To commemorate Father's Day, this issue contains a collection of reflections from Reader writers about their fathers:The Last Tag Sale — Jeanne SchintoAn Air of Exoticism — Duncan ShepherdKinder Than I Would Think Possible — …
June 20, 2026
Abe Opincar wrote for the Reader for nearly 25 years, and is the author of Fried Butter: A Food Memoir.
Articles by Abe Opincar
The Reader's Father's Day extravaganza
The ambiguous position of Chinese in San Diego
Murray Lee runs a finger across a family tree he’s displayed in the Chinese Historical Society Museum on Third Avenue downtown. On the left of the big white board, Lee taps at a solitary name, …
June 19, 2026
John Metzger's Klan childhood
On Tuesday, November 1, he came bounding out of the old blue-and-white van in blue jeans and a sweat shirt. He smiled. Pumped my hand. Ushered me to a seat on the patio of the …
June 8, 2026
TJ poets still have manners
The evening began a little after eight in the bar at Sanborn’s on Revolución where eight poets gathered for drinks and chisme (gossip). Around midnight one of them suggested we move on to El Lugar …
May 30, 2026
Judith Moore's tough-fisted regime at the Reader
"Moore wants more," I would joke to myself.Busy Fingers Are Happy Fingers — Joe DeeganI couldn't find an angle to get my story started, I told her. "Forget all about angles," she then said with …
May 12, 2026
Kidnapping at luxurious Club Campestre in TJ
Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult not to stare at ten men dressed in black who brandished submachine guns. Under normal circumstances, ten men dressed in black who brandished submachine guns would be the …
May 9, 2026
The development of gardens in Tijuana
I didn't recognize where I was. "Things have changed a lot," said Jorge Rodríguez, leading me out of the rain, into his two-story cinder-block house. "I came to Los Arenales looking for new horizons," he …
May 2, 2026
A sea of thorns – San Diego, Texas
Our namesake lies due west of Corpus Christi, past flat miles of sorghum, wheat and cotton fields, and towns with shops smelling of blood that, for pennies per pounds, will butcher the deer you shot …
March 31, 2026
Ecstasy was San Diego's drug
My connection, as it were, called to inform me there might be a "slight problem" with delivery because she was going out of town. To a "Southwestern beach resort." For her family's annual eight-day pheasant …
March 24, 2026