The Unique Value Mindset in Baja California

We are proud norteños (northerners) with unique Mexican traditions embedded in our daily behavior but at work, our standard of performance is extremely competitive. We experience two traits in one: a global flair with a practical approach. It is an automatic, unconscious mental shift that makes our attitude unique and exceptional compared to other regions in Mexico. We are the most distant northern tip of our country but, at same time, we feel we are at the center of significance of everything good happening, resulting in constant economic growth for the past four decades and ranked among the top three most rapid-growth industrial regions in Mexico, sadly overshadowed by real violence and misconceptions magnified in the news. We gravitate furiously but we also spin greatly, creating ripple effects both inwardly and beyond borders.

Welcome to Baja California. Many people assume that our location and proximity to California influences everything we have achieved. Some others question our disparity to the rest of our country because we are extremely independent and often misunderstood. Those people do not know that this harsh land is built from tough hands and sweat. It is built on waves of migrants and companies that decided to take a risk and gained from their arrival and their expansions alike, once they established here. It is built on the stamina of good people who learned from these international companies their skills and abilities and carry them to the next opportunity that opens in front of them. Neighboring California helps but doesn’t guarantee our success. It is our treat to excel and prove that we are equal in excelling performance.

When it comes to our economic and industrial strength, our abilities come from a mix of hunger to succeed and harsh competition learned from our inherited values and international rapport. Those values became virtue while enriched through the process of our industry profile, embedded in American, Japanese, Korean, French, Chinese and other foreign cultures that settled in our territory to tap the best “cost of product to market” we can offer. Industrial sectors, such as aerospace, medical devices, electronics, auto and medical tourism, commingle and define the character of our society, with one differentiating trait: we welcome everyone looking for opportunities and expect a brighter future.

In the aerospace sector, for example, we have been leaders in Mexico for more than five decades but we don’t brag about it, unless we are teased. We have the best of the best in our land. Corporate names that are happy in Baja California overshadowing in results other industrial regions worldwide with similar operations, when it comes to real value metrics: profitability and eagerness to work hard. The global aerospace community recognizes Baja as one of its own, and a well-reputed bridge that exudes confidence on every new project that lands and gradually transforms into a successful one. This unique value mindset in Baja has a complex origin and is subject to deeper analysis when interpreting why we are unique compared to the rest of the country.

For perspective, a regular flight from Tijuana to Mexico City is three hours. That is the same distance from London to Moscow. No wonder it is challenging to sync Central Mexico’s vision with that of the most northwestern, industry-centered business-oriented state in Mexico. We combine sand, sun, desert, wine, beer, fish, shrimp or lobster tacos with a bicultural approach to life and perspective.

Yes, Mexico is a vast country, enriched with inhabitants and flavors, colors, tastes and music through early millennial ethnicities and tribal heritage scattered in 32 entities. Here in Baja we have all these entities in one single state that only has five municipalities: Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, Tecate and Rosarito, plus one emerging one, San Quintin, and one embryo, San Felipe, and still you obtain a mix of discordant but well-tuned sensibilities.

Tijuana, the largest player of all, for example, is a city of migrants, now rising vertically because land is scarce to continue horizontally. More than 50 percent of its population was born elsewhere, but once you settle here and recognize its strength and character, something magical happens. If we compare this sense with a loving relationship, you tend to fall in love with the strange and crazy girl in the classroom but with great beauty and values within. That’s what makes Baja special but you can only sense it if you live here.

My entreaty to you is simple. Welcome to Baja. Get to know us. You will be pleasantly surprised.