Latest / The Lawtino™ / Román Cota Muñoz - Mayor of Tecate

Transcript

Román Cota Muñoz - Mayor of Tecate · The Lawtino™

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Latino Podcast, where we discuss the intersection of law and our Latino communities with legal, political, and community leaders and visionaries.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, it's John Gomez with this latest episode of the Latino podcast, where we discuss the intersection of law in our Latino communities.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: I have with me today is always lately my co-host David Arreguin, former guest, of course, but today the managing attorney of our California-Mexico corridor practice.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: We say that we are a binational, bicultural, and best-in-class law firm with presents and clients from both sides of the California, Arizona, Texas, Mexican border.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so today, well, before I get into our special honored guest who's traveled here to see us, I will say that this episode, as always, is sponsored by Gomez Trial Attorneys.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: We provide the very highest level of legal representation, both in the English and Spanish language, to our clients who suffered personal injury, employment harm, uh violations of civil rights.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: We also represent those clients to class action and mass torts.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought it appropriate for our managing attorney, David, to introduce our special guest, you know, because you are a kid that has lived his life on both sides of our border in our shared region.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so you have uh allowed us to bring in a special honored guest who I believe may be our very first elected official from Mexico.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, thank you, John.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we're excited, and like John said, I am a kid who was born in San Diego, raised in Tijuana, then ultimately came here for college or law school.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: So it's exciting to see how many people have uh these binational ties.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and with that, and someone close to our border, the Tecate mayor, uh Roman Cota Munoz, is here with us.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: We're very excited because he actually took his time out of his busy agenda schedule to actually show up our studio here at the office.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and he's gonna be talking to us a little bit about Tecate, his background, uh, our binational ties, and the current efforts that we have going on between the two countries.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Roman, for being here.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you and thanking John for uh bringing him over.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, guys.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, thanks for having me here.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh an honor uh for our community to be to do these kind of efforts to be uh better informed on what's going on in both sides of our border.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um as you said, I'm city mayor in Tecate since uh one year.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: I got elected an office in 24.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, well, I've I've been uh working in binational affairs since uh a long time ago.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: I used to be an assembly member in the local legislature too, and uh my commission was on the binational uh affairs and international relationships.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I would like to talk about a little bit about uh Ticate, the work we're doing uh to strengthen our the region.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Ticate is a unique uh place in our border.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's a small city with deep cultural, economic, and family connections with the United States and obviously with the San Diegans.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and we are committed to building a future of collaboration and opportunity for both sides of our border.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's a small town, as I said, uh, from around uh 110,000 people, maybe.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and many of our residents are youth born, and many of our residents are across the border every day to go to their schools, to their works, uh businesses, and many things that happen in uh part of uh the South County of San Diego, and maybe some of them go up to North County.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so we have a very dynamic uh border region, and we don't have a 24-hour operating border.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: It just it is just up happens from 6 a.m.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: to 10 uh p.m.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: So the rush in the mornings is uh huge concern for everyone, and we have a very, very nice uh road trip uh going back uh down to the Mexico border with the 94 highway.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's a beautiful uh highway, but it's a very slow highway.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're ever gonna visit Tecate, take your time and enjoy the trip.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I've and I've driven that before.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think the important here uh thing here is I know you mentioned that the you know the by national ties, uh, how many, you know, how many of these people from Tecate actually either study here or they come to work here, which is very unique, right?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Very similar to the Tijuana that we were just talking at one of our last episodes.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, where basically people are part of this community, right?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: This, like I call this third community, which basically means that we're like sort of in in between, right?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so hybrids.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hybrid, yeah.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: So we appreciate you uh you know informing us more on that.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but yeah, tell us a little bit more about the uh I think the port.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned the port of entry, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's also an important port of entry since Tijuana only has you know two of them uh for now.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but tell us a little bit more about the port and all the uh you know issues that people go through every day to actually cross the border.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, in terms of uh money movement in between the import and export uh actions uh made every day, Tecate is the second largest uh port of entry in for uh customs in the whole Baja California.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: We're just behind Otai, because you don't have um import-export in San Isidro is just for um cars and people.