In early documents - primarily mission records (baptisms, marriages, deaths) - there are mentions of "La Tia Juana", "Tiguana", "Tiuana", "Teguana", "Tiwana", "Tijuan", "Ticuan", "Tijuana". It is believed by some that name comes from the YumanIndian language from the aboriginal Kumeyaay (Kumiai) inhabitants. They spoke a Yuman language, in which some have claimed "Tijuana" originated from "Tiwan", meaning close to the sea. Others say this is not certain, that there is no such word in Kumayaay, and that the name cames from another location of similar appearance (and name) in the south of the peninsula, and the name was brought north by Spanish/Mexican soldiers and mule-drivers.
The proper pronunciation is "Tee-who-ana" since the Spanish "j" sounds similar to an English "h" and "u" to the English sound "oo." Nevertheless, many US tourists pronounce the name of the city ''Tia wanna'', though it is commonly called "TJ" in California and "Tiyei" (matching the sound of the English initials "TJ") in Spanglish or "Tijuas". Mexicans typically refer to themselves as a "Tijuanense."
The people of the city themselves widely believe in yet another "foundation myth" - that in the beginning there was an old Indian woman named "tia Juana" (aunt Jane) who provided travelers with good food and place to rest. In spite of scholarly denunciation, this story continues to be very popular with the residents of the city. It has particular resonance in a town known for its touristic hospitality.
sign showing the way to the pedestrian border crossing
'Tijuana' is at . This U.S.-Mexico border city is just south of San Diego, California. The adjacent city and former borough of Tijuana is Playas de Rosarito. The municipality of Tijuana is divided into administrative boroughs (''delegaciones'', in Spanish) of which the city of Tijuana occupies nine, which are in turn divided into colonias. These boroughs offer administrative services such as urban planning, civil registry, inspection, verification, public works and community development and are served by a ''delegado''.
The boroughs are:
★ Cerro Colorado — The ''Cerro Colorado'' ("Red Hill") is located here and it is surrounded by houses. Because of its height many of the area's antennae for radio and television stations are located on its peak.
★ La Mesa — This is the where the Morelos Park, the largest public park in the city, is located, as well as the Plaza Mundo Divertido, the new Macroplaza and the CETYS University.
★ Playas de Tijuana — This is the westernmost borough of the city bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west and the United States border on the north. This is where the beaches of Tijuana are located (hence the name) and it is also one of the two exits to the south towards Rosarito and Ensenada.
★ San Antonio de los Buenos — This is mostly a residential area although it also has two industrial parks.
★ Sanchez Taboada — Like the previous borough this is mostly a residential area. Rosarito was a delegation of Tijuana until it became its own municipality in 1995.
Demographics
Because of its vast area and diverse population, Tijuana's population counts are contested, and the locals lack proper information. According to the Conteo de Población y Vivienda 2005, Tijuana had 1,286,187 inhabitants (the municipality had 1,410,700). The metropolitan area also include the municipality of Playas de Rosarito and had a population of 1,484,005. CONAPO estimates that as of 2007 Tijuana has a population of 1,490,111 and the metropolitan area 1,667,501. The San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan area has an estimated population of 5,094,000, making it the 19th largest metropolitan area of the Americas. There is a third term, the Greater Tijuana, which includes the metropolitan and conurbated areas of Playas de Rosarito and Tecate, and huge floating population, that in total are more than 3,000,000 people, raising the total for the San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan area to 6,000,000 people.
Tijuana has a large, rapidly growing population of US citizens, estimated at 50,000. [1] This is due to Tijuana's proximity to San Diego and its lower cost of living compared to San Diego. Tijuana also has large Central American and Asian populations.
Culture
The Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT) is composed of a theater, lecture rooms, video rooms, a library, an exhibition hall, Museum of the Californias, a futuristic planetary movie theater that displays IMAX films, and a restaurant. Since 1992, the CECUT has hosted the Orchestra of Baja California (OBC), it headquarters the Center of Scenic Arts of the Northwest (CAEN) and the Hispanic-American Center for Guitar (CHG). Since 2001, the CECUT receives about a million visitors per year, making it Baja California's most important cultural center. Another important culture center is La Casa de la Cultura, comprising of a school, a theater, and a public library. Dance, painting, music, plastic arts, photography and languages are taught there. The city also has the ''Instituto Municipal de Arte y Cultura'' (Municipal Institute of Art and Culture), the Tijuana Wax Museum, and the ''Museo El Trompo'' (The Trompo Museum).
Tijuana also has a very active and independent artist community whose internationally recognized work has earned Tijuana the title of "one of the most important new cultural meccas", according to Newsweek. ''Strange New World'', an exhibition of Tijuana's current art scene, is being curated by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and is traveling across the USA in 2006 and 2007[1]. Art collectives like bulbo explores the use of media like television bulbo TV and print "bulbo PRESS", to show different realities of Tijuana out of Mexico. The music of The Nortec Collective and other electronic music artists, such as Murcof, have placed Tijuana in the international eye of specialized magazines and forums in recent years.
