Nogales: A Divided City by Margaret Rosenbloom

Our first outing was to Nogales.  It is about 60 miles South of Tucson, on Route 19 through desert lands with saguaro cactus, snow bird retirement communities and diversions such as the Titan Missile Museum, rimmed by dramatic jagged peaks.  Our first sight of The Wall was from the Arizona side where we saw it surging and falling through a densely housed hilly residential area.  Crossing the border into Mexico was a breeze and we were joined by our local guide Manuel Morales who took us to the Mexico side of The Wall, where it surmounts a steep cliff, overlooking a busy street alley Calle Internacional. 

Jose Antonio image on building where he died.

We went to the site where Jose Antonio, a 16 year old school boy was shot from above by Lonnie Ray Swartz’s US Border Patrol Agent, on October 10, 2012.  There is now a monument in his memory on the wall as well as a poignant life size drawing of his figure on the wall of the building at the place he was shot.  We heard Manuel’s outrage and anger at this incident and the frustrations over foot dragging in bringing this case to court and the fact that the Agent was found not guilty of murder, and subsequently acquitted of manslaughter.
 

Walking further up the road we followed the path of TheWall and saw the defiant decorations on it as well as wooden crosses named for children and others who have died in efforts to cross into America.  We learned how Nogales AZ and NogalesSonora used to be one place with nominal attention to border definition.  Families would live on either side and come and go frequently.  Even after the current wall, a series of thick metal slats some 18 feet high was installed in 2014, families would meet and hold hands through the barrier.  Then the Americans installed a fine metal grill to prevent physical contact, and finally brutal concertina barbed wire from top to bottom. We looked through into the American side and imagined what an intrusion this was to the people living on that side as well, as well as a tragedy for those on the Mexican side.

Nogales Mexico has a population of around 250,000, ten times that of Nogales, AZ.  The border is lined with Maquilas, the mainly American owned factories that receive duty-free imported raw materials for assembly into finished goods by Mexican workers.  We drove past some of these to a large supermarket to do field research on the price of goods for a normal families weekly shopping list.

Part of our Market Basket Survey

The place was massive, like a Costco and packed with families doing their Saturday shop.  Comparing these prices relative to a daily wage of a Maquiladora worker showed us how much higher the cost of living is in Mexico for people working here.  As tourists, we may find the prices reasonable, but wages are so much greater in America.  Many Mexicans find it worth while to drive into AZ to do their grocery shopping, and it is possible for certain people to get a Visa to cross.  These special visas are good only for a distance of 60 miles from the border.

Waiting in Line to Cross the Border

We learned more about the life of a Maquiladora worker from Maria Morales’s, the daughter of Manuel.

Schedules are structured to allow husbands and wives to work separate shifts so they can share child care and household chores.  Shorter shifts are available for older children so they can work after school to help pay their school fees.  Though school is nominally free, parents have to pay a share and also cover all the incidental costs and supplies. A large portion of take home pay is structured as bonuses which are forgone if a person is late or misses a day of work.  One good thing is that the new President of Mexico has recently increased wages for all workers in Northern Mexican states.

At the end of a long day we headed back to Nogales, AZ. We spent 2.5 hours waiting to get through the Border crossing.  Vendors were busy offering wares and food to the patient drivers.  Nogales is certainly a town divided.