Monday, September 3, 2007
Tijuana, A Dichotomy on the U.S.-Mexico Border
By Carlos Luken
My day starts early. My daily 5 am commute, from south of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico to neighboring San Diego, California
takes me across an eerie illustration of the colossal differences people face daily in order to live and survive in this strange
environment that is largely unknown and incomprehensible to both Mexico and the United States.
On a route that forces me to drive thru Tijuana’s
infamous “Zona Norte,” the red-light district, I guardedly roll up my window as I am surrounded by a collection
of pimps, prostitutes, pushers, junkies and assorted criminal elements that make the area notorious for its immorality and
lawlessness.
Simultaneously, as bars and cheap motels are
closing down, street shops are being set-up by early morning merchants selling used clothing, cheap wares and day-to-day foodstuffs
to the adjoining poverty stricken tenements.
This disparity is highlighted as nervous uniformed
girls and boys, on their way to school, share the sidewalks with streetwalkers (some their own age), transsexuals and drunks.
These schoolchildren are from hundreds of slum
families forced to survive daily on menial jobs or charity. Most live in makeshift dwellings with cardboard walls and tin
roofs; few have running water or sewers.
All of these families must live in the squalor
of this crime-ridden neighborhood, and many share flimsy walls with drug addicts or temporary occupants who are trying to
eke out livings before being led illegally into the U.S. by a coyote.
The “Zona Norte” offers anything
anyone willing to spend money can buy. Liquor, boutique or inexpensive drugs, of course cheap thrills, etc, and it is a well-known
hub for white slavery, pornography and even pedophiles.
One thing the “Zona Norte” does
not provide is security.
Policemen guard the streets only from the safety
of their patrol cars, getting out only when a “protected” establishment is being harassed, or whenever the opportunity
to extort money from a naive visitor presents itself.
This is one Tijuana, a land of the desperately
poor. Oppressed by violence, corruption and hopelessness.
They are the “overexposed minority.”
But there is another side to the city.
Just minutes away, while waiting in line at
the San Ysidro Port of Entry, I am transported into another world. One that goes from despair to hope and enthusiasm.
Dozens of men and women offer wares while running
from car to car, contentedly dodging traffic and would be collisions, Others are selling coffee drinks car-to-car from a nearby
imitation Starbucks. Yet more inspired vendors bring in catering wagons late at night in order to sell tacos, tortas and tamales
to thousands of early morning commuters who wait up to two hours to cross into the United States, legally, to get to work,
to school or to do their shopping.
Other resourceful entrepreneurs have radio-equipped
teenagers, wearing brightly colored vests, doing car to car currency exchange transactions for tourists leaving Mexico with
no longer needed pesos.
More conventional merchants sell newspapers,
magazines, cold soft drinks, candy or curios.
This is the Tijuana of “la maņana,” the
morning, a vigorous and industrious trading population that rivals oriental communities in its impetus to thrive and be successful.
These small entrepreneurs are mostly elemental in their schooling but they are resourceful in workmanship, skills and creativity.
Many do well, having two or three income earning family members, and they struggle to educate their children. Some own homes,
many own cars, and all are ambitious, hard working, and have optimism in their future.
Others do even better as they work in factory jobs,
construction and service industries that offer stability — a vast and growing middle class.
And there are some highly sophisticated and educated
professionals and affluent investors who have found ways to tap into the border’s enormous niche markets of manufacturing,
tourism and real estate.
These are Tijuana’s “ignored majority.”
Many stereotype Tijuana and its residents into the
minority grouping, and fail to distinguish the differences that environment plays in development. Confusing backgrounds have
led to disqualifying many a huge market of talented people, and to the discarding of Tijuana’s capacities as a constructive
regional economic laboratory.
Although Tijuana is far from being a model city,
having more than its share of violence and crime, it is a bustling metropolis. One of Mexico’s fastest growing cities,
with a higher than average standard of living and consequently a burgeoning middle class. All of which, once recognized and
promoted, could make Tijuana into the elusive U.S.-Mexico economic barrier that thwarts emigration, illegal immigration, crime
and poverty.
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Carlos Luken, a MexiData.info columnist, is a Mexico-based businessman and consultant. He can
be reached via e-mail at ilcmex@yahoo.com.
