Playing Uno in Tijuana

I’ve been to Tijuana several times and Cancun several times. I’ve never been to the interior of Mexico, and I need to change that.

My favorite memory of Mexico is from the night I went to a punk/hardcore show in Tijuana, some night in October 2006.

Before the show, things were running late (as punk shows tend to do), and someone somehow had a pack of Uno cards. One of the locals. Not something we’d brought with us.

It felt really surreal. Here I am, waiting for a punk show in Tijuana, and the most seemingly benign of all things is happening: I’m playing Uno with some Mexican punks like it’s the most normal thing of all–like we’re sitting around at a family reunion.

All these years later, I still remember this. Uno before a punk show in Tijuana. How that happened, I’ll never be certain, but it was great.