As a college student, Raul Llera announced to his family that he wanted to make a career in tourism. His father ridiculed the idea, telling his son that he wouldn’t amount to anything in “a life of wanderings and fiestas.’ Little could the senior Llera foresee what Raul is doing today. He has one of the most important jobs in the state - literally, getting jobs for other people. Raul Llera Martinez is the recently appointed Coordinator of Tourism for the State of Sinaloa, and he is more than aware of the magnitude of his post. Maybe state government is, too. When the new governor, Jesus Aguilar, took office in January, he listened to the petitions of the Mazatlan hotel community and appointed Llera as tourism chief. Llera has the responsibility of promoting the growth and prosperity of this industry, which is key to the state’s economic wellbeing. Simply put, when tourists come to Sinaloa, they bring jobs for lots of people - hotel and restaurant workers, tour operators and guides, and every kind of business from gas stations to grocery stores, not to mention boutiques and sourvenir stands. In the new Centro Historico offices of Sectur (the short form of Secretaria de Turismo, as the federal agency promoting tourism is called), Llera sits behind a desk piled high with file folders and tourist-related materials. With his pale skin and sandy hair, he looks more Swiss than Mexican. He has an easy way of speaking English as he tells the Pacific Pearl how he ended up being named the state’s top tourism honcho. One thing’s for sure: Llera knows his territory. He is not local, but he has 17 years of experience working in the tourism industry around here. Mexico City-born and -educated (at the University of Mexico and the Escuela Mexicana de Turismo), he capped off his education by winning a scholarship to study at the University of Wisconsin. He spent 2 2/2 years in Madison, living with a family and learning not only English, he says, but “the American way to live.” When he returned to Mexico, he got a job with the Camino Real chain, which he calls “a very good school for training generations of hotel employees.” Eventually, he was appointed manager of Mazatlan’s Hotel Camino Real (now El Faro) in Mazatlan and later went to

work for Ernesto Coppel, helping him launch such projects as the Pueblo Bonito in Los Cabos and Emerald Bay in Nuevo Mazatlan. He then became president and general manager of the Mazatlan Hotel Association, which had recently undergone a schism. Believing that they should market exclusively to a national clientele, hoteliers from the malecon and Olas Altas had split off to form their own Tres Islas Hotel Association. (“They’re not fighting anymore,” says Llera. as an aside) And speaking of disputes, we talked to Llera just days after a group of fishermen had blocked the road to the airport and on another occasion a group of unhappy taxi drivers had blockaded the malecon at Valentino’s. “These things cannot be permitted to happen,” Llera said. “I was just in a meeting in Culiacan, and we are very close to getting an agreement with these . . . (factions).” He spoke of the new artistic lighting of Old Mazatlan which had just been inaugurated, of a beautification project along Avenida Camaron Sabalo, of a cleanup campaign at Stone Island — “things to make Mazatlan beautiful,” he said. As for Stone Island, “the most popular tour that we have,” he said that improvements have a high priority there considering the great visitor demand to go there. Llera does not discount the importance of the “Anglo-sajona (Anglosaxon) community of Mazatlan. “We are aware of the investment that you are making in our country,” he said, adding that he would like to go after some of the retirement business that other destinations around the world are actively pursuing. With such developments in the works as Marina Mazatlan and Nuevo Mazatlan, this area offers many attractions for retirees, he said, but promoting to retirees could benefit other places throughout the state of Sinaloa as well. As his father predicted, Llera does have a lot of running around to do, especially to Culiacan, the state capital, where he is called often to confer with the governor. But his home is here in Mazatlan with wife Georgina and daughters Deborah, 21, and Alejandra, 15. Although the position is quite demanding and the hours unpredictable, he approaches his work with obvious relish.. You can’t doubt it for a moment when, after discussing all the challenges he faces, Raul Llera wraps up the interview by saying enthusiastically: “I love my job!”