Tijuana history
Pre-Hispanic Period
Tijuana was originally populated by the kumiai (k'miai) or the tipai (Alta California) and ipai (Baja California) one of the indigenous families that together with the cucapá, paipai, and kiliwa, populated the north of the Baja California peninsula. The term Kumiai means 'those who face the water of a cliff'. The Kumiai consist of two related groups: the Ipai and the Tipai. The traditional lands of the two coastal groups were roughly separated by the San Diego River: the northern ipai (extending from Escondido to Lake Henshaw) and the southern tipai (including the Laguna Mountains, Ensenada, and Tecate). One view holds that the historic Tipai-Ipai emerged 1000 years ago, although a "proto-Tipai-Ipai culture" it had been established by about 5000 BC.
Time of exploration
The first European explorer who sailed off the coast of what is now the municipality of Tijuana was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who left the port of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, heading north and after sailing six days, from September 23-28, 1542, he arrived in the bay of San Diego California, calling it "San Miguel". In 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno, leading the Expedición y Levantamiento Cartográfico de la Costa de California, passed what we now know as the Coronado Islands, as well as what is currently Punta Bandera and Playas de Tijuana. In his journey he noticed the presence of the primitive inhabitants of the place, later he entered the port that he named San Diego.
The first European who set foot in what is now the municipality of Tijuana was the missionary Father Fray Junípero Serra, in 1769. In Fray Junípero Serra's diary there is the following entry:
"Day 1 July, Saturday, the eighth of St John the Baptist, the eve—and in our Order, fasting—of the Visitation of Mary Most Holy our Lady, we began our last day in good morning [...] we saw ourselves on the shore of the port's axis—not far from her mouth—where the two paquebots were giving background. San Carlos and San Antonio [...] This was our arrival with everyone's health, happiness and contention to the famous and desired [San Diego Port]. »
Father Serra's last day before reaching La Boca (San Diego Bay) where the ships were, he spent in the region where the city of Tijuana is located. At that time, the region that today corresponds to California, Oregon and Arizona (USA), were also part of New Spain. That year, Fray Junípero Serra founded the San Diego de Alcalá Mission, which provided evangelical coverage to the nearby area, including what is now Tijuana. In 1797, the mission had the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in and around the mission proper.
Time of missions
In 1769 it is again news about the region that would eventually be called the Tijuana Valley; In the diary of Fray Junípero Serra we find the following entry: "July 1st (1769) Saturday, the eighth of Saint John the Baptist, early in the morning we set out on our last journey [...] not far from the mouth where the packet boats San Carlos and San Antonio were giving bottom. (the ships were anchored in San Diego Bay).
The territory was served materially and spiritually by the Mission of San Diego de Alcalá, which on its southern border reached five leagues before the San Juan Bautista stream and therefore comprised the Tijuana Valley, that was at the same time the border or demarcation between Alta and Baja California established in the concordat signed on April 7, 1772, between the Dominican and Franciscan friars, an agreement legalized by Viceroy Antonio Bucareli y Ursúa. Although the demarcation between the two Californias is unclear, it is assumed that the Tijuana Valley was part of Alta California.
On his way to the Franciscan territory of [Alta California], Fray Francisco Palou physically marked the terminus between both Californias on August 19, 1773, with a large cross that he placed on the rocks of the hill that is in front of the dunes, in what was later called "El Descanso". As such, the rancherías or indigenous camps of La Punta, Milijó, Tía Juana, Otay, San Isidro, Quanayuel, San Antonio Abad or San Antonio de los Buenos, Rosario, belonged to the territorial circumscription of the Mission of San Diego de Alcalá. Jamul and Tecate.
19th century: time of the ranches
The mission survived and continued to function after the Mexican War of Independence, which went unnoticed in the region due to its distance and lack of communication with the center of the viceroyalty. In 1829, almost at the end of the missionary era and 9 years after the consolidation of Independence, José María Echendía, governor of the Californias, granted Santiago Argüello Moraga, an area of six large livestock sites, equivalent to 10,000 hectares, which would be called "Rancho Tía Juana& #3. 4;.
The mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1834, with most of the mission land granted to ex-soldiers. Beyond the city of San Diego, ranches were formed that served to increase the local economy. Some of those that occupied part of what is now Tijuana are Rancho San Antonio, Rancho Cerro Colorado, Rancho Cuero de Venados, and Rancho San Isidro.
In 1846, due to the Mexico-United States war, the United States Navy began the invasion of Las Californias. The fight that broke out forced Mexico to negotiate the way to conclude the catastrophe; the dilemma was to accept peace or continue the war. Once the armistice was signed, attention turned to setting the new boundaries. Mexico, after consulting Congress and the governments of the Republic, was forced to sign the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, losing more than half of its territory, including Alta California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas..
As a consequence of all this and the solution that was given to the location of the port of San Diego, was that Rancho Tía Juana remained as the border with California, next to what used to be Rancho Melijo, also owned by Santiago Argüello. Due to its new geographical position, it owes its further development and growth, being a place of passage for travelers and merchants from Ensenada and Los Angeles.
After 1848, when the Tijuana Valley as a border zone became part of Baja California, it participated in the insecurity and uncertainty of the entire region, the Tijuana Valley is now the new border between Mexico and the United States and is also an obligatory path to reach the interior of the peninsula.
In those years, violence and disorder, both political and economic, prevailed in California, events aggravated by the discovery of enormous gold deposits that attracted an immense crowd of adventurers, all of this added to the civil war that broke out in the United States United from 1861 made the Tijuana Valley region live in special conditions.
Santiago Argüello lived until 1862, but after his death his family continued to live on the ranch, so his children and grandchildren formed families that settled on his property. On January 2, 1864 he was appointed the first local judge. The descendants of Argüello divided up the lands of Rancho Tía Juana, gradually receiving other families, the first settlers of the area.
On July 11, 1889, the agreement was signed that concluded the dispute that the heirs of Don Santiago Argüello held for a long time over the lands of Rancho Tía Juana. A plan dated June 15 was attached to said agreement of the same year, with the name of Map of the Zaragoza town projected to be located on the land of the Tijuana ranch. Its preparation was in charge of the engineer Ricardo Orozco, federal inspector of the Ministry of Development, commissioned to report on the real situation of the projects developed in Ensenada by the International Company of Mexico.
Originally, several businesses and canteens occupied the first roads that were close to the road that led to the town of San Diego. These businesses served as a tourist attraction for those who lived in the United States. However, on February 10, 1891, the area where the town was originally located was totally devastated due to the torrential waters of the rains that fell for five days, so its location was moved to the southeast, removed from the bed from the river.
At the turn of the 20th century, the region lived an atmosphere of peace, just like southern California, on which it depended. In 1882, the railroad reached San Diego (California) and with it, the border region was communicated with the rest of the States Joined. The presence of the railroad caused an intense migratory flow from the eastern of the United States towards California and by rebound towards Tijuana.
20th century
First decades
Baja California Rebellion: Battle of Tijuana
The Baja California Rebellion were the events that formed part of an anarchist military campaign promoted by the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM) in northern Baja California in 1911, in the context of the Mexican Revolution. The rebels confronted the forces of the dictatorial regime of Porfirio Díaz and later the provisional government of Francisco León de la Barra supported by Maderista groups.
The Division of the Liberal Army in Baja California took two important places on the border with the United States, Mexicali, in January 1911, and Tijuana, in May of that same year.
It was at the beginning of May 1911, when the population that at that time had less than 100 houses, was taken by assault by a group of Mexicans and foreigners, mostly Americans, commanded by the Flores Magón brothers, who they intended to make Baja California a socialist republic under the umbrella of the Mexican Liberal Party that they had founded. The inhabitants of Tijuana and the rest of the state felt attacked by what they called filibusters and prepared to fight against them, commanded by Lieutenant Miguel Guerrero, later known as "El Tigre de Tijuana& #34;, he called this event the Battle of Tijuana, being his first foray into a national historical movement. In this process of struggle, after some skirmishes in which the dead were not lacking, the so-called filibusters returned to the United States months later when their attempt to independence Baja California from Mexico failed to proclaim the one that would have been the first socialist republic in the world.
