Signatories of the Banco Occidental de México

Gerente

Alejandro Valdés Flaquer was born in Veracruz on 23 December 1859. He was appointed the first manager of the Banco Nacional de México branch in San Juan Bautista, Tabasco when it opened on 15 October 1896^{El Tiempo, 23 October 1896; La Patria, 23 October 1896; El Correo Español, 23 October 1896} and was then manager of the branch in Mazatlán. He took over the Banco Occidental de Mexico in 1900.

In April 1910 Valdés Flaquer became Director Gerente of the branch of the Banco Nacional de México in Mazatlán, passing the management of this bank to Federico Goodchild who had just come back from Europe^{La Gaceta de Guadalajara, 17 April 1910}.

He died in Monterrey, Nuevo León, on 17 June 1932.

He signed the notes dated from 1900 to 1910.

Fred (Federico) Goodchild, of English origin, was the first president of the board. He was named as manager on 2 February 1898^{Memorias de las Instituciones de Crédito correspondientes a los años 1897-1898-1899, tomo I} and signed some $5 notes dated 1898.

He was also manager from 1910 to 1913 and signed notes dated 1913.

Consejero

Bernardo Huthoff Huthoff was treasurer of the Cámara de Comercio de Mazatlán for 1895^{El Economista Mexicano, 19 January 1895}. He was on the board of the Compañía Naviera del Pacifico in 1904^{El Tiempo, 9 April 1904} and manager of the Sindicato Azucarero in Sonora in 1907^{El Demócrata, 23 December 1907}. He signed notes dated 1898.
José Somellera Rivas was related to the powerful Fernández Somellera family of Guadalajara^{The brothers Manuel, Ramón and Agapito Fernández Somellera were born in the town of Limpias, in the province of Santander (Spain). They arrived in Guadalajara around the beginning of the 1840s and engaged in mercantile business individually and independently, but after a few years, on 1 August 1853, they formed the company "Fernández Somellera Hermanos". With this company the Fernández Somellera quickly became partners and enablers of merchants from other cities. In 1885 they established a commercial house in Guanajuato together with Manuel de la Cueva. Towards 1861, together with the Spaniards Joaquín González and José Rivas, they were equal owners of the Portal de San Miguel in the centre of Guadalajara. Agapito Fernández Somellera firstly married Lorenza Martínez Negrete, daughter of Francisco Martínez Negrete Ortiz, and then Francisca, Lorenza's sister. On Manuel’s death, Agapito had to wind up the company and continued his business in a new company in which he partnered with his cousin, Juan Somellera. This new company was called "Fernández Somellera y Compañía" and was founded on 2 January 1880: among its assets were the hacienda of San Isidro, in Tlajomulco, the ranch of La Florida, in Tlaquepaque, the "La Esperanza" store in Guadalajara, a store in "El Parián" in Tlaquepaque, shares in the Compañía Minera Santa Gertrudis in Pachuca , Hidalgo, shares in the Compañía Telegráfica de Jalisco, shares in the Ferrocarril de Guadalajara a San Pedro, shares in the Somellera y Compañía of Mazatlan. Agapito Fernández Somellera died on September 19, 1881 in Limpias, his hometown, where he had returned after amassing a considerable fortune in western Mexico. Among his assets were the haciendas of San Isidro and Cúlpala and the Rancho La Florida, located near Guadalajara; several houses in Guadalajara, Madrid and Santander; commercial stores in Guadalajara and San Pedro Tlaquepaque; shares of the Compañía Minera de Santa Gertrudis, shares in the Compañía Telegráfica de Jalisco, and a share in the factories of Atemajac and El Batán in Guadalajara. Fernández Somellera y Compañía, established in 1854 and directed by Juan Somellera, participated in 1884 in the attempt to found the Banco de Jalisco, but when this failed, the company participated in the foundation of the branch of the Banco Nacional de México in Guadalajara, in which Juan Somellera was a member of the Supervisory Board (Junta de Vigilancia). In Mazatlán, Sinaloa, the Somellera founded the company Somellera y Compañía, while in Guadalajara they constituted the mercantile company called Somellera Hermanos, In 1889 they partnered with other tapatíos and foreign capitalists to buy part of the paper factory El Batán, then participated in the formation of the Compañía Industrial de Jalisco. However, when this was dissolved in 1891, the Somelleras withdrew from the textile industry and concentrated on trade and mining, as they had shares in the Compañía Minera de la Luz y San Juan Nepomuceno and the Compañía Minera de San Pedro Analco.