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surfer jim
Super Nomad
Posts: 1891
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: high desert
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Do you remember....cardboard town in Tijuana?
The main road used to go through this area of cardboard "houses" just after you crossed the border. The first time into Mexico this was quite a shock
to say the least. Once we stopped on the return trip to give some of the kids whatever we had left from camping and seconds after stopping kids/people
came running from everywhere towards us....made a quick exit and never stopped again.
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N2Baja
Nomad
Posts: 147
Registered: 2-12-2004
Location: San Diego
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I remember that. I remember walking across a bridge and looking down at the cardboard houses that were underneath. It always made me sad.
Forget about the danger and think of the fun.
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
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Location: The Valley of the Moon
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Mood: Peacefull
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Yes, I remember the cardboard town under the bridge ....
As I recall sometime in the late fifties it was bulldozed ...
Didn't look like anyplace I would want to go 
CaboRon
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surfer jim
Super Nomad
Posts: 1891
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: high desert
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I thought it lasted until they tore it down to make a shopping center(?) sometime in the 90's.
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
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Location: The Valley of the Moon
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Mood: Peacefull
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| Quote: | Originally posted by surfer jim
I thought it lasted until they tore it down to make a shopping center(?) sometime in the 90's. |
That wasn't the first time it had been bulldozed.
Perhaps you wern't around in the fifties 
CaboRon
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Salsa
Nomad
Posts: 178
Registered: 2-4-2003
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My friend joked about a flood in TJ.
News Broadcast -- Big flood in TJ, Estimated $40 in damages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don
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tjBill
Senior Nomad
Posts: 516
Registered: 10-6-2007
Location: Tijuana
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A flood wiped out the shanty town. Then the tijuana river was designed with better flood controls.
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BajaWarrior
Super Nomad
Posts: 2307
Registered: 9-27-2006
Location: Mission Bay, San Diego. Playa Hermosa, San Felipe.
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Mood: Anxious to get south
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| Quote: | Originally posted by soulpatch
There are a lot of them here in San Diego county if you look closely..... some are pretty substantial in size. |
Big problem in the Sweetwater River in Spring Valley near the Swap Meet I hear... It's like a city they say...
Haven't had a bad trip yet....
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Packoderm
Super Nomad
Posts: 2116
Registered: 11-7-2002
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You mean something like this?
Cartolandia:
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Martyman
Super Nomad
Posts: 1904
Registered: 9-10-2004
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During one of our trips to Half-Way House (late 60s), my mom was so upset about seeing the coca cola sign shacks that we stopped coming to Mexico as a
family. Next time we came without her. The fishing was great off those cliffs!
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3401
Registered: 3-24-2007
Location: The Valley of the Moon
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Mood: Peacefull
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaWarrior
| Quote: | Originally posted by soulpatch
There are a lot of them here in San Diego county if you look closely..... some are pretty substantial in size. |
Big problem in the Sweetwater River in Spring Valley near the Swap Meet I hear... It's like a city they say... |
Are these settlements comprised of illegal aliens ?
Or something else .
CaboRon
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4346
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
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My family had been hanging in northern Baja before I came along. Some of my earliest memories heading down to our casa by the sea included stopping by
the side of the road after crossing the border and watching my mother and father drop off bags of clothes and food she had collected from family,
friends and neighbors. When I got a little older I would get out of the car and assist in handing out items to the "residents" many my age or younger.
My mother and father would always make a point of telling us kids that the people living there were suffering from hard times and not there by choice.
Growing up I never complained when I got my older brothers hand me down jeans or a jacket from my cousin or a somebody else's repainted bike they had
outgrown for Christmas. I knew that I was luckier then most. I remember the time when we crossed and it seemed the whole "town" had vanished but we
new that the plight of those living there had likely not changed much , just the location of their misery.
MAGA
marooons Are Governing America
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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Although the location may be history, the condition lives on. Most here wouldn't believe the squalid life for those who live in the city dumps. The
"Rag-pickers" as they are called. Large cities, such as D.F. have communities of such unfortunates, so many that they have a union. I'm betting
Tijuana isn't far behind.
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mulegemichael
Super Nomad
Posts: 2310
Registered: 12-24-2007
Location: sequim,wa. and mulege
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Mood: up on step
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I recall the cardboard "city" as i hitchhiked south back in 1970...those were the hippie days for me; we ended up on the beach at punta banda where we
set up a driftwood camp and stayed for a year...some of the fondest memories i have of baja...but i'm not done yet!
dyslexia is never having to say you\'re yrros.
