🇬🇧: I stopped by the border between the US and Mexico for about an hour, talking to people, listening to stories. There are those who cross it to go to buy cheap spirits in Tijuana and those who go there to save money on the dental. There are commuters working in one of the sim card kiosks on the American side, who every day, although they could decide not to go back home and go on to seek fortune in the US, return to Tijuana, the most dangerous city not only in Mexico, but in the entire world, with the highest homicide rate per capita (138 homicides per 100,000 people; 7 every day).
They tell me that on the pedestrian bridge that connects San Ysidro (the last city in California before the border) to Tijuana, hundreds of migrants are camped. They left their home months ago from the most disparate places in Latin America, with the dream of obtaining political asylum in the United States. “There are women and children alone, who eat on the ground, waiting to be given a chance”, they tell me. “It’s not a nice thing to see.”
I only saw the bridge from above, from the San Ysidro side, where it seems that the road goes on without hindrance, but instead it intersects that imaginary line that defines the borders on geopolitical maps, and that at the same time determines the safety, lifestyle and opportunities of those who live across from it.
And it’s mind-blowing to think that such different worlds can exist just a handful of miles away from each other.
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🇮🇹: Sono rimasta al confine tra Stati Uniti e Messico per circa un’ora, a parlare con la gente, ad ascoltare storie. C’è chi lo attraversa per andare ad acquistare alcolici a buon mercato a Tijuana e chi ci va per risparmiare sul conto del dentista. Ci sono i pendolari, che fanno avanti e indietro per andare a lavorare in uno dei chioschi di schede sim sul lato americano, che ogni giorno, nonostante possano decidere di non rientrare e inoltrarsi a cercare fortuna nel cuore degli USA, fanno ritorno a Tijuana, la città più pericolosa del Messico e del mondo intero, con il tasso di omicidi pro capite più alto che ci sia (138 omicidi ogni 100mila persone; 7 al giorno) {CONTINUA NEI COMMENTI👇}