This week on Arizona illustrated a celebration of jazz musician Charles Mingus is 100th birthday in his hometown of Nogales, Arizona.

Charles Mingus is the most famous and most important jazz musician to come out of Arizona.

Our favorite place to series returns from the Pima County Courthouse.

The history and architecture of the building are incredibly intriguing.

A lesson on one of the Sonoran Desert Keystone species, the Ironwood Tree.

So a tree, like an ironwood, creates what I like to call an island of fertility and a mouthwatering look at one of Arizona's best kept secrets.

Cocina La Ley I make a lot of salsas I still make all kinds of different salsas.

I love salsas.

Salsas are endless.

thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara We're recording today's program in Nogales, Arizona, which is frequently on the news because it sits right on the border with Mexico and it's home to four international ports of entry.

But there's a lot more to this town of 20,000 people with deep historical roots, in fact, right across the street from me.

This very parking lot was once home to a Buffalo Soldier outpost called Camp Little.

100 years ago in 1922.

A boy was born in that camp who from these humble roots would go on to become one of the most important figures in 20th century American music.

Charles Mingus remains one of the most influential figures in 20th century American music.

He was born in Nogales, Arizona, to a father who was a Buffalo soldier stationed at Camp Little in 1922.

He later became known as a virtuoso jazz bass player bandleader and composer.

Although Mingus' time in Nogales was brief.

His southern Arizona roots remain a sense of pride and celebration for the community.

We're all celebrating the centennial of Charles Mingus.

My part of it is a three city tour where I brought Charles McPherson in and a quintet drawn from Mingus Dynasty to play in Phoenix here in Tucson and in Nogales, where it's going to be ending up.

And they are going to have a festival there, as they have for many years.

And it will be dedicating a new Mingus Memorial.

Charles Mingus is the most famous and most important jazz musician to come out of Arizona.

Growing up, his music was some of the first jazz that really resonated with me because while it is intellectual, there's also a real spiritual element to it that just kind of grabs you I started playing saxophone at about 13, and then this is serendipity or whatever you want to call it.

I find out that one of the greatest jazz clubs in Detroit was two blocks down the street from my house, so I would go down and listen I'm.

I'm 15, 14, 15.

I can't get in the clubs, of course.

I remember Mingus being in that club, not working, but hanging out, and I saw him step out of the club and I knew who he was, and that was the first time I saw him.

But eventually I connected up with him.

I left Detroit at I was about 20 years old, and this was probably 1959, early sixties, and I went to New York to just throw my hat in the ring.

And fortunately I got hired by Mingus and that saved me When we played his music, if we were too pristine or too clean to him, that was too processed.

He didn't like that.

If we weren't, we were a little bit raggedy and sloppy.

He didn't like that either.

One day he used the term organized chaos.

So now I'm 21 years old.

I know what chaos means.

I know what organization means.

I'm not quite sure what organized chaos means.

But I I soon understood what he meant.

So you know, he could be volatile.

There were parts of him that was angry but he also was empathetic.

And he could he could be tender and very loving at the same time.

For all of us to have the conviction of what we believe in and then have the nerve to try to bring that about Mingus was kind of like that.

He knew about how the world works and he was concerned.

And whatever he had issues with, he had the courage to say it.

Period.

Good morning and welcome, all of you.

Thank you so much for being here with us today.

To dedicate the Mingus Memorial Park.

Well, my late wife, Yvonne Ervin is pretty much responsible for anything having to do with Mingus or even Jazz in Arizona.

In some ways.

when Yvonne moved back to Arizona, marched into the mayor's office and said, We've got to have some civic pride here for Mingus.

He was born in this town son of a Buffalo soldier right across the street there at Camp Little.

And the mayor said, OK, let's let's do that.

And he gave us that plot of land and and that.

And they started to construct it.

Whereas Charles Mingus, a world renowned musician, composer, poet and civil rights activist, was born in Nogales, this being the centennial of his birth.

And.

Whereas, Charles Mingus was born in Camp Little, where his father was posted, serving with an all black regiment of the U.S. Army known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

I guess what's great about, you know, my grandfather is that he just supported my dad's desire to do music.

And I started playing cello.

He was definitely among the classical career path.

But when you're black, that only goes so far.

And then his buddies are like, Well, you should play bass.

And that's kind of how it started.

It's just really a pleasure to see this happen.

