"Heroic Caborca" Heroica Caborca by malecon

What's in a name, the eternal question asks. For Heroic Caborca, the name says it all, as it was here that the townsfolk repelled a filibustering attempt by an American opportunist named Crabb back in 1857.

Today, Caborca is a hard working agricultural town and major hub to several key points in the State of Sonora. It is not a tourist destination by any means but there is enough to keep a visitor busy.

First, there is its eloquent past which earned a simple town called Caborca to officially change its name to Heroic Caborca. In the ten years following the Mexican War in which the U.S. took half of the country there were several filibustering efforts. Filibustering is taken from a Dutch word meaning pirate.

Main street of Caborca

Henry A. Crabb and about 100 others entered Sonora by invitation and ended up being betrayed. The people of the town of Caborca along with a contingent of federales barricaded themselves in the church. Crabb then occupied several of the homes across from the church. The Mexican nationals got the better of the American group and laid seige to the houses.

Within a few days Crabb and his men were captured and immediately executed. They say the facade of the church still has the bullet holes from the ordeal.

Venders sell secondhand goods at the zocalo.

A farming community of the first order. The trucks bearing goods and people stream into town. You know that you are caught in the mix of another day in a Mexican town. The temperature feels over 100 degrees F. I pull up to a stop light behind a ratty pickup truck with a single man inside. At the stop is a man in a wheelchair with a can.

The single man in the truck digs for some money in his pockets to give and has to get out of the truck in the middle of the street to deposit the coinage. I'm just amazed that not only does he give but he has to make an effort to do so. I'm overridden with guilt as I too deposit some money in the can for the invalid. Seconds before I was debating whether to give or not. Such generosity spoke volumns about the character of this community.

• In a nutshell:The town that fullfills its name.