Attached to the border in the northwestern part of Mexico, there is a town that has unique characteristics, probably in the world, it is divided by a train track, but this division implies many things, on each side you are in a different state, in a part of the year, the time zone also changes and even the name is not the same on both sides of the track.
Luis B. Sánchez is the name of the town located further west of the municipality of San Luis Río Colorado in the northwest of the State of Sonora, it was named in honor of the engineer who founded this community, while on the side of Baja California and the tracks, it was named Estación Coahuila and was later changed to Ciudad Coahuila.
“Near Mexicali there is a town that is divided between Baja California and Sonora by a track, I am talking about Km. 57, which is also divided into two time zones, but continue here and I will tell you all the details,” he explains in a Tik Tok video from the channel “Chris Aventuras”, who explains this peculiar situation to us.
Between Sonora and Baja California
This means that lifelong residents, for example, for a procedure and depending on which side of the tracks they are on, belong to Baja California or Sonora and if a procedure is necessary in the state capital, if you go to Mexicali from that point it is 78 kilometers and an hour’s drive, but if you have to come to Hermosillo it is more than 8 times more distance and travel time.
“One of the most forgotten towns in Mexico is Km. 57 which, as I mentioned, on the Sonora side is called Poblado Luis B. Sánchez and on the Baja California side Ciudad Coahuila, with an approximate population of 8 thousand inhabitants, is one of the strangest points of what is the Valley of Mexicali and San Luis, since this town in the winter time is divided into two time zones by a train track,” explains Chris Aventuras.
The time issue can cause problems, since if you live on one side and go to school on the other, or to work, there can be some confusion, although you should already be accustomed and adapted to these peculiarities that for anyone who sees it from outside could seem incredible.
Founding of the town
“Being on the Sonora side an hour ahead of the Baja California side, the better known as Km. 57, was founded in 1937 by an engineer from Coahuila, who bought a large amount of land from the controversial Colorado River Land. Engineer Sánchez traveled 29 days with all his machinery with the intention of planting cotton, settling himself and 20 other families, the first to arrive in this little town,” the video relates.
The Colorado River Land Company was an American company that owned land in the Mexicali Valley and that promoted and facilitated the development of the area by attracting new settlers between 1902 and 1946. It was one of the companies that became one of the most important cotton producers in the world.
“The dispute arose when he arrived here and did not know what state he was in and contacted the then president Lázaro Cárdenas and with his help it was finally divided by the railroad tracks between the two states. Today it is a little bigger and the vast majority of people are dedicated to agriculture,” the video concludes.
Source: elsoldehermosillo
