​Nestled in the rough mountainous country west of the cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico, Boundary Monument 127 is a significant geographic turning point for the U.S.-Mexican border - and is located on the WRONG spot!

​Read the full story of this 170-year-old incorrect border marking HERE after viewing these images from the historic Arizona-Sonora boundary angle along the U.S.-Mexican border west of Nogales. Please leave a comment at the end of your journey here.

​“Boundary Angle Canyon” is a mostly remote area, but U.S. border wall system construction in summer and fall 2020 made this corner of the Pajarito Mountains a busy crossroads.

​Though located on the wrong spot for 170 years, Boundary Monument 127 still marks the angle along the Arizona-Sonora border between Nogales and the Colorado River. Will this neglected and endangered monument – which includes a handwritten inscription from the 1855 U.S. Boundary Commission – survive amid this altered landscape?

On August 29, 1970, East Los Angeles became the stage for one of the most captivating moments of the Vietnam War’s home front – the National Chicano Moratorium protests against the disproportionate loss of Mexican American servicemen in the war. The largest protest of the 1960s/1970s Chicano movement, nearly 20,000-30,000 people participated in the Moratorium. However, its message was muffled by violence between the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and demonstrators leading to 150 arrests and four deaths, including journalist Rubén Salazar.

Retrace the route of the Chicano Moratorium through East Los Angeles here and rediscover Mexican American protestors’ cries for racial justice: “Chale no, we won’t go – bring the ‘carnales’ home!” – and then leave your thoughts below!

​From August 30-Septemeber 22, 1972, a group of young Chicana and Chicano activists known as the Brown Berets staged an occupation of the Santa Catalina Island to protest against the discrimination and police abuse of Mexican people in the U.S. Southwest. The Brown Berets brought dramatic attention to their protest by basing it on the fact that the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the U.S.-Mexico War did not specifically state Mexico gave up Catalina and the Channel Islands of the Archipelago of the North to the U.S. By encamping at a cliffside camp they named “Campo Tecolote” the Brown Berets hoped to raise the U.S. public’s awareness of anti-Mexican racism and inspire cultural pride among Mexican Americans. [1]

There are no plaques, historical markers, or other physical commemorations to remind us that the Brown Berets at Campo Tecolote used the claim that the Channel Islands were still legally Mexican national soil to briefly capture the nation’s attention on the need to end anti-Mexican discrimination in the U.S.

A grove of tall trees at the abandoned Campo Tecolote site obscures the Catalina Island Casino – an elaborate art deco building that is one of the Channel Islands’ most photographed places but also at one point discriminated against Mexican people by not allowing them inside. Oral histories by Mexican Americans who grew up on Catalina Island in the 1940s and 1950s recalled how White Americans would not allow their families into the Casino and often prohibited them from other public spaces, including public benches in Avalon.

The Brown Berets pitched their tents along the hillside. [2] ​Some Berets made the long hike to shop for supplies in the main Avalon grocery store while Mexican American residents of Avalon’s Barrio Tremont occasionally visited the Berets offering food.

​A patch of flat land along the hillside served as a “military plaza” for the Brown Berets to perform short military parades saluting the Mexican flag as well as the Brown Beret Organization’s “La Causa” flag. [3]

​Campo Tecolote is quiet today, but still a prominent spot from which to view the coming and going of countless ships. As supplies and initial enthusiasm dwindled after the cold nights of strong ocean winds, many of the Berets looked across hopefully towards the landforms on the California coast, such as the Palos Verdes peninsula and the lights of Los Angeles and Long Beach. When would the nearby Brown Beret chapters send in relief and fresh supplies to help in the occupation? Would other Chicana/o groups help them out? As days turned into weeks and the Berets on Catalina ran out of money and supplies (with no more aid from Barrio Tremont residents), exhaustion set in.

​On September 22, 1972, after a local judge and 40 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies dressed in riot gear arrived with a court order demanding the Brown Berets leave, the Chicana and Chicano youth formed a military formation and gave one final salute to the Mexican flag before leaving on a ferry boat back to Long Beach. After nearly a month, and with little financial or logistical support from Brown Beret chapters on the California mainland, the group of nearly 30 young people abandoned Campo Tecolote rather than face arrest.

​For a variety of reasons, including the dissolution of the Brown Beret organization shortly after the summer 1972, the Brown Beret occupation of Catalina Island has been mostly forgotten over the years. Nevertheless, the protest of young Chicana and Chicano activists against anti-Mexican racial discrimination through their Catalina occupation makes Campo Tecolote an important site in 20th Century Mexican American history and the most dramatic reminder of how the Channel Islands are Mexico’s lost archipelago.

Special thanks to Juan Menchaca for making this journey to Campo Tecolote possible!

​[1] Photo by Maria Marquez Sanchez in “Narrated Photo Essay: Maria Marquez Sanchez,” KCET (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/narrated-photo-essay-maria-marquez-sanchez-on-the-two-sides-of-her-activism).
 
[2] Photo by Maria Marquez Sánchez in Carren Jao and Michael Naeimollah, “Narrated Photo Essay: Maria Marquez Sanchez on the Two Sides of Her Activism,” KCET (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/narrated-photo-essay-maria-marquez-sanchez-on-the-two-sides-of-her-activism).
 
[3] Screenshot from David Sánchez, “Brown Berets History Part 2” (upload of the 1996 film The Brown Berets return to Catalina Island), YouTube, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zczb_t0O_bk)
 
[4] Photograph from David Sánchez, Expedition Through Aztlán (La Puente, CA: Perspective Publications, 1978), 191.

​Map by Víctor Busteros Angeles, “Día 23, jueves 5-05. Rumbo a Coronado,” Expedición al México de Ultramar (Feb. 13, 2015), (http://mexicodeultramar.blogspot.com/2015_02_13_archive.html).

Known as the “Archipelago of the North” when under Mexican rule, the potential for the lost Mexican islands not belonging to the U.S. raised many questions about the nature of the U.S.-Mexican border as a whole. Responding to citizen petitions, the Mexican President Manuel Ávila Camacho formed a government commission to study the case of Mexico’s lost archipelago. The so-called Ávila Camacho Commission (1944-1947) investigated historical Mexican rights to the Channel Islands but ultimately concluded that challenging the more powerful United States for the Archipelago’s return was unlikely to succeed politically or in international arbitration settings.
 
