The border between the United States of America - Mexico and “The Wall”.
The Wall being a colloquial name for a proposed expansion of the Mexico–United States barrier during the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump.
When images of the 1954 mi (3.145 km) border are shown, they usually are from the border between California and Mexico and more specifically from the one between San Diego and Tijuana. The sister cities share a border of about 15 mi (24 km).
Mexico and California have a lot in common. In 1821 Mexico gained its independence from colonist Spain. California was included as part of the Mexican State. It was at the end of the Mexican - American War in 1848 that California became a territory of the United States. Two years later, on September 9, 1850, California was admitted into the Union as the 31st state.
More than 28% of California residents age 5 and older speak Spanish at home. Areas with especially large Spanish speaking populations include the Los Angeles metropolitan area, San Bernardino, Riverside, the California-Mexico border counties of San Diego and Imperial, and the San Joaquin Valley. Mexican American is the largest ethnicity in half of California’s 58 counties.
A huge number of US-citizens as well as Mexican citizens work across the border, legally or illegally. The San Ysidro Port of Entry which is located between San Ysidro, California and Tijuana is crossed by approximately 50,000 vehicles and 25,000 pedestrians daily. For many Californian citizens and Mexicans in this area the borders feels as a unnatural separation, a dichotomy.
However there are significant contrasts too. The difference in wealth catches the eye. Many still see California as the Land of Milk and Honey. In particular, Los Angeles with Hollywood and its stars, Rodeo Drive etc, is the epitome of the prosperous, glamorous American Dream. California has more millionaires and billionaires than any other state in the USA. Mexico is rather known for its poverty, more than 46% of its population lives below the poverty line.
From a bird’s-eye view Tijuana and especially the eastern part of it (where until recently no physical barrier existed) is Mexican ánd North-American.
Mexican, given the territory, the kind and condition of the houses, the infrastructure. North-American, given the vinyl billboard signs.
Billboards signs, which do not try to seduce people driving by since these signs are not visible to them. Nor do they try to seduce God, birds or air passengers. They have however a second life as a waterproof roof covering of numerous Tijuan houses.