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Month: March 2007

Published by Rene on March 31, 2007

Bio-cartography of Tijuana’s cultural-artistic scene: The uterus as limit and/or possibility


Fiamma Montezemolo

The nation (localism) stands forth as the enduring substratum through which individuals are guaranteed a life beyond the purely biological, finite life. This supposed organic power for giving birth is insinuated by the etymological link of the nation (what is local) with “nativity” and

“birthing” [my emphasis].

Pheng Cheah[1]

Diagnosis:

The Tijuana-uterus suffers from extreme Topophilia.[2] This involves the over-protection of the foetus-cultural life of the city, rendering separation from the womb/point of origin impossible. Separation anxiety makes it difficult for the subject to develop her own autonomous identity and her own explanatory cartography. Tijuana is continually described in maternal-patriotic terms: Tijuana, mother of all frontiers, Here the homeland begins… This amounts to the substitution of a nationalistic language for a language that is equally embedded in the myth of origins, but also connected to the local. Tijuana is characterized as a “singular” and “nurturing” place as well as an ideal urban model: TJ is the happiest place in the world; TJ: Shantytowns as the new suburban ideal; TJ: the world capital of television. Such definitions embody a strategic positioning that is in counterpoint to so-called cannibalistic globalisation, and which if employed excessively is in danger of transforming the uterus into a closed box. The Tijuana-uterus becomes a limit rather than a potentiality. If the experience of the uterus is conceptualised as a transitory stage on the path towards life, rather than an end in itself then making the city can also be understood as an ongoing and evolving destiny, a work in progress.

In the case of the Tijuana-uterus the mother does not allow her progeny to separate from her. The offspring idealizes uniqueness (whether it is positive or negative) through hyper-definition: Tijuana is always the most: the most visited, the most passed through, the ugliest. Remaining in Tijuana and never leaving is explained in terms of myths constructed about the city’s contextual specificity.

Patient Tijuana appears to be suffering from an “exaggeration” of the uterus. This is indicated by how she is described in terms of the myth of origins. As Simon Schama states: “We begin in the uterus, in a place that seems to have comfortable limits and in which we wiggle, knowing what we know. But then there is the place-space distinction, and space frightens all the more because it is more difficult to understand.”[3]

The Tijuana-uterus has been transformed into an aesthetic object in order to be utilized by those who do not “belong” to it in the sense of being “originally from”—those who are referred to as outsiders. The curators, researchers, and cultural organizers who exalt the uniqueness of the region, in turn, reveal their own desire to be “discoverers” and preservers of the “new native’s” creative genius, which is fostered in conditions of material deprivation. A place that has long been marginalized is now provisionally included—as long as it is potentially useful. It is mobilized for, and adjusted to, the ideologies of the moment: globalisation – homogenisation, the exoticisation of the fashionable trend,[4] and the use and abuse of the concept of “authentic” Western civilization.[5] This Tijuana myth may prove useful for the time being, but we can always anticipate a return to “origins,” once the myth no longer concurs with the expectations of the outsiders.

Where once the “global” was too global now the “local” seems to suffer an excess of localism. Is it possible to stop seeing-using the so-called “third world” as a projection of the frustrations-needs of the so-called “first world” without relegating it to some Rousseaunian ideal or converting it into a homogeneous global entity? Is it possible to cease establishing difference through reference to “authentic” and “original” oppositional categories such as third world/first world, creative/practical, hidden/exposed, inside/outside? Is it possible to imagine a more lucid understanding of distance-proximity, related to Freud’s notion of “the uncanny,” rather than “the strange” as the synonym of the foreign and the unusual?

Perhaps the time has come for other cartographies, detached from mothers/god-mothers and their protections/projections.

Fiamma Montezemolo is an anthropologist and scholar currently working in Tijuana and San Diego.

[1] Pheng Cheah, Spectral Nationality, Columbia University Press, 2003.

[2] “Topophilia” describes the “affective bond between people and place or setting,” and the values of human perception of spatiality (Tuan Yi-Fu, Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perceptions, Attitudes, and Values, Columbia University Press, 1990, p. 4).