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: So uh we have more uh movement in quantity of of uh value of importations and exportations than for example Mexicali and Portal Port of Entry, or even the um Puerto Maritimo in in Entenada, the the the port the seaport in in Ensenada.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: So it's just like a lot of trucks, a lot of trucks every day.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: We have more than 7,000 uh crossings each day uh between small cars, trucks, and people.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: How many lanes?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: How many?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's a good question.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: Well we just have two uh lanes for small cars and we have two for um uh customs for um the import export.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: And for personal knowledge, do you guys have a sentry lane or is it mainly like the regular lane plus the talking lane trying to plan his bit his travel?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we're trying to plan our travel.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, that's a very good question because uh one of the main struggles is the wait time because we just have two lanes there.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: So uh we just have some uh really, really uh bad times to go across the United States.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like six days, 6 a.m.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: to eight 30, 9 maybe, and uh some more a little bit around uh 2 or to 4 p.m.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: and the late uh of the day.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: But uh most of the time you're gonna make like five to ten cars to go across the borderline.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I I tell my my my wife's from Tijuana and well she lives with me obviously in Tecate, but uh uh she uh I I never had uh sentry lane before I I met her.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: So and when I start dating her, uh one of the first uh like um requisitos one of the requirements requirements to to keep on going in a relation was you have to get your century because I don't I I need century to go to San Diego and uh have a dinner date or whatever.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a good spouse requirement, especially when you're left in the mortar.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: And and I I told her, well, I do have my own central lane in Tecate, because you you're gonna be Century Lane in Tecate.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: But well, um now one of the ongoing plans, maybe it's starting next year, as soon as next year, uh, is to have our fast lane, which is gonna be dedicated for uh a businessman or business tourism or medical tourism.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: We have a lot of um industrial facilities.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: We have about six to eight uh industrial parks in Tecate, and many of them get uh some of the um managers, some of the uh people that works in their facilities come from uh United States to Tecate every day to work.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: So we're thinking about this um possibility.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's a very, very possible plan we're going to get ongoing uh next year, and also for the medical purposes, because we also have uh a lot of uh dental facilities, um aesthetic uh surgery and other medical reasons for busy decate.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: So that's gonna be one of our uh next movements in in a few months.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: So like you have a lot of spas, right?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Is are these spas mainly for like recovery?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean you're talking about you know medical facilities and dental.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh some of these places that you have in decate, are these mainly for like recovering after the uh like a particular procedure, or are these mainly like retreat uh spas?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the third option.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: It could be you go, you get injections, and you get well, I will say both of them.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh because, for example, we have a in decate in Rancho La Puerta, which is uh one of the best uh resort spas in the uh wellness category in the whole world.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: It has been named uh by the uh uh Travel and Leisure magazine five times the best uh resort spa on the wellness category in the whole world.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a very, very nice uh facility where uh they can host uh many celebrities and uh diplomats and lawyers and her wives.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: Some lawyers, yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: You should go there.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we're gonna go.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: And this is a very holistic place because it's in the bottom of uh Cerro Cuchuma, which is like a sacred mountain for or the ancient people from Tecate, which is also with the uh South County of uh San Diego, uh the Cumiay.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Cumiais.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a museum down there.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a very nice museum.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: And uh down there they they have uh in this facility um like wide open spaces, very nature contact.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh all the the food is organic, or it's made in there, they have their own um kitchen to teach um uh cooking classes for the the guest, and it's a very, very interesting place to be.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: And uh you can only stay there in in packages of four and seven nights because you have to like do this kind of schedule, and many people do it uh like once a year for like getting a detox and getting away from the stress, getting away from the routine and uh restarting and uh and that kind of stuff.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: And we also have uh another very interesting facility called Scantiboris.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: Scanty Boris is uh medical industry uh company uh that started in the Santi area here in Narconi San Diego.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: And um then the the founder of this uh company moved down to Tecate, and it's one of the largest uh producers of the uh pregnant uh proofs.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh okay.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: The strips in the strips in the whole uh in the whole area, and they a lot of um uh research and development in new uh medical um developments, and uh they have uh very interesting facilities where they can also treat uh with uh ozone.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's it's ozone on with with ozone, and they have also the this scan scan camera where you can like get in into this white tube, and yeah.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: They do a lot of uh cancer treatments, a lot of um uh um many many medical dreams, and they uh offer these uh principal uh facilities for people from uh United States, and and they they go down to Tecate and stay there a couple of weeks during the treatment and the recovery.