Tijuana Senorita

We’d been performing poetry together for about a year when we added some of Kim’s original songs (and the odd cover) to the mix.

In 1994, we toured the USA with The Ozpoets troupe, (Australian poets Dennis Woodley, Pamela Sidney, Grant Alexander McCracken, John Beaton, and Alex Mellor from the UK) and, during that tour, Kim and I began pairing our poems into what eventually became the ‘Fit of Passion’ show.

This song was written by Kim Downs, sometime in the 1980s, about the border between San Diego and Tijuana, a youthful stomping ground.  Sadly, it is still as relevant as when it was written, and references the practices of Colonialism as the root of much suffering and inequality.

Performed Live by ‘Fit of Passion’ (Kim Downs and Liz Hall) in Rogers, Arkansas, 1994 at The Hickory House.  Camera by Wayburn Downs. Set by Grant McCracken. Lyrics below.

 

 

‘Tijuana Senorita’  (Copyright Kim Downs)

Verse 1

Just up North from Bonita Vista where the city starts

Where life is easy and the streets are always clean

And your good friend Old Mexico is too far away

To make you think just twice about your dreams

And don’t you dare look South at what it means.

Chorus

Tijuana Senorita Go Home

Those Gringo men

Cannot  be trusted alone

Ooooh

V2

Just down South from Otai Mesa where the Border starts

Police dogs bark and searchlights sweep the night

Ragged men jump barbed wire fences and lay in mud

And pray to the Virgin Mary they’re out of sight

And hope those helicopters ain’t out tonight

CHORUS

SPOKEN:

“In the 1840s, the people of northern Mexico were pushed south by white settlers / Intent on taking their northern lands / Since then, the Mexican people have endured years of poverty and corrupt government / Now, they pour over the border into Texas and California at the rate of 3,000 a day / In search of a better life”

V3

Just down South is a Virgin Bride in a peasant dress

Her skin is dark and her eyes ae simple and kind

Her arms are open to the northern man who’s come to her

For all she sees she might as well be blind

She’ll soon find out what he’s got on his mind

CHORUS