By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚© 2010

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We visited Baja [Lower] California on our Trip 3 through San Diego, 10-13 Nov. 1983. I first visited Mexico in 1967, from 12-22 July, as a guest of the National Tourism Council (Consejo Nacional de Tourismo). On that occasion, however, we saw only the 295-kmƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (183-mile) north-south corridor of the country from Mexico City through Cuernavaca and Taxco to Acapulco on the Pacific Coast. (More about that later.) So our 1983 foray into Baja California gave the first whiff of Mexico for my son Junius and wife Yoke-Sim; and the second for me. Mother was not a party to this trip.

Some Background

Mexico, a federation of 31 ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-free and sovereign states,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ has a current population of 111.3 million.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Mexico City, also identified as the Federal District (Distrito Federal), is its biggest city and capital. It has a population of 8.9 million while the total metropolitan area constitutes 21.2 million. Thus, about 19 percent of Mexicans live in and around Mexico City. I spent a week in Mexico City in 1967 during the WPI tour.

Baja California, which became a state in 1953, has a population of 3.2 million, mostly Mesitzos, migrant workers from other states. It occupies an area of 62,921 square km in the upper half of the BC Peninsula.

Tijuana (pop. 1.6 million), the largest city in Baja California, is the third largest city in Mexico. The Tijuana metropolitan area has some 1.8 million people, the fifth largest in Mexico. An estimated annual influx of some 80,000 people has made Tijuana one of the fastest growing cites in Mexico. We spent one night in Tijuana in 1983.

The state capital is Mexicali (pop. 654,000), a border city adjacent to Calexico, Calif., on the eastern end of the California-Baja California border. But the municipality of Mexicali (pop. 900,000) sprawls southwards to include San Felipe (pop, 15,000) on the Gulf coast of the peninsula, 190 km (118 miles) from the U.S, border. We visited neither the city nor the municipality of Mexicali in 1983.

Ensenada (pop. 260,000, within the municipality 414,000) is the third largest city in the state. It is a coastal city located 114 km (70 miles) south of Tijuana. We spent two nights in Ensenada in 1983.

Other important cities include Tecate (pop. 60,000; rising to 90,000 at municipal level) on the U.S. border; and Playas de Rosarito (pop. 57,000; rising to 73,000 at municipal level), a beach city 29 km (18 miles) south of Tijuana.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  We stopped briefly at both places in 1983.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

My notes do not contain the population size of cities in Baja California in 1983, when we visited the state. The demand for Mexican labor in the U.S. determines the population levels of the cities along the border. The U.S. states, along the border from west to east, are California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The Mexican states are Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

The Wikipedia describes the 1,969-mile (3,169 km) U.S.-Mexico border thus:

The ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ international border between Mexico and the United States runs from San Diego, Calif., and Tijuana, Baja California, in the west to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, in the east, and traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from major urban areas to inhospitable deserts.

From the Gulf of Mexico it follows the course of the Rio Grande (RƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚­o Bravo del Norte) to the border crossing at El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad JuƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚¡rez, Chihuahua; westward from that binational conurbation it crosses vast tracts of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Desert, the Colorado River Delta, westward to the binational conurbation of San Diego and Tijuana before reaching the Pacific Ocean.

Bienvenido a Mexico

After driving some 100 miles from Fullerton, we crossed the international border at San Ysidro, the world’s busiest land border crossing, to Tijuana, Baja California, at 11 a.m. on a Thursday. About 300,000 visitors cross by foot or motor vehicle from the San Ysidro gateway.

The shrewd Mexicans maneuvered us to commence our foray into their land by enticing us to enrich our memory cells with a dose of Mexican culture and history. They were keen to show us their latest showcase of cultural pride, the Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT), which opened in October1982, about a year before our visit. Located in Zona Rio district, its main attraction is the superb OMNIMAX theatre, with a 360-degree projector that gives one the illusion of being inside the movie. Popularly known as “La Bola” (the ball) because of its spherical shape, the 308-seat facility implicitly conveys the architectural genius of Pedro Ramirez Vazques and Manuel Rossen Morrison (see photo).

We paid $2.35 each to join an almost-full house at the Omnitheater for the 2 p.m. show ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-El Pueblo del Sol,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ which was made especially for the opening, a multi-stage movie featuring images from the most representative regions of Mexico that received rave reviews. [Wikipedia records that the movie lasted 13 years as the only movie showing and at full capacity. Today, the centre offers up to three different movies playing daily and it premieres an average of four movies per year.] I trace JuniusƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ subsequent fascination with Omnimax theaters to this unforgettable experience.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Earlier, we paid an admission charge of 45 cents per person to see the centerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s permanent exhibition, “Museo de las Californias,” which stores more than 200 pieces and is a walk through the history of the Baja Peninsula and the state of California from the prehistoric period until the first half of the 20th century. The exhibit also includes a pre-Hispanic garden, “Jardin CaracolƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (Snail Garden), which contains sculptures from the different regions of the meso-American cultures that inhabited south Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish Army. Visitors can go through this experience while sipping a cup of coffee.

This collection introduced us to Mexican arts and crafts spanning some 3,500 years.

[In September 2008, on the eve of its 26th anniversary, CECUT opened its doors to a brand new building called “El Cubo” (The Cube), primarily for international exhibitions.]

