Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Monument Road – a quiet place overshadowed by Tijuana

Runs west from Dairy Mart Road to the recently opened Border Park

The peaceful atmosphere along Monument Road is astonishing. Only 15 or 20 minutes from Downtown, a ride along southernmost San Diego's Monument Road is like flipping through a book of Dorothea Lange photographs. A rundown ramshackle wreck of a stucco house with an abandoned stove on the front porch. A 50-year-old wooden farmhouse with two acacia shade trees in the front yard and a scarecrow in the adjacent field of lettuce and string beans. A couple of house trailers nestled in a group of avocado trees. An abandoned vegetable stand. All of this under the shade of the Tijuana plateaus.

The road meanders through a checkerboard of flat farmland devoted to vegetables and dairy cows and patches of the natural Tia Juana riverbed, covered with sage, wild tobacco, buckwheat, and tumbleweeds. On one of the mailboxes in front of one of the farmhouses is painted, "S. Moromoto."

There isn't very much traffic in the daytime on two-lane Monument Road, even on a Sunday when the roads in North County and most other rustic areas around San Diego are jammed with Sunday drivers. An occasional Navy couple who have bicycled down from Nestor on 19th Street or down from Imperial Beach on Hollister Avenue. A family of horseback riders who are walking their horses up from Trails End, a nearby stable which rents out "Gentle Horses." A pair of border guards parked in one of the pull-out areas.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The road runs west from Dairy Mart Road near the San Ysidro border crossing a full five miles to the recently opened Border Park. At the Border Park entrance, the road forks: one prong unpaved, heads straight for the beach and really is fit only for horses. The other prong, paved, climbs up to the seaside cliff where one can visit the Border Monument, Overshadowed by Tijuana's Building-by-the-Sea, the stark, 10-foot obelisk only has large letters on it which spell out the penalty for defacing it. A small plaque next to the obelisk says the monument was built as a symbol of the friendship between the Mexican and American peoples. In light of the border situation here, this could only be comic irony.

Twenty feet from the monument, two border guards stand next to their patrol cars, one of which is a sort of paddy wagon with a thin Mexican locked in, looking out. The Mexican wears a gold wedding band.

"We caught him walking too far up the beach. Border Park is open to 'them,' but we have to see that they don't go too far north. We catch 50 or 60 of 'em every night from here to five miles the other side of San Ysidro, but that's only two percent. There's 3000 of 'em that make it across every night. And now's not half as bad as January. They all go home for Christmas, you see, and then they come back. No, no, we don't have to shoot. They're used to the federales. They stop right away. Those federales, they shoot if you run, no questions asked.

"Yeah, there's all kinds. Not just Mexicans, you see. Then's El Salvardorians, British Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Chileans.... Used to be a lot more Chileans. Hmm. Haven't got me a Chilean in quite a while. not too many Chileans these days. Not since Allende. I guess the military down there must be doing their business.

"Course, when they do catch 'em up in L.A. or San Diego — ever been up to Bonita? — they catch a lot of em there — they don't do anything. There's supposed to be some law against employing wetbacks, but Congress is controlled by big business, and big business has an interest in that cheap labor. Look at that Mrs. Banueltos, the Secretary of the Treasury. She made her millions, all right. But it was by employing wets. She paid 'em 50 cents or $1 an hour. How could anyone compete with her if they have to pay $2 an hour?"


Asked if a gringo can cross to the other side by walking south on the beach, the guard replies, "No, it's illegal. It's a $500 fine and six months in jail if you do. We used to have signs up here saying that, but they'd get torn down as soon as they'd go up."


The guard partner who isn't doing the talking has been scanning the beach and starts to interrupt the conversation. he points to a group of three Latins walking north on the beach. "Well, what'd'ya think? Shall we got get 'em?"

"Yeah, I guess we can give him the points to the Mexican in the paddy wagon) to Jack (he points to a San Diego Police car in the parking lot, the crowd of Latins on the Mexican side of the fence near the Monument — women, children, teenagers, old men, young men — all stand up and follow the guards with their eyes. A few teenagers duck under the barbed wire and cross over. A middle aged couple, well-dressed, stroll over nonchalantly. A couple of Latins pass from the American side to the Mexican side. no one seems to take the border seriously.