To have this, it means a lot.

It means a lot to me.

And then you start sort of looking at the history and, you know, the Buffalo Soldiers and it seems to be very Mingusonian and you know, I like it just kind of fits, you know, just kind of fits into our family vibe.

Charles Mingus was born in my homeland.

I thought, how could I pay homage to someone so grand when put under the spotlight He would outstand a legend in a lifetime, not just a jazz band.

That's what Charles Mingus really is, he's a concoction of all these things.

I mean, what comes out is just so real.

And part of that is me thinking about Charles Mingus because he was born here and he didn't spend that much time here, but he's still impacting us.

And all these kids were brought up knowing that that Nogales was important in that Charles Mingus was a great composer.

And the band directors there were very, very happy to have all this activity around it.

And it's been it's been a tremendous inspiration and it's been terrific for Nogales' civic pride and for the educational opportunities and everybody should have access to express themselves in any way they want.

And I think that's what his legacy is.

You know, talk about the legacy.

It would be, you know, to be true to yourself and your passions.

And your art and, you know, and try to pursue the things that are important to you.

Next up, another installment of the Favorite Places series.

This is where architects speak thoughtfully and personally about buildings and places that resonate with them.

It's a partnership with the Arizona Daily Star, the Southern Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

And our program in this installment, Rosemary Bright talks about the historic Pima County Courthouse [soft piano music] My name is Rosemary Bright.

I'm an architect in Tucson.

And one of my favorite places is the Pima County Historic Courthouse.

[Train horn in distance] The historic Pima County Courthouse has received a major renovation in recent years, culminating in 2021 and is now a newly vibrant public space that serves as an urban hub and historic architectural gem and an economic driver for the Tucson region.

More than simply a historic restoration project.

The Pima County historic courthouse renovation is an inventive adaptation that has breathed new life into a nearly 100 year old building and its surrounding area within downtown Tucson.

[Soft piano continues] The project had been on Pima County's radar since 2010 and involved unique community partnerships, including bringing in tourism giant Visit Tucson as a partner in 2015, an alliance with the University of Arizona further expanded the functionality of the project and enriched the depth of unconventional local involvement between various entities.

As a community hub, the Pima County Historic Courthouse encompasses some amazing amenities.

The world class gemological specimens housed in the Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum dazzle the eye and incite the imagination.

I have had a lifelong interest in gems and minerals, which makes this portion of the project even more magical to me on a personal level.

Additionally, the project sits adjacent to the culturally significant January 8th memorial.

From an academic perspective, the history and architecture of the building are incredibly intriguing.

The courthouse was originally designed by Roy Place and constructed in 1929, then expanded in 1954 and received its historic designation in 1978 from the National Register of Historic Places.

The courthouse was dubbed the most outstanding Spanish colonial revival building in Arizona, and locals recognized its prominent tiled dome, which is portrayed in the official Pima County logo.

Throughout its history, the courthouse has borne witness to some of the region's most significant trials, most notably the John Dillinger trial in 1934.

[Piano music continues] The Dillinger courtroom has now been restored and is open to the public for the first time.

Including an exhibit with historic artifacts and information.

Other historic aspects of note.

The courthouse has been visited by celebrities such as Clark Gable as a defendant in 1954, Johnny Depp, also a defendant in 1991 who would later play John Dillinger.

In the 2009 film Public Enemy's.

“She's afraid of an escape.

” “Oh, no, I'm.

Not afraid of an escape.

” “I can take care of Dillinger or any other prisoner.

” This historic landmark has been featured in several blockbuster films, such as A Kiss Before Dying in 1956, and a Star is born in 1976.

It's yours, man.

I mean it.

It's yours.

In addition to the history embodied in the project, the quality and execution of the design and construction of this historic renovation are inspiring.

Architects Poster Mirto McDonald did a fabulous job with their project, assessment and commitment to the historic aspects of the original building.

Collaborating closely with historians, artisans and structural engineers, they managed to balance their dedication to the historic with utilization of new technology in the design of the renovated space to enhance its new functions.

All in all, the functions brought together under the very iconic roof of the historic Pima County Courthouse culminate in the best the region has to offer.

Highlighting Tucson's robust tourism industry, natural beauty and culture and geological and academic proficiency in the area of gems and minerals.

the historic Pima County Courthouse was built in 1929.