We ate lunch and munched Mexican pastries at a bakery in the adjoining Plaza Rio Tijuana shopping center. Also, I bought two pairs of socks for 200 pesos. Mexicans, however, preferred greenbacks to their own pesos. Thereafter, we checked in at Hotel El Conquistador on Boulevard Agua Caliente in Revolucion.

Later in the afternoon, we left the hotel to visit the Agua Caliente Racetrack (Hipodrome) southeast of Zona Centro, the central business district. Although I was driving on a main road, Boulevard Agua Caliente, finding my way through a clutter of roads with Spanish signs drove me crazy.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  However, we reached the Hipodrome safely after a few wrong turns. Opened in 1929 to cater to the gambling instincts of the Hollywood rich, the Hipodrome survived President LƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚¡zaro CƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚¡rdenasƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ ban on gambling in 1935 and continued to offer horse racing (now discontinued), greyhound racing and jai alai, a fast-moving ball game resembling a hybrid of squash and tennis thatƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  originated in Spain’s Basque Country.

Early evening, we stopped for a grand dinner at BoccaccioƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s, near the Tijuana Country Club on Boulevard Agua Caliente. As we ate dinner, a mariachi singer volunteered to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-serenadeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ Junius. Junius was nonplussed by this uncalled-for attention. We enjoyed both the gastronomic and acoustic dimensions of the evening (although I later reaped the results of excessive indulgence in the unpleasant form of a bellyache). We tipped the singer handsomely and paid the waiter $18.25 for food.

Next, we went on an exploratory tour of the renowned Avenida Revolucion, a must to claim that one really visited Tijuana. This long north-south avenue, the gateway to Zona Norte from Zona Centro, is the tourist center of the city, where the CaesarƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Salad had its origin. It is home to several distinct attractions, from cantinas and table dance bars to numerous dance clubs and art galleries. At the night market, I bought a leather belt for $4.50. Yoke-Sim bought a leather purse for $8.50. Currently, the famous avenue is going through a major crisis with more than 80 percent of the businesses closed.

Northwest of the Avenida RevoluciƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚³n is the Zona Norte, the cityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s red light district (referred to as La Coahuila after one of the main streets in it). It ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-boasts a large number of legal street prostitutes as well as, in parts, a selection of strip clubs offering at least one establishment per blockƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (Wikipedia).

On the Way to Ensenada

Friday morning (11 Nov.), we checked out of the hotel soon after breakfast and drove to the northwestern edge of the city for further exploration.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  We tarried at El Toreo, the (now defunct) bullring in the neighborhood of our hotel in the Revolucion sector. We tarried again at Parque Teniente Guerrero before proceeding west to see Plaza de Toros Monumental, the renowned bullring by the sea in Playas de Tijuana (see photo), a planned beachfront community. However, we werenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t much impressed with the structure of the homes.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

We returned to Zona Centro to visit Centro Artesenal, the retail outlet of the government-run National Fund for the Promotion of Handicrafts (FONART); and FrontƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚³n Palacio Jai Alai, a Tijuana landmark fronting nearly an entire block of Avenue RevoluciƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚³n. Its construction began in 1926, but wasn’t completed until 1947. Forced to close down with the decline of jai alai, it now hosts cultural events including music and theater performances.

We ate lunch at a sidewalk cafƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚©. Thereafter, we found our way with difficulty to drive almost 30 miles southwest along old Highway 1 to the beachfront resort city of Playas de Rosarito. Fascinated by the sight of some horseback riders on the beach, we stopped in Rosarito beach to watch them in action. Rosarito has been the in-place for several well-heeled Hollywood celebrities like Britney Spears, Ava Gardner, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Mickey Rooney and Orson Welles.

Driving 40 miles further south along the coast (on Mexico 1D) to reach our scheduled destination, we discourteously ignored the inhabitants of Popetla, Las Gaviotas, Cantamar and La Fonda. We stopped briefly at La Mision (pop. 1,100), located on a wide, steeply walled valley on the Transpeninsular Highway. We climbed out of the valley past abrupt volcanic bluffs via a series of curves. At the village of San Miguel, we joined the new highway leading to our destination.

Finally, we reached Ensenada about 4 p.m., and checked in at Casa del Sol Motel (on Avenida Lopez Mateos), just south of the city center, for two nights.

In the evening, we explored the curio shops along the avenue where our motel was. We capped our day with a visit to the famous El Ray Sol French restaurant for one of the best dinners we ate recentlyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚a remarkable gastronomic delight! Our bill exceeded $30. The pastry was superb. Most of all, I was spared another bellyache!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Next: A Peek into Mexico: Through a Capital Trap in 1967 (Part B)
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (The writer is professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead.)

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Picture 1: Popularly known as “La Bola” (the ball) because of its spherical shape, the 308-seat OMNIMAX Theater at TijuanaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s CECUT implicitly conveys the architectural genius of Pedro Ramirez Vazques and Manuel Rossen Morrison. Besides ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-the ballƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ Yoke-Sim and Junius appear to be ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-midgetsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ (10 Nov. 1983).

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Picture 2: The author and his son at Plaza de Toros Monumental, the renowned bullring by the sea in Playas de Tijuana (11 Nov. 1983).

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Figure 1:ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  A=Baja California Norte. The tour narrated in this article is limited to the northwest corner of the state of Baja California NorteƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the triangular area connecting Tecate, Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito and Ensenada.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