Entertainment
Avenida Revolución has many open bars, pharmacies, and curio shops, that attract many tourists. The majority of these businesses accept the US dollar and use both English and Spanish to conduct everyday business transactions
★ Tijuana Campus of Tecnológico de Baja California (TBC Universidad)
Economy
Manufacturing
Due to Tijuana's proximity to Southern California and the US border and its large, skilled, diverse and relatively inexpensive workforce it is an attractive city for foreign companies to establish extensive industrial parks composed of assembly plants that are called ''maquiladoras'', even more so than other cities in the US-Mexican border zone, taking advantage of NAFTA to export products. At its peak, in 2001 Tijuana had roughly 820 of these 'maquiladoras' (today the number is closer to 550)[2]. Foreign and domestic companies employ thousands of employees in these plants, usually in assembly related labor. Such jobs are demanding but offer high pay for Mexico. Companies that have set up 'maquiladoras' in Tijuana include Sony, Toyota, Samsung, Kodak, Matsushita/Panasonic, Nabisco, Philips, Pioneer, Plantronics, Pall Medical, Tara, Sanyo and vimay.
Service industry
In addition there are also some high-tech firms and telemarketing companies making their way into the city drawing skilled people with technical trades and college degrees to Tijuana.
The nominal GDP per capita of the city is above the national average at about $9000 per year, third only to Cancún and Mexico City (source: INEGI). This makes Tijuana a popular city for migrant workers as well as college graduates from other parts of Mexico as well as other countries to the south.
Tourism
Tijuana also relies on tourism as a major revenue. About 300,000 visitors cross by foot or car from the San Ysidro point of entry in the United States every day. Restaurants and taco stands, pharmacies, bars and dance clubs are part of the draw for the city's tourists. Many shops and stalls selling Mexican crafts and souvenirs are also located in walking distance from the border. Mexico's drinking age of 18 (vs. 21 in the United States) make it a common weekend destination for many high school and college aged Southern Californians who tend to stay within the Avenida Revolución. Tijuana is also home to several pharmacies marketed toward visitors from the United States. These pharmacies sell some pharmaceutical drugs without prescriptions and at much lower costs than pharmacies in the US. Many medications still require a Mexican doctor's prescription though several accessible doctor offices are located near the border as well. In addition Tijuana has a legal "red-light" district known as the Zona Norte which also adds significant revenue to its economy. Tijuana is also home to many businesses selling products and services at a much cheaper rate than in the United States. Such businesses as auto detailing, medical services, dentistry and plastic surgery are heavily marketed and located near the city's border with the US.
Economic research and development
Binational economic development along the US-Mexico border is key to the development of Tijuana going forward. Multiple regional (San Diego-US/Tijuana-MX) think-tanks exist on both sides of the border that promote such regional collaboration and innovation.
Government
Infrastructure
Sewer
The International Boundary Wastewater Treatment Plant currently treats 25mgd directly pumped across the border from the central collection point in Mexico (Pump Station #1). When there is any flow in the river, the river diverter kicks in and diverts up to about 12-13 mgd to the IWTP. The totals from either must not exceed 25mgd, based on a monthly average (permit conditions) although the IWTP can treat sustained flows up to 45mgd daily and peaks of 70 or so for a short period. The diverter is regularly sending about 6-8 mgd daily to the IWTP.
Japanese credit plants
The plants (a total of 4-5 decentralized units in all) have been planned for some time as part of the "Tijuana/Rosarito Potable Water and Wastewater Master Plan". This plan was required as part of Public Law 106-457 (Nov.7-2000) which was written to allow the Bajagua project to move forward. The master plan was a binational collaborative effort by EPA and CESPT and addressed those cities' needs for the next 20 years.
The plants are intended to treat approximately 5 mgd each, to tertiary levels and provide the reclaimed water to the surrounding areas for agriculture, industry etc.
There are several issues that they are facing: no infrastructure to convey the reclaimed water to customers and inadequate groundwater recharge infrastructure.
Tijuana River
The Tijuana River (Spanish: RÃo Tijuana) is an intermittent river, 120 mi (195 km) long, on the Pacific coast of northern Baja California in Mexico and southern California in the United States. It drains an arid area along the U.S.–Mexico border, flowing through Mexico for most its course then crossing the border for its lower 5 mi (8 km) to empty into the ocean in an estuary on the southwesternmost corner of the United States. Its lower reaches provide the last undeveloped coast wetlands in San Diego County amidst a highly urbanized environment at the southern city limits of Imperial Beach. The river has been the subject of great controversy in recent decades regarding pollution, flood control, and U.S. border protection.
Water
Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos Tijuana, (State Commission of Public Services Tijuana) better known as CESPT, is Tijuana's water supplier.
