 ROSARITO BEACH
The city of Rosarito Beach belongs to the state
of Baja California in the Northern part of Mexico, just 18 miles south from Tijuana. Rosarito is the
newest city in Baja California.
Born to a municipality in 1995 with the help of wise visionaries like Hugo
Torres Chabert (current city Major), who foresaw and promoted the potential
gains as an independent city. Rosarito then became the fastest growing entity
not only in Baja California
but in México as well.
Right after the 2000 country census, Rosarito had a population of 63,420. It
has a territorial extension of 513.32 km².
It is located at 32° 21' north latitude and 117° 03' de west latitude. It
boundaries north and east with the border city of Tijuana,
the Pacific Ocean to the west
Mostly famous as a Mexican touristic destination, Rosarito is also known for
its famous Puerto Nuevo Lobster, sporting events, like the Rosarito – Ensenada fun bicycle
ride, cultural and artistic events, like the Rosarito Furniture Expo and
several gastronomic expos throughout the year.
HISTORY
At the end of the 18th Century, Spanish Dominican friars and missionaries gave
the name El Rosario to one native ranch established there. This ranch was part
of La Misión de San Miguel Arcángel de la Frontera, just a few miles South..
The mision was established in March 28th of 1787 by the Dominican
Friar Luis Sales at the shores of the San Juan Bautista
River.
Friar Junípero Serra passes through the place in May of 1769, on his way to
the evangelization of the High California.
Friar Junípero Serra wrote about the region in his journal: Gentleness is to
be found immense on all of this counter shore (south sea) from where we come,
from the Todos Los Santos Ensenada, called like this by the maps and locals,
live very worry free with various seeds and fish they caught in their tule raft
shaped like canoes. With these they sail out deep in the sea and they are very
good natured and all men, grown men and little boys are all naked, and the
woman and little girls are all covered up even nursing infants. They will
approach us just like that on the roads; they treated us with peace and trust
as if they knew us from all of their lives. And when trying to give them food
they will say no, that they wanted clothing. It was with clothing that they
traded their seed and fish with the soldiers. The entire place is filled with
hares, rabbits, deer and lots of sheep.
After the ejection of the Jesuits missionaries by decree of King Charles III
of Spain in 1767, Dominicans and Franciscans divided in half among themselves
the ancient region of California: the Franciscans took the High California (the
actual California state from the U.S.) and the Dominicans with Low California (the
actual Baja California from México).
In 1772 the Dominicans and Franciscans where ordered to establish a border
between the two dioceses: in 1773 Friar Francisco Palou marked with a simple
wooden cross the border between both Californias.
That border, known as ‘mojonera de Palou’, is located precisely in Rosarito, in
the place we know today as Calafia.
It was then decided that the El Rosario ranch was to be under custody of the
Northern Mision of San Diego de Alcalá, of the Dominicans, because it now lay
inside their limits.
After the war between Mexico
and the U.S. (1847-1848), a
lot of families of Spaniard descent that owned property in the High California immigrated
to the Baja California as they where stripped
of their property deeds by the United
States government, some families established
themselves in El Rosario to keep to their farming and stock breeding way of
life. They kept going to the old San Diego (in
the actual California)
to satisfy their merchant necessities as well as their religious and cultural
ones.
With time the name El Rosario changed to Rosarito. As the result of the Mexico – US
war and of the Guadalupe – Hidalgo treaty, the
New Mexican border lay at no more than 18 miles north from Tijuana, the pole of the development of the
Rosarito region. That brought as a consequence de development of the Tia Juana
Ranch, that over time it will turn to the city of Tijuana.
In 1995 Rosarito, a town dependent of Tijuana
in a sociopolitical aspect, reach the level of municipality of the Mexican State
of Baja California, with the name of Rosarito Beach.
When Rosarito became a municipality, it reached an unheard of development,
at the point of being one of the fastest growing cities in Mexico.
MOVIE STUDIOS
The 20th Century Fox Studios created in Rosarito a series of studios for high
budget motion pictures taking advantage of the very low cost of production,
ocean scenery and accommodations that Rosarito provides. The current name of these studios is Xploration and is no longer property of Fox.
Titanic, one of the most successful movies in the 20th Century was filmed in
part in Rosarito. Other important movies include Deep BlueSea, Pearl Harbor & The Far Side of
the World
 FOOD & LODGING
Rosarito has Hotels of all categories, camping sites and trailer Parks.
You can find any type of international food, even when is
the Puerto Nuevo Lobster the native dish. This in honor of the fisherman
locality by the same name in which you can taste fried lobster served with
Mexican style rice and refried beans. All of this paired with Mexican flower
tortillas made on site.
REAL ESTATE
In the past years the Rosarito real estate market has been experiencing a boom along its oceanfront area. With the major names in real estate investing in highly modern community developments. With more than a dozen beach front developments being built, Rosarito has become a very important issue in the real estate business in Baja California and Mexico.
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