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TIJUANA, MEXICO — Zonkeys are a unique animal inhabiting this Mexican border town and found mainly along the central commercial drag on Avenida Revolución. A zonkey is a donkey painted white with dark zebra stripes in order to stand out in its unnatural habitat and attract both sober and drunk visitors onto their saddles and into pricey tourist photos.

Zonkeys are a symbol of this border town and, like so much else here, appear to be one thing but are actually another.

Tijuana is portrayed as crime-ridden, dirty, impoverished and a destination for caravaning Central Americans seeking to cross the border into the United States. It is a wall—and fence—riven city with steel stakes that are piled not only across the polluted, national boundary crossing the Tijuana River but also along streets, onto beaches and far into the water on the Pacific Ocean’s shore. That is the sight you see when standing on a bridge or in a high-rise building looking north.

What you don’t see is actually quite different.