Here and There – Mexico
There are two major highways that travel north to south on the West Coast of the USA. One is Highway 101, sometimes separating from and sometimes absorbed with Route 1, which, for the most part, runs along beside the Pacific Ocean all the way from Seattle in the north to San Diego in the south, ending as a US highway at the Mexican border. The other is Interstate 5, also running from Seattle to San Diego, but is usually some 20-50 kms inland from the ocean. 1 is wriggly, following the shoreline, skirting cliffs and heading inland briefly to cross over rivers, a tourist road, ideal for leisurely sightseeing. 5 is for truckers, big, wide, often straight, a major highway offering a quick way to your destination. 1 and 5 merge just south of Laguna Beach, and for the last 60 kilometres it is Interstate 5 that takes you to the customs and immigration facilities at the Mexican border.
I have been to the West Coast of the US on many occasions. Most of the time it has been to San Francisco, and south of there to San Jose: San Francisco for holidays and seeing friends, San Jose for work. I have also been to Los Angeles on several occasions, for some of the visits working at UCLA, but mainly as a stopover and for a series of tourist sorties. The first few times I went there I went to Anaheim (Disneyland, with children) and the Huntington Library and Art Museum; sometimes I stayed with a friend in Malibu; and I even spent time skulking around Hollywood. More recent visits have been focussed on the Getty Center. Further south, two cities I liked to visit were San Diego, and its close neighbour La Jolla.
Further south? Just a few miles past San Diego, San Ysidro is the gateway to Tijuana. Let’s face it, why would anyone want to go to Tijuana. If you want to see the best of Mexico, there are some stunning areas for your itinerary as you travel further south. To begin with, you can choose to go down the Baja California Sur peninsula with its beautiful beaches, or even further south on the Pacific side of the country. There you will discover an abundance of striking resorts, some famous like Acapulco, others best known to readers of Lonely Planet. Or you can choose to travel further on, to resorts facing the Gulf of Mexico, most famously Cancun. However, the sad truth is that I haven’t been to any of those places, just Tijuana.
I went to Tijuana with my family. We had spent time in Los Angeles, where I was working most of the time, and then, after a day at Disneyland, we went along to coast to stay in San Diego for a couple of days. I thought this marked the end of our travels, but then we realised we were close to the border. Why not spend a day in Mexico, or maybe even longer? So, you now know I have been to Tijuana because it was there, just next door. A short drive, passports in hand you cross the border, and you’ve arrived. If makes a visit sound like happenstance, it’s true. We went ‘because it was there’, no pull factor, just a vague desire to see something new. Whatever the reason, looking back I doubt our expectations were met.
There have been customs and inspection services at the Mexican border at San Ysidro for more than 100 years, and it is one of the largest crossing points outside of Asia (there are two larger entry points in Asia, both ports into China). There is a smaller entry facility at Otay, mainly used by commercial vehicles, about 10 kms to the East of San Ysidro, and a third crossing which goes directly into the Tijuana International Airport. However, for short term visitors, it is San Ysidro. When we went there, we used the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry Facility built in the 1970s. As was true back then, it was and is considered the busiest international port of entry in the world in terms of individual crossers and private vehicle movements from one country to another. More than 90,000 commuters use it daily.
As you approach the customs and immigration buildings, you get a sense of the numbers involved. It is always busy. If shuttling between the US and Mexico has become a challenge for everyday commuters, visitors from Baja California spend one to three, and even as many as five hours waiting to enter into the United States. When we went through to Mexico there were 22 lanes in place, but at 10 am some were closed, and the wait was brief. Returning, there are 34 northbound vehicle lanes to cross from Mexico to the US. If you’re entering the US, patience is the name of the game. However, day visitors and those going for a holiday would generally be travelling contrary to the larger numbers in transit: fewer people are going south in the mornings, and fewer going north in the evenings. Visitors in hire cars are seldom delayed: the inspectors’ attention is mainly focussed on other travellers. When we returned to the US in the evening, once again the delay was slight.
Apart from those who are travelling to Tijuana or beyond for work, what do the rest of the border-crossers see? Several years ago, we found the Tijuana for tourists was a packed, gaudy, often cheap and at times very disheartening place. Sex shops and Tattoo Parlours sat alongside Tamale and Taco takeaways, classy restaurants could be found alongside mini-marts and 2-star hotels. It was close to overwhelming, polluted, packed full of locals, slightly anxious visitors, and helpful children hoping to earn a dollar alongside the local pickpockets, who you might notice sliding past, almost invisible as they dip and pick.
