Many Santas Filling Bags in Tijuana . . .

Tacos roasting on an open fire, a gentle Pacific breeze caresses your nose, and salesmen hawk everything from plastic giraffes to Amazon parrots to velvet paintings of Stevie Wonder and Pope John Paul II.

It’s Christmas in Tijuana.

At every holiday season, hordes of tourists, mostly American, descend on Tijuana and other Mexican border cities to purchase that distinct but inexpensive gift for friends and loved ones. From the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, the streets of Mexican border cities at Christmas-time are replete with scenes of Americans lugging blankets, booze, stuffed animals and an intimidating array of other gifts all Hecho en Mexico-- Made in Mexico.

In recent years, the drastic devaluation of the peso has made Mexico goods even more attractive to foreign buyers, though many merchants keep their prices pinned to the U.S. dollar.

“There’s some great values here,” said Mark Loth, of Dallas, who was strolling through a handicraft market near downtown Tijuana on Tuesday.

Shelli Sybesma, of Bellflower, made a special trip down to Tijuana to purchase Mexican blankets as Christmas gifts at about $7 each.

“I got one last year and I really liked it,” she explained, grasping on to her packages. “So this year, I decided to buy them for my mom and dad, for my sister, my grandma, my aunt and uncle--and my boyfriend.”

In a city that moves in rhythm with the tourist trade, the shoppers’ presence is an eagerly awaited economic mainstay, though merchants often express exasperation with their clients. “They look, but they never buy!” is a frequently heard complaint.

“They say they have no money,” asked Esperanza Cervantes, who was having a hard time hawking flowers on Revolution Avenue, Tijuana’s main drag. “How can they have no money? I thought Mexico was having an economic crisis, not the United States.”

Tijuana merchants like Cervantes closely follow U.S. holiday patterns, speaking knowledgeably about comparative shopping habits during La Navidad (Christmas), Dia de Gracias (Thanksgiving) and La Independencia (Independence Day). Despite occasional scare talk from Washington about Mexico’s purported leftist tendencies, there seems to be little question that the entrepreneurial spirit thrives south of the border.

“Step into my shop!” merchants implore tourists in a familiar store-owner’s refrain heard from Tijuana to Kabul.

“Just come in to look! Just to look!”

Upon looking, a shopper sees a dizzying array of goods that ranges from huge clay pots to leather vests, from tapestries to switch blades. While many goods elevate the meaning of kitsch to new levels, there are also many examples of fine handiwork and good bargains. Besides, in Tijuana, none of it seems out of place or offensive. Anyway, someone buys the stuff, and others earn a living either by making the goods or selling it.

“No one becomes a millionaire, but I make enough to keep my family and live reasonably well,” said Valentin Duran, a philosophical 45-year-old merchant and father of four who has hawked tourist goods in Tijuana for 20 years. These days, Duran sells woolen blankets, wrought-iron bird cages and straw baskets, among other things, from his stall in the Artisan’s Market near downtown.

“Business could be better,” Duran added, “but it also could be worse.”

Everywhere, there are people looking to sell. Merchants make their pitches to tourists from shops, from street corners, from organized market stalls--they even approach motorists stopped in traffic, trying to make a quick sale of a stuffed animal or a pair of curtains. Of course, tourism is an established way of life in a city that was developed largely as a gambling and drinking center for Americans seeking relief from Prohibition-era U.S.A. Nowadays, city fathers try to deemphasize Tijuana’s “sin city” image and point instead to the clean-living, middle class tourists who come here to shop and vacation.

“I would say that tourism accounts for 80% or 90% of our economy,” said Alfonso Bustamante, president of the Tijuana Tourism & Conventions Bureau, a quasi-official agency representing business and government interests.

Despite merchant complaints that business is down, Bustamante says the tourism industry is up by 18% this year, according to a cumulative measure of sales by merchants, restaurants, hotels and other related industries. The well-spoken, impeccably dressed and bilingual Bustamante speaks glowingly of a planned new convention center, which will be combined with a 280-room hotel in a plaza setting with shops selling handicrafts from various regions of Mexico.

“It’s going to be something like Seaport Village,” said Bustamante, referring to the successful San Diego upscale harbor-front development whose well-manicured, precious atmosphere is in total contrast to Tijuana’s raffish style.

Somehow, it is hard to visualize the pleasant mercantile anarchy that is Tijuana’s Revolution Avenue being supplanted by the developer’s dream of an orderly, American-style marketplace here. Somehow, it just wouldn’t seem right.

“We like to walk up and down the street selling our flowers, hoping we will be lucky,” said Esperanza Cervantes, a mother of nine who proudly displays a city permit allowing her to hawk the colorful paper flowers that she herself makes. “Tell your countrymen that to support Mexico, they should come here and buy our flowers. And tell them Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas)!”