BGuthrie Photos: Mexico -- Tijuana

Mexico -- Tijuana:

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Wikipedia Description: Tijuana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tijuana is a Pacific coast city situated on the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to its sister city of San Diego, California. Tijuana is the westernmost city in Latin America (the westernmost Latin American population center is located in Isla Guadalupe) and is the largest city in the Mexican State of Baja California and the seat of the municipality of Tijuana.

Currently, the Tijuana metropolitan area is the sixth-largest in Mexico, with a population of 1,483,992 and as the San Diego-Tijuana Metropolitan Area it is the 14th largest metropolitan area in North America, at 4,922,723. It is one of the fastest growing modern cities in Mexico.

History:

The city of Tijuana was inhabited by the Kumeyaay, a tribe of Yuman-speaking hunter-gatherers. Europeans arrived in 1542, when the Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo toured the coastline of the area, which was later mapped in 1602 by Sebastián Vizcaíno. In 1769, Juan Crespí documented more detailed information about the area that would be called the Valley of Tijuana. Junípero Serra founded the first mission of Alta California in San Diego.

More settlement of the area took place near the end of the mission era when José María Echendía, governor of the Baja California and Alta California, awarded a large land grant to Santiago Argüello in 1829. This large cattle ranch, Rancho Tía Juana ("Aunt Jane Ranch"), covered 100 km² (40 sq mi).

In 1848, as a result of the Mexican-American War with the United States, Mexico lost all of Alta California. Tijuana acquired a new and distinct character and purpose on the international border. The city began to shed its cattle ranching origins and began to play a new role, forming a socio-economic structure for the city.

1889 marked the beginning of the urban settlement, when descendants of Santiago Argüello and Agustín Olvera entered an agreement to begin development of the city of Tijuana. The date of the agreement, July 11, 1889, is recognized as the founding of the city.

Tijuana saw its future in tourism from its inception. From the end of the 19th century to the first decades of the 20th, the city attracted large numbers of Californians coming to Mexico for trade and entertainment.

During the Mexican Revolution,revolutionaries loyal to Ricardo Flores Magón took over the city in 1911. Shortly, thereafter, federal troops arrived and routed the rebels.

In 1915, the Panama-California Exposition brought a great number of visitors to the neighboring Californian city. Tijuana took the opportunity to attract these tourists south of the border with Feria Típica Mexicana. The fair included curio shops, regional foods, thermal baths, horse racing and boxing matches.

Legal drinking and gambling attracted U.S nationals, especially with the start of prohibition in the 1920s. The Avenida Revolución area became the tourist center of the city with casinos such as Agua Caliente and lodging such as Hotel Caesar's, birthplace of the Caesar Salad. Remnants of the Agua Caliente casino, which burned to ground in a large fire, can be seen in the minaret next to the Plaza Minarete strip center at the end of Avenida Sanchez Taboada. In 1925, the city attempted to change the negative image of hedonism and lawlessness created by American mob empresarios by renaming itself Zaragoza but the name reverted to Tijuana shortly thereafter.

With increased tourism and the large number of Mexican citizens relocating to Tijuana, the city grew from 21,971 to 65,364 between 1940 and 1950.

With the decline of nightlife and tourism in the 1950s, the city restructured its tourist industry, by promoting a more family oriented scene. Tijuana developed a greater variety of attractions and activities to offer its visitors.

In 1994, PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated in Tijuana while making an appearance in the plaza of Lomas Taurinas, a neighborhood nestled in a valley near Centro. The shooter was caught and imprisoned, but doubts remain about who the mastermind might have been.

Today, the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing is the most crossed international land border in the world. Although tourism constitutes a large part of this movement, Tijuana and its surrounding area has become a major player in NAFTA with new maquiladoras and industrial plants.

Etymology:

In early documents — primarily mission records (baptisms, marriages, deaths) — there are mentions of "La Tia Juana", "Tiguana", "Tiuana", "Teguana", "Tiwana", "Tijuan", "Ticuan", "Tijuana". It is believed by some that name comes from the Yuman Indian language from the aboriginal Kumeyaay (Kumiai) inhabitants. They spoke a Yuman language, in which some have claimed "Tijuana" originated from "Tiwan", meaning close to the sea. Others say this is not certain, that there is no such word in Kumayaay, and that the name cames from another location of similar appearance (and name) in the south of the peninsula, and the name was brought north by Spanish and Mexican soldiers and mule-drivers.

