A new space for arts and culture in Tijuana

La Casa del Tunel: Art Center

It’s coming soon, my friends.  Stay tuned.

Tijuana dumps

Sister Teresa is a nun who works at a preschool and women-run community center in a recently closed municipal dump in Tijuana.  She just got back from my hometown of Durango, Colo. where she spoke to a packed room about her life’s work and how people can get involved.

When I talked to Sister T for a story I did about the Tijuana landfills, one of the most memorable things I took with me was her advice to the many ministry groups who pay the dumps annual visits:  Give money, give your personal time, but DO NOT bring bags filled with old clothes, toys and candy.  The kids can find that crap in the dumps.

Fuck you, too, Reader

Talk about the ultimate fake-out.  When I first saw the cover of last week’s San Diego Reader, I got excited.

“Wow, are those assholes over at the Reader actually going to do something positive on my city?” I wondered.

Alas, it was a false alarm.  As I should have expected, Michael Hemmingson played the roll of laptop journalist and simply rounded up old reports about Tijuana’s history of violence.  Good job, Hemmingson, way to be completely unoriginal, lazy and predictable.  Did you even step foot in the city before you published this piece?  In fact, have you EVER been to Tijuana?  Who, cares, right?  You weren’t really going for truth here, you were looking for the ole’ shock-and-awe factor, quoting pro-Mintuemen websites in your lead graphs, quoting other people’s year-old journalism ( From Hemmingson’s third paragraph: “What affects one side affects the other,” Mayor Jerry Sanders tells USA Today on February 5, 2007. “We’re literally one region with a fence down the middle.”) and ultimately presenting a portrait of Tijuana that could be a portrait of any other city in the United States if you were bored enough to round up every reported case of violence since 1994.

So, from my friends in Tijuana to Hemmingson and the Reader for publishing 30-something pages of diarrhea, here’s a resounding “fuck you.”  Learn how to do some real journalism, jerk, and give us a call or ask for a tour next time you decide to write about our city.

And for those of you as offended by Hemmingson’s attempt at journalism as I am, write his editor at sdredit@nethere.com.

Federales raid farmacias on Revolucion

I just went down to my farmacia on Revolution in downtown Tijuana to get some burn cream and was met by at least 100 federales in full riot gear. They had closed Third Avenue down and were raiding farmacias, making sure they had their papers in order.  My guy, of course, was in the middle of being investigated, so needless to say, I didn’t get the burn cream. Instead, I got suspicious looks from the young officers who undoubtedly thought I was there to buy Ritalin or Vicodin.

Gringos still come down to Tijuana en mass to buy illegal drugs.  The number one seller?  My drug man says Viagra is still coming in at a strong first.  He says college kids looking for Ritalin (the perfect study drug) are his No. 2 customers.

UPDATE: Here’s a piece by fellow Tijuana-living journalist Sandra Dibble, which came out a day after this little post.

Tijuana en YouTube

I never did post the winner of the Happy Birthday Tijuana YouTube vidoe contest, did I?  Her ’tis:

Street Style: Tijuana

Above is a photo from the shoot. We stopped by my buddy’s restaurant in downtown Tijuana, Cielo, and the Current crew ended up shooting a segment there for another piece on getting cheap but quality stuff  in Tijuana (a salad, potatoes and a portobello sandwich at Cielo are just $7 and they’re tremendous!) , Stay tuned for that video, too.

Some kids from Current.com came to town this weekend to film the Tijuana Street Style segment (view other Street Style segments here).  We found lots of hipsters, a girl who identified herself as Tecktonik, a darkie (or goth, for you gringos), some emos, lots of emo haters and a few kids with unique styles that are hard to define.

I make a quick cameo as the blogger who shows them around, so stay tuned and I’ll post the finished video as soon as Current does.

Bed on fire

My love life has been a bit chaotic lately, so let’s cut out all the details and just say I was happily laying in bed with my new bf  a few nights ago, falling asleep while gleefully staring into his eyes.  Comfortable and content, my fuzzy TJ blanket (yep, the ones gringos buy while waiting in the border line) was a bit too hot for me that night so my left leg and arm were hanging out in the cool night’s air.

