activist+professor+writer, border issues, urban art, TJ

Sierra Club joins Immigrants Rights Orgs in a united call for a Path to Citizenship

In a surprising and welcome move this week, the national board of the Sierra Club voted on Wednesday to support comprehensive immigration reform.  The move unifies the Sierra Club and the already powerful  immigrant rights movement, bringing hefty political clout to the support of a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s eleven million undocumented immigrants. [...]

Deported Veterans in distress

Yesterday, in Playas de Tijuana, my friend Maria Teresa and I came upon the group Banished Veterans painting a new mural on the border wall. Click here for photos on Flickr. Designed by the San Francisco artist and U.S. Navy veteran Amos Gregory, the mural is an expression of the feelings of an estimated 50 [...]

Deported Veterans: The Fight to Return Home

Alex Murillo is one of an estimated 50 U.S. military veterans living in Baja California–not by choice–but because he and the others were deported from the United States. Because U.S. immigration law makes no distinction between military veterans and other U.S. residents who have not completed the naturalization process, these veterans were deported with no [...]

Occidente Nuevo: Recycled Tijuana

Opening Saturday, April 6, from 1-3 pm at Mariposa Studios in Colonia Federal Tijuana This new show features photos of Tijuana’s fascinating and sometimes disturbing built environment. In their artist statement, the photographers explain: The exhibition, Occidente Nuevo: Recycled Tijuana plays off Robert Adams’s seminal series The New West, a stunning photo essay about newly [...]

Friendship Park to remain open to the public

Nobody ever thought keeping a little park open would be so much work. But protecting public access to Friendship Park has turned into a full-time job for members of the Friends of Friendship Park. After two weeks of uncertainty and an announcement from Border Patrol on March 18 that the park would be closed because [...]

Ciudad Habla:The City Speaks

It is often said that Tijuana is a “ciudad de paso.”  That is, a place of passage, a city where tourists come and go. A launching pad for migrants who are only just passing through on their way to the United States. Indeed, after John Spreckels financed a railroad line from Yuma to San Diego [...]

Working toward a better border: California Values Statement on Immigration Reform

Does Washington really “get” the border?  As we on the southwest border watch our leaders in Washington D.C. debate the complexities of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, we often feel that Washington is out of touch with the everyday realities of California. To cross the border at San Ysidro to go buy some groceries at Sprouts or [...]

Tijuana Alley Art at VISUAL in San Diego’s Normal Heights

March 9, 2013  SATURDAY NIGHT  6-10 PM VISUAL Shop  3524 Adams Ave  San Diego, CA 92116  With wheatpaste art & paintings by Tijuana artists: 1102, Panca, and Spel Teodora Craft beer by Francisco J. Garcia of Studio 2287, Tijuana  The concept of my exhibition is to explore—through my photos— “that which remains” in the alleys [...]

A Better Border: Progressives Respond to Senators’ Principles for Immigration Reform

Today, the U.S. Senators charged with developing the new immigration legislation released a bipartison framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The leadership group, nicknamed the “Gang of 8,”  includes Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), John McCain (R-AZ)  Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Robert Menendez (D-NY), Mark Rubio (R-FL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). The framework. made available [...]

Callejones de Tijuana: Exposición fotográfica de Jill Holslin

CON artistas de Tijuana SPEL UNO, PANCA y ONCE CERO DOS,  VISUAL ART SUPPLY 3524 Adams Avenue, San Diego, California  9 marzo 2013, sábado  El concepto de mi exposición es investigar—por mis fotos— ”lo que queda” en los callejones de Tijuana.  Muchas veces los graffiteros llegan a un lugar a pintar, y pintan, se van, y [...]