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Bolivian painter sues Rocky Point paper, art dealer

PUERTO PEÑASCO — The owner of a local collectibles boutique made illegal copies of a Bolivian artist’s oil paintings and sold them as prints on the Internet, according to a recent lawsuit.

The suit involves 20 large oil paintings created by Jose Moreno Aparicio, who splits his time between Bolivia, Mexico , and the Arizona border town of Ajo. The paintings in question show jungle scenes and tropical birds such as parrots and toucans.

In his six-page complaint, Moreno claims Lannette Deann Phillips had copied his works and advertised them for sale on various websites for her business, Rocky Point Collectibles. He also claims that Jim and Sandra O’Hare, owners of Puerto Peñasco’s biggest local newspaper, the Rocky Point Times , collected the money from these sales.

As a result, Moreno is suing all three of them in federal court in Tucson. He is demanding:

• An accounting of all sales and gross profits from the sale of those 20 works,

• Recovery of all indirect and direct profits from those sales,

• Damages worth up to $150,000 per painting,

• A permanent injunction against all future sales,

• The delivery of all DVDs, CD-ROMs, photographs, blueprints, negatives and other materials that contain the copies so that they can be destroyed,

• Money for attorney fees and court costs.

Houston lawyer Dana A. LeJune is representing Moreno. Click here to download a list of the paintings in question.

He put the ‘Rock’ in Rocky Point

TEMPE — Roger Clyne is a ball of energy. His flip-flops shuffle about as he squirms in his seat. In one week, he and his band, The Peacemakers, will play for another packed sandlot in Rocky Point for “Circus Mexicus,” a concert the band puts on every May and October. It lures fans from as far away as Oklahoma.

Clyne and his band set a frenetic pace. They play a blistering, four-hour set of songs for the Rocky Point shows that reach back 10 years or more. They have opened for Willie Nelson, John Fogerty, Blues Traveler and more. They tour constantly. And somewhere in between all of this, they had time to write and record the theme song for the television series “King of the Hill.”

Clyne is on a roll, the very picture of the quintessential happy rockstar who has found his niche and is working hard to expand it.

But beneath the musical trappings is a college-educated, Valley native who worries that the essence of Rocky Point — a once-sleepy Mexican fishing town that is the inspiration for many of Clyne’s clever tunes — is giving way to condominium towers and country club living.

It’s a long way from the days when he would park his dinosaur Toyota FJ Landcruiser on Sandy Beach, camp in the vehicle’s shadow and “launch fireworks, drink beer, and go swimmin’.”

He laments the latest condo-building craze, but remains hopeful for the town’s future.

“I see a lot of potential,” he says. “I see a lot of potential for community inclusion. I think inclusion is part of the solution. And I hope that it can go that way.”

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INTERACTIVES

Roger Clyne speaks out on…

• Growing up with Rocky Point
• Favorite Rocky Point places
• Development in Rocky Point and along the Sea of Cortez
• Rocky Point today, environmental awareness
• Climate change and the idea of a ‘Live Peñasco’ concert
• Download a printable transcript

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However, Clyne couldn’t offer a prediction for Rocky Point’s near future because, he said, he never could have predicted what the town has become now.

The development trend does not look good, he said.

“Based on the evidence of how growth is going, I see a real risk that greed may rule the day,” Clyne said. “I hope that that doesn’t happen. I hope that people, locals, and watchdog organizations … will be able to have their voices heard by the developers and present evidence that the long-term economic health and survival of the region is dependent on the preservation of beauty and community.”

GROWING UP WITH PEÑASCO

Clyne is an third-generation Arizonan who was born in Tucson and raised in Phoenix and Tempe. He attended Brophy High School, a Catholic school for boys downtown, then moved to Tempe and graduated from McClintock High. With the exception of a brief stint living overseas, he has never lived more than three miles from where he grew up.

That includes Rocky Point, where he vacations with his wife and their three children in a home that his father-in-law owns in Cholla Bay, Rocky Point’s original “suburb” [Clyne said he loves it for its "cul-de-sacness".]