That account leaves out one very important truth. Many of the people you meet in Tijuana, shopkeepers, assistants, fast food sellers and others, are lovely. People are friendly, and there is music, colour, and laughter just about everywhere. It is a strange transition, to go from the US into this part of Mexico. It’s as if you have stepped into another universe, where all the people you can see appear to be enjoying a happy, laidback life, despite evident poverty. Tijuana is vibrant. Sure, the stores are full of cheap and rather dreadful goods for tourists. Sure, you have to be careful with wallets and purses. However, overall there is a carnival sense to Tijuana – or at least there was when I was visiting. Mind you, we didn’t go down back alleys or gloomy side streets, where the atmosphere was almost certainly very different. Indeed, while I was there, I couldn’t escape the thought that everyone was conspiring to present a sunny face to visitors, one which would disappear as soon as the tourists left.
Of course, I do know that the surface betrays the real character of living in Mexico. Most people are poor, and some are very poor. Places to live are expensive and, by western standards, generally dirty and lacking in key services. Life expectancy is relatively low, and violence is common. Children are unlikely to find it easy to stay in the educational system, given the temptations, or demands, of work. It is easy to overstate the challenges, but the real issue is that for those living in Tijuana it only takes a few miles to travel to another world, where the contrast is enormous. However, the locals don’t need to travel to observe and make comparisons. They see the well-fed tourists, the money they spend.
No wonder so many Mexicans are trying to cross the border and find the new life they believe immigrants enjoy, legal or otherwise. But most of those seeking to emigrate to the US aren’t locals, however: they’re people from much further south hoping Tijuana will be their final stop: many of those hoping to enter the US are likely to stay away from Tijuana and the San Ysidro port. It’s not the place for illegal crossings. The people we saw in Tijuana were locals for the most part, most residents who weren’t contemplating emigration.
A good way to think of the contrast between north and south of San Ysidro is to compare what you see in downtown Tijuana with what you might see on the other side of the border area, perhaps in visiting the San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Park. When I went there, it was an eye-opener, and now it has developed further: today the Zoo and Wildlife Park are combined into the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. The Alliance is described as an international, non-profit conservation organisation which “combines wildlife health and care, science, and education to develop sustainable conservation solutions.” Even when we visited, it was an exciting place, less a ‘zoo’ and more a forward-looking centre, “committed to saving species worldwide by uniting our expertise in animal care and conservation science with our dedication to inspiring passion for nature.” Today the Alliance claims to be one of the most effective wildlife conservation organisations in the world.”
What does that mean in practice? The Zoo and the Wildlife Park make clear their priority is addressing biodiversity loss, now recognised as a function of climate change, although that wasn’t so clearly stated back in the 1980s. It monitors invasive species, habitat degradation, human-wildlife conflict, the tracking of wildlife, especially rare species, and various established and emerging diseases. Quoting again from their current website we read that visitors will learn about “conservation strategies that are collaborative, innovative, and multidisciplinary and the two organisations, now the Alliance, apply a ‘One Health’ approach to conservation work, recognizing that the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment are inextricably linked and dependent on biodiversity and functional ecosystems.” There are educational displays explaining how groups like the Alliance seek to protect and restore wildlife populations and find ways to address the issues leading to the loss of biodiversity around the world. In many ways the San Diego Alliance is a hub, working with organisations around the world that share its mission to save and protect wildlife.
To undertake its work, the zoo and wildlife park are relentless fundraisers. Everywhere we went, there were reminders of the importance of its work, and encouragement to donate or sign up as lifelong supporters. By the time you have finished your visit, especially to the Wildlife Park, you are likely to feel uplifted, and, they hope, also happy to be a donor. Here is a centre dedicated to make the world a better place. If you can’t be a wildlife expert, at the very least you can contribute funds: can there be anything more important that sustaining the world’s biodiversity, as the list of plants and animals under extinction threat keeps growing.