Another foundation myth is that in the beginning there was an old Indian woman, "tia Juana" (aunt Jane), who provided travelers with good food and a place to rest. In spite of scholarly denunciation, this story continues to be very popular with residents of the city. It has particular resonance amongst those who like to imagine the city as a place of hospitality.

In Spanish, the name is pronounced [ti'hwana]; in English, the pronunication /?ti??'w??n? is generally used. It is commonly called "TJ" in California and "Tiyei" (matching the sound of the English initials "TJ"). Mexicans typically refer to themselves as "Tijuanenses." ...

Culture:

The Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT) is composed of a theater, lecture rooms, video rooms, a library, an exhibition hall, the Museum of the Californias, a futuristic planetary movie theater that displays IMAX films, and a restaurant. Since 1992, the CECUT has hosted the Orchestra of Baja California (OBC), it headquarters the Center of Scenic Arts of the Northwest (CAEN) and the Hispanic-American Center for Guitar (CHG). Since 2001, the CECUT receives about a million visitors per year, making it Baja California's most important cultural center. Another important culture center is La Casa de la Cultura, comprising of a school, a theater, and a public library. Dance, painting, music, plastic arts, photography and languages are taught there. The city also has the Instituto Municipal de Arte y Cultura (Municipal Institute of Art and Culture), the Tijuana Wax Museum, and the Museo El Trompo (The Trompo Museum).

Tijuana also has a very active and independent artist community whose internationally recognized work has earned Tijuana the title of "one of the most important new cultural meccas", according to Newsweek. Strange New World, an exhibition of Tijuana's current art scene, is being curated by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and is traveling across the USA in 2006 and 2007. Art collectives like Bulbo and film production like Palenque Filmaciones explore the use of film like the award winning Tijuana Makes Me Happy, media like television bulbo TV and print "bulbo PRESS", to show different realities of Tijuana out of Mexico. In 2004, Tijuana earned international acclaim for an art exhibition displayed on the cement banks of the Tijuana River and along the Mexico/U.S. border fence in Otay Mesa.

Graffiti is widespread in Tijuana. It can range from free-hand writing in spray can and marker form, often carrying social or sexual commentary in English or Spanish, pictures in wheatpaste and stencils, consisting of stenciled renderings of personalities crucial to Hispanic culture from past and present eras, such as television news announcers or stars, but also extending to images of artists like Salvadore Dali. Graffiti in Tijuana may seem at first to consist largely of simplistic tags and thus not as technically evolved, colorful, or accepted in the mainstream as the "pieces" of graffiti scenes of the United States, Europe, or Japan, but large, colorful graffiti murals adorn walls from both native Tijuanense artists as well as visiting graffiti writers, especially from California. The Tijuanense art pieces show as much prowess and skill as those made by their more renowned U.S. counterparts, although illicit graffiti is strongly discouraged by the Tijuana government, as in other major metropolitan areas.

Tijuana is home of the Nortec, a fusion of Norteñas or typical northern-Mexican music and electronic music, such as the music of The Nortec Collective and other electronic music artists, and Murcof, which have placed Tijuana in the international eye of specialized magazines and forums in recent years. Additionally, Tijuana also enjoys a large base of support in many other musical scenes, such as hardcore, punk, black metal, Tijuana Brass and house music. Famous musical acts from Tijuana include the world known singer Julieta Venegas, and bands like Delux and Rodeo Drive.

Musical clubs in the Avenida Revolución area and others often cater to a diverse range of tastes by offering nightly variations on musical fare, such as new wave music one night, and punk rock bands on the next. Interestingly, some metal bands from Europe whose members cannot perform in the United States due to prior felony convictions in their own countries will play music festivals in Tijuana so as to attract fans from both Mexico and the United States.

ALthough poverty is widespread throughout the city, a very affluent and prominent society has developed in Tijuana. The Club Campestre de Tijuana (Tijuana Country Club) has many affluent members and a famous golf course. A large sized Rotary Club is also located in Tijuana. The Grand Hotel Tijuana and many luxurious restaurants have been developed along Bulevar Agua Caliente (often called "El Bulevar" by locals) and in the Zona Rio. Around the country club and Agua Caliente, many developments of wealthy and luxurious gated communities have filled the hillsides, most of which have views similar to Mount Soledad in San Diego or areas of Orange County. There are many amazing restaurants in Tijuana, attracting both locals and travelers. These 4 star restaurants range from Argentinean to Italian to Japanese food.

Entertainment:

Tijuana's most prestigious entertainment center is the Club Campestre de Tijuana golf club, but the Agua Caliente Racetrack would be the most notable that is open to the general public. Parque Morelos has a small zoo and park space; Parque de la Amistad has a small pond, and a running and dirt-bike track. Parque Teniente Guerrero is a park located downtown with a public library and weekend entertainment by clowns.