His house is just a short walk from JJ’s Cantina where, as a teenager, Clyne would steal away from Tempe with friends who were just getting their learner’s permits to drive.

“You didn’t feel like a criminal, but an outlaw,” he recalled. “You got to go to this dusty little border town that was on the sea. For better or for worse, you could probably convince the bartender to get ya a couple of beers and…it was great adventure. And that’s proper adolescent adventure.”

As Clyne matured, his travels to Rocky Point and other parts of Mexican brought him closer to the cultural side of Latin America. He began to understand and respect the idea of “less is more” and the average Mexican’s way of life.

That includes the idea of “siesta” — a period in the afternoon where Mexicans take a break and life grinds to a halt [much to the frustration of get-it-done "gringos."]

It’s the idea that time isn’t money down there, and Clyne likes it immensely.

“The idea of “siesta” – to close a business down for rest, relaxation, community time – it’s great,” he said. “If I ever run for office, it will be on the “siesta” platform. I would. I think it’s a great thing.”

In college at Arizona State University, Clyne broadened his Mexico experience further with a study abroad in the Ensenada region of Baja California. He studied ethnography — which focuses on people and cultures — for his bachelor’s in psychology and minor in anthropology.

“Another thing I fell in love with was the fact that the people would passionately celebrate life with sound and color and events and could do so much with so little,” Clyne said wistfully. “I thought that had a certain grace to it and I was really enamored of it.”

He was hooked. And he sheepishly admits that he was on the “seven-year” program.

“I was on the ‘How long can I keep getting financial aid to support my musical endeavors’ program,” Clyne said, laughing. “I ran out the Pell Grants. They were like, ‘Hey, you’ve got 170 (credit) hours. You gotta get outta here.’”

DOING RIGHT BY ‘ROCKY POINT’

But things began to change in Rocky Point in the late 1990s. By the time Clyne was deep into his musical career — first with The Refreshments, then as the frontman for The Peacemakers — the town was following Arizona’s real estate boom with new resorts, beach-front homes, condominiums, ATV rentals and more.

Price began to climb, and with them came a Cabo San Lucas atmosphere. As of last summer, about 17,000 new rooms, 8,500 new houses and 522 new boat slips were coming to Rocky Point, according to a study by CEDO, an environmental watchdog group.

Mexican authorities, meanwhile, are planning massive housing and transportation projects north of Rocky Point that would pipe San Diego residents into the region. Developers are banking on these projects to support their own plans, which is driving today’s construction craze.

“It’s appealing from an economic standpoint,” Clyne acknowledged. “Hopefully, it could raise the standard of living for the average Mexican citizen. However, it needs to be done with conscience and with an awareness of the impact.”

Town officials should be supporting more ecotourism projects such as those that are popping up throughout resorts in the Caribbean, Clyne said. Reports have surfaced where upscale developments are using solar power, recycling programs, greywater catchments to capture rain and used water and other tools to lure affluent, environmentally conscious tourists.

He’d like to see this in Rocky Point — along with a healthy dose of community involvement.

“When I drive in and I see that there’s more smog, more traffic, the skyline is dominated more and more by very very large buildings…I have my objections personally,” Clyne said. “But at the same time, I know that those things are there as a bi-product of people enjoying and falling in love with a certain environment.

“I just hope,” he added, “that in the rush to enjoy that environment – recreationally or however you want to do it – we don’t lose sight of its fragility and its…you know, it needs to be taken care of and maintained. Or we’ll create a ghetto, you know? A million- dollar ghetto. Which happens. We gotta be careful.”

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>>Email the reporter at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Condos come to pristine Rocky Point estuary

PUERTO PEÑASCO, Mex. — A Tempe-based company is building a super-sized condominium project with all the frills overlooking one of Rocky Point’s most fragile marine habitats.

This summer, Canusa Homes will start building five 21-story condos, 30 beachfront homes and a man-made lake where endangered and protected birds nest on their way between North and South America.

