Zonkeys in

Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

, Mexico are

donkeys The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domes ...

(also known as burros in Mexico and the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

; ''burro'' is the Spanish word for donkey) painted with fake zebra stripes, so that tourists will pay the owner to appear in souvenir photos with them. They should not be confused with zebroids, zebra hybrids which are also sometimes called zonkeys.

History

In 1978, journalist Laurie Becklund reported in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' that, according to the burro cart owners of that time, the practice began in the mid-1930s after gambling was prohibited in Mexico and Tijuana's Agua Caliente Casino was closed. The casino had two plain burro carts at its entrance and tourists often took photographs with them. Entrepreneurs created and brought similar carts to the shopping areas on and around Avenida Revolución, charging tourists to take pictures seated in them. The entrepreneurs added elements that they thought that tourists would consider to be typically Mexican to the carts, such as painting of scenery and cacti, and

serapes The serape, sarape or jorongo is a long blanket-like shawl or cloak, often brightly colored and Fringe (trim), fringed at the ends, worn in Mexico, especially by men. The spelling of the word sarape (or zarape) is the accepted form in Mexico ...

. Approximately in the late 1940s, one of the over 20 cart owners – which owner exactly is disputed – added stripes to his burro in order to create more impressive photographs, which were sepia or black-and-white during that era, and thus white or naturally colored donkeys did not show up well. A 2013 report by

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

stated that the number of zonkeys in Downtown Tijuana had shrunk to three, due to the decline in American visitors after 9/11 and hours-long waits to return to the U.S. from Tijuana. At that time Tijuana preservation Uni2 had begun efforts to help ensure that the zonkey tradition continued on Tijuana's streets.

Zonkeys in Tijuana culture

Zonkeys have become an iconic symbol or image representing Tijuana, in particular its origins as a place providing entertainment, sometimes unusual, to American visitors. The Council of Baja California Cultural Heritage had declared zonkey to be part of the state's cultural heritage, although this was later rejected by a court in 2017, largely due to concerns of animal-rights activists. The city has a professional basketball team whose name is inspired by the zonkey as a mascot: the Tijuana Zonkeys.

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Tijuana Zebras
Tijuana Zebras on Flickr

Zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

Working animals Animals in entertainment Mammal mascots City mascots Mexican mascots

History

Zonkeys in Tijuana culture

See also

References

External links