18 minute read
Into the Blue Christian Linney
A: I normally tend to cross the border alone, but it makes me feel safer when I cross it with someone else. My father is one of the persons that always tell me that I should not go alone. He always wants me to let him know that I am going to Tijuana so he can keep track of me being in Tijuana. When I was between 18 to 22; I used to have a cellphone under my father’s contract with the cellphone company. Therefore, I remember how every time that I had to go to Tijuana he used to receive a text message from the cellphone company saying that my phone number was actually on the Mexican site. Letting him know that I was in Tijuana for me was ok because I used to feel such as if he would be with me.
C: How much stricter is it for you? Do you think it is for you to cross because you’re from the south of Mexico?
A: Crossing the U.S. border, it has never been a really disappointing experience. However, it can be because I got the citizenship. My personal record is clean and I believe that it has helped me a lot, so that border officers do not ask me too much. To be honest, I always feel that because of my skin colour they might ask me so many things. I am actually surprise with myself because there have been two time that I have cross the border using only by ID. I always see discrimination on TV from official borders to citizens but I have to accept that I have never been discriminated. It is something unbelievable to me but it is true. A: I want to say that in the poorest communities is where more crime is committed, but we all know that happens everywhere. Poor people need rich people to steal money. I am not saying that rich people do not steal money as well but it is a common situation. Spaces with no pedestrians are a good target and also along the border where people sells and cross drug to Mexico
C: How do you think Tijuana might stop making you feel the fear you feel when you are there?
A: The government can play a good option, like Antanas Mockus in Medellin, the mayor who actually changes the psychology of people in Medellin. I like to see how he used his philosophy with humor to make people see the world differently with more humor and harmony. I would like to have the same government for Tijuana. It will be interesting to see kidnapers, stealers, coyotes, drug dealers acting properly once they can see that life is not about violence, corruption or even about money. Life is about living in harmony, and in peace with everybody in the community
C: How do you think you could make Tijuana a safer place, as an architect, and as a Mexican citizen?
C: How well do you know Tijuana? A: As architect building public spaces, spaces with no social discrimination that any people
from any culture can access them. Libraries, museums, art spaces for expositions, public parks, A: Well Tijuana is easy to place to know because there are like 6 or 8 main avenues in the city. are area that can help to educate people and express their ideas. Expressing their ideas and The layout of the city is easy to understand. There are no so many main roads so you can drive need, it is a good way to understand what Tijuana needs. As a result our government will be easily from one point to the other. I honestly do not like to drive so far from the border, and I challenged to what our community needs. In Tijuana the level of education is to low and it is only visit the closest shopping centres that are close to the border. There are so many cheap because the educational program of the school is useless. We need to find more dynamic restaurants and you can enjoy good drinks too for less money. During the first years that I just strategies to educate young people. We need to educate young people and future generations came here to United States, I used to visit Tijuana on Fridays and go to any movie theatre just are going to be able to think differently no just on drugs, crossing people, kidnapping, stealing to feel such as if I were in Mexico City. Now it has been about 3 or 4 years since I do not visit money, or prostitution. We have to build more and more schools to make education accessible. Tijuana to have fun as I used to. I cross it now only to fly to Mexico. Schools that are just simple boxes but spaces where they can feel themselves as if they were at home. Spaces where they can enjoy while they are learning. It is important to notice that our
C: If you were to see a dangerous situation what steps do you think you would take to stay as safe Mexican government always wants to have all the power and money, and for it the only way to as possible? accomplish this is having ignorant people. We really need to increase our education on young
and adult people.
35 A: Well, as I already mentioned, I try to go during the day. I also try to go with someone else. In addition to this I want to say that I try to take my cellphone with me all the time. In the past I used to go there and get some drinks on Friday nights, but I do not do it anymore because I do not want to get in trouble for any reason. I do not feel comfortable any more being drunk and walking on the streets during the night. I try to visit it not so often. C: What should you do if you feel like your going to be kidnapped? A: I honestly do not know what I can do. It is hard to imagine this terrible experience that I cannot visualize it. I would feel hopeless if I were on these experiences. I do not think I can do much if two or more men kidnapped me. Probably experiencing this event in real life it is how my ideas can come to my mind to know how to solve it. C: How do you get past fear to cross the border? A: Well, my big fear to cross the border is when I cross the border to visit Tijuana. When I visit Tijuana, I tend to be scared because the police do not care about the citizens. They do not care about anybody. There is not security along the border of Tijuana. Homeless or stealers can take your money on the street and the police honestly do not care. When I go to Tijuana, I tend to go on daytime, so I feel safer. I prefer to go with someone else when I have to go to Tijuana. Psychologically, I try to think that everything will be all right and I always tend to be respectful with everybody so I do not get in troubles when I am along the border of Tijuana. I try to see Tijuana as a better border region, but there is too much violence that I just cannot consider it to a safe place for me. ● NOTES visit: www.collectivemagpie.org/book for another interview conducted by Christian Linney and to download the full collection of 82 interviews