In June the federal forces of Francisco I. Madero with support from the US government defeated the PLM rebellion in Tijuana.
Dry law
At the beginning of the last century XX a moralist movement arose in the United States, which quickly gained strength in the country, In In 1911, canteens and horse races were prohibited in California, these advances of the reform movement were immediately reflected in the young population of Tijuana, the American promoters of gambling, alcohol and dissipation began to move to this population that due to its proximity With the Californian cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, it was ideal for serving the numerous residents of those cities who were fond of entertainment that was prohibited in their locality.
In 1915 Antonio Elozúa founded the Tijuana Fair (Typical Fair of Tijuana), taking advantage of the tourist flow generated by the San Diego Panama California Exposition, held in the neighboring United States county, in the wide areas of Balboa Park, facilities that survive and they serve as a recreational and cultural space. Approximately in those years, the ""Hotel Hidalgo" was operating, a complex that served as a precedent for what would later be the Casino Agua Caliente. It was located in the southern area of the Rancho de Tijuana, belonging to the Argüello family. In 1917, Governor Esteban Cantú Jiménez decreed the creation of the municipalities of Tecate and Tijuana.
In 1924, the Tijuana Hippodrome and the Foreign Club were established. On October 15, 1925, President Plutarco Elías Calles erected the Tijuana congregation in which the town was named Zaragoza and the municipality Tijuana, however, because by tradition the area was called Tijuana, this did not have an effect, so it was then named the Municipal Council. It was not until 1929 when it ceased to be a council and was called Zaragoza to become a Municipal Delegation.
Agua Caliente Casino
In 1926 Don Alberto Argüello sold to General Abelardo L. Rodríguez a fraction of the Tía Juana ranch, which included the Agua Caliente springs. The new owner obtained permission to operate a spa, associating with Baron Long, Wirt G. Bowman, and James N. Crofton, for the construction of a tourist complex.
Overnight, casinos, hotels, bars, restaurants, non-holy houses and even breweries, wineries and distilleries sprang up in Tijuana. And Tijuana had not yet reached 20,000 inhabitants, the madness, it is said that the money was swept up in the streets.
On July 4, 1927, they formed the Compañía Mexicana de Agua Caliente, with a capital of $750,000. The design of the work was in charge of Wayne Douglas and Corine McAllister, who included different styles in the project, such as the Californian missionary, the Mudejar, the Byzantine, the Italian Renaissance and the Louis XV, which was extravagant in luxury.
The tourist center was inaugurated on June 23, 1928 with a hotel that included 50 rooms, a casino, a restaurant, and a greyhound track. Later the company was reorganized under the name Jockey Club and built a racetrack that was inaugurated on December 28, 1929, a golf course was also installed, both offering high prizes in their events. There was also an aerodrome where on Sundays the three-engine "Ford" planes departed and landed every half hour on their flights to San Diego and Los Angeles. In the restaurant was the famous Patio Andaluz, where many Hollywood luminaries began their artistic careers, including Rita Cancino, later Rita Hayworth, the De Marcos and performances by Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy. and many more. There was an orchestra that played all the popular music at the time, directed by Benny Serrano, an orchestra that was transported weekly by plane to Los Angeles, California, where it played in a luxurious social center. There was also the Olvera brothers' marimba and in the Patio de las Palmas was Benigno Pérez, with his large number of parrots, cockatoos, parrots, and trained crows.
There was also a radio station, XEBG Voz de Agua Caliente, with 750 kilocycles and 5,000 watts of power, where the orchestra and many artists participated.
