Two cities, two countries, common ground
“Please don’t write another story about drugs,” Sigrid Maitrejean, a volunteer guide at the Pimeria Alta Museum inside the old city hall in Nogales, Ariz., beseeched me in a playful tone. It was not the only time during my three-day visit to the region that people would make a similar plea: enough of the endless media stories and political rhetoric about the supposedly dangerous U.s.-mexico border, which only serve to keep visitors away.
Residents of this town of 20,000 wanted me to see the Nogales they see: A place steeped in layers of rich history and culture, which maintains a uniquely special relationship with its namesake and sister city across the border, Nogales, Sonora. And indeed, in the two Nogaleses — or Ambos Nogales, as locals refer to them — I found the most quintessential of all the border cities.
I love the concept of twin cities on the border. Maybe it’s because I grew up in one, or because I’m a twin. I love the idea of two worlds that coexist and intermingle, and in fact, depend on each other for survival.
The descendant of families that were already living in the Texas border region when the international boundary was drawn up in 1848, I grew up almost in two countries, spending Sundays across the border immersed in the Mexican universe of my abuelitos and tías and primos. We didn’t talk about it like we were visiting another country — we went to el otro lado, the other side. I liked that my sisters and I could choose what we loved about each of our two upbringings and creatively mix languages and systems of meaning.
There are 16 sets of sister cities that line the 1,950-mile U.s.-mexico border, and as a journalist who has focused on the region, I’ve experienced all but two of them. While I’d been in Nogales before to report on immigration and the border wall, what I learned on this visit is that calling Ambos Nogales “one town in two countries” may be a slight exaggeration, but it’s an apt metaphor. And this is what makes it a fascinating place to visit.
“This is one city,” Maitrejean said. “This is one place that was