On my tombstone, I want "He didn't care much for borders"

The son of immigrant farm workers, my bi cultural, bi lingual childhood included; helping harbor "illegal workers" in the family compound and translating for my family with authorities - Immigration and the California State Department of Employment (filing for seasonal layoff benefits).

I can rightfully claim my credentials as a son of the fronteriza (border/frontier culture). With economic and emotional ties to both sides of this incredible border.

In the 1950's, my parents got me hooked on bullfighting, with frequent trips to visit my uncle in Tijuana. Those holidays always included the beaches of Rosarito and Ensenada. I remember how much more confident and relaxed my parents were when we crossed into Mexico. They could speak the mother tongue to everybody, not just family. Oakland, my birthplace, was predominantly white or afro American iin the 50's. .

At 15 I was in love with the blues and had no trouble entering black clubs in West Oakland. I saw perform-Bobby Bland, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker and many more greats. At home, my uncles played classical Spanish guitar while the women danced flamenco. My parents, as jitterbuggers, loved big band jazz and took me to concerts and dance halls. How blessed I was to live and develop amid multiple cultures

The 60's and seventies I devoted to career and raising a family in the Bay Area.. No trips South of the border. In the mid eighties, tired of corporate amerika and exhausted after two failed marriages,. I returned to Ensenada. To my childhood memories, I believe, for solace.

The sound of the Spanish language takes me to my childhood featherbed, in the bedroom near the kitchen. Through the closed door, I could hear the murmuring of my grandmother, mother and aunties. As I languished between consciousness and sleep, I did - not hear English. The sing song sound of Spanish is what brings me that home grown comfort.

Apart from the Bay Area, I have lived in New York, Chicago and Puerto Rico. I have spent the last eighteen years in Ensenada., That is the longest I have lived anywhere. My type "A", gringo developed, personality has still not adjusted to manana land (tierra del mañana/Mexico). However, considering the trade offs: less stress, more freedom (fewer restrictions), less congestion and a lower cost of living in Mexico, I'm a happy expatriot living in Mexico.

There is a great deal of amusement for me as I slip back and forth across the border with 45,000 others who cross daily. The realization that most of those folks are going to work with no "green cards". They are crossing with a card Mexicanos call a "mica". The mica is intended for crossing to shop, visit friends or family but limits the holder to a 50 mile radius from the border . It is intended as a day pass only. It does not allow you to work in the states or stay for extended periods of time. Enforcement, however, once you cross, is not very effective.

An experienced secretary, who is computer and internet literate, with 70% fluency in English will earn $200.00 per week in Ensenada. As a live in nanny to rich folks in La Jolla and Del Mar, an Ensenada woman can earn $400.00 per week with room and board. covered That means almost all the income is saved for family or future education.

I have placed ads for my secretarys who decided to jump the border. A $12.00 classified in the Union Tribune will generate six or seven desperate families who want Mexican child care. They know that the minimum wage "trailer trash Bertha's" are the U.S. born prospects for these jobs. Mexican women, typically come from a large family in which they cared for younger siblings with love and tenderness.

What you do need to work (other than child care) is a social security card. They can be obtained easily on the streets of San Diego and Los Angeles. On L.A.'s Olivera street, you are asked if you want just a social security card or a "whole package". The package includes a driver's license and other corroborating identification. Usually the social security card is enough to satisfy most employers. In the event of an immigration raid, a photo copy of the phone card is sufficient proof the employer took the necessary steps to assure the worker was "legal" to work.

Along with the thousands who cross the border to work each day are huge numbers of students from Northern Baja who attend classes in the San Diego South Bay Area's public schools. Riding the border trolley, at the beginning or end of the day, the amount of students is impressive. I enjoy eavesdropping on their Spanish mixed with hip hop slang. Songs of the street..

A new form of Spanglish is spoken in this region. "Word up a tu mamma, ya all". I love it, a sub culture with homeboy/girl modes of dress mixed with chicano attitude and speech. Musical tastes range from rap to ranchera. The rap tunes are sung in Spanish or the more traditional Player (playa) English. As I look out the trolley window at the chicano murals in Barrio Logan, I think, What a wonderful amalgam of social mores, poetry, art and music.

I can still get my jazz fix in Ensenada from a fine ensemble of friends called Ensenada Jazz. In October, our third annual, public invited free, jazz festival, was again a critical success. The participating artists were from both sides of the border. A few years ago, we had a most fortunate Cuban musician invasion. Ensenada's music scene has benefited greatly by adding salsa and sontoner to the local cumbia and banda mix of musics.

The border region economies are the best in both nations. The border transfer of goods, services and investments makes Tijuana a major banking center for Mexico. U.S. banks in San Ysidro (the border) have long lines of both Mexicanos, and Chicanos doing fronteriza business. Border employment opportunities attract migration from other Mexican states where unemployment is stratospheric, especially among impoverished indigenous groups. These are quite different cultures than the native Baja Californianos., Another spice to this fronteriza goulash.

Rosarito, San Felipe and the Ensenada coast are booming with new housing for both Mexicano and Gringos retirees or vacationers. The new Baja resident on the scene are those coming to buy affordable housing near the border and commute to San Diego for work. This is a younger generation of Baja home owners who will raise kids in Mexico and will require different goods and services The mix gets more interesting.

Like the old Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times". I guess I'm among the cursed. This is an interesting place at a very interesting juncture in history. There is, of course, a down side to all of this. Growth brings more contamination and congestion. Older Mexicanos complain that stateside influences are undermining important traditions and customs. I can't control those things so I can relax and watch the melting pot boil. My mother always said a watched pot never boiled - go figure.