AZ: The History of Arizona podcast · David Rookhuyzen

Episode 233: The Machita Incident

·36 min·2 clips

Pia Machida rejected U.S. authority and flew a Mexican flag in front of his house.

1. AZ: The History of Arizona episode 233, “The Machida Incident,” links Arizona’s wartime transformation to the opening years of World War II and to Pia Machida’s conflict with federal authorities. 2. Host David Ruckhausen narrates the episode as a solo history segment and cites Marshall Trimble, Thomas Sheridan, Philip Vandermeer, Dean Smith, and Elmer W. Flaccus for context. 3. The episode’s main question is how the war years between 1939 and December 7, 1941 changed Arizona before Pearl Harbor made the change unavoidable. 4. Phoenix is described as a small city in 1940 with 65,500 residents, ranking 198th nationally and 16th among western states. 5. Nearby communities are given specific counts: Mesa at just above 7,200, Glendale at 4,855, Tempe a little above 2,900, and Scottsdale at 1,000. 6. The episode notes minority population numbers in Phoenix, including about 9,750 people of Mexican descent, 4,200 Black residents, 430 Chinese residents, 250 Native Americans, and 50 Japanese residents. 7. Phoenix’s Chinatown is said to have begun breaking up in the late 1930s as successful Chinese businessmen moved away from associations with gambling and drug trafficking. 8. Vandermeer’s account of cooling technology covers Willis Carrier, the Westward Ho Hotel in 1929, Taylor Metalworks in Tucson in 1931, and roughly 5,000 evaporative coolers in Phoenix by 1937. 9. The episode says 30-some manufacturers employed around 200 people, and that Adam and Gus Goddle started their company on February 14, 1939. 10. Ruckhausen says 35,000 people came to Phoenix in 1939 and 1940 because Europe was closed off as a destination and Phoenix was marketed as heat-proof. 11. The aviation section names Carl Kinnear, Southwest Airways, Thunderbird Field, Falcon Field, and Luke Air Force Base as major wartime aviation developments. 12. Luke Air Force Base is described as a 1,440-acre site leased to the Army Air Corps for one dollar a year, with 126 buildings and an estimated 2,500 men. 13. Mesa’s field is described as a four-story, square-mile site with 160 buildings, 2,500 construction workers, and later the name Williamsfield. 14. Tucson’s Davis-Montham is presented as one of America’s largest training bases, hosting 17,500 pilots and airmen from 29 countries and using B-18, B-24, and B-29 bombers. 15. The draft section notes the Selective Service and Training Act, the October 16, 1940 registration day, and the federalization of Arizona’s 158th Infantry Regiment. 16. The Machida material identifies Pia Machida as a Tohono O'odham headman born in 1865 who called himself Mexican, flew a Mexican flag, and rejected the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the police, and the Papago Tribal Council. 17. Flaccus’s account says Machida distrusted white Catholic priests, welcomed a Mexican priest, crossed into Sonora for baptisms, and urged followers to resist census takings, school attendance, and tuberculosis inspections. 18. The episode describes the October 16, 1940 raid at Stoa Pit, including a scuffle, tear gas, a retreat to Tucson, airplane searches, and requests for hand grenades, machine guns, gas bombs, and troops that were denied. 19. The style is a narrated history lecture with long timelines, archival details, and occasional humorous asides about February 14, swamp coolers, and old Arizona nicknames. 20. Listeners who like Arizona history, military buildup, and indigenous resistance will get the most from it, while listeners wanting a short, linear story may skip it.

As heard by us

Arizona wartime history, told through a local story with enough detail to stick.

Episode 233 folds the Machida Incident into the early years of World War II, then keeps pulling the lens back until Arizona's wartime role comes into view.

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Why you'd press play

You want Arizona history that turns World War II's opening acts into a local map.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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