In Memory of Dennis Avery It was a hot Saturday afternoon in 1984. I’d been on the chopper for several days straight and I reeked worse than skunk roadkill. But I didn’t think the old …
March 23, 2022
Mexico
Harley rider punches dad on way to Baja
Ocean Beach summer of ’79
This is a story about the summer of ‘79, but it starts a year earlier, circa mid-’78. That’s when I first drove into San Diego. Within minutes of my arrival, I was almost murdered — …
March 23, 2022
Migrant pregnant mothers don't feel welcome in TJ
For Honduran Anabel Guzman, 35, and her husband and three kids, it was impossible to pay up to 10,000 pesos ($500 USD) to give birth in Tijuana’s Main Hospital. Anabel and her family were living …
March 22, 2022
Tijuana's down syndrome soccer team to compete in Lima
The Diestro Soccer Down team, composed of Tijuana athletes with Down Syndrome, will represent Mexico in the World Championship Futsal Down in Lima Peru next month. According to Cristian Acosta, director and coach of Soccer …
March 11, 2022
Violinist Alex DePue killed in Mexican car accident
On January 27, a car accident in Mexico claimed the life of violinist Alex DePue, The Modern Paganini. DePue lived up to that 2018 album title, winning competitions from an early age and playing with …
March 3, 2022
Finally a memorial for those dissolved by acid in Tijuana
February 4 marked the 13th anniversary of the detention of El Pozolero (Ignacio Meza), a construction worker who used acid to dissolve more than 300 bodies for the Arellano Felix Cartel in Tijuana. (Pozolero means …
February 25, 2022
Matthew Suarez combs Ensenada for best seafood carts and breweries
“I always say that Mexicali is hell, Tijuana is purgatory, and Ensenada... well, Ensenada is paradise!” says Jesús “El Chino” Hernández, who runs Trophy Tacos, an experimental seafood tacos cart in a corner of Colonia …
February 16, 2022
Death, and birth, of a journalist
It’s the cold night of January 28. Outside the Mexican consulate in Little Italy, a bunch of journalists, maybe half of them American, half of them Mexican, gather for a vigil. We’re paying tribute to …
February 16, 2022
El Chaparral migrant camp cleared
After several attempts by Tijuana’s municipal government, to evict campers at El Chaparral PedWest port of entry, it happened. 385 migrants from Central American countries and some Mexican nationals woke up at dawn on February …
February 14, 2022
Ballads from El Chaparral aimed at President Biden
During the first months of El Chaparral Migrant Camp, when most of the settlers were Central Americans recently arrived, Miguel Salas found himself surrounded by nothing but brothers and sisters, as he puts it. He …
February 7, 2022
Visit the ancient clifftop hotel named after Queen Calafia
Oh no! “Rosy! Rápido, por favor!” Rosy whips around. She makes a wild grab at the gull as he’s about fly over the cliff with my Bistro Burger. The wooden rail keeps her from launching …
The return of Heather the hummingbird
It’s a miracle! She’s back! Heather the hummingbird is back! I’m talking about the little hummingbird who whirred into town one day and started threading together a perfect egg cup nest on a dangling branch …
February 2, 2022
Remembering the Magonista Rebellion battles of 1911
“The Red Flag Now Flies Gallantly Over Tijuana!” reads the headline in Hellraisers Journal, Saturday, May 27. Of course, that’s Saturday, May 27 of 1911. Things were happening, right outside where I’m at in TJ, …
February 2, 2022
Surfers and others not scared away by Jan. 15 tsunami
On the morning of January 15, Carol Niotta and her Yorkie, Pebbles, walked out on their La Jolla home's balcony to check if the tsunami emergency alert at 7:03 am, affected the surf scene below. …
February 1, 2022
“When the world is full of butterflies and sunshine again”
“I started performing music in public during my high school years and had a successful band in Cleveland, Ohio back in the 1970s called Buckeye Biscuit,” says light classical jazz guitarist Ron Franklin. “We’re mentioned …