Sketch by: Roya Chagnon
Urban Humanities Initiative
Tijuana, February 2020
Reflection, Evaluation, Action
Manos Proussaloglou
Akana Jayewardene
The 2019-2020 Urban Humanities Initiative at UCLA focuses on the issues surrounding ideas of borders and commons. We interrogate these notions looking in particular at Los Angeles, San Diego/Tijuana and the border between them, and Mexico City. We began our research in MacArthur Park, and quickly witnessed borders that are not physically present, but insidious nonetheless. We also witnessed commoning practices, and began to see that there is a difference between a formal, designated “commons” and the act of “commoning”. All this to say that issues surrounding borders and commons are not black and white. Borders do not exclude everyone equally, in the same way that commons do not include everyone equally.
These lessons from MacArthur park have stayed with us over the last few months. As we boarded a bus from LA to San Diego to cross the border to Tijuana on foot, we were acutely away that the border was open to us both going out of the United States but perhaps more importantly, coming back in.
Border Crossing
Akana:
On my Sri Lankan passport, I’ve had to deal with visas all my life. I never felt that it was my “right” to cross a border - except the one back into Sri Lanka. Any trip to another country was always precluded by multiple visits to embassies with stacks of documents and justifications about going on vacation.
Manos:
I can only speak for myself, but I felt prepared going to Tijuana. At least, as prepared as a non-mexican citizen who had never been south of the border can feel.
Manos:
I felt self conscious arriving at Embajadores de Jesús in our large buses. The roads to the shelter were so eroded that I wasn’t sure if we would even make it there. Stepping out into Alacrán Canyon, I felt like I had stepped into a scene from Vicky Funari and Sergio de la Torre’s, Maquilapolis.