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: How about Canadians?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Canadian medical tourists yet or not?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: Not really, not really.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: Most of them are from South Carolina.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yes.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think most of the focus is you know, targeting it towards uh Americans from like near the border.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because I've heard of Rancho La Puerta.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Seems like you would have fed pretty good there.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Especially after a week and you know, usually like stretches and yeah, doesn't every yeah.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Four days.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Four days.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: An interesting fact is that the the owner of this uh the place, uh Rancho La Puerta, uh is um still alive, and she is hundred years old.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: 104?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: 104 so it works, so it worked so get to Hori.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's good, that's good.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh uh let's talk a little bit about.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know there's all these great facilities down there, uh the spas, but uh I want to talk a little bit about the uh the term Pueblo Máquico that not a lot of people from this area is familiar with.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: I know there's a lot of Pueblo Máxico's in the like interior of Mexico.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the only one that I know that is close to the border is uh the Cate.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: So talk talk to us about uh Pueblo Majico and what that means.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: I will say that it's like the other face of our um little town.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we are very focused on uh promoting this uh touristic site of our uh region, and we are the only uh Pueblo Magico in the whole country, in whole Mexico, with an uh border port of entry with the United States.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: We're the only one in whole Baja California.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: We we have two more in the peninsula, one in um Todos Santos and in La Paz, and another one in Loreto, uh down in Baja California Sur.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: But we are the only one in Baja California, the north part of the peninsula, and uh the character the characteristics of a m Pueblo Magico is that uh it has to have his uh uh the the own traditions of the the place.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: For example, we have the uh sweet bread uh that is uh made uh in an traditional way.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's handmade, it's still handmade, no machines, no uh artificial flavors, everything's natural, everything's done in an um brick oven from like 60 years old, and this this is uh whole mystic about it.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: This this is a famous part of our traditions, the the sweet bread we have there.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh place called El Mejor Pan.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: El Mejor Pan.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Supposed to be like the best pun in in the world.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: Bread in the world.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's how they brand it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever heard about the the um Taste Atlas uh magazine, or is it like an Instagram account, or is this is dedicated for uh uh food.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: And they made a like a chart of the best uh desserts of whole the whole world.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: And the pan dulce from uh El Mejor Pan de Tecate is uh in the uh I think 24th place in the in the whole in the world.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to forte cate.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well that's why we have the mayor here, so you talk about uh you know all the good stuff that Tecate has.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: And obviously our um other or of our main uh traditions is the the um the beer.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: We have like one of the most famous beers in the whole world, uh Marca Tecate, um, was established in Tecate around 1940 by a local family and start building up uh to what it is now.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh about 15 years ago, um Heineken company from Holland, from the Netherlands, bought this uh company from a Mexican company, and now it's uh getting the name worldwide.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's very good beer.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's a very good beer, and if you go to Tecate, you can uh take a tour into the uh brewery and see how the the beer is made there and and actually try one of the the beers that is that have just been uh packet.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: That sounds so good.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a mountain there, right?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: That it's reflected in the logo of Tacape, the beer.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Ceru Cuchuma?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Cerro Cuchuma, okay.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Which is the one I was talking on that show, but interesting.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, good, good, good.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and you know, there's other places in the cante that I've been to, uh great restaurants, but we want to hear from the mayor of the cate.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what's the best place down there for these uh well regarding tourism?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: One of the um requirements is to have good food because if you have people you have to give them to eat, right?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we have like like an improving uh new uh gastronomic zine in in Tecata.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um actually we have one of our restaurants named in the Michelin guide.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_03: Wow in uh it was uh in I think it told him twenty-fourth that last year, the the this uh restaurant called Amores get his got his uh Michelin guide uh in in the listing and is owned by a chef uh uh named Marcelo Hisaki.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um he has uh Japanese roots, he's born in Mexico, in Mexico City, but he came to Tecate to marry his wife, uh Reina Menegas, which is uh the uh head chief in uh chef the head chef in Raicho La Puerta.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so they uh they they started this this small restaurant, and um one of the main goals for Marcelo was to get into uh international uh gastronomic competition called uh Bocus de O.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's like the World Cup of uh the gastronomic.