TOURISM AND INDIGENOUS SETTLEMENTS IN THE CASE OF ROCKY POINT (PUERTO PEÑASCO), SONORA, MEXICO

Abstract

This work recovers, from a case study, the relationship between tourism and indigenous
settlements in Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico. An introduction to
the characteristics of the place is made and the general framework of tourism development in
Mexico, in Sonora and particularly in Puerto Peñasco is captured; place that is part of the
megaproject of the Nautical Ladder. In Puerto Peñasco we were able to observe how the tourist
development and that of the service sector have been increasing, managing to place this
municipality as one of the tourist places in the preference of foreign visitors, mainly from the
United States and Canada. For the tourist complexes to be built, the workforce of construction workers was indispensable.
The main source of labor was indigenous migrants from the southern states of the country such
as Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, Estado de México and others. One of the places where they
settled was the Obrera colony. In this article I make an ethnographic description of the settlement
in that colony and recover the characteristic of diversity that exists in it, since indigenous
families from several villages, mostly Nahuas, live. The multi-ethnic composition of this colony
and its already historical process of colonization by indigenous families in the south, places it as
an icon in the establishment of migrants in areas of sun and beach tourism in the Mexican
Pacific.