The ambiguity of the archipelago’ status in both the 1800s and 1900s encouraged various groups, including the native Chumash, White American ranchers, and Mexican American political activists to claim the islands for their own respective causes.
 
Whichever side one might sympathize with, the case of Mexico’s "lost archipelago" is a reminder of the complicated creation of the U.S.-Mexican border.

Special thanks to Juan Menchaca and Gerald Joanino for their help in these cross-island adventures!

The hardening U.S.-Mexico border of the 2010s has been increasingly defined by walls and division, but symbolic bridges continue to tie the two countries’ people together. One such recent link is the newest bridge on the U.S.-Mexican border, the Cross Border Xpress (CBX) linking the Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) in Mexico with a passenger check-in terminal in San Diego, California, making TIJ the only airport in the world with terminals in two different countries. Open since 2015, the CBX (aka, “La Puerta de las Californias”)  symbolizes the two countries’ ability (and inability) to cooperate. Grab onto your luggage as we rush across the CBX’s history to our flight in Tijuana! 

​The CBX has a long history. The location of the Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) only a few feet south of the border has long tantalized business leaders because of the economic possibilities imagined in facilitating cross-border passenger and cargo traffic between the Californias. The Mexican federal government first opened the modern passenger terminal at TIJ in 1970 over what used to be the maize, bean, and barley fields of the Ejido Tampico cooperative farm. [1]

Plans to use the Tijuana Airport for U.S. air transport needs emerged on January 25, 1989, when the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) proposed developing a binational airport facility across TIJ at Otay Mesa to relieve the traffic at the city’s main downtown airport at Lindbergh Field (SAN). Proponents of what became the “TwinPorts” proposal argued that a binational airport could strengthen San Diego and Tijuana’s economic growth as Pacific Rim cities and even compete with Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for Trans-Pacific passenger and cargo traffic

​The proposal initially had the existing Tijuana Airport terminal serving Mexican and U.S. travelers who would arrive through a new 12,000-foot runway in the U.S. side capable of receiving large jumbo jets. U.S. Customs agents would facilitate the movement of U.S.-bound passengers and cargo from the Tijuana facility. In the original proposal TIJ would have been run by both Mexico and the U.S. [2]

Officials at TIJ, however, only learned about SANDAG’s proposal after reading about it in U.S. newspapers. In fact SANDAG did not consult with Mexican stakeholders when it developed the TwinPorts idea. Mexico’s transportation secretary called the idea “madness.” Then (and now) the only other “binational” airports in the world were Geneva and Basel airports along the French-Swiss border. [3]

TwinPorts was modified so that a new passenger terminal was built in Otay Mesa in addition to the new jumbo jet runway. The existing Tijuana terminal would be connected to U.S. facilities via a cross-border taxiway. Though managed jointly, the Mexican and U.S. terminals would be separate and have their own customs facilities. [4]

​However, Tijuana developers and their government friends opposed having a U.S. airport in Otay Mesa which could take business away from their airport. TIJ’s promoters preferred for it to be expanded, remain fully under Mexican control, and to open a private border crossing for U.S. travelers’ convenience. [5]

​A variety of problems delayed the new international bridge from taking off, including changes TIJ’s administration when the Mexican government sold the facility to private investors (Grupo Aeroportario del Pacifico or GAP), disputes over legal title of the airport’s land, and – most dramatically –discovery of drug smuggling tunnels near the property. During the TIJ's initial expansion between 1965-1970, the Mexican government condemned the 790 acre/320 hectare Ejido Tampico without compensating its ejidatarios (communal land-holders). By 2000 the ejidatarios valued their prime location land at $2.8 billions pesos ($294 million in U.S. dollars). The ejidatarios occupied the portion of the ex-Ejido Tampico which was not yet developed by the airport, in time leasing the land to truck companies. [8]

​Organized crime, particularly Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel, began using the ex-ejido’s truck yards to construct drug-smuggling tunnels into the U.S. The May 31, 1993, discovery of a half-completed 65 foot-deep, 1,452 foot-long tunnel with electricity and air conditioning was the first of many discovered near the future CBX. Such discoveries greatly complicated the binational terminal and bridge project. [10]

​Despite all this turbulence, TIJ continued promoting a binational terminal and bridge. The Chicago-based Equity Group Investments (EGI) firm announced its interest in developing the terminal in 2006, eventually purchasing of portions of the Martinez Ranch Industrial Park in 2008 for $34.5 million U.S. dollars. EGI and its partners, including Tijuana Airport owners Grupo Aeroportario del Pacifico, formed Otay-Tijuana Venture Limited Liability Company to construct and manage the new bridge and terminal. After 6 years of planning, the Cross-Border Xpress (or “Puerta de las Californias” in Spanish) began construction in June 2014. [11]

​Legorreta’s CBX is defined by sharp, but simple geometric shapes and colors….

​…such as the CBX bridge itself. It’s long horizontal windows represent the bicultural links between the Californias (hence its “Puerta de las Californias” name). [13]

​Now that the CBX/Puerta de las Californias’ turbulent history has cleared, its time to catch our flight in TIJ. Our hurried walk to our flight will take us from the ticketing terminal in Otay Mesa, across a bridge crossing the border, and past Mexican immigration and security checks to our gate. Upon returning from our trip we will mostly follow the same route back.

​TIJ’s CBX terminal is much smaller and less-imposing than most major airports’ facilities. Parking at the CBX is currently $15-18 per day, but is only steps from the terminal. 

The bustle of travelers becomes apparent inside. Before entering CBX’s international bridge, travelers must purchase a separate ticket to cross into Mexico and back from self-service kiosks. A roundtrip in 2019 costs $30.

A duty-free store greets us inside the CBX’s secure area...but we have a flight to catch in the next country.

Turning south, we follow a long hallway towards Mexico.

