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Binational Preservation Events for
World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024
By Maria Curry
March/April 2024
 Historian David Díaz Villanueva, a Tijuana City Tours guide aboard a recently revived tourist train, conducts a tour from old García station in Tijuana to Tecate. Díaz is also one of the main organizers of festivities celebrating the Mexican Revolution in Tijuana every November. Photo courtesy Tijuana City Tours |
 A cultural corridor in Tijuana’s Colonia Francisco Villa features many murals dedicated to the iconic Mexican revolutionary, "Pancho" Villa. This one shows a train used during that civil war and el Señor de la Misericordia church at avenida Abraham Gonzáles 2975, which is a prominent neighborhood landmark. Photo by David Díaz Villanueva |
 Tijuana’s Hotel Comercial, designed by San Diego master architect Frank W. Stevenson in 1928, is seen here on a historic postcard. The hotel will be part of a tour of Stevenson’s binational architecture on August 7, 2024, part of the World Design Capital 2024 events in San Diego and Tijuana throughout the year. Postcard courtesy Tijuana City Historical Archive |
Since the San Diego-Tijuana region began the year as 2024’s World Design Capital (WDC), designers, city officials, and organizations are showing the world the power of design in all areas, including architecture. Highlights include the essential role of historic preservation in cultural identity, sustainability, and regional cooperation. Here are some examples of WDC projects and events:
The García railroad station museum project, on the Tijuana-Tecate Short Line (a Mexican portion of the old San Diego and Arizona railroad), is expected to partially open historic buildings and the parklike grounds in late April 2024. Collections are being gathered for exhibits in the old station to go on view with the target date of late this year. Read The Potential for Tijuana’s García Station to learn more about this project and the site’s significance. Encompassing more than a half dozen restored and rehabilitated structures surrounded by 100-year-old trees, the museum will portray the social and urban history of Tijuana associated with the railroad from 1920 to 1970.
An architecture tour of San Diego master architect Frank W. Stevenson’s work in the binational region is another WDC 2024 event. The August 7 tour will serve as a preamble to the Latinos in Heritage Conservation (LHC) Congreso 2024, being held in San Diego for the first time August 8-10. The tour will depart San Diego for stops in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Valle de Guadalupe. Entities presenting the tour include LHC, the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center, Tijuana City Tours, and ICOMOS Mexico.
The Baja California government recently resumed tourist railroad tours from Tijuana to Tecate, emphasizing the old T&T railroad’s historic path as much as linking the two cities. The train runs once a month, boarding at old García station, del ferrocarril 4, Paseo Los Reyes in Tijuana. There is a stop at the scenic, historic Abelardo Rodríguez dam, and time to visit Tecate. Historians, music, and family activities enrich the journey. The cost is about 30 USD per person. Tickets are available at Tu Tren Tijuana in Tijuana and through WhatsApp at this number, starting with Mexico’s country code: (52) 664 694 12 86. Discounts are available for children and seniors.
Every November, thousands of people gather in Tijuana’s Colonia Francisco Villa to celebrate the 1920 Mexican Revolution. Live music and traditional performances by neighborhood residents dressed as revolutionaries bring history to life. This year, historians will lead tours of the neighborhood’s cultural corridor of murals created by residents, featuring "Pancho" Villa and the revolution.
Back in San Diego, the 54th Chicano Park Day in Barrio Logan will take place on April 20, 2024, from 9am to 4pm. This family event is free and open to the public at Chicano Park, a National Historic Landmark, at the corner of Logan Avenue and César Chévez Boulevard. This year’s theme is “Bringing Back the True Spirit and Energy of the Chicano Park Takeover,” recalling how neighbors organized to demand a public park, not a police station, in Barrio Logan, already split by a new freeway, Interstate 5. Vivid murals painted on tall pillars that support the San Diego-Coronado Bridge represent Chicano heroes, legends, and history, and commemorate this tenacious, close-knit community’s significant civil-rights victory.
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