[3] T. Dean and J. Millar, Place, Thames & Hudson, 2005.

[4] Antonio Navalón, the Mexican business representative of the Spanish Prisa group, defined local space in order to position it in counterpoint—along with the space of the United States space—to the space of “religious fundamentalism”: “We are facing a total war among civilizations in which the elements that unite equal or similar civilizations should be more important than the cultural and legalistic fears that separate us. In this respect, the fact that Mexico and the other countries that produce emigrants belong to Western civilization, should bear greater weight than the effort to separate and pit the members of those same communities against one another through abstract fears. The common enemies on the Mexico-US border are those whose religious fundamentalism—pre-supposing the existence of social anarchy in the frontier— leads them to attempt to attack the methods and values common to free and democratic societies…” (Montezemolo-Sanroman, Replicante, 2005, p. 44).

[5] “A new world. Tijuana is a new cultural Mecca. The city is recognized by a number of publications in the United States, Europe and Mexico as a vibrant place of artistic innovation. Back in 1989, Néstor García Canclini was already describing Tijuana as ‘one of the major post-modern laboratories,’ placing it on an equal footing with New York. Since then, journalists, academics and critics have celebrated the exciting diversity of Tijuana’s artistic output.” (Rachel Teagle, Strange New World, MCASD, 2006).

Published by Rperalta on March 31, 2007

Bio-cartography of Tijuana’s cultural-artistic scene: The uterus as limit and/or possibility


Fiamma Montezemolo

The nation (localism) stands forth as the enduring substratum through which individuals are guaranteed a life beyond the purely biological, finite life. This supposed organic power for giving birth is insinuated by the etymological link of the nation (what is local) with “nativity” and

“birthing” [my emphasis].

Pheng Cheah[1]

Diagnosis:

The Tijuana-uterus suffers from extreme Topophilia.[2] This involves the over-protection of the foetus-cultural life of the city, rendering separation from the womb/point of origin impossible. Separation anxiety makes it difficult for the subject to develop her own autonomous identity and her own explanatory cartography. Tijuana is continually described in maternal-patriotic terms: Tijuana, mother of all frontiers, Here the homeland begins… This amounts to the substitution of a nationalistic language for a language that is equally embedded in the myth of origins, but also connected to the local. Tijuana is characterized as a “singular” and “nurturing” place as well as an ideal urban model: TJ is the happiest place in the world; TJ: Shantytowns as the new suburban ideal; TJ: the world capital of television. Such definitions embody a strategic positioning that is in counterpoint to so-called cannibalistic globalisation, and which if employed excessively is in danger of transforming the uterus into a closed box. The Tijuana-uterus becomes a limit rather than a potentiality. If the experience of the uterus is conceptualised as a transitory stage on the path towards life, rather than an end in itself then making the city can also be understood as an ongoing and evolving destiny, a work in progress.

In the case of the Tijuana-uterus the mother does not allow her progeny to separate from her. The offspring idealizes uniqueness (whether it is positive or negative) through hyper-definition: Tijuana is always the most: the most visited, the most passed through, the ugliest. Remaining in Tijuana and never leaving is explained in terms of myths constructed about the city’s contextual specificity.

Patient Tijuana appears to be suffering from an “exaggeration” of the uterus. This is indicated by how she is described in terms of the myth of origins. As Simon Schama states: “We begin in the uterus, in a place that seems to have comfortable limits and in which we wiggle, knowing what we know. But then there is the place-space distinction, and space frightens all the more because it is more difficult to understand.”[3]

The Tijuana-uterus has been transformed into an aesthetic object in order to be utilized by those who do not “belong” to it in the sense of being “originally from”—those who are referred to as outsiders. The curators, researchers, and cultural organizers who exalt the uniqueness of the region, in turn, reveal their own desire to be “discoverers” and preservers of the “new native’s” creative genius, which is fostered in conditions of material deprivation. A place that has long been marginalized is now provisionally included—as long as it is potentially useful. It is mobilized for, and adjusted to, the ideologies of the moment: globalisation – homogenisation, the exoticisation of the fashionable trend,[4] and the use and abuse of the concept of “authentic” Western civilization.[5] This Tijuana myth may prove useful for the time being, but we can always anticipate a return to “origins,” once the myth no longer concurs with the expectations of the outsiders.