We’re in a hurry, but we can’t miss this sight – the U.S.-Mexico border runs through the inside of the bridge!  According to the #CBXperience, visiting Mexico means drinking margaritas on the beach.

​All along the border plaques like this indicate the exact spot where the United States of America and the United Mexican States meet.

The mood  outside and underneath is slightly different, however. Photo by Mike Rightmire, courtesy Riverside Press-Enterprise. [18]

​Walking further we finally enter the main TIJ terminal. From Tijuana, travelers can reach destinations in Baja California, across Mexico, and as far away as Shanghai. What a difference from when this was the Ejido Tampico’s farmland.

​TIJ’s spacious interior and gate-side stores. Do we need to pick up anything for our flight?

​After our economical trip from TIJ, we must retrace our steps through the CBX. Although some of the signage can be confusing, the CBX entryway is next to the airport's baggage claim.

​After presenting our CBX and airline tickets on the Mexican side, we reenter the CBX’s secure area. This sign greets us before walking up to the international bridge.

​A long corridor now takes us north to the U.S.

​We’re crossing the border again! But if we want a proper selfie we must stand on on top of the footprints.

​For the #CBXperience, visiting California, U.S.A., means surfing, bike riding, and visiting Disneyland.

​We are back in the California terminal! Rental cars are available for travelers arriving through the CBX.

​With our bags in hand, we exit onto an outdoor patio with food trucks and pick-up spots for shuttle vans. The U.S.-Mexican border wall marks the edge of the CBX terminal. 

Time will tell how successful the CBX is in nabbing the estimated 2.6 million TIJ passengers who continue their journey northward into the U.S., but its success in tying Mexico and the U.S. closer together is already a win in this age of tightening borders. Despite a turbulent take off, TIJ’s transformation into a binational airport through the CBX/Puerta de las Californias symbolizes what the modern U.S.-Mexican border can be. [19]

Wait, did we forget something on the plane?

[1] Matilde Perez U., “Ejidatarios exigen pago justo por tierra expropiada en BC,” La Jornada (June 17, 2002), (https://www.jornada.com.mx/2002/06/17/010n1pol.php?origen=politica.html).

[2] Preston Turegano, “3 sites urged for Lindbergh move,” San Diego Evening Tribune (Jan. 25, 1989): B-1; “Aeropuerto Internacional de Tijuana,” (https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/baja-california/tijuana/aeropuerto-internacional-de-tijuana-MX15153858330046) and “Aeropuerto Internacional de Tijuana,” México en Fotos (https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/baja-california/tijuana/aeropuerto-internacional-de-tijuana-MX14982668209849).

[3] Greg Gross and R.B. Brenner, “Effort will start to sell Mexico on 2-nation airport,” San Diego Union (Feb. 6, 1989): B-1; Ethan Epstein, “How San Diego Built a Bridge Over the Wall,” Politico (Feb. 16, 2017), (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/san-diego-bridge-border-wall-airport-tijuana-214788).

[4] Nancy Cleeland and Lori Weisberg, “TwinPorts plan gets lift from Mexico,” San Diego Union (May 30, 1991): A-1; Jim Michaels, “Customs hedges on TwinPorts – Smuggling threat an early concern,” San Diego Evening Tribune (July 10, 1991): A-1.

[5] Fernando Romero, “Binational airport runs into Tijuana turbulence,” San Diego Evening Tribune (June 20, 1991): A-1; Rneiders, “San Diego TwinPorts airport proposal 1991,” Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Diego_TwinPorts_airport_proposal_1991L.jpg).

[6] Greg Moran and Lori Weisberg, “TwinPorts plan doesn't fly with South Bay critics,” San Diego Union (May 31, 1991): B-1; John McLaren, “Councilmen clash over TwinPorts,” San Diego Evening Tribune (July 30, 1991): B-1; Ernesto Portillo, “TwinPorts idea fought in Tijuana,” San Diego Union (Aug.14, 1991): B-1; S. Lynne Walker, “Mexico vetoes TwinPorts – Stunned city officials to cancel Otay building ban,” San Diego Union-Tribune (October 2, 1993): A-1; Mark Arner, “City Council votes to lift Otay Mesa moratorium – Transborder Airport project formally dead,” San Diego Union-Tribune (Nov. 9, 1993): A-1. By the time the Mexican government formally announced its opposition to the TwinPorts proposal, SANDAG and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had spent $660,000 in studies for the project.

[7] “Cross Border Air Terminal,” South County Visioning Project, (July 1, 2013), (https://scedcvisioning.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/cross-border-air-terminal/).

[8] During the 2000 presidential elections in Mexico, Vicente Fox of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) promised the ex-Ejido Tampico ejidatarios to compensate them for their lost lands. However, once in office President Fox’s government insisted in paying the ejidatarios only $1.2 million pesos ($125,000 U.S. dollars) which was the land’s value in 1991. According to one of Fox’s ministers, the ejidatarios’ $2.8 billion pesos claim would have “an irreparable effect on the federal budget.” Matilde Perez U., “Ejidatarios exigen pago justo por tierra expropiada en BC,” La Jornada (June 17, 2002), (https://www.jornada.com.mx/2002/06/17/010n1pol.php?origen=politica.html).

[9] Image in “Since 1990, law enforcement officials have discovered more than 140 tunnels underneath the U.S. border,” San Diego Union-Tribune (Oct. 31, 2013), (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/sdut-border-tunnels-2013oct31-htmlstory.html).

[10]  “Since 1990, law enforcement officials have discovered more than 140 tunnels underneath the U.S. border,” San Diego Union-Tribune (Oct. 31, 2013), (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/sdut-border-tunnels-2013oct31-htmlstory.html).

[11]  “Otay Tijuana Venture, LLC Announces Unprecedented Border Crossing Between San Diego and the Tijuana International Airport Breaks Ground,” BusinessWire (July 14, 2014), (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140714006099/en/Otay-Tijuana-Venture-LLC-Announces-Unprecedented-Border). Part of the negotiations involved determining the funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials to operate the border crossing itself. Ultimately Otay-Tijuana Venture LLC agreed to fund CBP’s operations at the CBX since, unlike the other U.S.-Mexico border crossings, the terminal and bridge were a private commercial business. At the time of all this EGI owned Tribune Publishing, parent company of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.