The most popular tourist attraction is Avenida Revolución. Many foreigners travel there to drink and dance, buy prescription drugs, illegal drugs (especially in and around dance clubs), purchase bootleg brand-name clothing, timepieces, and other personal accessories found globally, as well as manufactured and hand-crafted local curiosities. There are many night clubs, including over a dozen gay clubs but locals and regular tourists avoid touristic hassle over at the clubs at Plaza Fiesta or other areas of the Zona Río without the crowds, heavy marketing, and occasional tourist misbehavior or outright lawbreaking common on the Revolución strip, though the Revolución has been known for its bolstered number of police. While still an entertaining town with an enjoyable atmosphere, locals and tourists alike would agree that it has lost its "anything goes" mentality which it had once acquired, a mindset that was dangerous to tourists, locals, and the tourism industry as a whole.

Tijuana possesses a diversity of shopping malls including Plaza Río, Plaza Mundo Divertido, Plaza Monarca, Plaza Carrousel, and Centro Comercial Playas/Plaza Coronado. Plaza Río is the largest mall and is located just a few minutes away from the US border between Paseo de los heroes and the Tijuana River. The mall hosts a Cinépolis and a Cinépolis VIP movie theater, a Sanborns restaurant and a variety of shops, including the large department stores Mas and Dorians. Plaza Mundo Divertido is off of Tijuana's main east-west highway with arcades and rides for the whole family. Plaza Monarca is on a north-south artery known as "Gato Bronco" and is anchored by the movie theater Cinépolis and the grocery chain Gigante. Plaza Carrousel, so named because the mall contains a children's merry-go-round, is minutes from the Cinco y Diez retail hub centered around a former five and dime store. The beach community of Playas de Tijuana saw a burst of construction in 2004, which yielded the Plaza Coronado complex next to the existing Comercial Mexicana-anchored Centro Comercial Playas.

Tijuana also enjoys notoriety among Americans and other nationals for its red-light district Zona Norte (referred to La Coahuila as it is one of the main streets in it) which boasts a large number of legal street prostitutes as well as, in parts, a selection of strip clubs offering at least one establishment per block. The strip clubs are typically full-contact, meaning the dancers will allow patrons to fondle them. The dancers also sell their sexual services which are pricier ($US 72 in early-2007) than those of the street prostitutes, and while true of many clubs, is not valid to say of all clubs, or even all of them lower-priced clubs engage in the practice of prostitution. About 1,200 prostitutes from all over Mexico work in La Coahuila street, making it a sex tourist destination that ranks in popularity with Amsterdam and Bangkok, according to Melissa Farley, a researcher with Prostitution Research and Education, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization.

Heavy pressure from the United States over the purchase of prescription drugs from border cities by U.S. citizens have led to an increase in the reduction of pharmacies offering easily available medications scheduled under U.S. law. In particular, people filling up prescriptions for drugs classified under the U.S. list of schedule II or list of schedule III drugs, have found it more difficult to locate such medications, and the purchase of pseudoephedrine also has become restricted by Tijuana pharmacies, as it is in the United States. For a prescription to be filled in Tijuana and brought legally to the United States, any drug covered by the scheduling act would require a doctor's prescription from the United States for re-import. A doctor's or pharmacist's prescription while in Mexico is also required to dispense the medication in Mexico.
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1994 photos: Since 1984, I've lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. From 1981 to 2002, photos were taken using a Pentax ME Super camera. From 1989 to 2002, I was doing all pictures as prints (instead of slides which I had grown up on). Until 1997, I was taking at most a couple of hundred photos a year. Trips this year: I finally started taking personal trips this year with a solo visit to California including my first ever San Diego Comic-Con. Image quality for my pictures is variable because these are scans of slides and/or prints at varying quality/resolutions. The Great Pandemic Digitizing Project: When I was first setting up my website in August, 2000, I had decided to digitize some of my favorite pre-digital slides and prints. The scans were fairly low resolution but they were good enough. With COVID forcing me to stay indoors, I decided to rescan ALL of my pre-digital images from multiple sources (slides, prints, and negatives) at a much higher resolution and quality setting. (I digitized Dad's slides at the same time). Instead of replacing my original scans, I added the new scans to existing pages, figuring I'd select the best ones later. As a result, multiple versions of images appear on most of these early pages. At some point, I'll take the time to do a final review and get rid of the duplicates.
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