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: And uh well a couple years ago he won the the place to represent Mexico in this competition, and he finished like about I think like in the fifth place in the continental area.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I will we can't say he's like the best uh he's between the five best chefs in the whole uh continent.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, yes from Tecate, from Tecate to the Razani, yes, all those uh all those Mexico City chefs, nope.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: No Tecate.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're taking the guy from Teclane.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Amores, we'll be tagging you because we're yeah, of course.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're I definitely Amores uh Ranzo Laparta and the best in Red in the world.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the brewery, the brewery.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh the brewery the brewery had forgotten about one question about the brewery is there a reason why they're always involved with boss and bossing?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Was there is there a lot of bossing and is another thing?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: No, not really.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was because uh back in the day when the company was still uh Mexican 100%, uh they focused a lot in this emerging uh market.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: So there there was Like no, no other companies looking on to get this kind of uh sport events like football or basket, baseball, whatever, and they start like uh uh Patrocia sponsoring a lot of uh fight events, a lot of uh boxers, yes.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like for example, if if you remember uh Julio César Chavez, many of the the shorts he used to wear have the Tecate logo in or Rafael Marquez or uh obviously local um terrible virus like Terrible Morales, Margarito, and other ones.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think that's why it it established like uh tradition in with the with the um brand um associated with the boxing events.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so if if our listeners, we have um listeners from all over, but uh say they lived here and they never been to Tecate, could they do uh a day trip and enjoy themselves and come home to San Diego?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, I will recommend it a lot.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Tecate is a very nice place to have a day getaway, maybe two, maybe three days.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, because we have a lot of uh interesting things uh in the the main town and in around.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: For example, if you go there just for one day, I will say that you have obviously to get to the main plaza, which is like or uh Parque Miguel Hidalgo, uh then you can see the the kids play, um the the couples uh go around and maybe have uh an ice cream, have a palette, um basso, no?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um take a little walk over there, maybe take some pictures.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: We have also the city hall in this main plaza and or main main chapel, uh Nestra Signora de Guadalupe uh chapel, the church, and uh maybe from there I will go to the museum, which is a very interesting place.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: In inside you can learn all about the history of the um uh uh cumiais and uh the um the ranch uh time of Tecate.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: Tecate was a uh town established in uh uh late uh uh twenty twentieth century.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: So it established like a many uh near ranches that was getting together and have it this uh merchant transactions and then establish uh settle down this uh uh little town.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: So there you can see uh part of this uh history, the the the clothes they used to wear, the the traditions, the the houses they used to to have back then, and the modern times, where you can learn a little bit more about the brewery, about the Rancho La Puerta, about the bread, about all all or uh current or modern uh traditions in in Tecate.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna have maybe 50 minutes to an hour there, and then you can go um maybe to the brewery to have the tour in the brewery.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's maybe another another hour, another hour and a half, maybe.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: And obviously, uh after that you are gonna be a little bit starving, so you can go uh to Amores, which is right in front of the Tecate Brewery.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, perfect.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, everything's close by, right?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Where it's a big convenient, you can do all day trip uh by walk.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, it's a very uh good tip because uh we have many parking lots in the border area in the US side.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_03: So you go down there, you don't cross uh in your car, you stay in the parking lot.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's about five to ten dollars uh per day.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: So you leave your car there, go Mexico uh walking and help all your day, uh all your uh distances are very, very welcome.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: And finally, from the brewery, I will tell you to uh uh restaurant, could be amores, could be lugar de nos, uh uh which is very, very famous.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: In a regular weekend, if you go uh to a more uh lugar de nos uh maybe 80, 85 percent of the tables are uh uh uh visitors.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a colorful place, like very colorful.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, very, very colorful and very, very savory, tasty place to eat.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um but we have many, many others good, good restaurants.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: And after you you have your your meal, um it's time to go to the uh paneria uh to get some dessert to get some dessert to the cate, uh-huh, and then you can grab a little box to go for to go toward your palm.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, this is a full itinerary from the yeah, this is good.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is right from the one day.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: We have many other options to get number one.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm there for four days though.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh at Rancho.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you go to Rancho La Puerta, they offer uh in in during your stay, they're going to offer many places to visit, like uh La Romorosa, we haven't talked about that.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's uh place in the mountains from Tecate, uh very famous uh because we have their um one of the largest um uh parques eólicos.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um qual seria la traduction?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, and all the old the wine mills, yeah.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, yeah, and the huge wine mills from Zempra.