[12] Eleanor Gibson, “Legorreta defies Trump wall proposal with bold purple bridge across US-Mexico border,” Dezeen (Nov. 1, 2016), (https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/01/cross-border-xpress-cpx-bridge-terminal-otay-usa-tijuana-mexico-architecture-legorreta/).

[13] Eleanor Gibson, “Legorreta defies Trump wall proposal with bold purple bridge across US-Mexico border,” Dezeen (Nov. 1, 2016), (https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/01/cross-border-xpress-cpx-bridge-terminal-otay-usa-tijuana-mexico-architecture-legorreta/); “OTAY Cross Border Xpress / LEGORRETA,” ArchDaily (Dec. 15, 2016), (https://www.archdaily.mx/mx/801072/otay-cross-border-xpress-legorreta).

[14] Lou Hirsch, “S.D., Tijuana Plan a Tourism Team Effort,” San Diego Business Journal (April 24, 2015), (https://www.sdbj.com/news/2015/apr/24/sd-tijuana-plan-tourism-team-effort/).

[15]  “Mexican and U.S. Officials Inaugurate Cross Border Xpress (CBX) – The Tijuana Airport Terminal – In San Diego,” U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico (April 7, 2016), (https://mx.usembassy.gov/mexican-and-u-s-officials-inaugurate-cross-border-xpress-cbx-the-tijuana-airport-terminal-in-san-diego/).

[16] Eleanor Gibson, “Legorreta defies Trump wall proposal with bold purple bridge across US-Mexico border,” Dezeen (Nov. 1, 2016), (https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/01/cross-border-xpress-cpx-bridge-terminal-otay-usa-tijuana-mexico-architecture-legorreta/).

[17] “OTAY Cross Border Xpress / LEGORRETA,” ArchDaily (Dec. 15, 2016), (https://www.archdaily.mx/mx/801072/otay-cross-border-xpress-legorreta).

[18] Photo by Mike Rightmire in Mary Jo Fisher, “These 10 steps on how to fly to Mexico by crossing border into Tijuana airport will save you money,” The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA), (May 4, 2017),  (https://www.pe.com/2017/05/04/flying-to-mexico-by-crossing-the-border-at-tijuana-first).

[19] Elliot Spagat, “California's Newest Airport Terminal Extends to Mexico,” NBC Bay Area (Dec. 7, 2015), (https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/Tijuana-San-Diego-California-Airport-Mexico-360787851.html).

#Tijuana #CBX #CBXperience #SanDiego #BajaCalifornia #California #USMexicoBorder #Border #Legorreta #PuertaDeLasCalifornias #OtayMesa

A small bird rests on a tree along a quiet stretch of the Río Grande in South Texas/Tamaulipas. The border river has a great emotional presence in both the U.S. and Mexican imagination, often leading to the belief that the entire river is a dangerous haven of crime. Although the Río Grande has its human-caused dangers, its cultural and natural history is much, much deeper than what is often presented in the news. Currently much of this quiet riverine forest is in danger of being destroyed by the U.S.’s border wall project. In a coming Nomadic Border photo essay, we will explore some of this rich history at the peaceful riverside Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.

​A tall shining metallic arch rises above the busy streets and rolling hills of Tijuana, Baja California, giving Mexico’s westernmost city an icon to welcome visitors and to symbolize its modernity. It is called by various names, including the Arco del Milenio (Millennium Arch) or Arco de Tijuana, but officially the arch is known as the Reloj Monumental de Tijuana (Tijuana Monumental Clock). The arch has been controversial since its construction but has also become one of the city’s most important symbols in the 21st Century. [1]

​Measuring 196 feet (60 meters) in height and 110 feet (33.5 meters) wide, the Reloj Monumental is about a tall as a 14 story building, making the metallic arch easily visible throughout Tijuana as well as just across the U.S.-Mexico border in southwestern San Diego County. The towering arch was built specifically on Avenida Revolución (Tijuana’s most famous street) to welcome tourists. [2]

​The Reloj Monumental was first proposed by Tijuana Mayor Francisco “Kiko” Vega de Lamadrid early in his three-year (1998-2001) term to welcome the new millennium through a revitalization of Avenida Revolución and the city’s historic Plaza Santa Cecilia. The cabildo (or “city council”) formed a committee of local citizens to determine the project’s design through a contest.  The winning design was the “Reloj Monumental Tijuana 2000” proposal by architects Leodegario Silva López, Edgar Iván Rodríguez Llerenas and Moisés López Smith. Their proposal featured a steel arch structure with copper construction.

​The arch project was budgeted at $6,400,000 pesos (about $640,000 U.S. dollars) a small figure in comparison to the sums U.S. cities often pay for various urban projects, but a high investment for a city like Tijuana where many neighborhoods lacked access to electricity and sewage service. “I believe there are lots of things lacking in the city, and this won't solve downtown's problems,” councilwoman Yolanda Enriquez said, “which include dealing with the children in the streets, trash and the influx of vendors.” [5]

Many businesses around Avenida Revolución and Plaza Santa Cecilia opposed the project fearing it would damage the historic center’s architectural integrity as well as the disruption construction would cause. 

​Indeed, the arch was built over Avenida Revolución with its bases built on the northwestern and southeastern corners of its intersection with Calle Primera (Argüello). For much of the day the arch casts a shadow over the historic Plaza Santa Cecilia. 

​Today the Plaza Santa Cecilia hosts various restaurants and shops while also being a favorite gathering place for mariachi musicians. Harkening back to the city’s early touristic heritage, redevelopment of the plaza has long been a contentious issue for tijuanenses as seen below in a July 5, 1980 story from the Heraldo de Baja California. 

​Mayor Kiko Vega faced significant pushback against his Reloj Monumental. When the private financing the expensive project relied on did not materialize, Vega pushed the cabildo to fund construction until private groups could repay the city later. Although proposed as a tribute to Tijuana’s place in the new millennium, groundbreaking did not occur until December 31, 1999. Principal work did not begin until April 2000, by which point a municipal investigation discovered improprieties in how the project’s building contract was managed. Construction on the arch did not finish until October 2001.