The main clients of the games of chance were the artists of the Hollywood Colony. Among them, the most famous visitors find the elite of the great stars such as Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks father and son, Jean Harlow, The Marx Brothers, Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton, Johnny Weissmüller and Buster Crabbe, Bing Crosby, Dick Powell; All the Hollywood stars visited Baja California, mainly the Tijuana - Ensenada corridor, many of the gangsters of the 30's visited Tijuana, including the famous Al Capone. On the other hand, some European nobles and maharajas from India also attended. ('History of Tijuana', Centro de Investigaciones Históricas UNAM-UABC, 1985)
At the end of 1933, the "prohibition law" and the city had to find another way to maintain its economic rhythm, that way was the trade that began to grow due to the commercial exchange between borders. In 1935, General Lázaro Cárdenas closed the Agua Caliente Casino and the Foreign Club, by decreeing that the operation of casinos throughout the country was prohibited. Years later, the general decreed the Partial Free Zone in the Northern Territory for ten years. Two years after the closure, the Agua Caliente Tourist Center was expropriated to establish the Industrial School Center.
30s-50s
On February 16, 1938, a violent riot broke out in the center of the city. More than a thousand people staged a violent riot. They were trying to lynch soldier Juan Castillo Morales accused of raping and murdering the girl Olga Camacho. The demonstrators set fire to the Municipal Palace and the Police station. From the confusing circumstances of this event and the subsequent firing squad of the soldier, the urban legend of Juan Soldado was born. That same year, the bullring "El Toreo de Tijuana" was inaugurated.
On April 26, 1940, the city's legal fund was created by decree signed by President Lázaro Cárdenas, allocating a portion of 836 hectares of the Tijuana ranch to allow population growth and provide it with public services. That year, passports were also required for Mexicans to cross the Mexico-United States international line.
On December 22, 1951, a fire broke out in the hall known as El Coliseo, in a building on Avenida Mutualismo, between 3rd and 4th streets, famous in previous years for having a movie theater, administrative offices and a room that was visited by different celebrities. That night an inn was held for low-income children in order to spend the December holidays, however, derived from a fight, a short circuit was generated starting a fire on which expanded rapidly. Dozens of people died that night, some trying to leave the place, which had only one emergency exit; others perished helping some people to leave the building, such was the case of Ángel Camarena Romo and Héctor Tamayo.
In 1952, Baja California became a free and sovereign state from a territory. On May 1, 1954, the first city council of the city of Tijuana began its functions. On September 24, 1957, the councilors of the II Tijuana City Council were meeting in the Cabildo Hall of the Old Municipal Palace where the session was taking place in which the mayor Manuel Quirós Labastida would be presenting to the plenary session one of the most transcendental initiatives for this city: the creation of the Municipal Educational System. That same year the first school in the city would be built, inaugurated on October 12, 1957.
60s-90s: Growth of the city
On July 18, 1960, the Telesistema repeater (today Televisa) was established. In this way, said company begins a fruitful history in the city. That same year, the Tijuana-Ensenada scenic highway construction project was launched. On the night of September 15, 1963, after the coronation of the queen of the national holidays and the Ceremony of the Cry of National Independence, held in a property near the old Mexico Bridge, between the Tijuana River and the vicinity of the international line, the structure of the mechanical game known as "wheel of fortune" it collapsed, causing the death of six people who were in it. The experts from the State Secretariat of Public Works ruled that the collapse of the structure was due to the softening of the soil, a consequence of the rains that had fallen on the city the day before. In 1965, the program of maquiladora companies began, an advance for the economy and the future of the city, since since then some 560 maquiladora factories have been installed that provide jobs and generate export goods.
On May 10, 1968, a group of women sympathizers of the National Action Party demonstrated from Tijuana, generating a movement that would reach Mexico City, against the electoral fraud that was carried out during the elections of this year. 1 The PAN candidate, Luis Enrique Enciso Clark would have been the winner of the contest that Luis Echeverría himself, at that time, Secretary of the Interior, would have annulled2, since he defeated easily the official candidate, the IMSS delegate Luis Mario Santana Cobián; the annulment of the election generated even more demonstrations and protests denouncing the alleged fraud committed.3 In Mexicali, the PAN candidate, Norberto Corella, who practically "humiliated" The PRI candidate Gilberto Rodríguez González was accused of not having Mexican citizenship and of continuing to be affiliated with the PRI at the time of the election. Due to all these events, the State government declared the annulment of the elections in Mexicali and Tijuana, not without declaring the establishment of a Municipal Council in said municipalities, which would last the constitutional period of 3 years. These councils were headed by PRI members.
