Pearls of Baja California
The
history of pearl collecting in Mexico goes back a very long way. When
Spanish explorers sailed into the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California)
in the early 1530s they encountered Pericú Indians wearing necklaces
strung with red berries, shells and blackened pearls. It is believed
that pearl jewelry in the region dates back about 7000 years.
Harvesting
pearls became a priority as the Spaniards tried to establish
permanent settlements on the arid peninsula now known as Baja
California. From 1535 to Mexican independence in 1821, thousands of
pearls were dispatched to Europe on a regular basis, where they were
incorporated into the lavishly decorated regalia of many notable
European courts. During the period of Jesuit missions in Baja (1697
to 1768) pearl collecting was restricted, but even then illegal
traffic in pearls persisted.
Following
Mexico’s independence, other European nations besides Spain sought
access to Baja pearls. The pearling industry in Baja really took off
in the mid-nineteenth century as enterprising, business-minded
armadores hired native divers (mainly Yaqui Indians from Sonora) to
explore the numerous shallow coves between La Paz and Mulege, and
around the islands including Cerralvo and Isla Espíritu Santo.
The
conditions in Baja California were so favorable for pearling that by
1889, within a few years of its incorporation, the Compañía
Perlífera de la Baja California (based in La Paz, and employing
about 900 men) had come to completely dominate the world pearling
industry..
A
1903 article in The New York Times says that the Baja pearl industry
had produced more than two million dollars worth of pearls in 1902,
including some of the “finest jewels of this kind found anywhere in
the world”. The article describes several individual pearls, and
emphasizes that the area is “noted for its fancy pearls – that is
to say, the colored and especially the black ones”. As mentioned
earlier, the native Indians wore fire-blackened pearls. This seems to
have been a particularly prescient choice, given the extremely high
premiums long placed on natural black pearls. Even today, at least
one firm in Baja specializes in producing cultured black pearls from
rainbow-lipped oysters.