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In and out of Baja –always an adventure

Sentri pass, border slang, cartels in Tijuana, smuggling cheese, paving over of Rio Alamar

“My grandparents used to fish here.” - Image by Leticia Ayala
“My grandparents used to fish here.”
The Tijuana police officer told me that the passport carried no significance in Mexico.
  • Worldwide Spanish Slang

  • Spanish slang connoisseur Roxana Fitch grew up in Tijuana, birthplace of some of the most distinctive slang words — or jergas — in the entire Spanish-speaking world. The proximity of Tijuana, and of Mexico's entire border region, to the United States has spawned such English-influenced expressions as llamar pa' tras. "It's a literal translation of the English 'to call back,' which in Spanish makes absolutely no sense, but people say it anyway."
  • By Ernie Grimm, Aug. 6, 2008
Tijuana students. "The word guey [pronounced way] used to refer to men, when I left Tijuana, never to women. Now, women say it to each other."
  • Greetings from Tijuana

  • A mile east of the Tijuana International Airport is an area police call El Fin del Mundo, the End of the World, where drug-cartel assassins dump their victims. Both Mexican and American citizens have been found there. On December 18, 2004, according to Sergeant Tom Bulow of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, San Marcos resident Noé Chávez García was lured to Tijuana by two acquaintances who shot him several times and left him in this corpse-disposal zone.
  • By Michael Hemmingson, Aug. 6, 2008
September 24, 2007 — "Gunmen fire automatic weapons from several vehicles, attacking a post manned by federales in the Francisco Villa neighborhood. The metal fence of a nearby school is destroyed by the storm of bullets."
  • Showdown on the Rio Alamar

  • We park near the adobe bullring. The breeze picks up a little, here on the outskirts of Colonia Chilpancingo, a neighborhood in Tijuana. Nearby, a woman washes clothes in a concrete sink with water from a yard hose. Chickens scratch in the dirt around her earthen-walled home. She does not stop, nor does she look up as we pass.
  • By Dave Good, Sept. 5, 2012
A steel and concrete channel will replace the Rio Alamar’s open space.
  • We went to Mexico to get ahead. We smuggled cheese to get back.

  • One night, over frozen pot-pie dinners, I suggested something I was sure she would reject out of hand. “Let’s move to Tijuana.” Maria replied without pause, “I was thinking the same thing.” Maybe the cheap rent and cost of living south of the border would give us some room to breathe, along with a chance of putting money back in our pockets.
  • By Steven Strasser, Dec. 19, 2012
“If you bought this at the market, why are there people’s names on them?”
From jail, Félix hired a Venezuelan man to seduce Palma’s wife, take her to Venezuela, decapitate her, and send her head back to Palma in Mexico.
  • Mexican Drug Cartels: You Want Silver or Lead?

  • The Tijuana cartel as we know it today has its roots in the Mexican states of Sinaloa on the southeast side of the Gulf of California and Jalisco in central Mexico. A former Mexican Judicial Federal Police officer and bodyguard to Sinaloan governor Leopoldo Sánchez, Miguel Félix was among the first Mexican drug lords to make connections with Colombian cartels in the mid-’70s thanks to his Honduran liaison Juan Matta.
  • By Chad Deal, Sept. 22, 2010
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Our lowest temps are typically in January, Tree aloes blooming for the birds

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Two poems for Christmas by Joseph Brodsky

Star of the Nativity and Nativity Poem
“My grandparents used to fish here.” - Image by Leticia Ayala
“My grandparents used to fish here.”
The Tijuana police officer told me that the passport carried no significance in Mexico.
  • Worldwide Spanish Slang

  • Spanish slang connoisseur Roxana Fitch grew up in Tijuana, birthplace of some of the most distinctive slang words — or jergas — in the entire Spanish-speaking world. The proximity of Tijuana, and of Mexico's entire border region, to the United States has spawned such English-influenced expressions as llamar pa' tras. "It's a literal translation of the English 'to call back,' which in Spanish makes absolutely no sense, but people say it anyway."
  • By Ernie Grimm, Aug. 6, 2008
Tijuana students. "The word guey [pronounced way] used to refer to men, when I left Tijuana, never to women. Now, women say it to each other."
  • Greetings from Tijuana

  • A mile east of the Tijuana International Airport is an area police call El Fin del Mundo, the End of the World, where drug-cartel assassins dump their victims. Both Mexican and American citizens have been found there. On December 18, 2004, according to Sergeant Tom Bulow of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, San Marcos resident Noé Chávez García was lured to Tijuana by two acquaintances who shot him several times and left him in this corpse-disposal zone.
  • By Michael Hemmingson, Aug. 6, 2008
September 24, 2007 — "Gunmen fire automatic weapons from several vehicles, attacking a post manned by federales in the Francisco Villa neighborhood. The metal fence of a nearby school is destroyed by the storm of bullets."
  • Showdown on the Rio Alamar

  • We park near the adobe bullring. The breeze picks up a little, here on the outskirts of Colonia Chilpancingo, a neighborhood in Tijuana. Nearby, a woman washes clothes in a concrete sink with water from a yard hose. Chickens scratch in the dirt around her earthen-walled home. She does not stop, nor does she look up as we pass.
  • By Dave Good, Sept. 5, 2012
A steel and concrete channel will replace the Rio Alamar’s open space.
  • We went to Mexico to get ahead. We smuggled cheese to get back.

  • One night, over frozen pot-pie dinners, I suggested something I was sure she would reject out of hand. “Let’s move to Tijuana.” Maria replied without pause, “I was thinking the same thing.” Maybe the cheap rent and cost of living south of the border would give us some room to breathe, along with a chance of putting money back in our pockets.
  • By Steven Strasser, Dec. 19, 2012
“If you bought this at the market, why are there people’s names on them?”
From jail, Félix hired a Venezuelan man to seduce Palma’s wife, take her to Venezuela, decapitate her, and send her head back to Palma in Mexico.
  • Mexican Drug Cartels: You Want Silver or Lead?

  • The Tijuana cartel as we know it today has its roots in the Mexican states of Sinaloa on the southeast side of the Gulf of California and Jalisco in central Mexico. A former Mexican Judicial Federal Police officer and bodyguard to Sinaloan governor Leopoldo Sánchez, Miguel Félix was among the first Mexican drug lords to make connections with Colombian cartels in the mid-’70s thanks to his Honduran liaison Juan Matta.
  • By Chad Deal, Sept. 22, 2010
  • Sponsored
    Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Our lowest temps are typically in January, Tree aloes blooming for the birds

Big surf changes our shorelines
Next Article

December yellowfin biting well – Rockfish over until April

Dorado count very low for 2024 after two record seasons
Comments
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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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