It's a very important Tucson landmark, but this historic Santa Cruz County courthouse is 25 years older completed and occupied in 1904.

The Beaux-Arts style building's been around longer than Arizona has been a state it served as the courthouse for Santa Cruz County until the mid 1980s.

Since then, citizen groups have led restoration efforts to keep it a vibrant part of the community.

And it's currently home to the Arizona Ranger Museum, the Santa Cruz County Cowbells Museum.

And it's now being ready for the students of Nogales to study art and display their art here from where I'm standing, you can see all the way to the state of Sonora, Mexico, and the desert that shares the Sonora name is one of the whitest in the world, very rich and biodiversity, with over 2000 identified plant species within.

But there are several keystone species, like the desert ironwood tree, that have an outsized impact on the environment relative to their abundance.

My name is Jack Dash, and I am a horticulturist at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

This is the ironwood tree and it's scientific name is Olneya tesota.

It's really one of the most important species in the Sonoran Desert.

It's what we'd call a keystone species.

The range of Ironwood matches up almost perfectly with the extent of the Sonoran Desert.

So it's a real indicator that you are in the Sonoran Desert.

It's a tree that is in the Bean family, similar to Mesquite or Palo Verde.

The nice thing about trees in the Bean family is they actually have a bacteria that lives in the roots that takes atmospheric nitrogen and turns it into plant available fertilizer.

So not only does this tree sort of create its own fertilizer, every time it drops leaves, shed roots, drops flowers or beans, that nitrogen is seeping into the soil around it.

And so other plants are going to thrive.

Additionally, trees like Ironwood Mesquite have these deep roots that pull moisture up from a deeper strata of the soil and bring it up closer to the surface, which makes it available for other species.

And then, perhaps most importantly, in the Sonoran Desert, it's evergreen, so it provides some year round shade during the hot part of the summer, and that canopy is going to mitigate extremes of cold or heat.

So plants are able to thrive around it that might not be able to thrive in open spaces.

So a tree like an ironwood creates what I like to call an island of fertility, where you're going to have a little bit of higher biodiversity right in immediate proximity to the species.

[Desert bird sounds] This massive ironwood is possibly hundreds of years old.

In fact, it was here before this entire plaza was built and the designers built this whole structure around it.

And one of the great things about a large, lightly pruned ironwood like this is that it creates such an oasis for other species, insects and animals to thrive.

If you want to envision the flowers, they look a little bit like your standard garden pea or bean plant that you might have in a veggie garden.

It's going to have that same shape.

The flowers are kind of lavender and white.

They're actually incredibly delicate and incredibly lovely.

And that's one of the great things about so many of these desert species.

They can seem so intimidating and tough at first, but when they put on that floral display, they're absolutely stunning.

And this is a tree that's going to bloom kind of in the late spring, early summer.

So it blooms during that period of time where everything's so hot, so dry, and these flowers really kind of alleviate that early summer heat.

These beans are an important food source for wildlife in this area, and they've also been eaten by humans for thousands of years.

They're really good if you boil them to remove the tannins, and then you can roast them.

And their flavor is quite a bit like peanuts.

[Traffic sounds] This is a fantastic tree for urban environments for a number of reasons.

One, it's incredibly drought and heat tolerant.

Our urban spaces tend to have a lot of reflected heat from concrete, pavement, metal, etc.

This tree is going to have no problem with that.

It's not going to tax your water bill substantially because it is so drought tolerant during the cool months.

It needs very little water during the warm months.

You can irrigate it to encourage good, lush growth and it's going to have that same island of fertility effect in a landscape that it would have in a natural environment.

So using an ironwood as a centerpiece, you can plant other shrubs, cacti, succulents in the vicinity, and it will create microclimates that will benefit those species as well.

It's possible they can reach anywhere between 20 to 30 feet high and wide.

So the first thing to do is really envision the long term growth of this tree and try and plant it in an appropriate location that will necessitate significantly less pruning over pruning can be problematic because it can make trees heavier at the top and more prone to blowing over during monsoon storms.

Additionally, you're going to lose a lot of that shade and wildlife value that makes it such a great tree in the first place.

[Birds and wildlife sounds] There are a number of trees worldwide that have the common name Ironwood and one of the things they all share in common is that they're wood is incredibly dense.

So I've read that, you know, essentially a foot section of mature ironwood trunk can weigh in the neighborhood of eighty pounds.

