LeviathanTempest:AppendTwo

In a sense, it's an unnatural place. There's no reason that it should exist. It's only there because of an anomaly, a barrier imposed for whimsical reasons on the landscape. San Diego and Tijuana are very much like Leviathans themselves: grown anarchically out of a primordial separation, like a misshapen pearl around an irritating piece of grit.

It doesn't really make sense to talk of two separate cities. There are 300 000 crossings every day through the two checkpoints; although you can live your life within one city, even one neighborhood, the rest of the people out there aren't so limited. They will take advantage of everything life has to offer, on all sides. You'd better catch up.

Theme

The main themes of the Border Cities are separation and duality. The two cities, connected though they are, remain very different. There is resentment and envy, fascination and repulsion on each side of the border. But it is clear that neither city can exist without the other.

In a beachfront bar in Tijuana, a man keeps an eye on his gun as he counts blood money under the glare of a teenage gangbanger, who will then carry it across the border to the suburban home of an irreproachable charity organiser. A Mexican doctor travels three miles each day to golf among the exclusive crowd at a Californian resort, escorted by a caddy who can barely afford to return each month to see his wife and children down south. A band of teenage girls from UC San Diego meets up with the golden youth of Tijuana in a loud, trendy night club, some hours before a drunk driving accident kills two of them, one from each side of the border.

For Leviathans, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Separation fascinates people, and angers them. It touches deep into what Leviathans experience in their daily life. And in the meantime, the ocean knows no real borders, connects all people, and is the only place of true peace for miles around...

Mood

The basic mood of the San Diego-Tijuana chronicle is that of hidden greatness. What you need lies on the other side of the border, behind the closed doors at the back of the club, in the basement of the factory, inside the guarded walls of the military base.

For San Diego, Tijuana is a place of unfettered freedom, hedonism, crime and license. For Tijuana, San Diego is where the money is, where the rich houses and golf courses and boardrooms are situated. Each wants what the other has, and is persuaded that the best of it is hidden away and should really be taken by force.

Leviathans across the Border

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