Newly elected Tijuana Mayor Arturo González Cruz has been in office fewer than 15 days, but already he’s made a few minor changes he hopes ushers in lasting improvement at Tijuana’s City Hall.

Some might call it redecorating, but González said the adjustments have bigger significance.

For starters, he’s taken the reception area front door to his offices off its hinges.

“We’re going to practice open doors and that includes the interior reception door … If someone wants to see me, they can walk through,” explained González, who won the June elections with 42 percent of the vote.


González said if he’s busy, he may ask visitors to wait un momentito, or one little moment, but he wants Tijuana residents to feel like they have access to their elected mayor.

Tijuana’s new mayor Arturo Gonzalez Cruz walked in to his office on Thursday, October 9, 2019. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Born in Tijuana, González’s background is in the business community, having served as the president of both the local Cámara de Comercio de Tijuana (CANACO) and as the national president of the same organization, which is similar to a Chamber of Commerce.

The 65-year old real estate executive owns property all over Tijuana and has a degree in business administration from the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Nuevo Leon.


In June, González defeated Tijuana’s incumbent mayor, Juan Manuel Gastélum, and Julián Leyzaola, a controversial ex-soldier and former police chief, whose candidacy made headlines across Mexico because of his reputation as a “tough on crime” cop willing to take on the drug cartels. https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-leyzaola-mayor-20190531-story.html

Tijuana’s escalating violence is among the top concerns of its residents, but curbing it will take understanding and collaboration among all levels of government and with U.S. law enforcement authorities, González said.

Tijuana’s new mayor Arturo Gonzalez Cruz spoke to two council members as he was arriving at his office on Thursday, October 9, 2019. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

González’s predecessor, Gastélum, faced worldwide criticism in late 2018 when he said his city was unable to handle an influx of migrants, referring to the Central American caravan that arrived in Tijuana as an “avalanche.”


González has a markedly different tone when speaking of migration. He even offered one of his own properties as a potential location for a federally run shelter for Central American migrants. Critics insisted he was profiting in some way from the deal, but no proof ever surfaced. González said Thursday a new location has been chosen and the new shelter is up and running.

“If you ask anyone who lives here in Tijuana, more than 90 percent will tell you that their roots come precisely from immigrants who came here looking for a better opportunity and to take care of their family,” he said, adding his own grandparents on both sides of his family moved to Tijuana from Colima and Sonora between 1929 and 1931.

González said helping migrants by providing them shelter, access to jobs and other resources benefits everyone by ensuring people don’t turn to crime out of desperation.

“We have to recognize that immigration is a humanitarian problem, but it must be ordered,” he said.


In June, the political party founded by Mexico’s well-liked President Manuel Andrés López Obrador, Morena, beat the National Action Party, the PAN, which has dominated politics in Baja California for more than 30 years.

Riding the wave of the president’s popularity and high approval rates, Morena used the same messaging that put López Obrador in office, promising change, an end to corruption, and a government that works for the people.

González, who was part of the winning Morena ticket, said his focus is the same.

“The government has already changed in Tijuana. We’re making a responsible and efficient government and an honest government that combats corruption,” said González. He said his focus will be on the people and neighborhoods that have traditionally been more marginalized.


Though he may sound like a well-seasoned politician, González nearly swore off politics forever after a failed bid for state Senate in 2006.

“It was a very questionable election, but I thought afterwards, after seeing so many things that were not correct in that election, I thought that the opportunity to participate in politics would no longer be mine,” said González in Spanish during a joint interview with both the San Diego Union-Tribune and the San Diego Union-Tribune en Español.

Fluent in English, González plans to maintain a good working relationship with San Diego’s City Hall.

But he and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer have not met to renew a memorandum of understanding that Faulconer had with Tijuana’s former mayor, Gastélum.


The document pledged to strengthen cooperation between the two cities and called on the heads of various city departments to meet with their cross-border counterparts to maintain close working relationships.

A spokesperson for the city of San Diego said a tentative date has been set in November for Faulconer and Gonzalez to meet about renewing the cooperation agreement.

“San Diego’s relationship with Tijuana and Mexico is a strength. For decades, our two cities have come together to bolster our cross-border economy, share ideas and innovation, and advocate for key issues in Mexico City and Washington D.C. that impact residents on both sides of the border. I look forward to working with Mayor González to continue the progress for our shared binational megaregion,” Faulconer said.

Tijuana’s new mayor Arturo Gonzalez Cruz was photographed in his office on Thursday, October 9, 2019. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune)


For economic growth opportunities, González said he’s also looking beyond San Diego toward Los Angeles “to also strengthen the ties of cooperation and commercial exchange with businessmen in the Los Angeles area … which is a very economical city that has grown tremendously.”

“We will seek to generate those jobs that not only retain our culture, our people here in Tijuana, but achieve better salaries and (allow for) the situations of marginalization to be met, so that there are opportunities for more people,” he said.

The mayor was asked how he planned to get it all done during his two-year term. (He could become the first Tijuana mayor to be re-elected under a Baja California constitutional reform that eliminated a longstanding rule that mayors cannot succeed themselves in office.)

“Yes, it is very little time, but, then we will do everything possible that can be done in these two years,” he said.


That starts with the office furniture.

On his first day, González said he bought a new desk chair with his own funds, declaring “I won’t sit on the same one that has caused so much harm to Tijuana.”

In Spanish.