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Kumeyaay Nation:
San Jose De La Zorro
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The Kumeyaay Nation consists of 12 Tribes in Southern California, USA and 5 Tribes in Baja California, Mexico
When Mexico and the U. S. divided California between them, the line they drew across the map cut the Kumeyaay
Indian homeland in half. Just as there are Kumeyaay Indian reservations on the U. S. side of the border, so are there Kumeyaay Indian ejidos in Baja California. Located halfway between Ensensada
and Tecate is the ejido called San Jose de la Zorra. The men and women who live there speak their Indian language Ti'paia, and most of them speak Spanish as a second language, just as the Kumeyaay
who live in the States speak English. the people there make beautiful baskets and decorative pottery for sale to outsiders.
 These crafts are thousands of years old and have been passed
down from one generation to the next without a break for more than 5,000 years. The fancy baskets are made from Juncus, a
bush which dries to a variety of golden colors. A fancy basket 10 " in diameter takes 60 to 70 hours to stitch and another 50 hours to gather and prepare the Juncus.
Location
This community of 14,440 hectares in the municipality of Playas de
Rosarito is centered in San Jose, a small, remote valley located about halfway between the former mission site of San Miguel on the Pacific Coast and the Valley of Guadalupe.
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