One of the busiest and most beautiful avenues in Culiacán is the avenue Alvaro Obregón, colloquially called “La Obregón”. During weekdays thousands of people cross this road from north to south to get to work, school or malls.
For this reason, on a drizzling Sunday morning I took the decision to do a photographic tour by the main buildings of this very important street of the capital of Sinaloa.
Obregón with Ciudades Hermanas
On the corner of Ciudades Hermanas with Obregón there is a pretty garden, small, well-kept and adorned with palm trees. The people who attend the mass at the Lomita, one of the best known catholic churches in the city dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, and that is located on a hill which possesses a great view of the city and you can get to the park by the its long stairs.
This is where we started our photographic tour. By the Obregon, between Leyva Solano Boulevard and Francisco Villa Street, is the sports center Juan S. Millán, which was previously called “Parque Revolución”, it was built more than 50 years ago and where great artistic and sport events were held.
Here is where Julio César Chávez made his professional debut as boxer. It is currently the house of the city basketball team, Caballeros de Culiacan.
City Hall of Culiacán
Inaugurated on October 8th, 1842, the building that today hosts the city hall of Culiacán by the avenue Obregón, between Mariano Escobedo and Benito Juárez, meant for the people that lived in the Ville of San Miguel something never seen before, because it was the first two floor building with such a beauty in its construction.
At the beginning it was built as the National Tridentine seminary of Sonora and Sinaloa, being one of the most important on the northwest of the country that operated until the Reform war.
The building that harbors the City Hall of Culiacán since 1980, was proposed in similarity to the European cloisters, with a main yard surrounded by semicircular arches and rooms all around the perimeter.
Culiacán Cathedral
According to the chronicle of Culiacán, its edification was an odyssey. In 1799, the Bishop from Sonora, Fray Francisco María Rousset de Jesús negotiated with the authorities in charge of the installation of a Seminar School. Where the priests needed for the parishes from the northwest zone were to graduate.
For that, he searched for a location where to build, and he found it a hundred steps south from the local Cathedral. There was a big orchard and a small hermitage dedicated to San José.
The Bishop bought the land with his own money, hired an expert in masonry of last name Flores and the foundations to start the work were opened.
The resources were not enough, and 29 years away from the beginning of the project, on May 13th, 1838, under the direction of Lázaro de la Garza and Ballesteros, the seventh bishop of Sonora, the edification continued.
After four years, the work was completed, with rocks brought from Mojolo, Imala and Badiraguato, styled by artisans that De la Garza and Ballesteros got from within the country. In different stages of the history of the state, the building was used as a blood hospital in war times, or depositary of administrative offices of the government in peaceful times.
Image Gallery
How this Virtual Tour was made
The entire route of Obregón Avenue ended in the Las Riberas Park and took approximately two hours, despite of the little rain that would make a little difficult some shots. The light with soft shadows generates contrasts and tonalities very pleasant. I was very careful of constantly cleaning the target in order to not have spots out of the drops of rain. For the printing I added a bit more of contrast so the pictures had stronger colors and intense blacks.
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English language translation made by Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa through the collaboration of Centro de Estudio de Idiomas Culiacán
