Tijuana

Massive work graphically and textually documents the history, architecture and urban development of the metropolitan area of the Mexico-USA border region of Tijuana, B.C. Mexico through the thousands of period postal photographs (panoramic and small format) and postcards collected over the years by André Williams (b. Germany, lives in Tijuana). The book comprises multidisciplinary essays by noted historians, architectural/urban historians and scholars and follows the origin and urban development of Tijuana during the first 4 decades of the 20th century from a small town to a major metropolis. A large section is dedicated to the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel, a lavish resort with racetracks that opened in 1929, the celebrated race horses Phar Lap and Seabiscuit, the myth of Juan Soldado and other historic and popular urban anecdotes. A final section is devoted to the urban modernization of Tijuana when Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas outlawed gambling in 1935 and established a series of post-Revolutionary municipal developments that included free education, railroads and infrastructure. A valuable resource for both the study of Tijuana and the documentation of the unique collection of André Williams. Extensive texts include essays by: Manuel Acuña, Juan José Cabuto Vidrio, Lawrence Douglas Taylor, Mario Ortiz Villacorta Lacave, David Piera Ramírez, Antonio Padilla Corona, Paul Vanderwood, Pablo Bransburg, Laurena Sánchez Gallego.