En este artículo se reflexiona y describe la práctica colectiva del son jarocho en la frontera Tijuana-San Diego. A partir de entrevistas, así como de la observación participativa en los espacios dedicados a la interpretación del son jarocho, se explora la importancia de la producción musical y sonora desde un sentido comunitario entre los practicantes de este género musical arraigado en las últimas dos décadas en la frontera entre México y EE.UU. Este artículo muestra resultados de la investigación realizada de 2020 a 2022 en esta región fronteriza al igual que información obtenida desde hace al menos tres décadas tanto en la región veracruzana, como en la Ciudad de México y otros países. Finalmente, con el propósito de plantear que la práctica del son jarocho es concebida como alternativa a la experiencia cotidiana de vivir en la frontera, a través de testimonios de músicos del son jarocho se examina una parte de la historia de este género musical en la región fronteriza.

This article presents narrations and social dynamics of the red zone or the tolerance zone in Tijuana, Baja California, which has been, for seven decades, one of the most important enclaves for sex work in the Mexico-United States border. Coahuila Street, known locally as “la Coahuila”, located in the Zona Norte, has one of the world’s most dynamic sex markets. This work presents the findings obtained after almost five decades of visiting this peculiar space by the border, and specifically, from a three-year period (2015 to 2018) in which ethnographic visits were carried out gathering narrations by sex workers, employees in establishments, users and visitors, all of whom share experiences surrounding sex work in this area. The aim is to offer a retrospective and current look at the dynamics of sex work in the Zona Norte, the diversity of actors that interact in La Coahuila, as well as narrations and descriptions on this place which is unique for the country’s sex market.

BAsado in the documentary Over the Wall / Sobre el muro (El Colef, 2019), this text discusses some social effects from the transformations of the barriers and divisions that have demarcated the border of the states of California, the United States and Baja California, Mexico, until the construction of fences and border walls promoted by the last four US federal administrations. Based on interviews with specialists in migration and borders, residents, and an investigation of archives and documents around the wall and its effects on the Tijuana-San Diego border, this documentary captures periods of change and border reinforcement by States. States, as well as the recent situation with the arrival of new migratory flows such as the caravans of Central American migrants to Tijuana and the challenges for this border.