Synopses & Reviews
Tijuana Dreaming is an unprecedented introduction to the arts, culture, politics, and economics of contemporary Tijuana, Mexico. With many pieces translated from Spanish for the first time, the anthology features contributions by prominent scholars, journalists, bloggers, novelists, poets, curators, and photographers from Tijuana and greater Mexico. They explore urban planning in light of Tijuana's unique infrastructural, demographic, and environmental challenges. They delve into its musical countercultures, architectural ruins, cinema, and emergence as a hot spot on the international art scene. One contributor examines fictional representations of Tijuana's past as a Prohibition-era andquot;city of sinandquot; for U.S. pleasure seekers. Another reflects on the city's recent struggles with kidnappings and drug violence. In an interview, Nandeacute;stor Garcandiacute;a Canclini revisits ideas that he advanced in
Culturas handiacute;bridas (1990), his watershed book about Latin America and cultural hybridity. Taken together, the selections present a kaleidoscopic portrait of a major border city in the age of globalization.
Contributors. Tito Alegrandiacute;a, Humberto Fandeacute;lix Berumen, Roberto Castillo Udiarte, Iain Chambers, Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, Teddy Cruz, Ejival, Tarek Elhaik, Guillermo Fadanelli, Nandeacute;stor Garcandiacute;a Canclini, Ingrid Hernandaacute;ndez, Jennifer Insley-Pruitt, Kathryn Kopinak, Josh Kun, Jesse Lerner, Fiamma Montezemolo, Rene Peralta, Rafa Saavedra, Lucandiacute;a Sanromandaacute;n, Santiago Vaquera-Vandaacute;squez, Heriberto Yandeacute;pez
Review
"Tijuana Dreaming stages an international dialogue about issues of overwhelming importance. It will enable supremely talented Spanish-language writers to reach Anglophone audiences, compel scholars to rethink why culture matters now, and lead readers around the world to consider the responsibilities and obligations that we incur in the face of rapidly changing configurations of capital, culture, violence, and the nation state."—George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place
Review
andquot;This is an exciting and timely collection of cultural criticism and creative work. The selections are inspired, alert to a wide spectrum of practices and debates. Personal narratives, urban development, art, literature, photography, and architecture are just some of the matters covered in this rich and thought-provoking conversation, and the foreword by Iain Chambers provides the perfect framing device, linking Tijuana to global studies and critical inquiry.andquot;andmdash;Roberto Tejada, author of National Camera: Photography and Mexico's Image Environment
Review
andquot;Tijuana Dreaming is important and inspirational: a study of the imaginary of a city that constantly reinvents itself. By documenting the artistic and social expressions of this border city, Josh Kun and Fiamma Montezemolo reveal what motivates us and what makes us proud as tijuanenses: living in a city so full of inspiration and possibility.andquot;andmdash;Ramandoacute;n Amezcua, aka Bostich, of Nortec Collective
Review
andldquo;An eclectic anthology of critical cultural studies, Tijuana Dreaming brings to life the tumultuous history of the border townandrsquo;s shifting identity: the Prohibition-era booze-and-brothel magnet adjacent to San Diego, the late-twentieth-century booming free-trade zone of globalized assembly plants, and, most recently, the bloody site of todayandrsquo;s horrific drug-war violence. . . . [T]he volumeandrsquo;s overall high quality makes for a stimulating . . . read.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Tijuana Dreaming is a significant anthology of recent writings on this city from the perspective of art, literature, architecture, music, and film. It is one of the most concentrated studies of the city to date. . . . The anthology also addresses a void in the existing literature on Tijuana through English translations of several texts by prominent Mexican writers, filling out gaps in the border-studies research that circulates in Anglo-American contexts.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This volume is an enriching and fasciandshy;nating contribution to the study of Tijuana and the Mexico-US borderland, and would be of interest to any scholar with an interest in the culture and history of the region. It is a dynamic, engaging and timely collection of works which address key questions of identity and identification against the backdrop of cultural and sociohistorical processes.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Tijuana Dreaming is an unprecedented introduction to the arts, culture, politics, and economics of contemporary Tijuana, featuring selections by prominent scholars, journalists, bloggers, novelists, poets, curators, and photographers from Tijuana and greater Mexico.
About the Author
Josh Kun is a professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America and coeditor of Sound Clash: Listening to American Studies.
Fiamma Montezemolo is an anthropologist and artist currently teaching in the Department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Faceless: Ethnicity and Gender in the Zapatista Movement and a co-author of Here Is Tijuana! Iain Chambers teaches cultural and postcolonial studies at the Orientale University of Naples. He is the author, most recently, of Mediterranean Crossings: The Politics of an Interrupted Modernity, also published by Duke University Press.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword. A Line in the Sand / Iain Chambers ix
Introduction. The Factory of Dreams / Josh Kun and Fiamma Montzemolo 1
1. Welcome Tu Tijuana / Roberto Castillo 21
2. Snapshots from and about a City Named Tijuana / Humberto Fand#233;lix Berumen 25
3. Tijuanologies: An Urban Essay / Heriberto Yand#233;pez 47
4. Globalization in Tijuana Maquiladoras: Using Historical Antecedents and Migration to Test Globalization Models / Kathryn Kopinak 71
5. (Conversation with) Nand#233;stor Garcand#237;a Canclini, on How Tijuana Ceased to Be the Laboratory of Postmodernity / Fiamma Montezemolo 94
6. Postcards from the Border: In Tijuana, Revoluciand#243;n Is an Avenue / Santiago Vaquera-Vand#225;squez 117
7. Illicit Acts of Urbanism / Renand#233; Peralto 136
8. The Transborder Metropolis in Question: The Case of Tijuana and San Diego / Tito Alegrand#237;a 148
9. Practices of Encroachment: Urban Waste Moves Southbound; Illegal Zoning Seeps into North / Teddy Cruz 175
10. Community of Struggle: Gender, Violence, and Resistance on the U.S.-Mexico Border / Michelle Tand#233;llez 190
11. La Canciand#243;n de Tijuana: The Song of Tijuana / Guillermo Fadanelli 212
12. and#191;Todos somos ciudadanos?: Artistic Production and Agency in Tijuana / Lucand#237;a Sanromand#225;n 219
13. Bioethnograhy of an Artist: Ingrid Hernand#225;ndez / Fiamma Montezemolo 240
14. Borderline Archaeology / Jesse Lerner 264
15. Redefining Sodom: A Latter-Day Vision of Tijuana / Jennifer Insley-Pruitt 277
16. Crossfader Playlist / Rafa Saavedra 300
17. Counterculture, Rockers, Punks, New Romantics, and Mods in Tijuana / Ejival 329
18. Borderline Ghosts: From Touch of Evil to Maquilapolis: City of Factories / Tarek Elhaik 339
19. The Kidnapped City / Josh Kun 355
20. The Line / Luis Humberto Crosthwaite 370
Contributors 375
Index 381