The wall has become an extremely politicized symbol of the region, of SD/TJ. Twenty minutes away from our home in San Diego 50,000 northbound vehicles and 25,000 northbound pedestrians cross the US/MX border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry daily. You can stand at the closest beach to that port at the International Friendship Park and be a part of the surreal i image of three different layers of border divisions. La Mojonera, or Western Land Boundary Monument No. 258 is a 9-foot high obelisk which sits completely out of place at the beach like a tomb marker from a historic cemetery. It marks the start of the 1,952 mile line separating Mexico and the United States. In 1851, representatives of the Boundary Commissions from each nation placed the marker together in a collaborative effort that seems difficult to imagine today. A foot away from the territory marker is a sight impossible to fully ii understand. There is a 10 foot steel fence that divides the concrete, then the sand along the beach and continues on into the ocean for several hundred feet as if to attempt to divide that as well. This is a security border wall to prevent the passing of people from Mexico into the United States as a result of the 1994 Operation Gatekeeper. The wall is made of steel military iii landing mat and has small gaps between slats. Separated families have used those spaces to see each other, talk and hold hands between the bars for years. The latest wall is a double v iv reinforcement, first built after 9/11 when more federal legislation allowed for increased security at the border. This secondary wall built in parallel, several feet away from the first, also vi put an end to the possibility of physical contact through the fence. It created a further strange division of a policed no entry zone between the two fences that is occasionally opened for cultural events and often increases the pain of this division. If you go there today, you will see the barren US beach of Border Feld State Park under watch of a border patrol officer. On the MX side, you can see the lively festivities of the Playas beach front, food vendors, live musicians, seafood restaurants and children playing. What we see here is a landscape that separates families, creates tension between nations and instills fear of each other. The wall is a constant reminder of war, failed humanity and the incessant power play for the 1%. President Trump’s scheduled 21 billion dollar border wall will only reinforce and reassure us of all of many years of tension.
The interviews transcribed in this publication share a Mexican-American border patrol officer reflecting on illegal immigrants, a criminal sketch artist profiling the accused inside the court, first hand observations of how the legend of Tijuana, the dangerous city, continues to haunt families over 3 generations, a self described racial identity fading away from racial tension, the resolution of an internal struggle caused by external violence, a pathway from religious crisis to the questioning of freedom and much more. These stories are tragically frustrating, violently unforgivable, some cringe worthy, or confusing at times, are all warmly exchanged, immensely complex and most surprisingly, they are strikingly honest and personal. They ignite the border from the inside rather than from the outside reminding us that the border does not start at the line between US and MX but it is here, embedded in our lives, in every one of us.
These are the stories that are here and remain here as a memory and history. These are the stories of the border residents. These are the stories of our border—the border that matters.
PREFACE & THANK YOU We are humbled and grateful to have had the honor and privilege to cross back and forth between San Diego and Tijuana, listening to the experiences of people living in these b 3 6 w i t h o r d c o n r e s i e r v e d r e n t s t s o f h r a t i e o e n s borderlands, over these last several years. Those who have shared their personal stories, for others to read, have inspired this rich publication. We thank you all for extending your T i j u a n a - S a n D i e g o 36 Disconnection of a Border & My Life Arturo Martinez Border is a line that is supposed to keep Mexican out of the U.S. Border. It is a strategic tool for governments to keep people segregated and they also help to control the economic power of a nation up. Risky spaces that affects and end up with the life of innocent people because of the high levels of violence. My name is Arturo Martinez and I am 27 years old. I was born in Queretaro, Mexico but I migrated to United States to San Diego, California. Nowadays, I am a current student of Architecture. I am on my 5th year at the University at Woodbury School of Architecture. My relationship with the border of Mexico and United States has always been present in my life and it is not that the border belongs to me. I belong to the border because it was before me. As a student of Architecture my goal in my life is always about making the border. There is always a question on me saying what can I do to enjoy a better border? sincerity, labor and trust in each other and to us—two complete strangers—during our Globos Workshops*. The generosity extended by each participant opened a space to consciously engage together, reflecting on the complex close(d) relationship of living within the region of the most frequently crossed border in the world—And all the mess, beauty and challenges that are a part of it. The resulting 82 conversations on the subject of border were produced via four seminars from an experimental Art & Ethnography course series: HOT AIR BALLOONS and INTERVIEWS from 2015-2017. The seminars were held in conjunction with the Culture, Art & Technology Program, University of California San Diego; the Transdisciplinary Program, Woodbury University at the School of Architecture; and the concluding seminar, Transnational Edition was held in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, in addition to multiple sites in both border cities. MCASD hosted the seminar extending access and content to the their permanent collection and enabling the seminar to exist between multiple colleges, allowing joint participants from Southwestern College, University of California San Diego and Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. This interview collection and artwork consists of a series of transcribed interviews conducted and edited by millennials working collaboratively with each other and with us. * Globos Workshops were developed to produce a fleet of 25ft unmanned hot air balloons to be launched over the US/MX border at Friendship Park, TJ/SD. Balloon construction workshops were held at both sides of the border within many different communities and cultural centers.