In 1970, the Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport was inaugurated in the Mesa de Otay district. That same year, a fire destroyed the Agua Caliente Hippodrome, reopened on May 4, 1974. That decade saw the construction of the most important infrastructure work in the history of the city, the channeling of the Tijuana River, which meant a pattern for the urbanization of three zones in the city, being the backbone of urban development to this day. In 1978, heavy rains caused flooding in the city, especially in the Johnson Canyon and in the Tijuana River area, for which 2,500 families had to be evicted. In 1979, the Tijuana Municipal Police carried out raids on the &# 34;Emilio's" and various LGBT bars and businesses, indiscriminately detains all the customers and customers of the shops with the intention of obtaining extortion money. Emilio Velásquez Ruiz, a gay activist from the city, manages to free his clients and initiates a campaign to warn authorities that, if the raids are resumed, the LGBT community will hold a massive protest in front of the municipal jail. Authorities would refrain from raiding LGBT businesses for the next twelve years.
On January 30, 1980, the dam had to be emptied of its surplus, however, the government carried out this action at 2 in the morning, so even though loudspeaker announcements were made to evict, many families refused to do so, many of them perished on the spot. The exact number of deaths is not available, but entire families disappeared that day. On February 26, 1985, an accident occurred in the Contreras neighborhood, when a truck carrying 40,000 liters of fuel overturned and subsequently exploded. The brothers Delfino and Jesús Torres Ornelas, were the drivers of the unit, they were traveling through the Rosas Magallón Bypass when, noticing the lack of brakes, they honked at passers-by in the area. In an action to avoid the crash, the truck flipped over, spilling fuel on the street and later exploded; both died at the scene. 6 calafias and 19 automobiles, as well as some factories and shops, were set on fire. The wounded were taken to Clinic No.20 in La Mesa. This event is known as "El pipazo de la 5 y 10"
On the morning of April 20, 1988, journalist Héctor "El Gato" Félix Miranda was assassinated on Av. Alba Roja in the Montebello neighborhood, La Mesa delegation. On May 30 of that same year, Mother Teresa of Calcutta visited the city, entering some of the popular neighborhoods of the young city, as well as the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the La Mesa delegation. She visited the Sánchez Taboada neighborhood and was at an event on June 1 in the Plaza Monumental de Playas de Tijuana, a few meters from the border with San Diego. In 1991, she returned to visit the city again, however, she presented health problems, for which she was treated at a hospital in the neighboring American city.
In January 1993, there was a heavy rainstorm, with a total of 210 mm of rain in two weeks, causing flooding in most of the city. More than 5,000 people were affected, 37 dead and $40 million dollars in material losses. On March 23, 1994, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, PRI candidate for the presidency of the Republic, was assassinated in a suburb of Tijuana., Lomas Taurinas, during a rally of his campaign. This tragic event shocked the entire country and put Tijuana on the national political map. Months later, on the night of April 28, the city's director of Public Security, Federico Benítez López, and his bodyguard, Ramón Alarid, were assassinated in the La Mesa district.
21st century
War on Drugs
In the early 2000s, Tijuana was emerging as an important border city, thanks to the demographic and economic growth left behind by the 1990s. However, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States strengthened its southern border with Mexico and began granting visas to Mexicans, a fact that affected local commerce between San Ysidro and Tijuana.
The city would again be affected by the War on Drugs started by then President Felipe Calderón in 2006. The years 2008-2011 were the most violent in the city's history, affecting not only the image, but also the social life of the people of Tijuana. Investments emigrated to other cities, businesses did not stand out and social security was threatened. Tourism fell due to alerts from the US government about crimes plaguing the border. From 2008 to 2012, the city would be immersed in a wave of violence, with numerous cases of homicide, kidnapping and assaults.
