez, the executive director of the Brownsville Historical Association, quoted in El Rocinante.By Juan Montoya
As the deadline looms nearer to the celebration/exhibit called "Viva la Revolución"to observe the Mexican Revolution by the Brownsville Historical Association, Galeria 409 and the Gorgas Science Foundation , questions are surfacing (albeit below the radar), that at least one of the exhibits may be of questionable historical veracity.
The exhibit is scheduled to open Nov. 1, 2010.
Some local history buffs are suggesting that the 1909 model car sedan, manufactured by the German company MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nuremburg, AG) that the BHA acquired from a Mexico City businessman Oscar Braunstein Gonzalez may not have really have been Porfirio Diaz's ride, as has been advertised.
Further, they say that the car in possession of the BHA has an electric starter, an invention that was not invented until more than a year after Diaz was overthrown and he went into exile in France.
The invention of the electric starter – by Charles Kettering in 1912 – eliminated the need for the hand crank. Does the car in possession by the BHA have a hand crank? It's hard to tell from the pictures. And, moreover, the public is not being allowed to see the car until the exhibit opens in November.
Legend has it – and the BHA bought the story – that had a horse not kicked a wall behind a stable in Mexico City in the 1940s, the custom car made circa 1908 in Germany might have remained locked in the past. The BHA also told the Brownsville Herald that: "Soon, its 100-year-old history also came to light, revealing it as a car built for Mexico President Porfirio Diaz, both revered as an excellent president and detested as a dictator."
As the story goes, when Diaz fled in exile to France in 1911, his friend Francisco Asis Serralde bricked the 20-passenger car into a hidden room behind stable.
In the 1940s, according to the story, a horse loosened a brick from the wall with its kick.
"A workman peered through the hole into the dark room and found the car in an almost new state," BHA's President Larry Loff told the daily.
The BHA said the car had been purchased from Mexico City businessman Braunstein Gonzalez, who bought the vehicle in 1954 from the heirs of a friend of Asis Serralde. The BHA would not disclose the price they paid for the car.
BHA Executive Director Priscilla Rodriguez said: "I would say it is invaluable as a faded relic of a period of time that changed North America with the first of great upheavals in the 20th century.
So what do we have, really?
You can't dispute the fact that the car is an antique. But can you really associate it with Porfirio Diaz, as the BHA is trying to do because Diaz lived in the Stillman House while he was trying to overthrow Sebastian Lerdo De Tejada, Mexico's constitutional president?
Next thing we'll be told is that Dr. William Gorgas discovered the cure for yellow fever at Ft. Brown, or that Abner Doubleday invented baseball and played games while he was stationed at the fort.
10 comments:
Mr. Montoya, if I were to believe your unnamed sources, then you have raised some serious issues that need to be cleared up. First of all, where did the conversation begin that led the city and the car's owner to talk about selling it. Worst case scenario is that the car owner is good friends with someone at the museum or the city and they wanted to dump an old car that had been gathering dust at Rivera Tile for decades. If there was that connection then it is plausable to believe that the car's real value-- its connection to Porfirio Diaz-- would not be closely scrutinzed. This is plausible. On the other end, the museum SHOULD HAVE some kind of instrument that supports the claim that this was Porfirios Diaz' customized ride and therefore had historical value. In the absence of hard evidence, how exactly did the city or museum determine the value of this car. Even if it was sold for a dollar, if this is not Diaz' car then why is the museum and the city making it their exhibit showcase Nov. 1? Mr. Montoya, you have only provided us with history buffs and point to an electric starter to support your claim. I am not suggesting they are not telling the truth, but I'd like to know who they are and how much credibility they have. This does not take away from the truth. If that car is not legit and the city and museum knew about it, why are they perpetuating a lie onto our residents and their families. Thank you for raising the question. Now I'd like to see you follow it up like they do in 60 minutes. By the way, I enjoy reading your prose. You have a good ear.
Santo Zelaia LNDP
Controversy is the best advertising. It's free. I wanna see this car, and I will believe that it was Portfirio's. So what?
Mr. Montoya, your sources seem to have let you down quite a bit. Did you try contacting the BHA at all about the car or the exhibit you refer to? My guess is you did not or you would have discovered that the exhibit you keep referencing occurred last year.
I got to see the car at that event at the Alonso building. It does have a hand crank in the front.
Actually, I did. The person in charge was adamant that it was not to be seen by the public until the Nov. 1 exhibit. Oh, and no pictures either. The photo we have is courtesy of world-class photographer G.F. McHalle-Scully at ER.
The thing isn't open to the public - so what? Maybe they're redoing the car or researching or something. At least they're trying to get all their facts straight unlike you. That exhibit was last year yo. A nice one too.
If you don't believe what I wrote, that's your prerogative. But do you hold up the rest of the media to the same rigorous standards you seem to hold me? I'm doing this thing for enjoyment and to share in some kind of community dialogue, not to be snide and backbite behind a cyber wall. How about it?
Checking your facts isn't a rigorous standard. Its the common sense thing to do. I expect anyone who runs around telling stories to do the same, whether is my dear grandmama, the news, or a RVG blogger. Dialogue is great, but how great is it when the facts are being manipulated?
It looks like you got RRun over Mr Montoya.
I'm of the Family Serralde, my cousin Rafael Serralde, can assecure that this car belonged to Porfirio Diaz. The car was owned after Porfirio Diaz, by our gran gran father and was at a very known house here in Mexico as "La Casa Grande" for years and then was sold.
rumor has the that the car cost well over 250K
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