“No touching” through the border’s iron bars
By David Bacon It took two days on the bus for Catalina Cespedes and her husband Teodolo Torres to get from their hometown in Puebla – Santa Monica Cohetzala – to Tijuana. On a bright Sunday in May they went to the beach at Playas de Tijuana. There the wall separating Mexico from the United States plunges down a steep hillside and levels off at the Parque de Amistad, or Friendship Park, before crossing the sand and heading...
FBI Veteran, a Rare Outsider, to Lead US Border Patrol
By Associated Press SAN DIEGO — An FBI veteran was named Monday to head the U.S. Border Patrol, a departure from the historical practice of picking someone who has risen through the ranks. Mark Morgan, who briefly led the internal affairs department at the Border Patrol’s parent agency, will oversee a multibillion-dollar annual budget as he runs the agency in the crosshairs of the national debate about border security and...
Fandango Fronterizo music sharing event helps mends fences at US-Mexican border
Not much can get across the U.S.-Mexico border fence these days, but every year at Friendship Park, a security zone between San Diego and Tijuana, music is heard coming over the thick metal fence. The event is called Fandango Fronterizo, in which musicians, some trekking up from Tijuana and some down from San Diego, meet at the border with instruments and start strumming in the son jarocho style. Read the full story...
Survey: Tijuana, San Diego Students Lead Increasingly Binational Lives
By Jean Guerrero San Diego and Tijuana students frequently cross the border and have close relationships with people on the other side, according to preliminary findings from a UC San Diego study announced Thursday. “Most of these students, they are living a truly binational life,” said Peter Cowhey, dean of UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, which partnered with the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies...
Border Report: Sanders Visit ‘Could Be a Turning Page’
By Brooke Binkowski As California’s presidential primary draws near, candidates are visiting the state and making the rounds to press the flesh and talk to voters. Former President Bill Clinton appeared in San Diego on Saturday to stump for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump, the sole remaining Republican candidate, will be in San Diego on May 27. But Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s also trying to...
Crowds Welcome Bernie Welcome Sanders in San Diego
May 22,2016 (San Diego) — The Democratic presidential candidates’ campaigns both held rallies and other events in the San Diego region over the weekend in anticipation of California’s June 7th primary. Senator Bernie Sanders drew about 10,000 people at a rally at Kimball Park in National City on Saturday, the San Diego Union-Tribune estimates. On Sunday, he held a second rally at a high school in Vista. Earlier, he toured...