A Tijuana youth who allegedly responded to a solicitation on Facebook seeking a gunman for hire has been arrested on murder charges. Local news media are referring to the 14-year-old suspect as “the boy hitman” …
October 15, 2015
Mexico
Boy hitman in Tijuana
Fate of Tijuana dive bar hits rumor circuit
“Si güey, el Zacas va a cerrar” (“Yeah man, Zacas is closing”), a musician named Osvaldo “el Teme” said, confirming the rumor. “Someone told me it will happen before the end of the year. We …
October 13, 2015
Weekend opera happenings
There’s some opera happening this weekend. San Diego City Opera is performing Queen of Carthage as part of the La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival. San Diego City Opera was founded by Cory Hibbs and …
October 8, 2015
Border crossing rules have changed at San Ysidro
In fact, you will need some steenking papers to enter Mexico.
October 7, 2015
Robber gets money, deodorant, condoms
A thief who held up a Tijuana convenience store in the wee hours of Sunday, October 4th, got ahold of cash and merchandise, including four packs of condoms. Tijuana’s daily El Mexicano reported on October …
October 6, 2015
A fairy tale land of beer
Follow the stairs with the gnomes painted on the side to the second floor of one of the many locales that is the maze of Plaza Fiesta and you will find a kitchen with a …
October 5, 2015
An awkward ménage à trois
When I first met Oliver Castañeda a couple years ago, he was running a small coffee shop named El Gnomo (The Gnome) in downtown Tijuana in the alley known as Pasaje Gomez. When Pasaje Gomez …
October 4, 2015
Mexico over the years
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 …
October 4, 2015
Tijuana doctors speak up for pedestrian victims
As many as 30 pedestrians are struck by motor vehicles in Tijuana each week — and few of them survive, a recent report issued by health authorities revealed. The report, in the form of a …
October 2, 2015
Loving and loathing the peso in Tijuana
“The dollar keeps getting more expensive! Isn't it awesome?” Jimmy told me excitedly one payday a couple months ago. At age 20, Jimmy was my youngest coworker while I was working in retail. He had …
October 1, 2015
Mexico on $4.27 a day
Beginning today, October 1st, workers across Mexico will see a three-peso hike in the minimum wage — the equivalent of about 18 cents in U.S. dollars. The increase will bring the minimum wage to 70.10 …
October 1, 2015
Searching for marlin in Tijuana
Every Saturday morning I play a pick-up game of soccer with friends from San Diego and Tijuana. The field we play on varies each week, but it is always south of the border. When we …
September 26, 2015
San Miguel de Allende's got charm
With no beach, no stoplights, and not even an airport, one might be surprised that San Miguel de Allende has been a magnet for Americans for decades. This strikingly beautiful and history-rich 16th- century town …
September 21, 2015
San Diego’s first Baja-centric beer fest
Baja California is currently home to around 100 craft breweries, but many San Diegans have never tried a Baja craft brew. While southbound tourism has been picking up, borderphobia and long return lines have led …
September 19, 2015
Why rains result in U.S. pollution from Tijuana River
Sandwiched between Tijuana’s Central de Bomberos and the auto-import syndicate parking lot just south of the concrete-lined Tijuana River, the tiny CILA pumping station in Tijuana looks pretty innocuous. But when the pump station shuts …
September 18, 2015