​Kiko Vega kept the scandal-plagued project alive, completing it only on the last day of his term. On November 30, 2001, the Reloj Monumental was officially dedicated, although the project’s delays (and decreasing tourism after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks) greatly detracted from the moment’s festive mood. [6]

​As mayor of the state’s largest city, Vega pushed for the project to be completed to help his prospects as a gubernatorial candidate for the 2001 Baja California elections. Unsuccessful in the 2001 and 2007 elections, Kiko was finally elected governor for a six-year term in 2013. [7]

​The Reloj’s early years were a time of great frustration. While southbound motorists could see a “Welcome to Tijuana” sign suspended between the arch’s legs, the opposite side of the sign included a digital clock comprised of various small TV monitors. However, it stopped working just a few weeks after its dedication. [8]

​In 2014 local merchants finally convinced Mayor Jorge Astiazarán Orcí to improve the monument’s upkeep as part of an effort to bring tourists back to the border city. The long-broken digital clock was replaced with a larger outdoor television donated by Samsung as part of the Korean corporation’s 5-year plan to invest $100 million U.S. dollars in the city. Corporate advertisements have run on the large monitor since it was installed in February 2015. [9]

​Although many tijuanenses complain the arch is just an extravagant billboard, the arch’s renovation improved the Reloj Monumental’s reputation in the city, with tourism guides highlighting it as a key part of visiting the city. The arch is now a common reference point tijuanenses use when giving directions. “Lost? Head towards the arch.” [10] 

​Although its controversial origins can in many ways be traced to Mayor Kiko Vega’s long-term political ambitions, there can be no doubt that nearly twenty years after its debut that the Reloj Monumental has become an essential part of 21st Century Tijuana and its historic Avenida Revolución.

[1] “El Arco del Milenio (Reloj Monumental Tijuana 2000),” Observatorio Turístico de Baja California (http://www.observaturbc.org/node/21735)
 
[2] Cesar Romero, “Arco Reloj Monumental,” Go App! MX (March 26, 2019), (https://www.goapp.mx/que-hacer-arco-reloj-monumental-792).
 
[3] Joel Carrillo, “Reloj monumental – Tijuana, BC, MX,” ¿Soñando o la realidad? (March 26, 2012), (http://span413jcarrillo.umwblogs.org/2012/03/26/520/); “Reloj Monumental Tijuana 2000,” Archinect (https://archinect.com/pi9.arquitectos/project/reloj-monumental-tijuana-2000); Vega de Lamadrid photograph, Invest in Baja (http://www.investinbaja.gob.mx/en/vision/message-from-the-governor).
 
[4] Carrillo, “Reloj monumental – Tijuana, BC, MX.”
 
[5] Carrillo, “Reloj monumental – Tijuana, BC, MX,”;  Anna Cearley, “Tijuana dedicates landmark in historic downtown core,” San Diego Union-Tribune, (Dec. 1, 2001), B-2, B-3.
 
[6] Carrillo, “Reloj monumental – Tijuana, BC, MX,”;  Anna Cearley, “Tijuana dedicates landmark in historic downtown core,” San Diego Union-Tribune, (Dec. 1, 2001), B-2, B-3; Ken Ellingwood, “Tijuana Monument Project Stalls,” Los Angeles Times (Dec. 12, 2000), (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-dec-12-mn-64405-story.html).
 
[7] Kiko Vega was unsuccessful in gaining the support of Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) for the 2001 and 2007 gubernatorial elections in Baja California, and ultimately served in other political roles during those years. In 2013 Sonoran-born Vega finally succeeded in being nominated as PAN’s gubernatorial candidate and won that year’s race. Vega’s opaque reputation from his earlier term as mayor of Tijuana grew during his six-year term as governor through constant corruption scandals as well as a massively unpopular plan to privatize the water system in the Mexicali Valley.

See Inés García Ramos, “Gobierno de “Kiko” desvió mil 432 millones de pesos,” Zeta, (Feb. 26, 2018), (https://zetatijuana.com/2018/02/gobierno-de-kiko-desvio-mil-432-millones-de-pesos/);

Antonio Heras, “Continúan protestas por privatización del agua en Mexicali,” La Jornada (May 21, 2018), (https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2018/05/21/continuan-protestas-por-privatizacion-del-agua-en-mexicali-4984.html);

Antonio Heras, “’Kiko’ Vega, el acaudalado gobernador… que nadie investiga,” Proceso (Nov. 24, 2016), (https://www.proceso.com.mx/463805/kiko-vega-acaudalado-gobernador-nadie-investiga)
Eduardo Ruíz-Healy, “El decepcionante Kiko Vega,” Ruiz-Healy Times (Aug. 13, 2018), (https://www.ruizhealytimes.com/mi-columna/el-decepcionante-kiko-vega).
​
 
[8] Carrillo, “Reloj monumental – Tijuana, BC, MX,”; Ángela Torres, “Inauguran pantalla en arco monumental,” La Jornada Baja California (Feb. 26, 2015), (http://jornadabc.mx/tijuana/26-02-2015/inauguran-pantalla-en-arco-monumental); UniRadio I,“ Piden quitar reloj monumental y dejar el arco,” YouTube (March 18, 2013), (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31_FI5Em3Sg).
 
[9] “Donan pantalla gigante para Reloj Monumental,” AFN: Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias (Oct. 1, 2014), (http://www.afntijuana.info/informacion_general/32282_donan_pantalla_gigante_para_reloj_monumental). Jorge Astiazarán Orcí of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, Partido Institucional Revolucionario) served as Tijuana’s 24th mayor from 2013-2016. Samsung is one of the many TV-manufacturing firms based in Tijuana, formerly known as the “worldwide capital of television.”
 
[10] Matthew Suárez, “Flat screen nation: Tijuana landmark gets monumentally sized TV set,” San Diego Reader (Feb. 19, 2015), (https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/feb/19/stringers-tijuana-flat-screen-el-arco-monument/).

