Hello Y’all!
I found this really interesting article among my NPR findings a couple of days ago concerning the city of Tijuana. The article, called “Amid Growing Violence, Art Flourishes in Tijuana”, talks of the efforts to create art spaces to change the image of Tijuana. The low in the Tijuana smuggling business because of Mexico-US intense anti-drug collaboration has been good for art. In a city tainted by gun fights and drug cartel killings old hideouts for smugglers have become spaces of expression.
Luis Ituarte is a perfect example. Last year he opened an art gallery that used to have a cross-border tunnel in the basement. Now he’s trying to buy an abandoned hotel just across the street, Hotel Londres.This hotel used to be a flophouse where migrants would stay for a few nights and meet up with “coyotes” or people smugglers before attempting to sneak into the US without proper papers.
“Since the border has become so tight, they went out of business,” Ituarte says. “So, we are in negotiations to acquire the hotel and to make our residency program, to make some studios out of it.”
Ituartes current art house is called “La Casa del Tunel”, the House with a Tunnel. It used to be a smuggling operation. People went in and out of the house with huge plant pots and later the police discovered the drug operation and sealed the tunnel leading into the US. Since then it harbors art.
The Centro Cultural Tijuana, or Tijuana Cultural Center is also a big part of this art insurgency. This new center has been fighting for space and attention. It is part of the government’s effort to promote art and culture. THis center offers classes, exhibitions, kids clubs, photo expos, film showings, an IMAX theater,student tours and cultural events that want to change TIjuana from a drug ridden city, to a city that advocates against drug trafficking through art and fights it way back into peace with brushes and words.
The Centro Cultural Tijuana is a safe haven for cultural expression amidst the drug war. photo by Jason Beaubien/NPR
