Weekly Digest: Subscribe/Unsubscribe 

Home / Letters to Editor / Announcements / Columnists / Past Issues / About Us / Contact Us/VivaBeisbol

HispanicVista Columnists

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

May 15, 2009

“No darling, no one is shooting at us.”

By Patrick Osio

Like most writers I enjoy reading a good yarn and lately when it comes to Tijuana there have been some good ones published in various if not all US media printed outlets. Good yarns make for enjoyable reading, but as yarns go, how dependable is their accuracy and factual writing? It obviously depends on the writer, and there are some very good ones with great accuracy and factual writing, but there are also the yarn spinners looking to catch the eye of the editor of a targeted publication for acceptance and thus a pay day. These writers take liberties with occurrences  adding to them, twisting a little here a little there until a believable and saleable article is ready to submit.

Such has been my take on some of the articles I’ve read over the last few months in the San Diego Reader. Several have caught my eye and made me wonder and finally one that was so preposterous that it made me revisit the others to catch, if you will, the inconsistencies and in some cases downright fabrications.

The first of the big time major articles appearing on the SD Reader was a great job of copy-paste writing with a few changes here and there to give it rights of authorship. It was a mix of recent but incomplete news reports with an extensive amount of time-lines on the drug gangs and related events in Mexico.  Frankly as a journalistic attempt it failed rather miserably.  The author was seemingly more interested in getting paid while his next book was published and the article was hopefully going to provide some great controversial exposure that would facilitate book sales thus the need to produce a dramatic and sensational article. Well, it did create controversy, but the jury is still out on how much it helped with book sales.

The next one I thought was as humorous as it was ridiculous, written by an author who had to go to Tijuana in search of a dentist. He had to go there because he could not afford one in San Diego and he needed dental attention badly. 

One needs to understand that a published free lance writer is so, not because he needs the experience rather because he needs to sell his work. Such writers know that sending an editor of a pay for article publication, a piece wherein the subject is – I went to Tijuana to a dentist, found one, the office was no Beverly Hills address but OK, the work was not the best in the world, but it was good, the cost was really low and I will return for more dental work as I need it – would not even merit a response saying – stick it, or the more polite, “we cannot use your article at this time, but be sure and send us others in the future,” or even the most common, no response at all.

Such a writer knows the game, he would have to come up with a twist, one that would be catchy, dramatic, exciting, keep the reader guessing and wanting more.  Well, what better than Tijuana that is the subject of every cub-reporter and even seasoned reporters who follow Lou Dobbs then feel compelled to bad mouth Mexico so as to be thought of as in the know, and who have been given the green light to sensationalize, dramatize and rehash the war against drugs taking place in Baja California to pick up sagging newspaper sales. And of course, even without basis in fact, make Americans feel they are in danger visiting Tijuana or anywhere else in Baja – the ever popular “we Americans are the innocent victims.”

So the particular writer started the article providing an adventure, more fitting for a soldier of fortune magazine, in his quest to find a dentist in Tijuana. He begins his tale telling us he crossed on foot – as he entered Mexico through one of the two one-way turn-stills he immediately sees two thugs waiting for victims they can pounce.

They spot him, they move towards their prey. He is able to spot them because of his worldly experience. This is not new to him, he has faced such life threatening dangers before in other lands.  He calls on his military background to outfox and outmaneuver the would be thugs. Wow, he escapes them, he has just saved his own life, and successfully reaches the taxi center about 100 yards from the entry point. The next adventure, though minus the melodramatic life threatening experience, is the search for the dentist with a taxi driver bent on making more money from him – our hero had the name of the dental clinic, but where, oh where was it.  It goes down hill after that. He tells the story dishing out words about finding the dentist and receiving good dental service and, yes, he saved money and yes, he will return in fact Tijuana is where he will get all his future dental work done. Bravo!

I believe it was the near getting mugged, maybe losing his life adventure that sold the Reader editor into buying the story, because there it was for the San Diego universe to read. For some of us to laugh at, but sadly for far more to have it serve as more proof that Tijuana is not safe. After all, how many people have the writer’s worldly experience and ability to outmaneuver and outfox dangerous criminals bent on taking his money and possibly life.

