Getting Ready for Tijuana!

This is a big week for the arts in Tijuana. The 2015 edition of entijuanarte, a massive arts and culture festival, is in progress and on Friday evening, the first Festival Internacional de Fotografia Tijuana opens to the public. I plan on catching the photo festival from a seat on Turista Libre's renovated school bus during a tour of innovative cultural spaces in Tijuana. The festival organizers and Turista Libre have teamed up to take riders to the main venue, Centro Estatal de las Artes (CEART), and other sites that are participating in the month-long festival.

Should be a busy couple days. Along with the two festivals, I plan to visit as many as I can of the new art and cultural spaces transforming the city. I've lined up a meeting with Antonio Escalante, an artist and teacher who was instrumental in filling the walls of Pasaje Rodriguez with an impressive array of murals. And I'll drop in on Gato Omar at Gypsy Cats, a nice guy my wife Mary and I met this summer at his clothing store in Pasaje Gomez, across the street from Pasaje Rodriguez. Where else can you find inexpensive women's clothing and catch belly dancing and performances of Balkan music?