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 Travel & Outdoors | May 2007 
Baja San Diego, the Mexico-California Experience
 Steve Dryden - MexiData.info
Yes, welcome to Baja San Diego — extending along the beautiful Mexican coast from Playas de Tijuana to La Bufadora, a blowhole south of Ensenada. It was inevitable, the development, modernization and westernization of the scenic, natural coastline of Baja California. And the timing was right with the over development and overpricing of southern California, where less than ten percent of the population can afford homes and with a shortage of oceanfront and ocean view properties for those who can afford them.
For better or worse, the march is on and the boom is here. Baja California, Mexico is moving in new directions.
And please don’t be offended by my humorous terminology. In addition to calling this region Baja San Diego, I call San Diego Tijuana Norte.
In reality there is a lot of truth in the names and references. For instance, I call myself an American Mexican, but I don’t have an ounce of Mexican blood, rather a Mexican by osmosis — figurative — a gradual, often unconscious, absorbing or understanding of facts, theories, ideas, and the like. I was born here in this region, which is in fact the Kumeyaay Indian Nation and not really Mexico or the United States, but that’s another story.
So, I call this region, extending from Los Angeles to Ensenada, MexiCal — the hybridization zone! Not to be confused with the Twilight Zone, MexiCal is actually a blend of several cultures and is separate from First and Third World countries — thus the Second World — a blend of the others.
Now I hope I haven’t driven you into an identity crisis at this point, but think about this. Here we are: Mexican Americans and American Mexicans living together peacefully in MexiCal, a Second World country within the Kumeyaay Nation. We are a non-imperialist nation of taco loving people driving low riders and SUV’s, conveniently switching flags on our car antennas as we cross the border, some of us running to US dollars and some of us running from US dollars.
And to further complicate matters, someone wants to build a wall to separate us. Excuse me, but is there any way you can move your wall north of Los Angeles, because we seem to have worked things out well for ourselves here in MexiCal.
OK, here’s my point. We’ve actually created our own country either by mistake or osmosis, no revolution — it just happened. And it just might be a solution to a major problem.
If Mexico would give us MexiCals the land from Ensenada over to Tecate and back along the border to the coast in Tijuana — the Mexican government wouldn’t have to spend any money on this region and could keep more for themselves. And if the US government would give us the area of San Diego from the coast north to Oceanside and east down Highway 15 from Corona to Tecate — it would resolve the border crossing issues.
Our new country, MexiCal, within the Kumeyaay Nation would have a strong economy and nobody would need or want to leave — thus no immigration problems. The Kumeyaay Indians get their land back and our casino/tourism economy begins to grow.
Actually this isn’t too far from reality. There is a Baja San Diego, Tijuana Norte, MexiCal, and for sure the Kumeyaay Nation. It’s just a question of perspective, definition and articulation.
We MexiCals are a reality. If anyone plans to build a wall to separate us it will have to be about a million miles into the sky, because it’s too late — we are already one nation in our minds and hearts. We don’t need no stinking wall, and in my opinion the most effective weapon against terrorism, drugs and fear is just a little love and understanding. Walls separate — love unites.
Steve Dryden, a MexiData.info guest columnist, is a wine, travel and history writer for the Baja Times. Mr. Dryden lives in Guadalupe Valley, Baja California where he also guides private and motor coach tours. He can be reached at sbdryden@hotmail.com. |
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