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The Road From Tijuana: Baja's Transpeninsular Highway Drives Cultural Change
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12143 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1994 |
1,452 Words |
| Author
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Jacqueline Koch
Freelance writer and photographer Jacqueline Koch resides on
Vashon Island. |
Sopriano sits on the porch next to a battery-operated boom box blaring the news. His "Champion Girl Watcher" baseball cap keeps the sun from flooding his blue eyes. Cataracts and severely weathered cheeks attest to the twenty-eight years he spent fishing the waters beyond the Bahía de los Puercos in San Sebastián, Baja California. A decade ago, he was the only inhabitant. Now, at age seventy-eight, he shares the beaches of the tiny bay with a handful of fishermen and half a dozen recreational vehicles (RVs) belonging to seasonal visitors.
Sopriano's is the only genuine house in San Sebastián; the seasoned wood structure stands five hundred yards from shore. But it is not just a house: It is a monument to life in Baja before the Transpeninsular Highway, which has opened the door to San Sebastián and other settlements like it throughout Baja. Whenever a vehicle arrives, be it a refrigerated truck from the seafood company or a camper come for a short visit, Sopriano waves it in from his porch and directs the passengers to the beach that lies past a barbed-wire fence that corrals horses grazing on sparse grass.
There is only one way into the heart of Baja California: the 1,050-mile Transpeninsular Highway, a roadway stretching from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas that was completed in 1973. The blacktop road winds through a varying desert landscape; the terrain is wild, vast, and desolate. The only road of its magnitude in Baja, the Transpeninsular is the spinal cord and nerve center of the largely desolate region, connecting booming tourist resorts, villages, missions, and even remote fishing camps.
It's your freedom
Baja's newfound reliance on the Transpeninsular has created a unique car culture. Advertising jingles such as "It's not your car, it's your freedom" now seem prophetic. In Baja, a car that works is one's most valuable asset, and all towns have extensive autoparts suppliers. Llanteras, tire-repair shops, are as common along the Transpeninsular as fast-food chains are along Interstate 5. The benefits of long-lasting transportation in Baja supersede those of solid housing. Many houses are pieced together from corrugated tin, plywood, and other unconventional building materials. These piecemeal structures or weather-beaten minitrailers are commonly flanked by dirt driveways sporting Ford pickups, Camaros, and station wagons. Car styles of the seventies, such as fringe and shag dashboards, still thrive in Baja, albeit a bit dustily.
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