Guillermo Rodríguez: Giving Back to Ensenada
text by connie ellig

Born in Irapuato, Guanajuato in 1953, Guillermo Almerico Rodríguez Macouzet moved to Ensenada at age three. “I consider myself an Ensenadense,” he declares. At age twenty, he temporarily relocated to Mexico City to study for his degree in biology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). While a student, he made his living as an illustrator and learned all aspects related to the design and silkscreen printing of t-shirts. In 1978-79, he returned to Ensenada, got married and started working as a biologist for the Mexican Department of Fisheries.

During his afternoon free time, Guillermo explored Ensenada’s curio stores and souvenir shops along Calle Primera (Av. López Mateos) and was appalled at the graphics on the t-shirts he found. “There were ugly, horrible t-shirts that portrayed Mexicans in jails, Mexicans with guns, and Mexicans eating and drinking in degrading manners. This was not Ensenada; this was not Mexico; this was not us; but this was the negative image that tourists purchased and took back to the United States,” Guillermo recalls.

Deciding to change that image, Guillermo began designing and producing t-shirts that incorporated graphics of fish, suns, boats and other positive motifs. This was an immediate success and the ugly t-shirts disappeared from Ensenada in the early 1980s. During this same time period, Guillermo resigned from the Department of Fisheries so that he could dedicate himself to his own business and his newly established t-shirt store, the Shirt Stop. “We were one of the first to upgrade and remodel a store on Calle Primera and others soon followed our example. We helped to change the face of First Street,” he notes.

Through the years, Guillermo has been involved with various successful t-shirt enterprises including the Hussongs Official Stores, the Papas & Beer Official Stores, and the San Felipe Shirt Stop (now Rockodile Official Store). Currently, Guillermo and his partners operate the Señor Frog’s Official Stores throughout Mexico from their main office in Mazatlán, Sinaloa.

One of the newest graphic designs created by Guillermo’s Mazatlán-based production office is that for the commemorative t-shirt and publicity of the 27th Anniversary Fall Rosarito Ensenada 50 Mile Fun Bicycle Ride. The outstanding artwork is particularly relevant since it depicts almost-mirror graphic images of two bicyclists—one a Mexican, the other an American—superimposed upon an illustration of the North American continent while breaking through barbed wire in pursuit of their sport. “The sport of bicycling has no borders,” Guillermo says simply.

Guillermo first became involved in the development of the Rosarito Ensenada Fun Bicycle Ride with Dave Dickson of Bicycling West, Inc. in 1979. At first Guillermo merely produced the commemorative t-shirts, but as the highly successful event grew to include thousands of participants, he became more and more involved with the Mexican logistics. As an avid outdoor sports enthusiast, Guillermo took a hands-on approach to the event by participating in the Rosarito to Ensenada ride four times. In 1993, he created Rosarito Ensenada S.A. de C.V., a Mexican corporation that acquired full ownership and operation of the spring and fall bicycle rides when Dickson retired in 2000. In 2002, Guillermo contracted with Gary Foster to run Bicycling West, Inc., which now serves as a California-based sports marketing company that promotes the two annual events.

Besides generating more than ten million dollars of yearly tourism revenues, the Rosarito to Ensenada rides benefit the people of Baja California through the One Way Bike Ride program. The formal bike donation program was sparked in September 2001 when two long-time participants, Randy Kiefer and Harry Williamson, donated bicycles to two Ensenada students who wanted to participate in the event. Since then, 15-20 donated bicycles per ride have been received by police departments, the Cruz Roja and DIF, Mexico’s national program of social assistance for poor families. Any bike in working condition is a welcome gift. For more details, see “Bike Donations” on www.rosaritoensenada.com.

Has Guillermo Rodríguez given any thought to retirement? “I officially retired from business in the year 2000,” he says with a smile. “But I have not retired socially.” As a wine enthusiast, Guillermo has found time to pursue his hobby by establishing Vinisterra Winery in San Antonio de las Minas, 15 miles east of Ensenada. In December 2002, Guillermo re-launched the dormant El Vigía newspaper in Ensenada with one of its original founders, Ing. Alejandro Treviño Cueva. Established in May 1985, El Vigía was the first newspaper in Mexico to dedicate an entire page to women, and the first newspaper in Baja California to undertake public opinion polls. El Vigía ceased publication in December 1986, partially due to economic problems, but largely because of official intolerance of freedom of expression.

Although the original El Vigía may have been ahead of its time, its same vision and ideals are more widely accepted today, where El Vigía holds the top position in the Ensenada newspaper market. Its online version, www.elvigia.net, was acclaimed one of the best electronic newspapers in Mexico by a University of Texas review of Internet newspapers in Latin America.

“The motto of El Vigia is ‘Periodismo con la Gente’ (Journalism with the People). For the first time, Ensenada has its own Spanish-language newspaper that is edited, printed and produced in Ensenada. El Vigía is a newspaper and a forum where people can express themselves without political orientation,” says Guillermo. “Because of all our universities, Ensenada is a city that has the highest concentration of scientists per capita. El Vigía’s ‘Ciencia y Tecnología’ supplement gives them a forum that no other newspaper offers.”

El Vigía recently purchased four more printer heads that will improve registration, sharpen text and image quality, and print the newspaper in half the time. Despite this major expenditure, Guillermo feels that the printed newspaper of today is fated to die in the future as computers replace it. He adds, “Newspaper publishing is not a business; it’s an investment. The real reward for me is the personal satisfaction of giving back to Ensenada and its people what they have given to me.”

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