The Pointe de Las Conchas project is yet another sign that the marriage between tourism and foreign investors is turning this once sleepy fishing town on its head.

“Rocky Point is probably one of the fastest-growing resort areas in Mexico right now,” said John Alty, the project’s Rocky Point-based sales manager.

Two million tourists are expected to head for Rocky Point this year, he said. But with its proximity to Phoenix and Tucson, its plans for a second airport and a highway project to lure more Californians, “it’s going to be a whole new batch of tourists coming down here,” Alty added.

Canusa is banking on the rush. Alty said the company bought the 24.2-acre site from a local Mexican family in December 2005 for $17 million. The land sits at the end of the main road into Las Conchas and overlooks Estero Morúa, one of six high-salinity estuaries in Rocky Point.

Alty said officials for the Mexican government have visited the site twice without complaint. The company, whose principles are in British Columbia, awaits city permits to start work, he said.

The Pointe will have a manmade lake atop the dune for kayaking and paddle boats, a 37,000-square-foot lobby with a five-star restaurant and shops, and a total of 800 living spaces. Condos on the 8th floor and above will have an outdoor spa, he said. About 400 workers will be brought in from Guadalajara, Mexico, to build it, Alty said.

The prices range from $265,000 for a one-bedroom condo to $3.8 million for a 6,900-square-foot penthouse.

But officials for the Centro de Estudios de Desiertos y Oceáno, or CEDO, are fighting the project with an online petition. Staff biologist Alejandro Castillo López says the mega-project will harm an established nesting area for the least tern, a diving seabird that is endangered, and other animals.

Alty said the company’s biologist found that no least tern nesting sites are near the project. “We will not be affecting the estuary at all,” he said. “Our property does not go down to the estuary.”

Castillo López disagreed, saying CEDO studies show otherwise. He also points to a 1996 study by biologists in Ensenada, Mexico, which found least tern living in Estero Morúa.

While being interviewed at the estuary by a reporter, Castillo López spotted four different bird species, including the least tern. All-terrain vehicles drove out onto the dune, and a yellow Hummer SUV parked out on a sandbar below it.

Mexican authorities have asked for more time to review the project after receiving mountains of data and studies from CEDO. The group is encouraging the use of ecotourism here, like narrated kayak tours of the estuary.

CEDO has helped oyster farmers secure grant money to build restaurants and buy kayaks for this purpose. They say it will be better than condos — a market that at least one local Realtor said is already oversaturated.

The idea that more multi-family housing might come to the estuary disappointed Arturo Candelaria, who came to Estero Morúa with family and friends to escape the din of Rocky Point.

When told that condos were coming to the site, he looked out at the estuary and shook his head at its swollen banks. “So I’m pretty sure they’re going to destroy this place, right?” he asked.

“We come here because it’s pretty quiet,” said Candelaria, 36. “It’s more difficult when you go to the city. It’s not intimidating here — yet.”

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Mexico Realtors allege slander on the Web

SAN CARLOS, MEXICO — A local real estate company here is suing the makers of an Arizona-based web site for slander after publishing what it says to be outrageous allegations against the company.

The owners of Snowbird Realty say Jennifer Wheaton and Susan Canale have been publishing lies about dishonest and illegal activity on the site in an effort to disrupt their business.

Wheaton and Canale allegedly launched the site in early 2006. The homepage reads that it exists to inform the public of the “pitfalls of buying property” through Snowbird Realty.

The site includes descriptions of “tricks of the trade” and abuses, which they claim the owners of the company, Catalina Ordaz de Evatt and Eric Evatt, use to take advantage of foreigners buying real estate in the San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico area. The site also includes the record of a 2006 arrest of Catalina Ordaz de Evatt for environmental crimes.

The owners of Snowbird Realty claim the accusations, including that the couple has falsified signatures and documents, sold property without the permission of owners, and engaged in bribery and threats are fabrications. The charges, they say, are rather being published in order to damage their business.