MEXICO: Pineapple Pioneer

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Dressed in their holiday best, the people of Loma Bonita turned out last week to honor their "most beloved citizen." The man: Frank Peters, 81, a native of Mount Carmel, Ill. The occasion: the dedication of the Frank Peters elementary school.

Tropical Loma Bonita (pop. 6,000) in the state of Oaxaca is probably the only town in Mexico whose "most beloved citizen" is a yanqui. Peters did not actually found the place, but he did introduce pineapple-growing, which is now the basis of the district's economy. When he arrived in 1906, Loma Bonita was a tiny village, and not a pineapple was to be seen for miles around.

A rover in his youth, Peters went to Mexico at 35 as the agent of an Illinois doctor who had bought land near Loma Bonita, sight unseen, and wanted it fenced, cleared and planted. When the doctor's son later arrived to take over, Peters bought a nearby 200-acre tract for himself. Finding that wheat and other northern crops did poorly in the region's hot, dry climate, he made a trip to Tezonapa, 75 miles away, and brought back pineapple plants of the Cayenne variety. They did well. Peters brought in more plants, and by 1910 he was harvesting 20,000 pineapples a year. Prospering, he bought more & more land until he owned 7,400 acres.

Peters had his downs as well as his ups. Revolutionary forces, considering any yanqui fair game, looted him freely. The depression of the 1930s hit him hard. In 1934, President Cardenas' land-reform program expropriated most of his holdings. Said Peters, philosophically: "The people need the land more than I do." Today his income is $58 a month—just about enough to live on. But if Peters has not continued to prosper, the pineapples have. Cuttings from Peters' original plants now produce 40,000 to 60,000 tons of pineapples a year, supplying four local canning factories.

A lifelong bachelor, Peters lived plainly even in his flush days, spending the greater part of his income for charity and local improvement. He still shares his modest income with the needy, and lets poor families live rent-free in houses he owns. Last week state officials and U.S. Ambassador William O'Dwyer came to praise him. Said Peters: "My only hope is that from this school will come a future governor or President."