Dispatches from both sides of the border fence

Dan Watman

Sept. 29, 12:15 p.m., 2023 San Ysidro, California

Good afternoon,  Las Americas Premium Outlets:
That’s what I’m thinking as I inhale my Korean potato dog    
with Tijuana in sight beyond the border fence.
O Posh Mall on the Knife-Edge of the United States.

Las Americas Premium Outlets in San Ysidro, California and the border

Las Playas de Tijuana and the border fence

Oct. 4, 11:00 a.m.; 2023 Las Playas de Tijuana, Baja

     This is the Tijuana motto: Aquí Empieza la Patria. I see it everywhere in Las Playas. But this beach isn’t just where Mexico begins; this is the northwesternmost beach in all of Latin America. The border fence also begins here, ending 1,954 miles from here in Brownsville/Matamoros. I see gardens along the fence on both the Mexican and American sides, but many of the gardens on the American side have been uprooted. 

     I’m walking around, taking it all in, taking photographs of the abundant murals painted directly on the border fence, when I run into Dan Watman,  the garden coordinator, who lives in Las Playas. He tells me the fence will soon come down to make way for a new, higher fence. Not a surprise to me, exactly. Ever since Friendship Park was established on the US side in 1971—as part of the much larger Border Field Park established that same year—the border has become increasingly less friendly. But this won’t keep Watman from attempting to bring citizens of both countries together.

     “It’s kind of like the garden and the painting and all the activities go on are kind of like a way of creating an oasis of hope and friendliness in the middle of a really draconian US policy at the border,” Watman says.  

     I look down towards the border fence, where it runs into the ocean. Per usual, the seagulls perched on the fence bollards seem spectacularly unconcerned about US policy. No one’s looking at their passports, after all.