• 27:56
  unknown: Uh-huh.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: From Zempra.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, some San Diego Company.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: So uh we have uh another uh um prehistoric or pre-Hispanic uh drawings in in the in the roads.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh cool.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh right there.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: We have a lot of uh cabins, we have uh uh a forest over there in in the mountains.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: In in we have the lagoon.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: I s I spent the new year's at one of my uh friend's cabin out there.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's like way up in the mountains.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, really?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it gets well here, scroll down to Bay Bear.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful because it's actually, you know, like you you do feel uh like in the mountains.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: There's no there's no small town nearby.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's basically you on the mountains in a cabin.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: We we do have uh some snow during the year, but maybe one to two uh times during the year.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: Not a lot, uh not a lot of snow, like uh Big Bear.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: We don't have like this sky, uh ski resort has key resorts, uh, but but it's fun, it's a fun place to to visit.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we are also on the uh north entry for Valle Guadalupe.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_03: This is another one of our uh main attractions.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: We have about uh 13 uh uh wine companies in in wineries in Tecate, uh where you can taste very, very good uh wine.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they have the their own vineyards, they they own uh facilities.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it's like having the the same experience than in Valle de Gualupe, but uh more close to San Diego.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: So for some of our listeners that you know are not familiar with this drive to Tecate or this uh drive from Tecate to Valle, like how far is let's say Chula Vista from Tecate and then Tecate from Ayahuape?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the best way to get to Tecate if you are in in downtown area or any anywhere around, you just take the 94 uh east all the way down.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna go uh you're gonna get to Rancho San Diego and then go down in you're gonna go across Hamul.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: You can go there.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_03: I I don't know if there are sponsors or not.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: You can go there to the casino a little bit, uh uh take a drink, or maybe gobble a little bit, and then you go down to uh Tecate to the border.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's about one hour maybe from down easy.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a one-hour drive, and it's a beautiful uh quiet that uh there's a um nice place called Urzura, it's a uh very um cozy uh community down there.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_03: You have these uh like uh big trees, uh encino trees uh around the the the the highway, so you go uh through like uh a tree tunnel in the highway.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's a very nice uh highway road to to go down there.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: And um from Tecate, uh everywhere around um the places I I've been told I I have uh talked about is walking distance.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe Rancho La Puerta not it's about uh five kilometers from the the the downtown, but all the other places are walk uh walkable and uh to get from Tecate to Valle Guadalupe it's about 40 minutes.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_03: In the meantime, you can stop by Tecate and you have like a meal, they'll keep providing help to many people do that, and many of them also like go uh directly to Valle Guadalupe on maybe uh Thursday or Friday.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: They stay the the whole weekend and they come back on on Sunday because uh it's like a better way to go across the line than in Tijuana.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um but obviously we do have uh a little bit more wait time because of the uh two lane the two lanes.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: We have but they stay a part of the day there, they go to a restaurant, they go to the the the main plaza, do something and wait until the the wait lane uh it's a little bit shorter.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: So we had uh we had our guest recently, the um the executive director of the small boarding coalition who was actually telling us that Taylor Guitars is in Tecate.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: I they they invited me uh I think about one or two months ago to visit their facilities in Tecate.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's a very interesting place because uh they made the guitars from scratch uh down there, and uh they are all made uh hand quality and very, very good standards from there from Tecate they export worldwide, and they have another facility at El Cajon, I think.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh Cajon, yeah.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, where where is the the company uh where company started, yeah?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like the head the headquarters from from the company, yeah, and they have this second facility in Tecate.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: They uh have about uh 300 uh employees down there.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_03: There's sound of guitars for sounding.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's amazing when when you go down there uh in the in the roof, you're gonna see uh thousands of uh guitars going one side to another side, and the the stations where uh one uh when where the the guitar is just a sheet of uh wood.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: And another one where it's like uh taking a little bit of form, and the next one when they're like putting glue on it and the the molding and painting and uh uh until the final part where they can test the sounds and get packet and delivered.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: So do they offer tours without or was it special treatment because an era they can't show it off?