This publication is a four part series of conversations about the border. Preface & Introduction by Tae Hwang & MR Barnadas of Collective Magpie. Design by Adrian Orozco & Abigail Peña. Copyright. 2015-2018 All authors. . Printed at Diego & Sons, SD. Complete free download of 82 interviews can be accessed at www.collectivemagpie.org/book
READ ALL 82 CONVERSATIONS
Overcoming the fear of the Border | Self-Interview
Q: Have you ever experience fear while you visit a border between two different countries?
A: I am a Mexican student at Woodbury University in San Diego, and I actually emigrated from the south of Mexico looking for better opportunities in my life. I’m actually born in Queretaro Mexico. Nowadays, I live close to the border San Diego-Tijuana and the border has always represent fear to me in the Tijuana site. It is hard to talk about the fear that I feel when I visit the border of Tijuana because I am actually from the south of Mexico and I wish everything was different in Mexico in general. There have happened a series of negative events with my family members in the border of Tijuana which have created fear in my personality every time that I visit the border.
Q: Can you mention an event in the border of Tijuana that has contribute to create fear in your life?
A: Having fear while I visit the border has made me reflect and try to understand why so many is safe, but I always believe that many people can be under drug influences and they are the was kidnapped in Tijuana and the kidnappers were all under the drug influences. It is almost
A: The first event that marked my life was the kidnapping of my father in Tijuana. In 2005 my father was kidnapped by four individuals. In the past my father used to visit Tijuana every two weeks because he had to send us money to the south of Mexico. One day He found three individuals in the street and they ask him for food in Tijuana. They said they were immigrants from the south of Mexico and they supposedly were thinking to cross the border illegally. They had no money supposedly and my father decided to buy food for them. They convinced my father to eat with them in a small restaurant which they said it was so cheap and that they had good food as well. My father follow them just by walking to the restaurant. Once they got there, they ordered the drinks and when my father got his drink it was already open. In the restaurant somebody opened the drink and poured some drug on it. My father without noticing, he drunk all the soda. He felt to sleep in the restaurants and those supposedly called immigrants with no money kidnapped my father. They took him in to a suburb far away from downtown Tijuana. My father was unconscious and they stole all his money and his paper to cross the border. My father was enclosed in a bedroom for the whole night, and he was still unconscious and sleepy. He didn’t know where he was, but he could realized that he was kidnapped. The kidnappers were distracted and my father waited for the early morning and he was able to escape and run away. He had to run away for long distances until he got in to a safe place. The kidnappers could not reach him and my father could stay safety after being kidnapped for a whole day and night. My father with no money and legal paper had a big difficulty to cross the border and get back home in the San Diego site.
Q: How has this kidnapping changed the way how you live your life?
A: Every time I remember my father’s kidnapping, I always think that he could have die or something terrible could have happen to him. Every time that I visit the border I always try to be smart and act properly to do not get in troubles. My father always gets so afraid when we to be part of a kidnapping or any other tragedy in Tijuana, and it is why I always feel fear when I visit the Tijuana border.
Q: Has anybody else of your family been involved in a violent attract in the border of Tijuana?
A: My father has not been the only one having problems in the Tijuana site, for example one of my uncle was cheated with 50,000 dollars. Somebody stole him all this money. Furthermore, another of my uncles named Mario was also kidnapped and the kidnappers beaten him and stabbed him in his neck. My uncle is still alive but he cannot walk any more. All those negative events has created fear on my personality every time I go to Tijuana. I always want to try to forget, but it is impossible to forget all what my family has suffered.
Q: What do you thinks are some of the factors that contribute to all this violence?
people tend to carry out all this types of crimes in the border. After doing some reading of the Border in San Diego Tijuana and borders in general. I have discovered an important aspect that can be one of the main factors that contribute in the delinquency in Tijuana which is inequality. The level of inequality that exists in the border of Tijuana-San Diego. According to the prominent writer Robert Bach that there is a high level of inequality in the San Diego-Tijuana border and he mentions that in the U.S. site there are more economic opportunities than in the Mexican site. In the Mexican site the wages are very low while in the U.S. are higher. This levels of inequity for example are the main reasons that people instead of working they decide to carry out crimes to get more money. I tend to feel fear in the border, but I have to understand that reason why we might have all this kidnappers is not because they are lazy; however, it might be because our Mexican government is not doing anything to improve the salaries and opportunities in education of the people that live in all those Tijuana’ communities. Finally I really get a lot of fear when I visit the border Tijuana-Mexico because there are a lot of drug dealers who tend to have fights and confrontations on the street. It really makes me get scared because I do not want to be killed in any of those confrontations where we do not have anything to do. According to Clark Alfaro, who teaches at San Diego State University, wrote that the presumed end of the Tijuana drug war and the decline in murder statistics registered more than 2,300 homicides during the peak years of violence between 2008? Drugs are a huge problem in the border of Mexico and it makes an unsecure space in my personal opinion because we do not want to die in all those drug wars. Some of my relatives argue that Tijuana ones who we need to stay away from them. It is been almost two years since my uncle Mario visit Tijuana and he always asked me be careful when I visit Tijuana by myself. I do not want
two years now since my uncle has not been able to work anymore.
Q: Can you define the border of Tijuana with a small sentence?
