UC SAN DIEGO-DIVINA
Community Station
Children are the cross-border citizens of the future
The UC SAN DIEGO-DIVINA Community Station is a mixed-use civic space in an informal canyon settlement in Tijuana, dedicated to cross-border environmental protection. The station sits just 37 miles from the UC San Diego campus.
Location + Partnership
Los Laureles Canyon, Tijuana, BC, Mexico
The UC SAN DIEGO-DIVINA Community Station is located in the neighborhood of Divina Providencia, in the Los Laureles Canyon, a slum of 85,000 people on the periphery of Tijuana, Mexico. Laureles is considered Latin America’s last slum, crashing against the US-Mexico border wall. Its proximity to the Tijuana River Estuarine Reserve on the San Diego side, makes this station an ideal site for investigating new strategies of bioregional interdependence across the international border. The UC SAN DIEGO-DIVINA Community Station is located across the street from Primaria Basilio Badillo, one of two overcrowded, and underfunded, primary schools in the Laureles Canyon.
Colonos de la Divina Providencia
Colonos de la Divina Providencia is a Mexican A.C. (civil association) dedicated to community participation in environmental challenges and local economic development, directed by Rebeca Ramirez, an activist who inherited the organization from her mother who sat on the basketball court site to protect it from squatting. Operating as a community center, the nonprofit delivers a variety of social services, including meals for youth and seniors, a health clinic, senior services, youth and educational programming, cultural and environmental activities and workshops, including trash and sediment cleanups in local parks and canals, and the reforestation of key ecological zones—much of this in collaboration with UC San Diego researchers and students.
Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve
The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve preserves, protects, and manages the natural and cultural resources of the Tijuana River Estuary by focusing on research and education with compatible recreation and resource use. The Reserve encompasses beach, dune, mudflat, salt marsh, riparian, coastal sage scrub, and upland habitats surrounded by the growing cities of Tijuana, Imperial Beach, and San Diego. Critical issues confronted by the Reserve include habitat conservation and restoration, endangered species management, management of the wastewater from Mexico, sediment management, and the integration of recreation.
Physical Infrastructure
Located in the Divina Providencia neighborhood of Laureles Canyon, the UC SAN DIEGO-DIVINA Community Station operates in a community center building owned by our nonprofit partner Colonos de la Divina Providencia.
Social Infrastructure
Through community-based educational and environmental programming we promote civic engagement, youth leadership, environmental literacy and economic development.