Blurred Borders - International Community Foundation

(including schools, health clinics, police services, garbage collection) can be extended and
improved in colonias populares. Still the general apathy and indifference among Mexico’s elite
towards those less fortunate leads one to conclude that such progress remains a difficult
proposition. Unfortunately, like other Latin American countries, the disparity in wealth in
Mexico between the affluent and the poor continues to be significant, where nearly 43% of all
national income is received by the top 10% of the population while the bottom 10% receives
less than 1.4% of the country’s income. 297 Sadly, Mexico’s income distribution is one of the
most inequitable in the entire world, with the poorest 20% earning approximately 3.5% of the
total national income. 298 This wide disparity in wealth is ever-present in Tijuana and helps to
explain the growth of urban poverty and squatter settlements in this otherwise economically
prosperous border city.
While the gap between rich and poor is widening in Tijuana, a number of steps are being taken
locally to address the needs of squatters. Among these are efforts by the federal agency
CORETT (Comisión para la Regulación de la Tenencia de la Tierra), which has been working to
legalize the tenure of occupied and illegal land settlements. At the state level, Inmobiliaria
Estatal has been actively engaged in buying up vacant land and making it available to poor
residents for future housing. However, critics argue that the agency levies prices and interest
rates that are too high. 299
The non-governmental sector is increasingly playing an important role in addressing the plight
of squatters in Tijuana’s colonias populares. Among the most pro-active NGOS is Fundación
Esperanza, which has been operating a community-based revolving loan fund to finance self-help
home building and renovation projects aimed at improving the living conditions of squatters.
Esparanza’s loan fund has been a tremendous success but remains very small in scale and could
benefit from additional financial support to expand it to other communities in Tijuana. In the
colonia de Tecolote, Esperanza has been engaged in the fabrication of compost toilets to
reduce the spread of infectious disease and the construction of water treatment and re-use
facilities to promote water reclamation. Esperanza’s other community-based efforts include
work to empower community leaders through a highly effective “promotora” program now
being undertaken in partnership with another non profit, Los Niños, which is based in both
Tijuana and San Diego. In that same community, Centro de Comunidad, A.C. is providing
valuable after-school programs for the children throughout the community as well as parental
education.
The Border Arts Workshop, a project of San Diego-based Combined Visual Arts (COVA) and
Southwestern College, has been actively engaged in community building through the arts.
Thanks to the leadership of the Border Arts Workshop, an arts education enrichment program
and computer training is being provided for the children of the Colonia Maclovio Rojas.
297
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UN Habitat), Cities in a Globalizing World: Global Report on
Human Settlements, 2001. Pages 17-18.
298
Ibid.
299
David Bacon, “Baja Police Arrest Mexican Housing Activist,” Mexican News and Analysis, Volume 7, No. 1,
January 2001.
106