IMPOVERISHED NEIGHBORHOOD EMBRACES MISSION TO RENEW

Tijuana's Colonia Altiplano has new garden, murals, trees as part of pilot program.

By Sandra Dibble
SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE / SUNDAY / JANUARY 16, 2011

TIJUANA — With its deeply rutted dirt roads and hundreds of small wood shacks, this small section of Colonia Altiplano is one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. But residents of the struggling hillside community on Tijuana’s outskirts say things have been looking up, and they can take much of the credit.

With backing from nonprofit groups and funds from a Mexican federal agency, they turned a trash-filled lot into an organic vegetable garden. They helped convert graffiti-covered walls into brightly colored murals. They planted trees and built a playground for kindergarteners.

The neighborhood’s 500 families are both the beneficiaries and participants of a six-week pilot project aimed at generating community involvement to improve areas of the city plagued by crime and poverty. As the sun set Friday and lights of the city shimmered below, dozens came together on the newly drawn basketball court to celebrate their achievement with a concert by the Baja California Orchestra.

“This used to be a trash dump,” said Enriqueta Gudiño, 35, mother of a fourth-grader and one of a group of 30 women and one man who cleaned up an empty lot and planted rows of radishes, spinach and other vegetables. “Now we can see our contribution and can say, ‘I was there, I did that.”

Colonia Altiplano rises at Tijuana’s northern edge, off the toll road to Tecate and just a hillside away from the U.S. border. Like many of the city’s most impoverished areas, the neighborhood was first settled illegally, with houses typically built from wood and scrap materials. The neighborhood sits within one of 89 “polygons of poverty” in Baja California identified by Mexico’s social development ministry, or Sedesol.

Its transformation started when one of the kindergarten teachers contacted the nonprofit Grupo Ecologista de Tijuana, asking if its members would come and plant some trees. During a brief visit, the group was impressed by the residents’ enthusiasm and turned to Reacciona Tijuana, another nonprofit organization that promotes civic engagement.

“We were moved,” said Gabriela Posada, coordinator of Reacciona Tijuana. “We decided to join in their transformation.”

The groups found financial support from Sedesol, which contributed $83,000 to the effort. The funds were used to purchase materials and pay more than 200 neighborhood residents to work for 28 days.

The project snowballed, drawing support from other groups, including art students and teachers from the Autonomous University of Baja California. An architecture student led residents in building a wooden jungle gym for the kindergarteners. Recovering drug addicts with the self-help group Cirad also pitched in, participating in the neighborhood cleanup effort.

“What’s most important about this project is to show that if the government supports civic initiatives, the impact becomes much greater because the community becomes involved,” said Carlos Torres, a former federal legislator who now heads Sedesol office in Baja California.

The project drew at least one participant from San Diego, Giacomo Castagnola, an architect and designer who drew the lines for the basketball court. Such initiatives offer alternatives to residents of neighborhoods fighting urban blight and violence, he said.

“It’s difficult to do everything,” Castagnola said, “but just by painting lines, you’re giving them an area where they can play sports.”


sandra.dibble@uniontrib.com