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26.2.4
67th day of winter
6th day of the moon
48th year of the space age

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

The question of how to rewrite Revolution Avenue has much concerned Mike and
me recently.  Mark you we have written about it heretofore but we are and am
little satisfied with our cursory touch and have long known it would needs
be reworked.

The arrival of recent explorers in their ships to
this shore has inspired us to move forward and make

the change. There is now a new Revolution Avenue
page under development

OH GOD NO not another CONSTRUcTIon sIte noooooooo

not again my little lost sheep no
well yes

because strategy strategy strategy strategy strategy strategy strategy strategy

want readers to read we should listen to what
you they say, and answer questions asked

Q: Should we be writing about those subject objects
          instead of

the fire hydrant on the corner resembles a dog patiently waiting by the curb, metal valves, little ears.  Up the block sits an attractive old house whose sons were "friends" of the druglords Arrellano.  They disappeared.  The dog still waits.

revolution avenue
nude dancing

painted zebra donkeys
painted tiles

silver jewelry
tequila

some work in progress therefore to answer the implications of site statistics

Painted Tiles

Painted tiles are sold all over as art souvenirs - you can find many examples of tile for decorating in shops along Revolution Avenue or in the artisans' village.

Or, for serious shopping for industrial quantities of tile, you can seek out professional tile stores.  There's a whole district of tile salerooms out along the boulevard, as it runs along from downtown toward Agua Caliente, but before you get to the racetrack.  One store, Lomeli Tile, sits on a pointed corner on the left after the golf country club.  This store is a favorite of ours because it sports on its outside walls, by the wrap-around sidewalk, a series of painted tile scenes of old Tijuana landmarks.  The Jai Alai palace, the racetrack, etc., all figured in ceramic vision.  Inside you will find allllll kinds of delightful tile items, and usually someone who speaks English, too.

Metiche/Busybody

In the night of Revolution blond
gringo looking for nude dancers

asks the taxi drivers
"where can I find a
  naked lady bar?"

You follow listening
for germs of verse

waste your last match on a
cigarette you won't smoke

ask the blond countryman
for a light --

"no man, sorry..." & then
  he runs away without
  asking his question .

Answer had been ready.

There's a really classy one high
above the Aztec calendar --

but now you will only shrug
and go for coffee to write .

Revolution Avenue

This backbone of tourist paseo
flaunts its painted donkey masque
serves its endless food and drink and
shops all ends from high to low.

They call it Revolution Avenue.  It is the old main street of town, also known as Avenue A.  Here, around the corner of 1st and 2nd and 3rd streets, was where they built the little olde west town you see in those old postcards (thank you Rubygro for your excellent photos!)

Actually, this small collection of little wood and adobe buildings was the RE-built town.  The great flood of 1892 had wiped out the prior collection of structures, closer to the river, and the founders - los fundadores - wisely decided to move just out of reach of the river.  Here, then, the town got re-started started around 1st and 2nd streets, then spread into the roaring twenties, all the way to the first hills, up there twelve blocks south, where the giant Mexican flag now waves from the city army camp.

It is now a fifteen-block long strip of buildings from the 1920s, 60s and 80s.  We can divide it into four or five separate areas, each with their own different flavors and character.

1. The lower segment leading to zona norte.
2. The arch area to 2nd and 3rd.  Original center of town.  Now with supermarket, hotel, bars, shops.
3. Fourth, Fifth, Sixth: the heart of madness in two short blocks.
4. Seventh and Eighth: Jai Alai palace, las Pulgas club, Sanborns la ocho.
5. Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, upper avenue bending to the left where Agua Caliente Boulevard begins at old Tijuana Tower park.

If you stand by the big aluminum croquet arch (15 stories tall), you can get an idea why the founders set their town here, after the flood of 1892 destroyed the first collection of buildings closer to the river.  In front of you, you can see two little hills going down toward the river.

First, the north end of Revolution Avenue, down to the left with all its new cement construction leading toward the "red light" zona norte on Coahuila Street.  And second, pictured backwards here before its SPIFFY new renovation, the pedestrian walkway from the border gate (el corredor turistico), now rebuilt into an inviting pathway going gently down First Street (actually the old Avenida Puente México where we drove across with our parents as children).  The new sidewalks here shall invite you to sit and be set upon by children selling chewing gum.  The wax museum and old bus station can be found just one block down, by the corner of Madero, where gringo Dave took this photo a couple years back (after the millennium arch clock was built but before we got ahold of the photo and EDITED rip slash paint tweak mmmm yes ART).

Back here at First & Revolution, at the giant arch, Plaza Santa Cecilia (an old diagonal street "Arguello" converted into a pedestrian mall) opens behind you, with its fake aqueduct arches, its many souvenir vendors, strolling mariachis and norteño musicians, weekend Aztec dancers, cantinas and restaurants, as well as the best walking route to approach the cathedral and its markets over by Niños Heroes (Avenue C), two blocks west of Revolution & 2nd.  You could spend your whole visit just exploring this one Plaza!

Beside the towering arch, dominating everything except for the arch itself, stands the famous Hotel Nelson, thrusting up from its restaurant and cocktail lounge.  It is said that Charles Bukowski slept of more than half his lifelong morning-afters here than anywhere else in the world!  ;-)

From the arch you can look up ten blocks of Revolution Avenue, almost to the end. 

The first blocks here by the arch have a full share of shops opening onto the street, or waiting inside passageways.  The old California Club (now labled Villa Colonial) art nouveau archways (in the middle of the block between 1st and 2nd) will let you into a tall passageway decked out like an old Spanish village with balconies overhead (pirates of the caribbean?).  Wander past the shops in this passageway (pasaje) and you will eventually emerge into the middle of Plaza Santa Cecilia.  This passage is one of the little "back ways" around downtown.

Across the street, beyond the Hard Rock Cafe (site of vanished Bol de Corona restaurant), the Centro Commerial Plaza Revolution hosts another collection of souvenir and jewelry shops waiting to serve you whatever you want to buy.  Don't forget to bargain!

As you walk up these first two blocks of Revolution, you will notice, perhaps, the new, wide sidewalks put in just last year (2003).  The street here has been narrowed down to just a single lane each way, and is often shut down for public events, concerts, car & motocycle shows, etc.

On the corners of 2nd, two old buildings, the white bank and the brown commercial block, face each other diagonally across the intersection.  These structures were erected during the 1920s as part of the touristic boom in those years of U.S. alcohol prohibition.  Caesar's restaurant (now several blocks up the street) used to be located here, and thus the caesar salad was probably invented at this corner, before the restaurant (and hotel) moved up the avenue.

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copyright 2004 daniel charles thomas