Tijuana

Question: What are the travel requirements for going to Cuba? Is it possible to fly out of Tijuana, Mexico, to Cuba with a U.S. passport? Are there any other ID or passport cards required? Patricia Morrison San Juan Capistrano Answer: Yes, an individual can fly to Cuba from Tijuana, but a license - that is, a special permission - is required to do so (although some websites argue it's not necessary). Treasury Department regulations say this: "The Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 CFR Part 515 (the 'Regulations')

When Carmen Cervantes was growing up in the 1960s in East Los Angeles, it would've been nearly as surprising to find a Spanish-language bookstore in her neighborhood as it would be to unearth an Aztec pyramid in the middle of Beverly Hills. The problem persists today for local readers who are either Spanish-dominant or bilingual, said Cervantes, citing her mother, who lives in Montebello. "She goes to these stores and finds very limited things," said Cervantes, director of cultural and special events for the University of Guadalajara Foundation USA. "We read, and we want to read in our language as well, but we just don't have the books.

Pounding surf and corrosive sea air have stymied efforts for years to erect a sturdy fence at the westernmost edge of the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, the U.S. Border Patrol is trying again, with a $4.3-million project that would extend a nearly quarter-mile barrier 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean and remake one of the more scenic spots on the border. When completed early next year, a steel fence 18 feet tall will replace a teetering, gap-riddled barrier that did little to discourage people from crossing back and forth on a wide beach linking Tijuana and Imperial Beach.

Like a runner who falls face first before leaving the starting blocks, the idea of a joint San Diego-Tijuana bid for the 2024 Olympics may be an instant loser. According to the Associated Press, Christopher Sullivan, the U.S. Olympic Committee's chief of protocol and bids, called a liaison with San Diego Mayor Bob Filner on Tuesday to say the International Olympic Committee charter does not allow for bordering countries to host Summer Games, said USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky.

Federal investigators are preparing to search a garbage-strewn hillside near downtown Tijuana for the graves of three people who an informant claims were buried there by former Los Angeles Police Department officers Rafael Perez and David Mack, law enforcement sources confirmed Tuesday. The search, expected to occur within days, is part of an ongoing federal investigation aimed at corroborating the allegations of 23-year-old Sonia Flores, Perez's former lover.

When 5-year-old Yolanda Roman finally smiled, it was no hesitant little grin. It was a full-blown smile of delight that stretched her wide face to the limit. The little girl, one of 13 children in an impoverished family, had been given a pair of panda slippers. She wore them a full five minutes before the astonishing truth hit her--they were hers to keep. Yolanda's moment of joy took place one recent Sunday in the rain on a muddy hilltop in a part of Tijuana that tourists seldom see.

Two San Diego men were shot Saturday morning in Tijuana by gunmen in a passing car, police reported. Details of the shooting were sketchy, but according to San Diego police, who are helping in the investigation, the two San Diegans were driving in Tijuana about 11 a.m. when a car pulled up alongside and its occupants began firing, hitting the two men. The driver, whose name was not available, reportedly was shot in the head and was taken to a hospital in Tijuana.

You have done a tremendous service to the community with your alarming expose of the underage binge drinking in Tijuana (April 9). My parents are so grateful for the terror, suspicion and panic you have instilled in their hearts and minds. Now they will know the truth: that when I say it's "Blockbuster night" at my best friend's house, I'm really going to TJ for a debauched evening of tequila poppers and "Sex on the Beach" with servicemen. This 20-year-old thanks you very much for ruining her social life.

It's been a bloody new year so far in this violence-racked city, leaving authorities stunned and apparently speechless. Three teenagers in school uniforms were mowed down by automatic-weapons fire Wednesday. Another youth was shot multiple times last week as he sat in his car outside his parents' upscale home. Four people were decapitated, at least 10 people were killed in drive-by attacks, and five people were kidnapped, including two security guards and a prominent businessman.

