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My Visit to Tijuana
Posted by Girdhar GopalOct 15, 2007 | 248 views
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Avinashjee has just written an
article about his post doc experience bussing around at UCSD. I thought
I would write about the other side of the coin, across the border in
Tijuana.
I visited Tijuana, probably 20 years ago: The contrast between San Diego and Tijuana, is from the first world to the third world across a man made bridge. The bridge might have changed to something more accesable but the contrast ,surely, still remains.
In fact the contrast is that much greater, because, the US is up in arms against illegal immigration in general and illegal immigration from Mexico in particular. The Congress supported by Bush's one libera instinct wished to legalize the 12 million illegals that live and work in the USA These are hard working people taking low level jobs that no American wants. The majority of these are Chicanos(Mexicans) who have largely flitted across from Mexico. But the large number of conservatives in Bush's base, shut him up and turned the tables to introduce draconian measures to cut the number of illegals. Like the Bangladesh border with India, the US is building a fence to keep the 'wet backs' out. Mexican illegals are called wet backs as they are supposed to swim illegally across the river, the Rio Grande. And in the process of this crossing they get their backs wet..
The San Diego border with Tijuana, Mexico is one such border crossing.. I remember taking a bus from San Diego to the border. There we were asked to alight from the bus and walk across the border. On one side was a rather pristine pavement , nicely manicured lawns and pruned bushes late model cars and modern buses. As you climb the trestle bridge half way through the climb you start seeing the change: the graffiti on the walls, the garbage strewn on the walkway even the upkeep of the bridge looks different, as it looks shabby and unkempt. When you come down to earth on the other side, you see plain a garden variety mud pavement, collected puddles , open garbage and naked children.
I wonder how the US can think that keeping this contrast in living styles and job opportunities, they can keep the Chicanos out. It looks as if the educated Indians are no longer coming to the first world, though there is still illegal traffic from the poor villages of the Punjab, Bihar,UP and the South trickling into the West and the US. The same applies to immigration from Bangladesh: you cannot have a basket case like Bangladesh on one side of the border, with jobs available on the other and expect the Bangladeshis to stay put on their side of their border.
Tijuana is essentially a tourist trap: A lot of curios and knicknacks are sold in little shops with vigorous haggling going on for the exchange of a few pesos. If you go further into town, you see how the American dollar affects a poor neighboring nation: a profusion of bars and rampant prostitution: Go into the bar you get drinks at exorbitant(American) prices and heavily lipsticked and rouged women showing their wares: a kind of Grant Road gone berserk. The sight sickened me, I gathered my curios and walked back to the American border: As this was a pre 9/11 (terrorist attack) trip, the US immigration official did not bother to examine my passport and waved me through. Tijuana is worth visiting to see the difference a border makes. A walk across from the first to the third world.
I visited Tijuana, probably 20 years ago: The contrast between San Diego and Tijuana, is from the first world to the third world across a man made bridge. The bridge might have changed to something more accesable but the contrast ,surely, still remains.
In fact the contrast is that much greater, because, the US is up in arms against illegal immigration in general and illegal immigration from Mexico in particular. The Congress supported by Bush's one libera instinct wished to legalize the 12 million illegals that live and work in the USA These are hard working people taking low level jobs that no American wants. The majority of these are Chicanos(Mexicans) who have largely flitted across from Mexico. But the large number of conservatives in Bush's base, shut him up and turned the tables to introduce draconian measures to cut the number of illegals. Like the Bangladesh border with India, the US is building a fence to keep the 'wet backs' out. Mexican illegals are called wet backs as they are supposed to swim illegally across the river, the Rio Grande. And in the process of this crossing they get their backs wet..
The San Diego border with Tijuana, Mexico is one such border crossing.. I remember taking a bus from San Diego to the border. There we were asked to alight from the bus and walk across the border. On one side was a rather pristine pavement , nicely manicured lawns and pruned bushes late model cars and modern buses. As you climb the trestle bridge half way through the climb you start seeing the change: the graffiti on the walls, the garbage strewn on the walkway even the upkeep of the bridge looks different, as it looks shabby and unkempt. When you come down to earth on the other side, you see plain a garden variety mud pavement, collected puddles , open garbage and naked children.
I wonder how the US can think that keeping this contrast in living styles and job opportunities, they can keep the Chicanos out. It looks as if the educated Indians are no longer coming to the first world, though there is still illegal traffic from the poor villages of the Punjab, Bihar,UP and the South trickling into the West and the US. The same applies to immigration from Bangladesh: you cannot have a basket case like Bangladesh on one side of the border, with jobs available on the other and expect the Bangladeshis to stay put on their side of their border.
Tijuana is essentially a tourist trap: A lot of curios and knicknacks are sold in little shops with vigorous haggling going on for the exchange of a few pesos. If you go further into town, you see how the American dollar affects a poor neighboring nation: a profusion of bars and rampant prostitution: Go into the bar you get drinks at exorbitant(American) prices and heavily lipsticked and rouged women showing their wares: a kind of Grant Road gone berserk. The sight sickened me, I gathered my curios and walked back to the American border: As this was a pre 9/11 (terrorist attack) trip, the US immigration official did not bother to examine my passport and waved me through. Tijuana is worth visiting to see the difference a border makes. A walk across from the first to the third world.
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