There, he was attacked by two older American boys named Owen Walker and Don Herrera, due to anti-Mexican sentiment.

[2] As a young man he worked at his brother's hardware store, at a copper mine in Cananea, and as a professional baseball player in Nogales, Sonora.

There, the Second Battalion forces ambushed a train carrying Federal Army troops from Mexico City, led by General Girón.

A law intern, Jesús Dorador Ibarra, had been able to verify that due to his salary as paymaster, Rodríguez had actually assimilated the rank of first captain and, therefore, there was no insubordination.

On 21 July 1920, Rodríguez was appointed head of a 6,000-man expeditionary column, supported by a gunboat, charged with expelling Colonel Esteban Cantú from Baja California.

[6] During that period he closed most casinos and bars in the border town of Tijuana, which had flourished under Cantú as a destination for North American vice tourism.

[20] Taxes from the regional vice businesses helped the Baja California government fund public works and supported industries such as aviation and agriculture.

During the Rodríguez administration, Baja California was one of just two entities in Mexico with an elementary educational system that satisfied 100% of the needs of the population, for free.

For instance, in The Course of Mexican History, Sherman and Meyer deride Rodríguez as "a man with less administrative talent than relish for power, as puppet number three of the Maximato".

Palavicini stated in January 1934 that President Rodríguez was making extraordinary efforts to educate the Mexican people, and that the minimum wage law was greatly reducing poverty.

And rogue Finance Minister Alberto J. Pani attempted to temper Rodríguez's adoption of deficit spending and objected to the government's anticlerical tendencies.

In 1932 doctors discovered that Calles was suffering from a combination of arthritis, arteriosclerosis, and chronic intestinal disease caused by poor diet.

For instance, in March 1934, US President Franklin Roosevelt wrote Calles a letter "congratulating him on the peace and the growing prosperity of Mexico".

[32] Rodríguez was fluent in English, owned a home in San Diego, and had spent some time working in Los Angeles before the Mexican Revolution.

"[34] And US Ambassador Reuben Clark reported that the peso had strengthened with Rodriguez, indicating the confidence in him in financial circles[35] and that the policy of the United States was one of cordial friendship.

[36] Rodríguez's government organized the Council of Primary Education in the Federal District and created cultural missions in rural areas.

Under Bassols, the proposition that the education should explicitly advocate socialism was to be official policy, and he moved to embed that in the Mexican Constitution.

[6] Under Interim President Emilio Portes Gil, the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and the Mexican government had come to an agreement that would end the Cristero War in 1929.

The Vatican's representative in Mexico, Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Leopoldo Ruiz y Flóres, tried to say that the Mexican government had misunderstood the Pope's message.

[37] Through the minimum wage law for Mexican workers, he aimed to intensify Mexico's industrial development and make the nation less dependent on international trade.

He was a supporter of co-operativies, which he thought would distribute the national wealth more equitably, and he pressed Congress to issue the Cooperatives Act.

Rodríguez and his wife, Aída Sullivan, traveled the world for several years after the presidency, partly to avoid political intrigue.

They visited the United States, Canada, Europe, North Africa, Turkey, India, China, Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Cuba, Panama, and Guatemala.

Rodríguez was key in helping to build this industry domestically, and he became involved in various seafood companies like Compañía Productos Marinos de Guaymas, S.A.[46] In 1942, he became the owner and operator of the 50,000-watt XERB radio station in Rosarito.

Their goal was to solicit donations and allocate funds, in order to grant scholarships to low-income students from the State of Sonora.

[68] Along with his North American business partner Theodore Gildred Sr., Rodríguez was the owner of Tepeyac Studios in Mexico City.

In 1951, President Miguel Alemán Valdés, nearing the end of his six-year term, expressed his desire to have the Constitution amended to allow him to be re-elected.

Former presidents Lázaro Cárdenas and Manuel Ávila Camacho, who had established the tradition of selecting the PRI's next candidate and peacefully transferring power, had Rodríguez give a statement that they didn't "think extension of the presidential term or re-election is convenient for the country.

The Autobiografía de Abelardo L. Rodríguez was published by the Senate of the Mexican Republic, Commission of Libraries and Editorial Affairs.

In 1964, his 39-year-old son Juan Abelardo and his daughter-in-law, Janine Ratliff died when their plane collided with power lines on takeoff.