Cliff art and cave paintings of Native Americans (147 Cong. Rec. H3363)

When I think of Americans in Mexico, I envision college students sloshing around with large cups on the dance floors of Señor Frog's and Papas & Beer. As it turns out, before there was a border, native Americans crossed into Mexico quite frequently, not just for spring break. Evidence of the extent of their migration can be found at El Vallecito, an archaeological zone located on the plateau between Tecate and Mexicali.

When you arrive at the site, at the end of a dirt road off highway 2, caretakers greet you to collect admission fees (left). The $35 peso price is economical indeed, but they get you with the $45 pesos extra to take videos or photos. However, the cost is more than worth it, especially if you opt to take a free tour with one of the helpful and knowledgeable caretakers, like we did. If you'd rather be in charge of your own visit, you can pocket a brochure and map, then follow the path marked with arrows instead (right).

Along the trail are stone markers with information about the native culture in general and its paintings in particular. Most of the placards are only in Spanish, but some of the more detailed ones by the main caves include the English and Kumiai language as well (left). The information is provided and the park maintained by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (right).

 

El Diablito, written in the title and drawn to the right of the marker above, is the most famous painting, mostly because of how it is illuminated each year during the winter solstice by sunlight coming through a crevice in its cave. I was more interested in El Hombre Enraizado, the rooted man (left); the reason for the roots is unclear, but our guide suggested that it represents how the culture believed humans were inextricably linked to their land and would return to it when they died, no matter where they were. The connection to nature was also obvious from the many depictions of mariposas, or butterflies (right), a common image in Kumiai crafts, possibly because of the prominence of the creatures in their region.

 

Remnants of the Kumiai (Kumeyaay) Indians are present outside the caves as well as inside. Near many of them are pits carved into the rock: deep morteres to grind acorns and more shallow metates to mill seeds (left). One seed the tribe might have used comes from an indigenous fruit that our guide picked and let us eat. Although it looked and tasted sour like a cherry, it had a large pit and orange flesh like a peach (right).

In our group were many youngsters, who were more than happy to play make-believe as they crawled through the caves (top left) and climbed over the crags that contained them (top right). Even for an adult, the hike is pleasurable even without the educational experience, considering the beautiful landscape, which
included the Sierra de Juárez in the distance (bottom).

The mountain range is considered the southern boundary of the Kumiai lands, which stretch as far north as Escondido in California. Indeed, there is a campground named after the indians in Mission Trails Regional Park near Santee, and the Viejas band of the tribe has a village near Alpine. I imagine that the band's casino is sometimes full of young people dancing and drinking in bars, but from now, my preference will be to think of these native Americans living it up in the caves of Mexico instead.