Could there be a more dramatic contrast than that between downtown Tijuana and San Diego and its Zoo Wildlife Alliance? Well, it is easy to stereotype and simplify each place and its challenges. Two places, two countries: Tijuana scrapes along, hoping to offer a better life for the 2.25m who live there, up from the 500K when we made our short visit in the 1980s. San Diego has a little under 1.4m residents, up from 950K back at the same time. In 2020, the average income in San Diego was US$38,500 (US$83,500 for households); in Tijuana it was US$14,000, and US$40,000 for households. Averages are misleading. Most people in Tijuana live well below those figures, which are inflated by a long tail of a few very rich businessmen. Outside the town, life is harder, incomes lower, and life far more marginal.
I suspect most visitors to Tijuana from the US are discouraged by what they see. It is almost a confirmation of the stories that get told: the locals are poor, underfed, many living on the streets, dreaming of a better life across the border. That is simplistic nonsense, of course, and as about as realistic a view of what life is like in this part of Mexico as it is for Mexicans to believe in the lifestyles of the rich and indolent portrayed on various American television shows. Yet again, this isn’t WYSIWYG world (What You See Is What You Get), but rather there are illusions on both sides.
For many Americans, Tijuana isn’t the real Mexico, it’s just a slum. If you want to experience Mexico, go south. Visit the amazing ruins, the material remains of former empires. Lounge on beautiful beaches, enjoying your cocktail before a leisurely swim in the warm, tropical water. Eat beautifully curated ‘authentic’ meals, with just enough spice to let you know it’s there, but not too hot. Crime free, close to paradise, although that nice man at Reception can get you some mild drugs cheaply, if you really want to try them.
In the same way, San Diego, the zoo and the famous SeaWorld San Diego beaches and resorts can easily trick you into thinking this is another paradise. However, go a little inland, to the inaptly named National City and Paradise Village, or even further over to Lomita or Rolando Village, and you are in another place altogether, houses crammed together with few stores, whole neighbourhoods enclosed by freeways.
Some parts of southern California and some parts of northern Mexico aren’t that dissimilar. The apparent huge divide between the areas north and south of San Ysidro is misleading. Pop over to Tijuana for a fun day, cheap trinkets and maybe a nice meal; take a trip up to the San Diego Wildlife Park and experience the delights of a ‘open zoo’, where you can drive through huge enclosures and observe exotic animals up close, and then take a few plastic models home to remind you of your visit.
A visitor from outer space would be intrigued by the variations and similarities to be found in comparing the two cities. Perhaps such a visitor might have some strange device that measured human happiness and be able to use it as they roamed the streets of Tijuana and San Diego, the golf courses, leisure areas, the beaches at Playa de Tijuana and La Jolla. Well, we know what they would find if such a device existed. It wouldn’t be that San Diego was a happier place than Tijuana; it wouldn’t be that people were more satisfied with their lot in either place; it wouldn’t be they wished for more south of the border while those north of San Ysidro enjoyed their possessions. The golfer at the plush La Jolla club is no more likely to be content than the hawker selling plastic whirligigs outside Playa’s Monocicio Coffee Roaster. How did Shakespeare put it: “if you prick us do we not bleed.”
Mexico is relentlessly promoted. Visit the stunning beaches in Cancun, the Riviera Maya, or Puerta Vallarta. Not a beach person, then if you want history go to Mexico City, or, even better, San Juan Teotihuacan (The Pyramids) or the Mayan Ruins. Theodore Zeldin quoted Hippolyte Taine on six kinds of tourists. “The first travel for the pleasure of moving, absorbed in counting the distance they have covered. The second go with a guide book, from which they never separate themselves: they eat trout in the places it recommends and argue with the innkeeper when his price is higher than the one it gives. The third travel only in groups, or with their families, trying to avoid strange foods, concentrating on saving money. The fourth have only one purpose, to eat. The fifth are hunters, seeking particular objects, rare antiques or plants. And finally there are those who ‘look at the mountains from their hotel window… enjoy their siesta and read their newspaper lounging in a chair, after which they say they have seen the Pyrenees’ …” Zeldin went on to comment “Tourists may be content to look at places and things, but travel is also, more interestingly, the discovery of people: it is travail, it requires effort, and its reward is a transformation of both the visitor and the host.”
When we visited Tijuana, we probably did so to add a place to our list of visits we’d made over the years, together with the desire to see something different. We didn’t spend much time on the discovery of people. Too young, I didn’t appreciate what I needed to learn.