Hugo Crosthwaite has left his indelible mark in group shows across L.A. in recent years, but hasn't had a solo outing here since 2005. His work now occupies Luis de Jesus in the fullest sense of the word. It takes possession of the space; it claims complete visual, emotional and physical attention.  Crosthwaite was born in Tijuana, grew up in Rosarito, attended college in San Diego, and now divides his time between Brooklyn and Rosarito. The show, "Tijuanerias," like much of his prior work, scrutinizes his hometown with tenderness, toughness, a knowing eye and a lively sense of humor.

San Diego and Tijuana will soon name a "top-notch" committee to pursue a binational effort to win the right to host the 2024 Olympic Games. San Diego Mayor Bob Filner said Friday that he and Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante are "working together to make this happen. " The U.S. Olympic Committee is already aware that San Diego and Tijuana plan to make a bid. "Imagine the message we could send to the world in the true spirit of what the Olympics is all about, bringing together people and countries," Filner said.

Mexican authorities helping to find the main suspect in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a Northridge girl have distributed fliers and searched a Tijuana home, they said. But leads on the whereabouts of Tobias Summers remained slim. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Friday that video showed Summers, 32, crossing the border into Tecate, Mexico, a few days ago. It was unclear if he crossed back, the chief said. PHOTOS: 10-year-old girl kidnapped from Northridge home Alfredo Arenas, commander of the Baja California state police fugitive squad, said Mexican authorities are in daily contact with LAPD officials.

Question: What are the travel requirements for going to Cuba? Is it possible to fly out of Tijuana, Mexico, to Cuba with a U.S. passport? Are there any other ID or passport cards required? Patricia Morrison San Juan Capistrano Answer: Yes, an individual can fly to Cuba from Tijuana, but a license - that is, a special permission - is required to do so (although some websites argue it's not necessary). Treasury Department regulations say this: "The Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 CFR Part 515 (the 'Regulations')

TIJUANA - The question bores Joe Corona. Yet it's always the first one people ask. Is he Mexican or American? "I always say 'both.' Because I have both cultures," says Corona, who was born in Los Angeles but raised in San Diego and Tijuana by a Mexican father and Salvadoran mother. "I know it's a little weird but I feel part of [me] is Mexican because of my family, because I was raised in Tijuana. And American because I was raised here, went to school here. " So while others may see the hyphen in "Mexican-American" as a barrier separating the two countries, Corona sees it as a bridge linking them together.

Galaxy President Chris Klein and Jorgealberto Hank, president of the Tijuana Xolos, consider this your warning: You're both on the clock. It's time for you guys to get together and work out a date to play a real game against one another. It's time for you to begin building a respectful, long-lasting cross-border rivalry, one that has the potential to sell soccer to Southern California's legions of Mexican League fans and to northern Mexican sports fans who remain on the fence separating soccer from baseball.

Maybe the Galaxy won't miss Landon Donovan that much after all. It sure didn't Tuesday when, playing its first match on the Home Depot Center turf since last December's Major League Soccer Cup final, the Galaxy dominated a team of reserves from Tijuana of the Mexican League en route to a soggy 6-2 exhibition win. The game, played before a chilly crowd of 12,000, matched the winner of the last two MLS Cups against the reigning Mexican League champions....

Two reputed leaders of a drug cartel that waged a years-long campaign of terror in Tijuana were arrested Monday in the Baja California port city of La Paz, according to U.S. authorities. Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental are believed to be top lieutenants of a gang blamed for a string of massacres, police killings, beheadings and kidnappings that has caused many residents to flee the border city. The arrests by Mexican federal police, coming a month after the capture of alleged cartel leader Teodoro Garcia Simental, are the latest blows against the gang.

LA JOLLA — The San Ysidro Land Port of Entry, which separates San Diego County from neighboring Tijuana, is the world's most congested border checkpoint, with armed federal officers from two countries and drug-sniffing dogs moving between long lines of cars. For some, it's a symbol of division. For Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, it's a bridge linking the places that shaped him as a ballplayer and person. Born in the United States to Mexican parents, Gonzalez is fluent and literate in English and Spanish, having been raised on both sides of the border in a blend of the cultures.