For people who have entered Tijuana on foot, the tale of two would be muggers positioning themselves to pounce on unsuspecting victims between the entry point and taxi center is very ridiculous. As one enters through the one way turn-still into a pedestrian corridor around 30 feet wide, on the right side there is a cement block wall raising around 8 feet that runs most of the distance of the corridor with the only openings into a federal zone fenced parking area that is guarded. On the left side of the entry there is a steel fence with military personnel visible guarding the vehicular incoming traffic that is adjacent to the pedestrian entry point. There are also armed customs officers for secondary inspection. After that view, but still on the left side of the corridor there are government offices all with armed security officers, and on the corridor itself a booth for Mexican customs officers, also armed, observing and selecting people with packages for inspection.

That muggers would choose the pedestrian port of entry site to pounce on victims is about as probable as staking a place to mug people inside a police station. We all know that there are stupid people, some really stupid, but that one at such level of stupidity, not make that two at that level, would choose the exact time when our dentist seeking writer would enter Mexico has worse odds than a single lotto ticket winning the grand prize.

Additionally, the economy of Tijuana is largely dependent of tourism and for the last few years authorities have gone well out of their way to be protective of their foreign guests. Would be muggers would last about 30 seconds before having most of their bones feel the painful commitment to such protection. And facts speak for themselves, while Mexicans are losing lives  to the war on drugs, American citizens not involved in the drug world, have not been the targets and no visitor to Baja has been killed.

The last of the articles, “Mommy why are they shooting at us again?” is well written but sadly it only tells the story of what is selectively happening and how some people living in certain neighborhoods feel unsafe. 

I’ve been to Los Angeles and interviewed people in various parts of that great city. Some in neighborhoods such as East Los Angeles have related how unsafe they feel, how they fear for their children’s safety, how unsafe it is to go out at night. And in fact, the crime rate in those neighborhoods supports those fears. The same thing is heard in areas of South Central LA, and in Pomona, Cucamonga, Riverside, Redlands, San Fernando, even in parts of trendy Santa Monica, West Los Angeles and Hollywood, and places like Gardena, Hawthorne, El Segundo, Inglewood and others.  There are areas like that in San Diego, in Orange County, Ventura and in fact every county in California and elsewhere in most states in the union. In San Diego would one stop going to Sea World because there is crime in Logan Heights or Pacific Beach?

Or take the case of New Orleans whose homicide numbers are greater than those in Tijuana. Here we are told the homicides do not take place in the tourist area of the French Quarters, rather on other sections of the city.

Tijuana is no different. The city is a sprawling municipality covering over 400 square miles with a population soon to reach 2 million that has numerous neighborhoods, called colonias. The crime rate in some colonias is far greater than in other sections of the municipality. But it is not all of Tijuana that is experiencing the terrible upsurge in crime as the “Mommy why are they shooting at us again?” article lead readers to believe.

The drug gangs for the most part are killing themselves off but doing it mostly in colonias away from the central up scale and tourist visited areas. Criminals after killing victims are known to dump bodies in other sections of the city to intimidate the local population and other gangs; and of importance to them, have the press on both sides of the border dramatize the event. The press plays into the hands of the gangs as they wish to have fear reign and intimidation buys them silence from witnesses. The homicide rate is around 0.0005% of the total population (1,000 homicides/2 million population). Clearly 99.9995 percent of Tijuana residents are safe from such crime.

The financial and trendy districts of Tijuana do have crime, as does downtown San Diego, but in both it is far less and not replete with homicides. The area in Tijuana surrounding the San Ysidro port of entry where a great number of the medical facilities are found and within easy access for both vehicular and pedestrian border crossers is not the scene of serious crimes. Neither is Avenida Revolucion that has been the main street for pedestrian border crossing visitors for decades. And by the way, within 100 to 200 yards from the border there are at least 4 highly rated dental clinics.

So that if one interviews people who live in neighborhoods where the crime upsurge is at high peak, the fears heard are in keeping with the story line as published, but it is by no means the story of the entire city of Tijuana. As neither are stories about high crime and homicide incidents in East Los Angeles or other places the entire story about the entire city of Los Angeles.