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think they they do tours.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe in El Cajon.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: I think that maybe in the cajon, but normally they don't do tours in the Cateas.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: That would be a good tour.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds very interesting.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, especially with you know that being a good brand.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so tell us a little bit about you know some of the um the challenges generally when we are discussing these topics, be we try to get into, you know, one of the challenges for the the cross-border uh people from like the category or what are the challenges for people going down there?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh how is you know safety?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you said it was very walkable.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: I understand the cat is pretty safe, right?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: We I know that one of the issues with our border region is uh safety, right?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um we heard a lot of bad news coming from downside of the border.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: But I would like to say that Tecate is uh a whole different world.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_03: Tecate um has been known as a very quiet, a very safe, a very um kind uh place to visit because we we're a small community, we still know each other, we still made words with each other, we still have uh relatives in uh everywhere.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: So um we uh we care for each other and we care uh for the ones who come to visit us.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: So um I know um this is uh very um I would say um hard thing to say, but I I think it's it's it's safe to visit Tecate.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's a very good option for all or uh people that want to uh know um I've been calling Tecate like the the entrance for Mexico to or traditions or gastronomy or culture, um the folklore of of the whole nation starts in the cate because of the uh also because of the quality of life we have there.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're just a small small uh and very nice place to to live, to visit, um to go and do business.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: Because uh gonna we are uh a small uh town, we have a lot of economic development.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: I already told you about the the importance of the the port of entry and we um are ongoing with a lot of uh new uh industrial building constructions.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: We have four um uh main industrial parks uh developing right now in in the whole uh the the whole um municipality because uh we down in Tecate, well Mexico we have or uh Tecate County is will be like a municipio.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_03: And we have our communities or or cities that will be like in Tecate or downtown is our main part of the city, but we have another rural areas like I told you La Arborosa or on the way to Valle de Gualupe, we have Valle de las Parmas, Testeraso, and other smallest uh communities.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: But take it back from where I started.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_03: Tecate is a very nice place to see, to visit, to walk, to live, to invest, I will say.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it has a lot of potential.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's it's a very good opportunity and for or people is like an oasis because of uh the many families that still uh uh prefer to live in Tecate because of the quality of life, because of the tranquility, because of the public services we we offer, and do the other part of their life in in uh San Diego or in the United States, like for uh school, work, business, uh whatever.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've been um seeing uh what seems like uh a growing trend of American retired people um living their retirement years in Mexico and in nice places like Tecate.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any of those that have come to live there that you know of?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like a place that would be perfect for them.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_03: They is they are starting with this uh kind of uh new developments.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: For example, Rancho La Puerta has his own uh retirement community, not part of uh the main facility, the the main hotel spa, but they uh have I think about 150 houses that are dedicated for uh retirement people, and they have many plans on develop more and more uh products to to this market.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_03: And we also have another ongoing project in uh Rancho Tecate, which is another um resort in the way to on the way to Valle de Guadalupe in the south uh side of the city.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was telling John uh yesterday that bad players used to have a golf course.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, three-hole golf course.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: A three-hole golf course.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: Just three holes.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: Romania, he's not he's a golf player.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, all right.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: Where do you go to golf now?
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't play a lot because of my work, but sometimes when it's uh possible, uh I go to an agic, maybe, or uh I have about four courses in a range of one hour from the cate border.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I have a Najig, I have Cottonwood, Sikwan, uh Singing Hills, and uh Steel Canyon.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, those are the the four courses whenever I got a chance.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: But it's I think small desport because these are closer than, for example, Bajamar or Real del Mar, right?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: You got a cross.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_03: Bahamar is about one and a half hour, maybe or two hours from Tecate, uh uh as well as uh Real del Mar, which will be the nearest, and obviously uh Campestre Tijuana, but of course I don't play there.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so without Rancho or Rancho Tecata, I know you you you know we were talking about the fact that it had a cold course.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, what is going on right now?
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_03: They are starting this new project uh for uh 200 units for uh retirement uh plans uh focused on uh people living uh actually in in US and um looking to get into Mexico.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_03: And they're going to have this uh 200 unit facility, and they're also going to have like a like a little uh commercial area and a health center and activity center.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's a very, very nice and interesting project.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: And uh obviously all the commodities, all the the services they offer in these uh uh retirement um communities.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's smart because um one, you know, it's just uh it's a good business model.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's always gonna be a need for that.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um but then second, the family will come visit, you know?
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes and so that that will be an economic boost.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's why they they they have the the two two hundred units for uh the trial uh the the main market, right?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: But they also have the their own small uh resort.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just have about thirty to forty um rooms, but uh they're planning to use them more for uh the visitors of their uh the the uh living in the the people living in the retirement section.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's a it's a good vision.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh I mean just you know before we finish, I know you you do a lot of uh meetings with the mayor of San Diego, the mayor of National City, the mayor of Trela Vista, all the bordering towns.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what's like the next plan for Tecate, or what do you envision at this point during your you know crosses here?
