Eric Eyre

Oaxacans choose small Baja towns like Camalu, Colonia Vicente Guerrero, and Colonia Lizaro Cardenas over larger cities like Tijuana and Ensenada.

Arrested development: Teddy Kennedy, Hunter Thompson, Jim and Artie Mitchell

Kennedy, according to Burke’s memoir, “roared with laughter.” He grabbed a handful of the poppers from the box and tossed them to Burke, saying, “Here you go. Try ’em. It’s time you lived a little.” Burke tried the poppers. Soon he tried the cocaine that he claims his boss regularly hoovered up with $100 bills.

By Judith Moore, April 29, 1993 Read full article

The Mexican marines and sailors spend one month in this remote place before being rotated back to the mainland.

A rare inside peek at Baja's Coronado Islands

Hours passed, and San Diego fell farther astern as I sailed toward my mysterious destination. I had researched South Island with the aid of two thin library texts, both more than 20 years old, and much can happen in 20 years. The books said a landing could be made on the island’s northeastern side, in a small bay known as Smugglers’ Cove.

By James Knight, Aug. 13, 1992 Read full article

"My mammy bought me a guitar for $3.75 — to her sorrow.”

Zeke Larsen

Elizabeth Cotten, adopted by the Seeger family, then discovered

She was just talking about “Freight Train,” her famous song. “I've heard ‘Freight Train' so much, that's not my favorite any more. I've had to play it so much. I wrote that song when I was living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I was ten or eleven and I didn't have a guitar yet.

By Amy Chu, July 2, 1981 Read full article

“Allan Seymour from Del Mar was worst in the world for three years in a row. But. . . he finally found his successor in Bill Canepa."

Photo by Neal Obermeyer

World's worst surfer

And then there’s Bill Canepa, age thirty-seven, looking stiff, awkward, spindly-legged, fat and skinny at the same time, pale, and balding. As he paddles out, he thrashes at the water with his arms but doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. He swings his board around clumsily, cutting off another surfer, and takes off late in a wave, not knowing whether he should go left or right.

By Steve Sorensen, July 19, 1984, Read full article

College Heights. “If it was built today, they’d weld the plates together just like the new standpipes.”

Photo by Jim Coit

The water towers of San Diego

The day I drove out to look at the Loma Citas water tower the weather was hot and hazy. I had never been to see the tower before, but I didn’t have any trouble finding it: it rises some fifty feet above a cluster of sleek, ranch-style homes alongside the South Bay Freeway, just east of Reo Drive near Bonita. When I got my first glimpse of it, the tower immediately reminded me of the head of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, but the longer I looked at it the more it resembled the body of a plump insect caught in a spider’s web.

By Gordon Smith, Sept. 17, 1981 Read full article

Antonio Hernandez. The heat was suffocating as the Hernandez family rode out of the Tijuana bus station on the final stretch of their journey from Oaxaca to Camalu.

Eric Eyre

Baja Okies

CAMALU, Mexico — Powdery dirt coats this tiny hamlet on the Baja California coast like a blanket of copper-colored snow. The dust pastes the sides of school buses that haul working boys and girls to tomato fields. The dirt conceals the buses’ original owners: the Marin County School District and Lakewood Baptist Church. Dust cakes on abandoned cars and windowsills. It dirties polyester curtains and bathroom sinks. It falls on cornstalks that rise 12 feet into the gritty air.

By Eric Eyre, Feb. 6, 1992 Read full article