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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| Quote: | Originally posted by elgatoloco
My family had been hanging in northern Baja before I came along. Some of my earliest memories heading down to our casa by the sea included stopping by
the side of the road after crossing the border and watching my mother and father drop off bags of clothes and food she had collected from family,
friends and neighbors. When I got a little older I would get out of the car and assist in handing out items to the "residents" many my age or younger.
My mother and father would always make a point of telling us kids that the people living there were suffering from hard times and not there by choice.
Growing up I never complained when I got my older brothers hand me down jeans or a jacket from my cousin or a somebody else's repainted bike they had
outgrown for Christmas. I knew that I was luckier then most. I remember the time when we crossed and it seemed the whole "town" had vanished but we
new that the plight of those living there had likely not changed much , just the location of their misery. |
Excellent story, Crazy Cat-----------and I shared your feelings and observations. I drove past that "village" so many times in the 50's and
beyond--------"there but for the grace of God go I"
We are SOOOOOO lucky, us Norte Americanos.
Barry
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BajaGringo
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3922
Registered: 8-24-2006
Location: La Chorera
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Mood: Let's have a BBQ!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
Although the location may be history, the condition lives on. Most here wouldn't believe the squalid life for those who live in the city dumps. The
"Rag-pickers" as they are called. Large cities, such as D.F. have communities of such unfortunates, so many that they have a union. I'm betting
Tijuana isn't far behind. |
When I was working in South America I saw several of those "garbage dump villages" in Brazil, where families would live in cardboard huts held
together with twine and whatever else they could find. It was heartbreaking to watch people fight over the trash as each new dump truck would arrive,
small children eating the decaying food remnants that could be found. I visited one such village with a friend in Rio who dedicated two days a week of
her time as a pediatrician, trying to help the kids. She told me that 1 in 4 of the newborns would die before the age of 3.
It was one of the most humbling experiences I ever witnessed in my life and like Barry it made me realize how incredibly fortunate many of us are,
solely based on where we happen to be born...
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N2Baja
Nomad
Posts: 147
Registered: 2-12-2004
Location: San Diego
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I also remember in around 1980 when the flood gates from Rodriguez Dam were opened due to heavy rains and bodies were washing up on the beaches in
Imperial Beach and Coronado Island. 
Forget about the danger and think of the fun.
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oldjack
Nomad
Posts: 350
Registered: 1-26-2006
Location: Los Barriles
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Mood: retired
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Made almost monthly trips from Riverside to Ensenada(late 60's thru 78), to fish, and was always distracted by the smell in advance of the border...
then to look off to the side and see the pitiful place all those poor children had to live within... I did some volunteer work with Los Amigos and
took food and clinic building supplies to the T.J. dump... but frankly I wasn't strong enough to put up with what I saw that the children had to deal
with on a daily basis.... I am not embarrassed to say that I quit that program because of what I saw... I still donated money and had great admiration
for those volunteers who were so much stronger than I....
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Stickers
Senior Nomad
Posts: 572
Registered: 4-12-2006
Location: SoCal
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Packoderm
You mean something like this?
Cartolandia:
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I remember just cardboard boxes not shacks.
Driving through the area as a small child in my Dads brand new Pontiac on our way to Ensenada. I was in shock. I never thought anything like this
could exist just a few yards form the U.S. boarder. It just looked like boxes that large items had shipped in and then families were living inside. I
have never forgotten. When our car slowed down we were swarmed by kids looking for handouts and we gave them anything we could.
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BajaWarrior
Super Nomad
Posts: 2307
Registered: 9-27-2006
Location: Mission Bay, San Diego. Playa Hermosa, San Felipe.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Anxious to get south
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| Quote: | Originally posted by CaboRon
| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaWarrior
| Quote: | Originally posted by soulpatch
There are a lot of them here in San Diego county if you look closely..... some are pretty substantial in size. |
Big problem in the Sweetwater River in Spring Valley near the Swap Meet I hear... It's like a city they say... |
Are these settlements comprised of illegal aliens ?
Or something else .
CaboRon |
CaboRon, it aired on the news here in San Diego about 9 months ago and it was actually a mix of legal and illegal residents, they practically had a
little city going on there. I believe they cleaned it out, but you know the problem comes back...
Haven't had a bad trip yet....
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