The wood is actually so heavy that it will sink in water.

It's not buoyant at all.

So the name is really apt to describe the incredible density of this wood.

It's another reason not to prune.

You're going to dole a saw on this thing very quickly.

[Birds and wildlife sounds] I like the calming effect that natural ecosystems have on every human nervous system.

I think one of my favorite things is actually taking other people out into the desert or into our sky island mountain ranges and really just watching sort of the weight of the world kind of wash off of them.

It's obviously been, you know, heavily documented and scientifically proven at this point that we as human beings really do benefit mentally.

And I think many people would say spiritually from access to and presence in nature.

next time you're in Nogales, Arizona, Cocina La Ley is a quick stop for a tacos, some soup, some flavorful salsa, always fresh and made from scratch.

The restaurant's been a hit with locals and travelers for the past 30 years.

You're about to see why I have had this place for 29 years, we are going on our 30th year.

In our house everyone likes bein in the kitchen.

Everyone cooks.

A lot of the bases for the ingredients I took from my mom.

My mom lived in the kitchen, she did everything in the kitchen.

So from there I began getting bases.

Im saying bases.

Not recipes.

Because each person takes their own path and recipes change.

I had a mentor who taught me how to Cook seafood when I was 17 years It wasnt so much recipes, but techniques to conserve the live animals.

How to cook them, how to keep them fresh.

He took me under his wing and taught me.

We opened this place, basically, because we wanted to package salsas.

This was the idea in reality, to package salsas.

And the restaurant was going to support the beginning of this.

The costs, so we could continue with salsas.

Then that idea went away.

Well, it didnt go away, but the years pass.

I make a lot of salsas.

I still make all kinds of different salsas.

I love salsas.

Salsas are endless.

It uses all different types of fruits, you can make so many salsas.

So, energy was focused on the kitchen.

In the beginning, well, Nogales, we are in Nogales, Arizona.

Theres no seafood here.

We dont have an ocean nearby, nothing like that.

The population of Nogales, Arizona wasnt used to eating seafood.

So I began with meat first, but I have always incorporated seafood.

I went little by little including seafood.

First, with a soup on the weekends.

I made seafood more and more part of the menu.

And in the process I was educating clients.

And they started eating seafood.

Now, the customers who come eat seafood for breakfast.

They eat seafood at any time of day!

As far as the menu goes, everything is made fresh from the kitchen.

I dont buy any syrups or concentrates.

So, jamaica, we use jamaica, tamarindo, canela, heads of fish Everything is cooked in this way The waters are cevada, chapa, jamaica, tamarindo.

Nothing more There will always be these four flavors.

For seafood we have six plates.

For soup we have fish, shrimp, or a seafood stew with fish or shrimp.

Six fish plates, and for meat we have three.

Head, birria, tongue.

I dont buy anything processed, not even semi-processed, nothing So thats why the food is so good.

You have to have accessible prices So that it doesnt seem like an extraordinary food.

It is what it is a food.

We dont have a lot of options for the customers here But what you get will be good.

It will be fresh.

But what you get will be good.

It will be fresh.

And it will always be here.

This is a very loud place, a very family friendly place.

You can shout and this and that.

It seems chaotic, but its well-organized chaos.

Its a place where you will feel at home.

You will enjoy it.

And come back, please!

We are going on 30 years, and we Or really, Im just getting star Im not thinking about retiring.

My dreams are just now beginning Because now I'm returning to the I will never retire.

Before we go here's a sneak peek at a few stories we're working on.

My name's Mandy Kirkendall.

I'm the director of fun here at Apple.

Annie's the corn maze is a lot of fun.

We have three different mazes in one.

We have an easy intermediate and challenge, so you can decide how lost you want to get, whether you want to spend 10 minutes or an hour in the maze.

You can choose which one you want.

And it's just fun to watch people come through and they're so excited when they come out and they've found their way out of the maze.

And it's really a kind of a team building thing for families and friends.

Yeah, that's what I went back to school and took all the core courses and wildlife biology and then when I finished those courses, I got my first position out here at Buenos Aries before this was a National Wildlife Refuge.

It was a ranch.

And so the name of the ranch was Buenos Aries Ranch.

All this land was bought up from the ranch in order to protect the endangered Mask Bobwhite Good morning, you guys.

thank you for joining us here in Nogales.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we'll see you next week for another all new episode.