Where once the “global” was too global now the “local” seems to suffer an excess of localism. Is it possible to stop seeing-using the so-called “third world” as a projection of the frustrations-needs of the so-called “first world” without relegating it to some Rousseaunian ideal or converting it into a homogeneous global entity? Is it possible to cease establishing difference through reference to “authentic” and “original” oppositional categories such as third world/first world, creative/practical, hidden/exposed, inside/outside? Is it possible to imagine a more lucid understanding of distance-proximity, related to Freud’s notion of “the uncanny,” rather than “the strange” as the synonym of the foreign and the unusual?

Perhaps the time has come for other cartographies, detached from mothers/god-mothers and their protections/projections.

Fiamma Montezemolo is an anthropologist and scholar currently working in Tijuana and San Diego.

[1] Pheng Cheah, Spectral Nationality, Columbia University Press, 2003.

[2] “Topophilia” describes the “affective bond between people and place or setting,” and the values of human perception of spatiality (Tuan Yi-Fu, Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perceptions, Attitudes, and Values, Columbia University Press, 1990, p. 4).

[3] T. Dean and J. Millar, Place, Thames & Hudson, 2005.

[4] Antonio Navalón, the Mexican business representative of the Spanish Prisa group, defined local space in order to position it in counterpoint—along with the space of the United States space—to the space of “religious fundamentalism”: “We are facing a total war among civilizations in which the elements that unite equal or similar civilizations should be more important than the cultural and legalistic fears that separate us. In this respect, the fact that Mexico and the other countries that produce emigrants belong to Western civilization, should bear greater weight than the effort to separate and pit the members of those same communities against one another through abstract fears. The common enemies on the Mexico-US border are those whose religious fundamentalism—pre-supposing the existence of social anarchy in the frontier— leads them to attempt to attack the methods and values common to free and democratic societies…” (Montezemolo-Sanroman, Replicante, 2005, p. 44).

[5] “A new world. Tijuana is a new cultural Mecca. The city is recognized by a number of publications in the United States, Europe and Mexico as a vibrant place of artistic innovation. Back in 1989, Néstor García Canclini was already describing Tijuana as ‘one of the major post-modern laboratories,’ placing it on an equal footing with New York. Since then, journalists, academics and critics have celebrated the exciting diversity of Tijuana’s artistic output.” (Rachel Teagle, Strange New World, MCASD, 2006).

Published by Rene on March 15, 2007

Tijuana, you heard it here first!

El día de ayer salio una nota en el periódico Frontera comentando que el desarrollo de Tijuana será hacia los cielos – la verticalidad ha llegado a Tijuana! Es interesante como los medios de comunicación se dejan ver tan ingenuos y comentan sobre algo que se les ha dicho desde hace mucho tiempo. Por eso sigo creyendo que la Zona Centro fue el mejor desarrollo urbano que ha existido en Tijuana – con su retícula modernista y sus viviendas verticales. Pero en el centro también existe el desarrollo del uso mixto – cosa que todavía no se enteran los medios de comunicación y los desarrolladores. Les tomara otros 15 años para darse cuenta que el uso mixto es factible y va mano a mano con la verticalidad? El uso mixto no es como lo pintan en San Diego – un edificio con comercio en el primer piso y vivienda en el segundo. “Uso mixto” es parte de una manzana donde los edificios así como el conjunto tiene una variedad de programa – comercial, cultural y residencial. haciendo de la comunidad un espacio sustentable donde un residente puede- sin tener que viajar en un automóvil- ir por la leche, tomarse un café, ir al cine y dormir – todo esto en la misma cuadra, como se hacia en el viejo y antiguo centro de Tijuana.