#Tijuana #BajaCalifornia #BC #Baja #ArcodeTijuana #RelojMonumental #Mexico #México #FronteraMexicoEEUU #USMexicoBorder #LaFrontera #Border #Borderlands #BorderHistory #BorderlandsHistory #HistoriaFronteriza #Arco #TJ #KikoVega

​For many, the U.S.-Mexico border summons images of barrier walls and binational border towns set in arid desert landscapes. However, on January 2, 2019, snow blanketed the international boundary between Nogales, Arizona, USA, and Heroica Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. For a few hours the borderlands were a winter wonderland.

​ Although the general public’s visualization of how the Mexico-U.S. border is “supposed” to look like does not include snow, the international boundary crosses some relatively higher elevations along its trajectory.

While both ends of the international boundary are at sea level at San Diego-Tijuana’s Friendship Park and the mouth of the Rio Grande near Brownsville-Matamoros, the border’s highest point has a height of approximately 6,700 feet (2,042 meters). The border’s high point is 130 miles (208km) east of Ambos Nogales at the Puerto de San Luis (or San Luis Pass) in the Sierra San Luis (the northernmost extension of the Sierra Madre Occidental) where the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora and the U.S. state of New Mexico meet. [1]

Indeed, at 3,829 feet (1,167 m) above sea level the two Nogales are the fourth-highest border towns along the U.S.-Mexico border after 4,665 foot (1,422 m) elevation Antelope Wells, New Mexico/El Berrendo, Chihuahua; Naco, Arizona/Naco, Sonora (4,610 ft/1,405 m); and Agua Prieta, Sonora/Douglas, Arizona (4,000 ft/1,129 m) at the base of the Sierra San Luis. Part of the Sonoran Desert’s highlands, Ambos Nogales experience hot summers, but also face cold winters which can bring in levels of snowfall. Severe cold fronts are dangerous for Sonora's economically marginalized communities.

​Barbed concertina wire was added to the border fence in late 2018 when fears of Central American refugees and other Latin American migrants grew in the U.S.

Crosses tied to the border wall mesh memorialize individuals who have died crossing the border or in political activism, such as Honduran environmental and indigenous rights leader Berta Cáceres who was killed in Honduras by developers with ties to that country’s pro-U.S. dictatorship. [3]

The mesh seen at the bottom half of the barrier prevents people on either side of the line from exchanging objects or getting into physical contact across the border wall.

​The border wall follows the rolling Nogales hillsides across the snow. Portable stadium lights help USBP agents to monitor the fence at night.

​Though at an elevation of about 3,800 feet, palm trees still grow in high desert Ambos Nogales. Shoppers walk near a snowy palm tree on Grand Avenue in downtown Nogales, AZ.

The decorative mid-1990s border wall leaves its shadow on the snow near the Morley Avenue Port of Entry in a wintery scene that might better evoke the Canada-U.S. border rather than the Mexico-U.S. border.

​The pristine snow along this hill would almost look like a ski slope were it not for the menacing fence and newly-installed barbed wire above.

​A small stream of snowmelt crosses north across the border fence at the bottom of this “ski slope.” 

Like a great deal of the natural forces around the existing border barrier, this snowmelt quietly flows north despite the U.S. government’s efforts to control all physical access between the two countries.

​Heroica Nogales’s Colonia Buenos Aires is a densely-populated area of the city that contrasts with the sparsely-located homes on this part of Nogales, Arizona. The white-painted portion of the wall is another place where water from Mexico flows north into the U.S.

​Rain (and snow!) that accumulate on the Mexican side drain northwards due to the lower elevations of the Arizona border city. The 2011 border fence here was designed to continue allowing water to drain along seasonal arroyos or washes.

​Despite all of the commotion of the border in our collective imagination, it is important to remember that Nogales is also an overwhelmingly safe community as seen in this quiet border-adjacent neighborhood along Ione Marcus Gordon Memorial Park.

​Snow has become rarer in Ambos Nogales in recent years, but the January 2, 2019 snowfall is a reminder of the area’s varied high desert climate. Though the social imagination of people on either side of the fence tends to visualize the border as only a scorching hot desert setting, snowfall along higher elevations along the international boundary accentuates how much more colorful the Mexico-U.S. borderlands are on a geographic and climatological level.

[1] “The National Map,” (Coordinates: 31.33259/-108.75660), U.S. Geological Survey, (https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/advanced-viewer/); “Carta Topografica Agua Prieta,” Mapas, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (https://www.inegi.org.mx/app/mapas/).

​[2] Photo by Daniela Batista, “Presenta tráfico ligero carretera Janos a Puerto San Luis,” El Puntero (Dec. 30 2015), (http://elpuntero.com.mx/n/7464); “Se abre circulación en Puerto San Luis carretera Agua Prieta-Janos,” No Pasa Nada (Dec. 30, 2018), (https://nopasanada.mx/2018/12/se-abre-circulacion-en-puerto-san-luis-carretera-agua-prieta-janos/).

​[3] Nina Lakhani, “Berta Cáceres: seven men convicted of murdering Honduran environmentalist,” The Guardian, (Nov. 29, 2018), (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/29/berta-caceres-seven-men-convicted-conspiracy-murder-honduras).

[4] “Morley Avenue Border Inspection Station,” National Register of Historic Place, National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/14000244.htm).

[5] The Santa Cruz River is a tributary of the Gila River to which it drains its water (mostly underground at that point) west of downtown Phoenix. The Gila River then flows west towards the Colorado River in Yuma which then drains into Mexico’s Gulf of California. See “The Vanishing Santa Cruz River,” National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/articles/vanishingsantacruzr.htm); and Robert H. Webb, Julio L. Betancourt, R. Roy Johnson, R. M. Turner, and Bernard L. Fontana, Requiem for the Santa Cruz: An Environmental History of an Arizona River (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2014).


