About me 2025 UPDATE:
Hi. My name is Matingas. And so far, I’ve had an interesting life. I was born in CDMX, and when I was three weeks old, my mom took me to a World Cup match. I have the picture to prove it. My childhood and most of my teenage years were in Querétaro. I went to college in Minnesota in a Catholic school called Saint John’s University, and after graduating with a double BA degree in Music and Conflict Studies, I became a paparazzo.
From 2007 to 2011, I worked chasing celebrities around with a camera. I have thousands of pictures of celebrities, mostly going in and out of LAX. I got sick of that job and of taking pictures, sold almost everything, and ended up moving to Tijuana.
It’s been 14 years living in this god forsaken city. I wanted to play guitar and teach music. I ended up as a writer. It started with a job working on a soccer website. The Monday-Friday office grind and extra weekend hours writing about sports and not getting paid overtime. It evolved into writing about Tijuana: the migrants, the border, the deported veterans, and mothers, the violence, arts, history, music, food, culture, and more.
I needed pictures to accompany my stories. I picked up the camera again. My first cover story came in 2016, and it was about craft beer in Tijuana. It felt like the top of the world. Or at least the top of the San Diego region. Thousands read my printed word. I wrote more than a dozen cover stories, and I also became the photographer for the San Diego Reader for a handful of years. I photographed over 100 cover stories for the magazine.
All of that while doing Tijuana tours on the side as Tijuana Adventure. The fun job. Little tours here and there. Until social media evolved and I started reaching thousands through my videos. The little fun job became my full-time job. And now my brand of shirts. And more.
That’s my life as of now. With so much more that I didn’t include. Like the two books I published through Amazon. You can buy them here!
The about me also needs a new updated picture of what I look like in 2025. The last about me is from 2019…
That’s me October 1, 2019.
You can find my book HERE!
Matthew Suárez (Matingas) was born in Mexico City in 1986 to American parents and grew up in Querétaro speaking both English and Spanish. He moved to Michigan (downriver) for his awful senior year of High School. He went to college at Saint John’s University in Minnesota and graduated with a double BA in Music and Conflict Studies. After college, he worked as a photojournalist chasing celebrities around. Yes, he was a paparazzo in LA for four years though he only intended to do it for only a year (hey, it was 2008 and the economy was in a recession and his photographs were published worldwide).
In 2011 he turned twenty-five and pondered about what the f*ck he was doing chasing celebrities around. He went on a 3-month journey of self-bullshit discovery through the United States driving over 5,000 miles visiting friends and relatives in various cities. When he returned to Los Angeles, he couldn’t stand the city or chasing celebrities anymore that he desired to be a vagabond. That didn’t end up well, so he fumbled around San Diego for some months, and ended up in the forsaken land of Tijuana.
.
The first months in Tijuana were spent drunk, miserable, and absorbing the wild city (that’s where the first book starts). With nothing to do, he started to give tours to lost Gringos and created Tijuana Adventure. He also started writing his blog narrating encounters he had with celebrities and about life in general named “Word Vomit.” At around the same time, he also landed a job writing about soccer in English for a spin-off page of MedioTiempo.com.
.
After a year of dealing with the world of sports journalism and inspired by his sensei master “Chad,” he quit his job and ventured to the realm of freelance writing, submitting most of his work to the San Diego Reader where he is still published to this day. His first cover story in the magazine was about the rise of craft beer in Baja. It was followed by more cover stories about dealing with the border, living in two cities at the same time, deported friends, and the Spanglish language. With his background in photography, he also became the photographer for the Reader taking pictures for over 100 covers since 2017. He continues his life in Tijuana as a freelance writer and photographer, border crosser, beer aficionado, street taco connoisseur, an avid gamer, Reddit shitposter, and classical guitarist.
That’s me on October 1, 2018.
I write, play classical guitar, and take pictures.
Poke around. Stay awhile and listen.
Matingas 