Playing the Fence, Listening to the Line: Sound, Sound Art, and Acoustic Politics at the US-Mexico Border

In the language of real estate, Tijuana’s Colonia Federal is “checkpoint adjacent.” Buildings on the neighborhood’s northern edge have clear views of the US interstate that feeds into the San Yisdro Port of Entry and have property lines that slam right up against the Mexican inspection stations. Its central traffic rotary is a favorite border pick-up and drop-off shortcut and its outdoor pedestrian market – stuffed with steamy taquerias, tourist vendors, and newspaper hustlers – is the first consumer zone that anyone walking from the other side of the line is immersed in. Its busiest street is a Pharmacy Row, an over-the-counter discount paradise of pills and creams crowned by a McDonalds, its corners crowded with taxis waiting to take anyone somewhere else. The human turnover of the border checkpoint keeps Colonia Federal in a shape-shifting state of constant motion and daily transformation and as a result, the place has a certain sonic buzz to it, a consistent ear-numbing hum of chattering bilingual voices and sputtering mufflers, the sound of spatulas, horns, cement, and exhaust.