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Neighborhood Photo Project

Juan Carlos Limas | San Diego, Calif.

Neighborhood Photo Project Mar 5, 2012

You see empty, abandoned, rundown houses and in contrast you see other thriving streets. I did a small collage because this is a Mexican neighborhood located very close to the border (about two miles). We live in the outskirts of Tijuana Mexico, we spend time between Mexico and the US since our cities are so entangled for Mexicans doing shopping and sightseeing and Americans doing business and visiting in Mexico. In one of the pictures you can see the Downtown San Diego skyline. We can see the lights and reflections of the Coronado bay bridge, most of Otay Mesa and Chula Vista communities and this stark contrast has its meaning because thousands of Mexicans and thousands of Americans call this place home, indistinctly. For two countries so disparaging this geographic region erases many contrasts. Although we make five times less on average than a minimum wage in the United States we keep working, we don’t dream of going to the US and work and live there, we border citizens know much better than our countrymen living in central Mexico. We go and do our shopping, groceries, recreation and dining in San Diego and return to our much more affordable, albeit small, homes.

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