It’s difficult to separate Anna María Alcorn’s life from that of her husband, Levant, who came to this community in 1947 and slowly turned an impoverished community of fewer than 1,000 into a home-buying destination for the wealthy from North America. It’s difficult to separate Anna María from the Portales Hotel, which was Levant’s first purchase when he came to Álamos and which Anna María managed for decades and continues to manage today. It’s difficult to separate Anna María from her family, with two daughters, Chela and Alicia, who live here and make notable contributions to Álamos.

While Anna María may be an Álamos institution, she remains a private person who is uncomfortable talking about herself. It’s easy for her to talk about Levant and the life they had together, their trips to the United States and Canada, and their trip to Ireland where Levant researched his family tree. It’s easy for her to talk about her four daughters, her 14 grandchildren, and her nine great-grandchildren. It’s not as easy for her to talk about herself.

She was born June 29, 1932—86 years ago at the time of this writing. She was born in Álamos, the place where her parents and grandparents were also born. All the relatives from ages past, to her knowledge, were from Sonora.

She had a happy childhood, she said. She enjoyed her childhood friends and her school days at Bartolomé primary school and the Paulita Verdán secondary school. She enjoyed visiting with her friends and eating meals at their houses, and she enjoyed living in the small community of Álamos. There was a world war in progress outside this community, but in the quiet streets off the Plaza de Armas life was much as it had always been. Peaceful, tranquil.

She was raised by her aunt, who she said was “very strict.” She was not given much freedom while growing up, but it didn’t seem to matter. As a child she went with her aunt and grandmother to visit “older people” in Álamos, and she enjoyed meeting and visiting with them. She said that this experience helped prepare her for the life she would eventually lead.

Her family home was on Comercio Street, encompassing what is now two homes. The street today doesn’t look much like it did in her childhood, and the home has been remodeled, divided, and restored.

Her world was changed as a teenager when Levant Alcorn visited her English class. A dairy farmer and government employee from Pennsylvania, Levant came to Álamos in 1947 after a visit to Mexico City. It was all by chance: he and a friend drove south from Nogales, and in Navojoa they met prospectors Jack Berg and Alberto Maas, who lived in Álamos and encouraged them to make what was then a three to four- hour trip from Navojoa to their hidden town. Levant became entranced with the beauty of the town, the plaza with a flickering of lights, the children and families sitting on the plaza benches and the 18th Century church casting its shadow over “el centro.” He wanted to preserve what he saw so it would never go away, so that travelers in future generations could experience exactly what he found. Álamos was to be his home for 57 more years.

Levant bought the former home of José María Almada, the mining tycoon who built a mansion across the street from the Plaza de Armas. Levant paid $2,500 dollars U.S. for it—plus the carriage home a mile away for an additional $500. Álamos was then the site of many large mansions in ruins, but Levant turned the Almada house into the Hotel Portales.

Of course it didn’t happen overnight. Levant hired José Anaya, the grandfather of our recent mayor Benny Anaya, to oversee the “reconstruction” of the building, and Levant gave José the carriage house, part of the original purchase, in exchange for some of the work. The architect making the designs was Mauro Sánchez of Navojoa. Levant told Leila Gillette in her 1990s interview, “as soon as we had one room fixed up in the Portales, we had it rented out!”

Eventually there were 10 rooms, which were often full, a restaurant which was first run by Polo Grajeda, and a telephone—the first telephone in Álamos. There was not only a telephone, but the hotel had a switchboard which connected it to several homes near the hotel. The hotel telephone number was “1.”

The Americans who came to Álamos in the 1950s often wrote that the only place to make or receive calls was at the Portales Hotel. If a visitor needed to call the U.S.—or anywhere—he or she would place a call at the reception desk. Margo Finlay, in her interview on this website, said that she and her husband, Hal, liked to vacation in Mexico City, but invariably his office would contact him about one problem or another and he was never completely free. An artist friend, Fletcher Martin, suggested that they come to Álamos because, at that time, there were only “three telephones” in town and Hal’s office would never be able to track them down.” The Findlays bought a house in 1956 and lived out their days in the tranquil warmth of our pueblo mágico.

While work was underway to complete the hotel, Levant needed a receptionist comfortable in both English and Spanish. He went to an English class to look for one.

“There were four or five of us in the class,” Anna María said. “Our teacher was Rafaela Marcol, but everyone called her “Bebe.” She taught English and music at the secondary school (Paulita Verján), and she also had a private English class after school.

“When he came Bebe recommended someone else, but he looked at me and said “I want her!” Bebe told Levant that she didn’t think her aunt would let her work, and when I asked my aunt she said ‘no.’ Levant kept asking Bebe, though, and finally Bebe went to talk to my aunt and my aunt gave permission for me to work.”