#Nogales #AmbosNogales #Arizona #Sonora #USMexicoBorder #Borderlands #Geography #Climate #SonoranDesert #ChihuahuanDesert #Snow #Snowgales #Winter #LaFrontera #MorleyAvenue #MorleyAvenuePortofEntry #DesertSnow #HighDesert

​Along the U.S-Mexican border various artists, using a variety of art forms, have worked to encourage the general public to reflect on the social problems caused by the border’s existence. Among the most noteworthy issues this art explores are transnational migration as well as the use of government force (such as the U.S. Border Patrol) to build up the border. The work of Nogales, Sonora, artists Alberto Morackis and Guadalupe Serrano bears witness to how public art can contribute to a greater awareness of the border’s social problems.

In January 2003 artists Alberto Morackis and Guadalupe Serrano unveiled a steel sculpture artwork composed of different figures interacting with the border wall along Heroica Nogales, Sonora, Mexico’s Calle Internacional. The sculptures in Border Dynamics (Dinámica Fronteriza) weighed 900 pounds each and tried to push down or reinforce the corrugated steel border fence. In Morackis and Serrano’s original vision the four ambiguous sculptures were to have been placed on both sides of the border fence to better illustrate the push-pull character of the militarized border.

However, neither Morackis, Serrano, or their sponsors were able to obtain permission from the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) to place two of the four sculptures on the U.S. side of the fence. According to USBP spokesmen, placing two sculptures on the U.S. side would have required for a guard to be present at all times to prevent young people from cutting themselves with the steel figures’ sharp edges. Additionally, there were concerns the sculptures would be used as ladders by undocumented border crossers. [3]

​After many months of display in Nogales, the steel sculptures of Border Dynamics were moved to the University of Arizona mall which was supposed to be the first stop of the artwork’s national tour through different universities across the United States. The Beyond Borders Binational Art Foundation, a Tucson-based border art group, sponsored Morackis and Serrano’s work as well as help them put Border Dynamics on display at the U of A. Wells Fargo Bank and the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

During its initial exhibition at the U of A, Border Dynamics acquired a replica of the corrugated steel border fence which allowed the artwork to finally have the four steel figures pushing against one another on opposites sides of the fence. According to Tom Whittingslow, founder of Beyond Borders, Morackis and Serrano’s sculptures were the first work in a series of public artworks which would explore border issues along the Arizona-Sonora region, similar to border art between San Diego and Tijuana. Border Dynamics debuted on September 15, 2003, at the UA as part of the university’s Hispanic Heritage Month festivities. [5]

Despite the enthusiasm generated by Border Dynamics, the national tour the sponsors at Beyond Borders envisioned did not come to pass due to lack of funding. For a time the steel sculptures were stored away from the public. UA President Peter Likins, however, expressed interest in having Morackis and Serrano’s artwork on permanent display on campus. With the help of the UA Art Museum, Border Dynamics was put on permanent display in 2005 on the northern part of the main UA campus at the entrance to the Harvill Building. According to Whittingslow, the sculptures represent the “atmosphere of xenophobia and fear” that migration between Mexico and U.S. often reflects. “By externalizing these feelings through art, perhaps a common ground can be found. These figures are allegories of how we behave when confronted with barriers-either external or of the mind. In this sense, the sculptures are universal.” [7]

​Alberto Morackis once explained that the name of his and Serrano’s art workshop, Taller Yonke (junkyard workshop), originated from the “many junkyards in Nogales (Mexico), and because Mexico is the United States’ junkyard.” The duo’s next work in 2004 used scrap metal to vividly illustrate the nature of the uneven and conflicting relationship between the U.S. and Mexico in Paseo de la Humanidad (Parade of Humanity). UA Art Professor Alfred J. Quiróz collaborated with Morackis and Serrano in bringing the colorful metal murals to life. [9]

Composed different metallic panels and human-like figures painted in varying colors and designs, the original Paseo de la Humanidad was one of the most celebrated and noteworthy artworks in Nogales. The Taller Yonke team placed the metal mural on the Mexican side of the fence since “no permission is needed to install artwork on the fence” from the Mexican government. Additionally, Morackis stated, “the United States placed its border wall without any discussion.” [11] In 2011 the U.S. government replaced the corrugated steel fence in Nogales and prohibited incorporation of art on the new barrier, forcing Paseo de la Humanidad to be placed on standalone metal posts a few meters away from the wall [BELOW].
​

In one part of the mural eight figures can be seen congregating at a metallic post meant to represent the border. Using Aztec symbols as well as the imagery of modern-day mass consumption items, the different figures represent the transnational movement of Latin American migrants and sentiments. On one side of the “border” we can see a group of migrants preparing to cross over the boundary into the U.S. In the original version of Paseo de la Humanidad the metallic post which represented the border was one of the main steel beams which supported the real 1990s-era border fence [ABOVE].

​In this part of the mural we can see a mother (with her metallic body covered in roses) carrying her son as she attempts to cross the border. Meanwhile figures coming from the opposing direction are carrying a covered person on their shoulders. The two figures are carrying home a companion migrant who perished in U.S., perhaps just barely during the dangerous desert crossing. The cross-border movement of these transnational migrants was more obvious in Paseo de la Humanidad’s original exhibition.

​The different metal figures vividly represent the cultural shock between Latin and North America. One figure (with a face resembling that of the Statue of Liberty) also includes a bomb for its torso, missiles for its legs, and bombs for its arms, symbolizing U.S. militarism. The celebrated U.S. symbol of immigration also has a word balloon with unintelligible text in Latin.

​In another part of the metallic mural one can see a menacing figure dressed in the green uniform of the U.S. Border Patrol shouting something in Latin while waving his police baton at a migrant. Morackis, Serrano, and Quiróz had the Statue of Liberty and USBP figures speaking in Latin (a language unintelligible to the majority of people today) in order to express how strange and foreign the English language can sound to many migrants.

