Tijuana (or pollution flows)

Although Tijuana has it all, the only thing it doesn’t have are the spectacular beaches as the ones I visited southwards. But Tijuana also has fish tacos and a fun and intense night life. It is the place where underage Americans come to have fun in Mexican bars where, of course, they’re more than welcomed.

As any other city  that boasts about being a modern and boarder one, it grew and grew until its territory couldn’t take it any more, and now is suffering from the typical problems of an overpopulated city: illegal immigration to USA, drug trafficking and crime. But, pollution is on the top.

It seems like between Tijuana and San Diego there is a border, but there is no such. A friend of mine told me about a documentary which was being made and were the youngsters of both sides of the border were compared to each other. Between the two cities there were more things in common that we could think about. One of them: garbage.

Both cities share a river, also called Tijuana, where are discharged all the residential and factory wastewaters from the Alamar Stream. The dump of Tijuana looks like a piece of conceptual art or like an avant-garde tourist attraction. Well, not really… but it IS huge. In this dump the wastes are pilled up without any care, just like accumulated tires which you take a picture to and become famous. Again, we can see the “Fortuitous compositions”, the aesthetical deceits from the surroundings. 

I walked through Revolucion Street while thinking on two things: have a drink and not to be mugged. As it always happens with “safety concerns”, I didn’t have to worry about any. I had fun, I danced, I saw the donkeys with their sarapes, I took a picture of myself with a donkey and that was it. Mexican beer can make you forget any problem.