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, uh we're first focusing or on having a more integrated community.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I've I've been talking a lot with uh the uh local authorities in San Diego called uh Sandak um chamber to help each other.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh for example, I just uh I just came here from uh uh meeting with uh National City Mayor.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um National City is a sister city with Tecate, so uh we which are a lot uh communication and joint efforts for our communities.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, there's a very um high uh uh Latino Mexican Mexican population in in this part of the county.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_03: So um I think one of the main focus in the near future is to to be more more integrated.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: We see a lot that um we face similar uh challenges.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: Uh for example The um one of the best examples for this will be the the wildfires we just had this year in I think in about uh June, July.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_03: We have huge wildfires in our border region.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them were in the US side and some of them were in the Mexican Mexican side.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_03: So we we have to coordinate better to have a quick response and to attack and extinguish those uh kind of uh natural uh um phenoms.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: And um other issue we share a lot that is not being really a big issue in Tecate for the last month, but migration is a very, very interesting um example of of the the joint efforts we have to make.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: Tecate is not a really a migration place.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um we are like more like a go-through place, and most of the people is most of the people is trying to get to Tijuana or coming back from Tijuana and going down to um South Mexico.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: And what we're we'll focusing on Tecate is uh for the people coming to Tecate or or going through Tecate is to be safe and uh not to be obviously um related with um the cartels, with the uh illegal immigration and this kind of stuff.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_03: To inform the people, to host the people while while they are in Tecate, and try to give them the knowledge, the the tool that we can get them to be safe and to don't put them or their families on risk.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_03: And the the third uh thing I will say in in this uh matter matter will be our uh integrated community but not in in the politic uh political arena, I will say in the uh economic development we we we share.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_03: We are a whole uh uh unique place in the world.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh this uh mega region, Cali Baja as as we call it, is a very unique place because um we share a lot of uh traits every day, we share a lot of um workforce that comes to the cat to Mexico and goes back to the United States or to other ways.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_03: So many many of our um future is going to be on how we um how we comes take advantage how do we take advantage of uh all the uh the las las características sería como como todas las ventajas de las características que tiene nuestra región por las características por las cualidades únicas que tiene we have the opportunity to have uh uh obviously an sustainable development, uh looking for improving better um and efficient ways to uh do not quite uh on the economic development, but thinking on the future of the present and the and the next generations.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's like the one of the main goals we have to set this uh economic development, but in a sustainable way.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, makes sense, makes sense.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I keep hearing this Kali Baja term.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like at one point, it's probably gonna be Kali Baja Latino.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: Kalibaja Law.com.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, Calibaja is a real thing, and it's growing and it's vibrant and it's exciting.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um I think you're right, like the shared characteristics of these regions really provide a lot of opportunity for leaders and people on both sides.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, like that's one reason we have you here today.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's one re reason you have the podcast.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we want to be the you know legal um resource for the Calibaha region.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like you said, a lot of your people come up here and work, you know, things happen to them up here.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: We want to make sure they have good representation.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we just want to be good neighbors, you know.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so very thankful to you for taking your time uh to spend with us.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm I'm hopeful that like for sure I'm going out there to visit.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna show my wife uh uh El Rancho um today.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna regret it.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, it sounds like it sounds right up her alley.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: She likes that kind of thing.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I I want to do a day trip with you, David.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to drive out there.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds cool.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've never been to Tikate, believe it or not.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_03: Before you came there, he was like, now we're gonna go.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_03: It will be a pleasure to have you there.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I I I want to invite you to have a dinner, David.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_03: Whenever you you want.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: Amores, of course.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: Amores.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: Or there sounds like there's one lots of wonder you can't come on as the mayor and just say one thing.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: You said there was a lot of very good restaurants there.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_03: We have a very, very good um cuisine in in the whole uh region, not just in in Tecate in downtown, where we have a few places, we also have very good restaurants, for example, in Recho Tecate, in La Romorosa, um in the mountain area of Tecate.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, as I said, you can go there and have a one-day trip or or maybe uh three, four-day trips.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're gonna take you up on that, and so um, you know, thank you so much for joining us.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's an honor to have you here.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're uh blessed that you took the time out of your very busy schedule.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: You could have been golfing at Sicon, but he's like, Oh gosh, you or you're enough to do a podcast.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: But here you are with us next time.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: Next time.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so thank you so much.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh thank you, David.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, uh appreciate you both.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so um we'll end today at this point.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: Our this episode of the Latino.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you like it, share it, give us a thumbs up.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh we want to get everybody in San Diego out to Tecate, at least for a beer and hopefully for a three to four day visit like I'm planning to do.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: See you there.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Mayor.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Latino podcast.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.