}. His father, José Somellera, was a cocoa merchant from the port of Mazatlán who in 1838 or 1839 married Josefa Rivas Góngora from Tepic (then a cantón of Jalisco). Soon after the marriage they moved to Guadalajara, and then Rasines, Santander, Spain where in 1843 they had their first child, Faustino^{Faustino Sommellera emigrated to Guadalajara in the 1860, taking advantage of his family connecgtions. He began his commercial activity in Tepic in the early 1870s. His career was enriched by the mining interests and rustic estates of his maternal family, who had much political influence in Tepic and Mexico City. Until 1908, Faustino effectively served as the legal representative of Tepic's most powerful interests. On the recommendation of his uncle, Agapito Fernández Somellera, Faustino got Francisco Martínez Negrete to appoint him administrator of the Hacienda La Labor, which produced cereals in the Tepiqueño highlands and supplied Guadalajara. He was also associated with the Fernández del Valle. With these relationships and his commercial activity Faustino created his fortune, founded the company Somellera Rivas y Cía., which had a warehouse where he sold to commission the products of the haciendas La Labor and Mojarras, located in Tepic. In 1886, Faustino bought the haciendas of Chilapa and Buenavista, which he later sold to Casa Aguirre. He had shares in the mining company of La Luz and San Juan Nepomuceno, in los Reyes, Jalisco; he also held 20 shares in the Compañía Industrial de Cemento Privilegiado de la Ciudad de México, and 12 shares in the mining company of San Pedro Analco. Faustino's assets were scattered in several places: Tepic, the state of Jalisco, Mexico City and Santander, Spain. He died in Bilbao, Spain on 6 January 1909.}, who in the 1860s emigrated to Guadalajara. Until 1884 José and his brother, Manuel, were agents of the firm Fernández Somellera y Compañía in Mazatlán. On 13 June 1884 José and Manuel, with their uncle, Agapito Fernández Somellera, formed a company called "Somellera y Compañía", which was located in the port of Mazatlán, and was in charge of buying the goods that arrived at the port and sending them to Guadalajara. Then, in August 1888, the brothers Juan, José and Manuel, formed a company called Somellera Hermanos, with a share capital of $20,000. In 1898 Somellera Hermanos, together with José H. Rico, Miguel González, Careaga Hermanos, Francisco Álvarez, General Ángel Martínez and Elorza Lejarza y Cía , formed the Compañía de Transporte Marítimo, S.A. with a share capital of $125,000. In 1900 José was Presidente of the Compañía Línea de Navegación del Pacifico^{La Gaceta Comercial, 28 August 1900}. In 1902 this company merged with another to form the Compañía Naviera del Pacífico, S.A., with a capital of $1,084,000, subscribed by Genaro García, Maximino Rivera, José Somellera, Marcelino Herrerías, Bernardo Huthoff and Emilio Philippi. José signed notes dated 1900. He died in November 1904^{The Mexican Herald, 1 December 1904}.
Pedro Echeguren The Echeguren arrived in Mazatlán from Spain in 1842 and founded two prosperous companies. He signed notes notes 1900.
Bonifacio Lejarza He signed notes dated 1900. In July 1905, along with Somellera Hermanos and others, Bonifacio Lejarza organised the Compañía Minera Piedad y Amparo for the purpose of taking over and developing mines in various parts of Sinaloa^{The Mexican Herald, 11 July 1905}.
Manuel Herrerías Manuel Herrerías was treasurer of the Cámara de Comercio of Mazatlán in 1887^{El Siglo y Nueve, 14 February 1887}. He presumably was a major investor in a steamship line because the steamship “Manuel Herrerías” took funds to the federal troops in Guaymas in March 1914^{El Correo de la Tarde, Año XXIX, Núm. 9423, 25 March 1914}. Herrerías died in Los Angeles, California on 26 December 1909, having gone there for Christmas^{Memoria de las Instituciones de Crédito, 1909: La Iberia, 12 January 1910}. He signed notes dated 1900 to 1906.
Genaro García He signed notes dated from 1900 to 1906.
Guillermo Haas de la Vega was the son of a German soldier, August Haas, and nephew of Rafael de la Vega, a member of the family that had governed Sinaloa until the middle of the 19th century. He was owner of the Hotel Central and the Nuevo Mundo stores, and in 1895 planted cane fields and established a sugar mill at El Roble. He signed notes dated from 1900 to 1913.
[ ] Farias He signed $1,000 dates 1 June 1901.
Víctor José Francisco Patrón Hernández was born in Bilbao, in the Basque region of Spain, on 17 October 1869, the son of Juan Bautista Patron Landeta and Anselma Leonarda Hernandez Gorrita (1834-1885), and with his two brothers was taken to Mazatlán by his uncle, Juan Bautista Hernández Gorrita, between 1890 and 1892. He went to work for Hernández, Mendía Sucesores and over time, as a member of that company, served on the board of various companies in Mazatlán and was president of the Cámara de Comercio in 1904. He was president of the bank for three years and signed notes dated 1913. Later he lived in the United States for almost twenty years, from where he returned to Mazatlán in 1934. He died there in 1962 at the age of 93.

Interventor

Francisco de Sevilla signed all the notes of the bank, from 1898 to 1913.

He was also Tesorero Municipal of Mazatlán in 1908^{El Tiempo, 5 June 1908}.