Socioeconomic reactivation
The business sector, together with social organizations and the government, began to look for events and the construction of spaces for young people and the general population, in order to improve the image and reactivate tourism in the region. At the end of 2008, Tijuana saw the light of an interactive museum whose main themes are science and technology. Said museum acquired the name of "El Trompo, Museo Interactivo Tijuana". Tourism. Some internationally recognized sporting events were also held, such as the Concacaf U-17 World Cup Pre-World Cup, held at the Caliente Stadium and the U-18 Women's Volleyball World Championship, in 2009. In 2010 it hosted the World Youth Taekwondo Championship, which was held from March 3 to March 9 at the High Performance Center.
In 2010, a historic event was held in the city, called Tijuana Innovadora, where several international personalities, such as Larry King, Emilio Azcarraga, Carlos Slim, Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia) and Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter), Nobel Prize winners, such as Robert Aumman, Mario Molina attended this event held at the Tijuana Cultural Center, sending a signal of the importance of Tijuana's industrial, commercial, cultural and social sector to the world.
On June 22, 2011, it is titled "Heroic City", commemorating the Centennial of the capture of Tijuana by filibusters in 1911, within the framework of the Mexican Revolution. Between 2012 and In 2018, a cultural and tourist renaissance was created, thanks to the holding of various festivals that throughout the year generated an important tourist attraction from California, Nevada and Arizona, as well as from other states of the Mexican Republic. Currently, the commercial and business sector is committed to the rise of the restaurant industry, craft beer, entertainment and real estate, as well as medical tourism, to attract visitors and investors. It has stood out as one of the best cities in Latin America for its gastronomy and cultural proposal, which was recognized in different media.
Massive migrations to Tijuana
Between 2016 and 2018, various groups of people from Haiti, Africa and Honduras made trips with the intention of obtaining humanitarian asylum from the United States, many of them boarded the Tijuana-San Diego border. In October 2016, thousands of people in the well-known Haitian immigration in Mexico arrived at the border. Given the positive response from the US government, at least 3,000 stayed in the city, integrating into border social life in a community called Little Haiti.
For its part, in November 2018, the so-called migrant caravan from Honduras arrived, settling mainly in the Playas de Tijuana area. on November 12 a first group of 75 people arrived in Tijuana, most of them members of the LGBT community, and on November 13 a second group of 350 people also arrived in the city; both groups were ahead of the main contingent. On November 16 they finally reached Tijuana. The following days the rest of the caravan continued to gather in Tijuana, filling the Benito Juárez shelter with up to 5,000 people.
On the morning of Sunday, November 25, a hundred migrants who were demonstrating near the shelter tried to cross the border, but most were prevented from doing so with tear gas and presumably rubber bullets. This caused the closure of the San Ysidro border point for 4 hours. In the disturbance, Mexican agents caught 98 migrants for deportation and the United States Border Patrol arrested 42. The failed attempt to cross the border demotivated many migrants, who stayed in Mexico or chose to return to their countries. On Sunday the 30th, it was reported that the migrants were transferred to a new makeshift shelter, 15 km from the border, due to the heavy rains and low temperatures that hit Tijuana and that aggravated the health of migrants. According to official figures, 2,000 migrants settled in the new shelter and another 500 remained living on the street, near the previous shelter, while the rest dispersed. In addition, some 2,250 enrolled in an official program to obtain a humanitarian visa to reside in Mexico.
Present
In recent years, the number of homicides has grown, making it the city with the most cases in Mexico, exceeding 2,400 cases in one year, in 2018 and 2,185, in 2019. On The first confirmed case of Covid-19 was registered in March 2020, within the framework of the global pandemic caused by said virus. As of May 22, 2021, there were 17,480 accumulated confirmed cases and 3,613 deaths. In June 2020, more than 100 fires were registered due to an atypical day of Santa Ana condition added to a heat wave, exceeding 30 °C; hundreds of inhabitants were evacuated, 4 people were injured and 2 lost their lives.