Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Tijuana;kids & danger-paintings



On a previous trip to Mexico, I found in a friendly shop on a beach, postcards of little kids posing with dead bloody sharks.
I was a little shocked....
I thought about those images when I looked at these paintings in my Hotel lobby.
Innocent child posing with dangerous animal.

They're pretty obsessed with danger in this culture.
It's interesting to see how much hotel-lobby art tells you about its culture.

I've been told that all these kids have the same father. He is the owner of this hotel-casino where the museum has me staying. And he has his private zoo with elephants, tigers,etc.
All here in Tijuana!
This man was the previous mayor of Tijuana and has 23 kids (with 5 different wives).His name is

Hank Rhon.
But since he hasn't been re-elected two years ago, things have been getting really nasty in Tijuana; Drugs wars between the cartels.
A murder rate of 1021 last year. (Tijuana has 1.2 million inhabitants.)
Meaning that when he was in power he had control over the cartels. He had the power to keep it 'clean'.
(Amsterdam that is just a little smaller then Tijuana and Holland's murder city nr 1; 32 murders in 2008)