(Today’s only post)
Last night I scanned an article from the February 1955 issue of Kaiser Willys News and prepared it for this morning. But then I made the mistake of doing a google search on Pedro Rocasalvo, the twenty-six-year-old from Argentina mentioned in the article. Down the rabbit hole I went ….
It turns out that the article below barely skimmed the surface of the adventure. First of all, Pedro Rocasalvo was not traveling solo. He was traveling with his brother, Carlos. They started around 1946 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on bikes. It took them 27 months to reach Los Angeles (and here). From there, they continued to Fairbanks on their bikes, making it in July of 1948.
As best as I understand, they were given a hero’s welcome and a jeep by the mayor of Fairbanks. Once they began their trip south, they picked up a dancer, Celita Dextre, who spoke Spanish and English. By September 1948, they’d reached Bismarck, North Dakota.
Along their journey, the three took color film and several hundred slides. Pedro was supposed to be working on a book, too, but I can’t find any evidence it was published (most likely was published in Argentina).
Maybe Hugo Vidal can help out with this research …. there will be updates to this story!
Continue reading →