As for Americans homicides in Baja, there have been 4 in the last 2 years, 2 directly connected to drugs, 1 as a victim of a San Diego wife’s lover hiring a Mexican assassin to kill her husband, and the other for unknown reasons. So that if the question is, are American’s safe from homicide in Baja?  One would have to conclude that Americans are safer from homicide in Baja than they are in their own community.  In San Diego alone during January and February of 2009 there were 5 murders.  Most obviously, American tourists are not the targets in Tijuana or anywhere else in Baja California.

The kidnappings of successful and wealthy Mexican nationals is real not only in Tijuana but in numerous cities across Mexico. The kidnappers have investigated their victims excessively, they know most of what they need to know about the target, the family, their worth and vulnerabilities. They are merciless and savage.  It is true that such successful people are under a tremendous amount of stress and many have moved their families to, hopefully, safe havens like Chula Vista. (By the way, the wealthy have little problem obtaining visas.) Targeted businessmen travel with bodyguards throughout Tijuana. Many of the bodyguards are American and some are Israelites. It has to be a tough way to live, but again it is not the American visitor/tourist who is the target.

In as much as I travel into Tijuana no less than once a week, sometimes more, I wondered some time ago when the US media was at full press reporting and rehashing events that eventually destroyed a great deal of the tourism industry in Tijuana and most of Baja California, why it was that my experiences were not as I was reading. According to those reports, I was in imminent danger of losing my life at worst and severely wounded at best, and of course, now I know that I also needed to avoid crossing as a pedestrian lest the two muggers were still waiting for a victim.

At that time, with video cameraman, director and sound man, I began interviewing, not Mexican nationals rather American, Canadian and from other countries expatriates living in Playas de Tijuana, Rosarito Beach and Ensenada. The questions we asked were regarding what they read, heard and saw on the various US news media regarding the crime wave and about their own personal experiences and safety. Are they afraid, have they noted an increase in crime in their area, do they feel threatened, etc.?

Of the 22 interviews on camera we did, not one, not one single person said they feared for their life. They all stressed that living there they knew the importance of not going to certain neighborhoods and since they were not involved in drugs, they did not run in those circles. The crime was no different there than that which they had while living in their place of origin. They had not changed their schedules; they shopped, dined out, attended plays and movie houses, visited friends, all routines in what they consider their own paradise.

These are people who had lived in Seattle, Denver, San Diego, Phoenix, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Las Vega, Vancouver, Toronto and many other cities.

Most related they had heard from their families in the US who after reading or seeing some of the news reports about the crime in Baja, called worried and begging them to return to “safety.”  They said it was tough for their families to understand that they were safe and that in fact they lived in relative safety. As one person interviewed who had lived in Seattle said, “There are places in Seattle I would not visit after dark.” 

Revisiting the articles in the Reader, I noted that not one of the writers had interviews with Americans living in the “war zone.” Why would this be?  It would seem that from a journalistic responsibility, ground zero interviews would be mandatory particularly when they are available.  The other explanation is – maybe some of the 14,000 American expatriates living along the coast were interviewed but their comments not used as their experiences are not sensational and debunk the myth of Americans in danger in Baja. Where is the drama if they are safe? Would newspapers sell with such stories? 

Now that Secretary of State Clinton has visited Mexico and announced that "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade” has officially placed a joint responsibility on both nations to quell both the smuggling and usage, the hope is that people on both sides of the border will take note and concentrate efforts on the one common enemy – drug usage and drug trafficking – and stop the defamation of a grand city - Tijuana.

______________________________________________________

Patrick Osio is the Editor of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) Contact at: Posiojr@aol.com

_________________________

Patrick Osio, Jr. is a columnist for the San Diego Metropolitan Magazine and co-founder of TransBorder Communications. Contact as POsioJr@aol.com

 Patrick Osio is Editor of HispanicVista. Contact at: POsioJr@aol.com

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive manual on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The manual is an in depth primer on the culture and protocol for better understanding Mexicans that in turn allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals.

The manual is available through Electronic delivery for $9.95 making it possible to download the manual for save on your hard drive, printing its entirety or particular sections while reaping considerable savings over printed copies.