Tijuana's crime problems are often blamed on drug trafficking and human trafficking rings which smuggle drugs and people into California. In 2004, nine kidnapping cases were reported to authorities in Baja California. However, that number is believed to be low because many cases are not reported to police [3]. In the first four months of 2005, there were 151 homicides and in 2004, there were 355 homicides. According to Francisco Castro Trenti, an administrator of the homicide investigation teams in Tijuana, Rosarito Beach and Tecate, at least 20% of Tijuana's homicides were related to organized crime groups in the city. [4]. As a result of police corruption, citizen groups have been formed to help stop corrupt cops there from soliciting bribes from the population [5].
Transportation
El Arco, a man watches Tijuana's arch located in Ave. Revolucion.
Tijuana is well-served by bus, road, and air transportation links to all of Mexico, and to the United States via two heavily traveled border crossings.
Mexico is served by a network of bus transportation, reaching virtually all parts of the country. The city's main bus station is in its eastern area. There is also a small terminal downtown which serves a few Mexican bus lines and US-based Greyhound Lines and Crucero USA. Another small depot is near the border, with frequent service to Ensenada.
From the US side, San Ysidro is the southern terminus of San Diego's municipal bus and trolley systems, providing public transportation to and from the Mexican border with Tijuana. The newly-rebuilt San Ysidro trolley station is located directly next to the US Customs facility.
Roads
Tijuana is home to the world's busiest border crossing with about 300,000 people cross the border between San Diego and Tijuana every day. Queues take a few minutes to a couple hours to cross to the United States and a few hours on US national holidays. However, after clearing customs and immigration formalities, Interstate 5 is a major 8-10 lane freeway from San Ysidro to downtown San Diego, Los Angeles, and north to the Canadian border. Interstate 805 branches off from I-5 just north of the border, and takes a more easterly route which bypasses downtown San Diego, rejoining with I-5 in the northern part of the city. From the Otay Mesa border crossing, Otay Mesa Road takes drivers west to connect with both I-805 and I-5.
Two important Mexican federal highways end in Tijuana, one of them is Federal Highway 1, which runs south through the Baja California peninsula, ending in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur. From Tijuana to Ensenada, most travelers take Highway 1-D (scenic road), a four-lane, limited access toll road that runs by the coast starting at Playas de Tijuana. Mexican Federal Highway 2 runs east for several hundred kilometers near the international border, currently as far as Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
Tijuana in pop culture
From the arch hangs a sign saying "Bienvenidos a Tijuana" (Welcome to Tijuana)
Music
Manu Chao has a song called Welcome to Tijuana,
Also Julieta Venegas was born in this city.
Bands
★ The band Tijuana No!, that performs a mix of ska, punk and rock is based in Tijuana.
★ The band Tucanes de Tijuana that performs Mexican regional music, takes it name from this city.
Also the band Delux performs punk and is now getting fame in DF
Albums
★ Charles Mingus' album Tijuana Moods was named after the city succeeding Mingus' visit to Tijuana.
★ Ricardo Arjona's song "Mojado",feat. Intocable, is about the people crossing the US-Mexico border illegaly. The music video also shows scenes of Tijuana and the International Border. Also the video shows people talking about the time they crossed the border illegaly.
★ Cheech Marin's character in his 1987 film ''Born in East L.A.'' is deported to Tijuana after being mistaken as an illegal alien. Much of the movie takes place in Tijuana.
Mentions
★ In ''The 40 Year-Old Virgin'', Cal is talking to Andy about his weekend, in which he went to Tijuana. According to his story, Cal and his friends went to see a "Horse show" and claiming that not only they felt bad for the woman in the show, but also felt bad for the horse.
★ In ''Scrubs (TV series)'', season 6,episode 8 My Road to Nowhere, Elliot talks about almost been sold in her last road trip by her sorority sisters in Tijuana, J.D. later explains how the buyer was an undercover federale.
★ In '', whilst filming for adverts in the movie, Ricky urges people to never travel to Tijuana.
★ in the second season of the CW series Supernatural, episode Croatoan (2.09).Towards the episode's end Dean (Jensen Ackles)says to Sam (Jared Padalecki)" I just think we ought to… go to the Grand Canyon "Yeah, I mean, all this driving back and forth cross country and you know I've never been to the Grand Canyon? Or we could go to TJ (acronym for Tijuana Or Hollywood! See if we could bang Lindsay Lohan."
★ Tijuana is featured several times in the TV series ''Veronica Mars'', including a drug pickup and subsequent car theft in the episode "''You Think You Know Somebody''," and Duncan Kane's flight to Mexico through Tijuana to avoid kidnapping charges in "Donut Run."
★ Tijuana is the place chosen by Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons to take the kids from Springfield Elementary School after a rebellion in a camp sponsored by Krusty in the episode Kamp Krusty. To make up for the lousy camp, Krusty personally drives the campers in a bus to "the happiest place on earth... Tijuana!"
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