The guard said that one easy way to tell there was heavy evening illegal border crossing was to go over to the just-plowed field next to the cabbage field on Tijuana Road near Dairy Mart Road. Sure enough, anyone can see it. Thousands of footprints pointed north, freshly plowed dirt. Only 100 yards from the elaborate border crossing at San Ysidro. The footprints, combined with the frustration of the guards and brazen disregard for the border along Monument Road, gives the whole area down here an aura of Catch 22 absurdity.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Navy solves San Diego homeless crisis by retiring four locally moored ships

Decommision Accomplished
Next Article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches

The peaceful atmosphere along Monument Road is astonishing. Only 15 or 20 minutes from Downtown, a ride along southernmost San Diego's Monument Road is like flipping through a book of Dorothea Lange photographs. A rundown ramshackle wreck of a stucco house with an abandoned stove on the front porch. A 50-year-old wooden farmhouse with two acacia shade trees in the front yard and a scarecrow in the adjacent field of lettuce and string beans. A couple of house trailers nestled in a group of avocado trees. An abandoned vegetable stand. All of this under the shade of the Tijuana plateaus.

The road meanders through a checkerboard of flat farmland devoted to vegetables and dairy cows and patches of the natural Tia Juana riverbed, covered with sage, wild tobacco, buckwheat, and tumbleweeds. On one of the mailboxes in front of one of the farmhouses is painted, "S. Moromoto."

There isn't very much traffic in the daytime on two-lane Monument Road, even on a Sunday when the roads in North County and most other rustic areas around San Diego are jammed with Sunday drivers. An occasional Navy couple who have bicycled down from Nestor on 19th Street or down from Imperial Beach on Hollister Avenue. A family of horseback riders who are walking their horses up from Trails End, a nearby stable which rents out "Gentle Horses." A pair of border guards parked in one of the pull-out areas.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The road runs west from Dairy Mart Road near the San Ysidro border crossing a full five miles to the recently opened Border Park. At the Border Park entrance, the road forks: one prong unpaved, heads straight for the beach and really is fit only for horses. The other prong, paved, climbs up to the seaside cliff where one can visit the Border Monument, Overshadowed by Tijuana's Building-by-the-Sea, the stark, 10-foot obelisk only has large letters on it which spell out the penalty for defacing it. A small plaque next to the obelisk says the monument was built as a symbol of the friendship between the Mexican and American peoples. In light of the border situation here, this could only be comic irony.

Twenty feet from the monument, two border guards stand next to their patrol cars, one of which is a sort of paddy wagon with a thin Mexican locked in, looking out. The Mexican wears a gold wedding band.

"We caught him walking too far up the beach. Border Park is open to 'them,' but we have to see that they don't go too far north. We catch 50 or 60 of 'em every night from here to five miles the other side of San Ysidro, but that's only two percent. There's 3000 of 'em that make it across every night. And now's not half as bad as January. They all go home for Christmas, you see, and then they come back. No, no, we don't have to shoot. They're used to the federales. They stop right away. Those federales, they shoot if you run, no questions asked.

"Yeah, there's all kinds. Not just Mexicans, you see. Then's El Salvardorians, British Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Chileans.... Used to be a lot more Chileans. Hmm. Haven't got me a Chilean in quite a while. not too many Chileans these days. Not since Allende. I guess the military down there must be doing their business.

"Course, when they do catch 'em up in L.A. or San Diego — ever been up to Bonita? — they catch a lot of em there — they don't do anything. There's supposed to be some law against employing wetbacks, but Congress is controlled by big business, and big business has an interest in that cheap labor. Look at that Mrs. Banueltos, the Secretary of the Treasury. She made her millions, all right. But it was by employing wets. She paid 'em 50 cents or $1 an hour. How could anyone compete with her if they have to pay $2 an hour?"


Asked if a gringo can cross to the other side by walking south on the beach, the guard replies, "No, it's illegal. It's a $500 fine and six months in jail if you do. We used to have signs up here saying that, but they'd get torn down as soon as they'd go up."


The guard partner who isn't doing the talking has been scanning the beach and starts to interrupt the conversation. he points to a group of three Latins walking north on the beach. "Well, what'd'ya think? Shall we got get 'em?"

"Yeah, I guess we can give him the points to the Mexican in the paddy wagon) to Jack (he points to a San Diego Police car in the parking lot, the crowd of Latins on the Mexican side of the fence near the Monument — women, children, teenagers, old men, young men — all stand up and follow the guards with their eyes. A few teenagers duck under the barbed wire and cross over. A middle aged couple, well-dressed, stroll over nonchalantly. A couple of Latins pass from the American side to the Mexican side. no one seems to take the border seriously.

The guard said that one easy way to tell there was heavy evening illegal border crossing was to go over to the just-plowed field next to the cabbage field on Tijuana Road near Dairy Mart Road. Sure enough, anyone can see it. Thousands of footprints pointed north, freshly plowed dirt. Only 100 yards from the elaborate border crossing at San Ysidro. The footprints, combined with the frustration of the guards and brazen disregard for the border along Monument Road, gives the whole area down here an aura of Catch 22 absurdity.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Next Article

SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years

Union-Tribune still stiffing downtown San Diego landlord?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.