Published writer, entrepreneur, fashion designer, artistic producer and former business owner Cinthya Duran, 54, is currently studying Spanish at El Camino College after fleeing the dangers of operating a business in a cartel-dominated area.
Duran was born in Tijuana, Baja California, where she once lived a very successful life in Mexico designing clothes and producing her own fashion shows.
“Everything was perfect. I moved to a new house, the top apartment in a duplex with an amazing view of the city. My youngest daughter was 9, and she was very happy,” Duran said.
She opened a school of performing arts for kids, writing, producing and directing musicals in a project called “Proyecto N de Niños.”
The happy days of successfully running the dance academy she opened in Tijuana were described with a smile on her face — until her story took a dark turn and her life changed unexpectedly.
“Two men came to the academy with the excuse of registering a girl for classes—but they were looking at the building like they were inspecting something in a shady way,” Duran said.
She became uncomfortable when the men started asking for her business paperwork, and that’s when she asked the men to leave.
After that encounter, Duran noticed symbols and arrows marked on her building. Every morning she had to clean them off and paint over those markings.
That is how the nightmare started. She explained the situation to others, but not even her friends wanted to believe it.
She wrote about her experience in her book, “El Foco,” which is inspired by all the challenges and odd situations she faced before leaving Mexico. She said she wrote it during the quiet times of the pandemic.
According to Duran, drug lord Sandra Beltran, who had been released from the United States’ prison at that time, came to Baja California, and her cartel started to coerce business owners to pay a fee to keep their establishments and families safe.
She said since then, some houses and small businesses in Tijuana have burned.
Local authorities declared in recent reports that “they have no elements to say that those fires are related to extortionist affairs”, according to the local news source Uniradio Informa.
While telling her story, she reclined comfortably in a rolling chair in the Languages Lab of the humanities building,
Slowly, she inclines her torso forward to speak in a lower voice as if afraid of being overheard.
Duran abandoned her academy under the pressure and threat of the events and the people involved.
She realized that it wasn’t safe if she remained in the city.
At 50 years old, she decided to move away with her 3 daughters — the youngest being 12. Now her two older daughters are in college and her youngest is in high school.
Duran now works at the Languages Lab as a PASS mentor for Spanish students. PASS stands for Peer-Assisted Support Sessions.
“She is not afraid to ask questions and talk to the professors about anything,” her classmate Andrew Rodriguez said.
Spanish professor Argelia Andrade praised Duran’s commitment to her studies.
“Cinthya is the most beautiful, hardest-working student I’ve ever had—a great tutor and team member, with excellent grades, a very responsible community member,” Andrade said.
Duran is working toward becoming a Spanish teacher.
“I had no option but to become stronger, coming here and start again with my limited English and last resources,” Duran said.
