Preserving Tijuana’s Culturo-Historical Archives

The images show the vibrant society and community of Tijuana, that most people today would not associate with the border region. These collections will give viewers quite a different perspective of Tijuana. Users may want to look across collections to gain a broader understanding of Tijuana and the US-Mexico border beyond the stereotypes and spectacles that are more typically featured in the news and other media.

The collections can also help us better understand the development of the region and find documentation of places and spaces that are now transformed into something different. Images of the border, for example, depict a dramatic shift from the time of a more porous gateway that allowed community members to travel easily between Tijuana and San Diego to a significant barrier (wall) that can sometimes require many hours to cross and even impacts animal migration. Likewise, one can find images of the same intersection or neighborhood through several collections and note the changes and developments.

Particular highlights include:

Postales (postcards) collection

Many of them are vintage, and depict Tijuana as a draw for tourists as well as notable landmarks and other locations in the Baja region
Explore the collection and related storymaps on the SDSU Library website(opens in a new tab)

Collection of J. Hernandez

Hernandez brought negatives to the archive after reading about this project. These were negatives he had never seen, but the team could tell that these materials were special. The set of negatives he brought were of excellent quality and evocative of Tijuana in the late 20th century.

Quiroz Labastida collection

The photos were taken at political events and are full of people and locations the team encountered saw over and over. The team organized a spreadsheet to identify people across images and keep names organized. The team hopes to connect these individuals with newspaper accounts of events in the future.