La Tentación Studio in Tijuana’s Pasaje Gomez

After talking to the students I got a chance to speak with one of the hardest working men in Tijuana show business Josue Castro about his views on photography, Tijuana and craft beer. First off I asked him about his students and how they react to his dark imagery and how he gets them to open their eyes. He said that sometimes "they are already dark, they just don't know it". Much of what he does including his Los Marranos craft beers is to play on the name of his studio "Temptation" and he said that in photography and life in general it is "tempting to see different, tempting to think different". One of the ways he is thinking different in regards to photography has been by embracing mobile photography, it's immediacy and the ability to share with people all over the world. On this night the exhibition had works from people in Berlin, Madrid, France, Japan and Tijuana.

After this we talked a little about Los Marranos Nano Brewery and Josue mentioned that the beer business is helping him to fulfill his photography dream with La Tentación which really made me happy because by drinking Los Marranos beer I was helping him fulfill his dream. I only wished this could be the case in other situations! Los Marranos means "The Pigs" in Spanish but in the "All men are pigs" context and his beers are named The Curse chocolate milk stout, The Temptation American wheat beer, The Perdition Irish red ale and The Perversion English brown ale in keeping with the dark imagery that he likes which is clearly evident on his bottle labels that are taken from his Secret Identities exhibition.

La Tentación in Pasaje Gomez is definitely one of the catalysts in Tijuana's new image and artistic community and is helping bring back El Centro as a destination for food, craft beer, art and entertainment. Josue and his business partner Andrew are creating a great space to share ideas and enjoy really good craft beer. In the heart of Downtown Tijuana La Tentacion is a short trolly ride from San Diego and the taxi from the border should cost about fifty pesos or four dollars which makes it easy for San Diegans who are tempted by their dark side to come and see what's going on in this part of the world.



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