When she finished her schooling, Anna María went to work full-time at the Portales Hotel. She worked the typical 8 - 5 with an hour off for lunch, and her duties expanded as Levant began buying and selling other properties in Álamos. There were restrictions in Mexican law which prevented Americans, at that time, from directly purchasing property. After Levant and Anna María married, he then formed the company Inversionistas de Álamos, S.A., and through the company he was able to buy and sell houses since Anna María was a Mexican national. Anna María guesses that Levant eventually bought and sold around 100 houses in Álamos.

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It has been 70 years since Anna María took that first job at the hotel, and today she still manages the Portales. On most evenings she can be found sitting on the hotel patio overlooking the Plaza de Armas, visiting with friends, or guests, or family members. When asked about “hobbies” or “interests,” Anna María talked only about how much she enjoyed sitting outside her hotel, watching the life of the community taking place in the plaza across the street. She’s quite happy that central Álamos has not changed, and she gives her husband Levant all the credit.

“Some people in Álamos wrote a letter to the governor (in the 1950s) complaining about Mr. Alcorn,” Anna María said. “They didn’t like an American coming in and buying houses—they thought he was trying to buy the town! So they wrote a letter, and eventually the governor and his staff came to Álamos to pay a visit…to investigate.”

Anna María smiles as she remembers that day. “The governor came, and he asked Levant why he came to Álamos. And Levant said that he loved Mexico and he loved the Mexican people, and that from when he first saw this town he wanted to live here. He said he left a farm, friends, and a comfortable life to come here.

“The governor was impressed and asked Levant what he could do to help him. Levant told him he was worried that the beautiful old structures would not be preserved, and from that meeting the Conservation Law of Álamos was drafted to protect the buildings one kilometer in all directions from the Gazebo in the Plaza.”

Anna María remembers that at night there was a big party in the Hotel Portales for the governor and his staff with music and merriment, and what could have been a problem turned into an agreement which benefited both Levant and the community.

Álamos attracted enough attention in the United States that two stories appeared in national magazines during the 1950s about the town. “Sonora is Jumping” is the title of a story in the February, 1955, issue of National Geographic magazine, and, while the story provides information on many locations and aspects of life in Sonora, the majority of the article centers on Álamos. Written by Mason Sutherland, the title refers to the jumping bean, which was a rage in the 1950s and was largely exported from Álamos. Miner Alberto Maas was interviewed, who came from Minnesota looking for gold and silver and was fortunate enough to find large deposits of tungsten. Parish pastor Fr. Juan Barcelo was also interviewed, and Americans Marcelline Coyle, Norman Stewart, George Nesbitt, and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Schon were mentioned in the story. (This magazine is on file at the History Association Research Library.)

Anna María and Levant were not mentioned in that article, but they both were featured in a Saturday Evening Post article “A Visit in Ruins” during the same decade. Anna María’s picture was in that magazine article, and because of that picture she received a number of what she calls “love letters” from young men wanting to marry her—as she was not married at that time. Anna María smiles and says that she still has the letters, and that she may perhaps allow some to be scanned for the History Association archives.

Anna María’s daughter, Chela, said that one of the young men who wrote a “love letter” many years later bought a house in Álamos. As a realtor Chela was showing the man, accompanied by his wife, different houses in Álamos, and he told her about writing to Anna María decades ago. “If things had been different, you could have been my daughter!” he told her.

A few years after the Post story, Carlotta Miles wrote “Our Neighbor to the South: Sonora, Mexico,” which appeared in the November, 1964, issue of Arizona Highways magazine. Carlotta and her husband, Harold, a painter, resided in Álamos for a number of years, living in the house later owned by Tom and Twyla Harkness and which is currently owned by Tom’s son and his family. She also wrote “The Almadas of Álamos,” a short book still in print.

Anna María’s life today revolves around the extended family of her four daughters: Alicia and Graciela (Chela), who live in Álamos; Anna Maria, who lives in Navojoa; and Renee Belinda, who lives in Tucson, AZ. From these daughters she has 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren living in Sonora and in the United States, and nothing pleases her more than to be with or to talk about her family.

People in the Álamos community have noted her great beauty as a young lady, and that beauty has remained through the years of her life. She took over more responsibility in the hotel and the real estate business as Levant reached his 80s and 90s (he died in 2004 at the age of 99), and today, while she has delegated much of the work, she continues to oversee the work Levant began in 1947.

Enjoying a chair in the hotel patio, she has watched Álamos grow from less than one thousand to more than 14,000 people (according to a newspaper article in 2019). She has seen the foreign community grow ten-fold, and has watched as tourists from the United States and Sonora have visited and marveled at the magic of Álamos. She is proud of her town, proud of her family, and happy to spent a lifetime in Álamos, Son., Mexico.