A few years
back, Baja was booming with popularity. You could
hardly get a room at most hotels on a weekend unless you made reservations
months in advance. The restaurants and taverns were full, and
people were flocking to Baja in droves to retire and live the rest of their
lives in Mexican bliss. Then the U.S. economy went
belly up and things started to change pretty fast. The U.S.
corporate media began sensationalizing stories about drug violence in
Baja and how “dangerous” it was to come here. Before we knew
it, our popular paradise by the Pacific, which is largely dependent on tourism,
began to fall into what the local Mexicans call “La Crisis”.
It´s been a rough year for Baja. Many businesses that
did not have a strong local clientele didn´t survive and we lost so many of our
beloved restaurants, hotels and shops, putting thousands of people out of
work.
Last March, things
were just beginning to improve. The media let up on their
negative reporting about the drug violence, and there were signs that life was
beginning to return to the peninsula with the arrival of warmer
weather.
But then, news
broke about the dreaded Swine Flu outbreak and Baja was once again
plunged into an economic 
crisis like none it had ever seen before. We´ve
been absolutely devastated by all the negative press generated by the U.S.
corporate media.
Those of us who
live here kept scratching our heads. When we looked around
our beautiful Baja paradise, we didn´t see the so-called violence or even any
swine flu cases, yet our families and friends refused to visit us and countless
vacations were cancelled.
I began to
think of how we could possibly combat all the negative media about
Baja.
Then somebody sent
me a link to a video on Youtube that was a commercial for T-Mobile that gave me
a terrific idea. (watch T-Mobile commercial
below). The commercial had hundreds of people in a popular
London train station suddenly break out into a choreographed dance that dazzled
and amazed unsuspecting bystanders. The video quickly went
“viral” and before long, everyone was talking about it.
Millions of people had seen it.
I thought, what if
we did something like that here in Baja? It doesn´t have to
be as grand or elaborate as the T-Mobile commercial, but there´s no reason why
we can´t get a bunch of people together, teach them all a little line dance to a
popular song and put it up on Youtube for everyone to see.
How do we combat the corporate media´s coverage of Baja – with a little
non-corporate media of our own!
I talked to a few
neighbors and friends, secured their support for creating a Baja promo video
inspired by the T-Mobil dance (as it is now known), and the Baja Tequila Project
was born.
The project is not
meant to be a political protest or demonstration against anything.
It is merely a way to present a positive and fun image of Baja to the
public that will hopefully inspire people to return to our community and help
improve our damaged economy.
The video will be
free and public on Youtube, so people can share it with friends, even post it on
their websites if they want. All participants will be
volunteers – no one is making any money off of this. (Not counting, of course,
the local businesses who will benefit from Baja´s increased
popularity)
Wouldn´t it be
great if the Baja Tequila Dance were to become widely known around the world and
people came to see the birthplace of such a sensational phenomenon?
If nothing else,
it will be totally fun and a great way to do something positive and maybe even
lose a few pounds in the process.
This sounds GREAT! How do I participate? CLICK HERE