Closing Reception and Benefit Concert This Friday at THE FRONT

Being located on the United States’ side of the world’s busiest international border crossing, the community of San Ysidro is firmly situated as a critical epicenter and natural bridge between two distinct socio-cultural contexts with a shared geography, history, and people. The Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa has described this border region as an “ open wound where the third world grinds against the first and bleeds…and before a scab forms, it hemorrhages again – the life blood of two worlds merging to form a distinct third country: a border culture”. San Ysidro (established in 1909) is an embodiment of that border culture. As San Ysidro prepares to welcome its centennial celebration, THE FRONT presents a preliminary photographic collection, which speaks to the complexity of the border region. Through the Eye of SY features 16 photographers from the region with over 80 images, all which detail the many features of San Ysidro’s border culture through both digital and film photography. With a history that expands beyond its centennial, the U.S./Mexico border region is an important global site from which much can be learned.