Not more than an hour after my lids closed for the last time, I awoke to hot flecks of plastic falling like tiny torpedoes onto my arm and leg. The searing pain woke me within minutes and after a half second of disorientation, I registered the huge flames dancing just behind my bf’s head.  Due to our let’s-stare-into-each-others’-eyes-super-romantically session, we had left a candle burning. I have no freakin’ clue how the nearby mini fan caught fire, but it did and the flames were gigantic.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”  Was all I could manage, before I shook him awake and nodded toward the flames.

We both jumped out of bed, and I’m not totally clear on what happened next, but somehow, the flames leaped from the fan and the nightstand to the middle of the bed. Bf grabbed a pillow and started beating at the flames. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a huge glass of water.

We won (take that, fire!). The flames went out and it was only then that the pain of burnt plastic on skin began to really sink in. My nerve endings were pissed, and they wanted my brain to know about it.

I took a cold shower and peeled the bits of fan from my flesh.  I was shaking, so the process took longer than it should’ve.

We spent the rest of the night inhaling toxic plastic fumes, wrapped in wet towels because of the extraodrinary pain of the burns.  I now have huge blisters splattered across my left arm and leg. I had a blister about the size of a gumball on my foot. My glasses, which had been on the nightstand, suffered a pretty good burn, and bf got a few good burns, too, but other than that we’re fine and dandy.

I learned four things from the bed fire:  One, I fucking hate candles.  Two, I’m never allowed to use stupid candles again. Three, Jesus hates me (the candle was of the cheap Mexican Jesus variety). Four, there are no smoke alarms in Tijuana and the whole caged window and door thing is nice when it comes to keeping out burlgers but pretty freaking terrible when it comes to getting the hell out of a burning home.

RecyclArte: Trash to trend

In Pueblo Plaza, a small shopping center in Rosarito, you’ll find Edelmira and Miguel Angel Munoz and their tiny little shop filled with handmade curiosities.  The most popular item seems to be the purses Edelmira makes from potato bag chips, old Capri Suns and so on, but the earrings and necklaces Miguel makes from old computer chips and aluminum cans are cool, too.

Contact ‘em at 661-1017192 or stop by Pueblo Plaza, Benito Juarez #4356, in downtown Rosarito.

August schedule at CECUT

Viernes 1

Artes Visuales

Murales bajo las estrellas

Ciclo de conferencias multimedia a cargo de Gregorio Luke en torno a los grandes muralistas mexicanos, continúa la serie con esta conferencia sobre el trabajo mural del maestro José Clemente Orozco.

Explanada del CECUT

Entrada libre

8:00 p.m.

Miércoles 6

Música

M-Fest, la escena musical (Rock)

Festival de música con los grupos más representativos de la escena local.

3 Mother Funckers, Los Filibusteros, Astrorumberos, La Tira Cómica y Casa Wagner.

Explanada del CECUT

6:00 p.m.

Entrada libre

Jueves 7

Literatura

Traducción a lengua extraña

Presentación del libro ganador del Premio Nacional de Poesía Joven Elías Nandino 2007, con la presencia de su autor Luis Jorge Boone.

Presentadores: Gidi Loza, Luis Alfredo Gastélum y Jhonnatan Curiel.

Sala de Usos Múltiples

7:00 p.m.

Entrada libre

En colaboración con el Programa Cultural Tierra Adentro.

Jueves 7

Medios audiovisuales

El Secreto

Miserere

Presentación de estos cortometrajes dirigidos por el realizador local Javier Ávila. Sesión de preguntas  sobre estos trabajos y la actual producción local.

Sala de Video

7:00 p.m.

Entrada libre

Viernes 8

Artes Visuales

Murales bajo las estrellas

Finaliza el ciclo de conferencias multimedia a cargo de Gregorio Luke con esta plática sobre los murales de Diego Rivera.

Explanada del CECUT

8:00 p.m.

Entrada libre

More from the worker’s rights organization in Tijuana

“Day Job 3″ by Kinsee Morlan

CENTRO DE INFORMACION PARA TRABAJADORAS Y TRABAJADORES

INFORMATION CENTER FOR WORKING WOMEN AND MEN

CITTAC

[Versión en español: ver abajo]

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

July 28, 2008

Dear Friend,

We are the Information Center for Working Women and Men (Cittac) in Tijuana. We are a collective of workers and ex-workers mostly from maquiladoras, but also from other places of employment in Tijuana where workers are exploited. Our purpose is to support individual and group struggles against injustices in the workplace.