Friday
April 19, 2024
|
Writer Margy Rochlin grew up listening to her father's stories about cultural harmony in his hometown
of Nogales on the United States/Mexico border. Things have changed since Margy's father was a boy.
The combined population of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora (Mexico) has grown from about
10,000 to over a quarter of a million. Crime and drugs are rampant and toxic waste spreads out like
plumes. The maquiladora factories draw thousands of workers to live in terrifying slums. Street
children inhale spray paint and make homes in sewer pipes. Through it all Mexican and American
cultures still mingle in unpredictable ways. On the occasion of the Cinqo de Mayo festival, Margy
Rochlin went back to Nogales with a tape recorder to visit her family, to wander both sides of the
border --to look for the Nogales of her imagination, the unified twin communities of Ambos Nogales,
the one her father raised her to believe in.
Links:
CityofNogales.net
|
|
|
|
