They pushed their federal governments to facilitate the border crossing of personnel and merchandise, and succeeded in getting a pedestrian bridge built to connect Tijuana's airport with San Diego.
"It's the result of our being neighbors and of the reality of the border," said Figueroa.
"Here in Baja California, for decades we were closer to the United States than to the center of the country," he said.
Like Aguilar, Hazell Sepulveda lives a life on both sides of the border. It takes the Tijuana resident five minutes to cross the Otay crossing point before dawn every day before working at the kitchen of a McDonald's just 500 steps from the border.
Sepulveda, 26, was born in San Diego to Mexican parents, but spent only two years of her life there.
For her, the border doesn't present much of an obstacle. "They never ask me anything, only where I'm going and if I'm bringing in something from Tijuana," she said.
In the morning, her husband drops off their five-year-old daughter, who was also born in San Diego, at a nursery before crossing the border for work at a manufacturing plant.
According to Sepulveda, all of her colleagues have a similar trans-border lifestyle, preparing some 1,000 hamburgers a day. They can hardly find a job in Mexico that pays 450 U.S. dollars a week, though living in the United States isn't appealing.
"The streets seem sad to me, they are empty" compared to the hustle and bustle of a typical Tijuana roadway, she said.
【国际英语资讯:Feature: For thousands, crossing U.S.-Mexico border part of daily life】相关文章:
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2020-09-15
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