​According to Guadalupe Serrano, Morackis and Quiróz’s collaborator in Paseo de la Humanidad, the increasing number of migrants deaths in the Sonoran desert in the 2000s influenced his contribution to the metal mural. Serrano wanted their art to serve as a warning for would-be migrants. The menacing face the sun has in this part of the mural reflects the numerous natural dangers migrants face in crossing the desert into the United States. “It's a way for the migrants to see the dangers that are behind the wall in the desert. Does it work? Who knows?” [15]

Each year Mexican people celebrate the 16th of September  in commemoration of the 1810 start of what became the Mexican independence movement. The colorful patriotic festival is celebrated not only within Mexican national boundaries, but also on the other side of its northern border wherever great concentrations of Mexican communities are found. In Los Angeles, California the demographic and cultural strength of the Mexican community – the second largest in the world after Mexico City – makes celebrating the annual “fiestas patrias” an indispensable local tradition. A colorful ceramic mural located in the historic heart of L.A. titled El Grito (“The Cry”) celebrates Mexico’s independence and as well as the heritage of the city’s vibrant Mexican American community.
​

A plaza situated near the Los Angeles’s Union Station and the Hollywood Freeway (U.S. 101) signifies the historic Spanish-Mexican roots of the United States’ second-largest city. The historic Los Angeles Plaza (sometimes known as “la Placita Olvera” due to the popularity of the neighboring Olvera Street and its Mexican-themed stores) was the city’s center from its founding in 1781 until the 1880s. By that point Los Angeles was no longer an outpost in the far north of New Spain (after 1821) or Mexico (after 1848). The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1876 propelled a population boom in L.A. as thousands of internal migrants from the eastern U.S. and midwestern states moved to Southern California – the city’s growth subsequently moved south of the historic plaza as the city shed much of its Mexican influence.
​

​Despite the social dispossession experienced by the Mexican community, the Los Angeles Plaza continued being the site where the “fiestas patrias” were celebrated. In the above image, a four-piece band performed during the 1940 Mexican Independence Day celebrations at the Los Angeles Plaza. [2]

​Today Mexican independence day celebrations in L.A. are mainly held at Los Angeles City Hall and are typically broadcast by the Telemundo and Univision networks, even though smaller (but no less meaningful) celebrations are still held in the Los Angeles Plaza. 

During the independence day festivities held on September 15, 2018, Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles (the first LGBT-themed group in the mariachi genre) and other entertainers such as Selenamos (honoring singer Selena Quintanilla) and Los Tucanes de Tijuana headlined the night’s musical program. ​

​Back at the Los Angeles Plaza, the public can reacquaint themselves with L.A.’s Mexican heritage and the long legacy of Mexican Independence Day there by visiting a large ceramic mural located just off the historic plaza in a connected area called “La Placita Dolores.” Dedicated in 1979 along with the Placita de Dolores, the mural El Grito commemorates the famous events of the morning of September 16, 1810 in front of the church in Dolores, Guanajuato, when the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla shouted (“cried”) out a rousing speech to convince the population to fight against the Spanish colonial government, leading to the beginning of what became Mexico’s independence movement. 

​The colorful mural formed by 300 painted ceramic tiles was created by Mexican American artist Eduardo Carrillo of Los Angeles who used art students to help him install his project [4].  Carrillo, descended from a Mexican family with roots in the mission town of San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, was a faculty member of the University of California, Santa Cruz when he developed his ceramic mural.

​After his death in 1997, Carrillo was remembered as an advocate of youth art education. Inspired by his boyhood in the Baja Californian peninsula, Carrillo is also remembered as a great muralist within the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s – one of his most famous works is Chicano History in the University of Los Angeles’s Campbell Hall. [6]

​The El Grito mural, a replica of the bell Father Hidalgo rang in Dolores, Guanajuato, and the rest of the Placita de Dolores were officially dedicated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter on May 5, 1979.

​Speaking to nearly 1000 attendees, Carter highlighted the role of federal grants in beautifying the Los Angeles Plaza and also reiterated his support for immigration reform:

The Los Angeles Plaza is a public space that links the busy cosmopolitan city with its historic Mexican roots. Although in linguistic and cultural identity terms the L.A. Mexican American community faces great pressure to assimilate into white, English-speaking mass society, the El Grito mural and the Placita de Dolores – along with the annual Mexican Independence Day and separate Cinco de Mayo celebrations – affirm the Mexican essence of Los Angeles’s development and growth. The international border is not the border for the celebration of Mexican cultural identity.

[1] “Discover Olvera Street and Historic El Pueblo de Los Angeles ,” Discover Los Angeles, Sept. 28, 2018 (https://es.discoverlosangeles.com/blog/guide-olvera-street-downtown-los-angeles).

[2] “Four piece band surrounded by crowd at Mexican Independence Day on Olvera Street, Los Angeles, 1940” Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive , UCLA Library (http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0002vg1n&imageonly=true).

[3] “Proyectando la conciencia Mexicana,” La Opinión, Sept. 16, 1976 (Sect. 7, Pg. 4). Mr. Martinez Manatou gave the commemorative “cry of Dolores” in L.A. on behalf of his friend, Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.

[4] “Eduardo Carrillo,” Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (https://www.muralconservancy.org/artist/eduardo-carrillo).

[5] Photos by Cruz Ortiz Zamarron, “Murals: El Grito,” Museo Eduardo Carrillo (https://museoeduardocarrillo.org/gallery/murals/)

[6] “UCSC art professor dies in Mexico at age 60,” Santa Cruz Sentinel (originally published Sept. 12, 1997), Museo Eduardo Carrillo (https://museoeduardocarrillo.org/santa-cruz-sentinel-biography/); Michael Several, “Eduardo Carrillo,” Public Art in L.A. (http://www.publicartinla.com/UnionStation/carillo_bio.html)

[7] “Speech by President Carter,” Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection, Los Angeles Public Library (http://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/125842); “Interés de Carter por los chicanos,” La Opinión (6 de mayo 1979), 1, 2; “Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for La Placita de Dolores de Los Angeles,” May 5, 1979, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1979 (Book I, January 1-June 22, 1979), pgs. 809-810.; “The Daily Diary of President Jimmy Carter,” May 5, 1979, President Jimmy Carter Library (https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/assets/documents/diary/1979/d050579t.pdf).

[8] “U.S. President Jimmy Carter on morning run with Stephen Rodriguez in El Sereno, Calif., 1979,” Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive , UCLA Library (http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0002qs8t)

​#california #miguelhidalgo #elgrito #eduardocarrillo #plazadelosangeles #placitadedolores #mexico #independenciademexico #chicanos #mexicanos #placitaolvera