En la revista Pamphlet Architecture #11 (1985) se publico un análisis sobre el tema de los edificios híbridos. Edificios que en su mayoría estaban diseñados para albergar espacios con funciones distintas. Los híbridos se dividían en tres categorías 1. El hibrido tejido 2. El hibrido injerto 3. Y el hibrido monolítico. Estos diseños son posibles por la invención del elevador que hace del simple edificio de uso mixto de dos plantas – en un una ciudad vertical.


La idea de los edificios verticales fue como navaja de dos filos. Para el modernismo Latino Americano represento un ethos político que se convertiría en un fracaso por la falta de planeación heterogenia – creando ghettos verticales como en Venezuela. En algunas ciudades de Estados Unidos se convirtio en símbolo del capitalismo donde la verticalidad representaba economías y corporaciones dominantes. El fenómeno del hibrido se vio en ciudades como Chicago y Nueva York donde el precio de la tierra y el flujo de capital forzaron el desarrollo vertical. En Tijuana la combinación de uso mixto tradicional con torres hibridas podría ser una buena alianza para el desarrollo de la ciudad – siempre y cuando el transporte publico sea parte de la ecuación.

Donde mas que en Tijuana -la ciudad Hibrida por excelencia- seria interesante reinventar esta tipologia!

Published by Rperalta on March 15, 2007

Tijuana, you heard it here first!

El día de ayer salio una nota en el periódico Frontera comentando que el desarrollo de Tijuana será hacia los cielos – la verticalidad ha llegado a Tijuana! Es interesante como los medios de comunicación se dejan ver tan ingenuos y comentan sobre algo que se les ha dicho desde hace mucho tiempo. Por eso sigo creyendo que la Zona Centro fue el mejor desarrollo urbano que ha existido en Tijuana – con su retícula modernista y sus viviendas verticales. Pero en el centro también existe el desarrollo del uso mixto – cosa que todavía no se enteran los medios de comunicación y los desarrolladores. Les tomara otros 15 años para darse cuenta que el uso mixto es factible y va mano a mano con la verticalidad? El uso mixto no es como lo pintan en San Diego – un edificio con comercio en el primer piso y vivienda en el segundo. “Uso mixto” es parte de una manzana donde los edificios así como el conjunto tiene una variedad de programa – comercial, cultural y residencial. haciendo de la comunidad un espacio sustentable donde un residente puede- sin tener que viajar en un automóvil- ir por la leche, tomarse un café, ir al cine y dormir – todo esto en la misma cuadra, como se hacia en el viejo y antiguo centro de Tijuana.

En la revista Pamphlet Architecture #11 (1985) se publico un análisis sobre el tema de los edificios híbridos. Edificios que en su mayoría estaban diseñados para albergar espacios con funciones distintas. Los híbridos se dividían en tres categorías 1. El hibrido tejido 2. El hibrido injerto 3. Y el hibrido monolítico. Estos diseños son posibles por la invención del elevador que hace del simple edificio de uso mixto de dos plantas – en un una ciudad vertical.


La idea de los edificios verticales fue como navaja de dos filos. Para el modernismo Latino Americano represento un ethos político que se convertiría en un fracaso por la falta de planeación heterogenia – creando ghettos verticales como en Venezuela. En algunas ciudades de Estados Unidos se convirtio en símbolo del capitalismo donde la verticalidad representaba economías y corporaciones dominantes. El fenómeno del hibrido se vio en ciudades como Chicago y Nueva York donde el precio de la tierra y el flujo de capital forzaron el desarrollo vertical. En Tijuana la combinación de uso mixto tradicional con torres hibridas podría ser una buena alianza para el desarrollo de la ciudad – siempre y cuando el transporte publico sea parte de la ecuación.

Donde mas que en Tijuana -la ciudad Hibrida por excelencia- seria interesante reinventar esta tipologia!

Published by Rene on March 4, 2007

The economic value of old buildings is irreplaceable at will. It is created by time. This economic requisite for diversity is a requisite that vital city neighborhoods can only inherent, and then sustain over the years.

Jane Jacobs

Published by Rperalta on March 4, 2007

The economic value of old buildings is irreplaceable at will. It is created by time. This economic requisite for diversity is a requisite that vital city neighborhoods can only inherent, and then sustain over the years.

Jane Jacobs