Douglas and Agua Prieta

A Sunday finds harvesting equipment idle on the rich farm and ranch lands on the U.S.-Mexico border near Douglas. Much of the land ownership originated from Spanish land grants and has been passed down through families whose ancestors settled the area. Right - A resident of Agua Prieta pauses to view paintings displayed at an Art Fair near the Plaza in the Mexican border town.

Towns Together Douglas-

Above-Early day finds the main street of Douglas nearly deserted. Soon it will be bustling with international traffic. Left The social hub for Southeastern Arizona for decades has been the plush Gadsden Hotel, erected in 1907. Imported marble columns, gold leaf appointments and stained glass windows have been witness to some of the biggest mine and cattle deals in the Southwest.

It's a summer Sunday, and in Agua Prieta, Sonora, on the Mexican border, the plaza is overflowing with people. Families are out for a stroll, old men relax on the wooden benches and reminisce, young couples walk arm-in-arm past the green and yellow gazebo.

The soft melodies of traditional Mexican songs mingle with the shouts of children chasing each other through the park.

Street vendors are busy. One man has a tier of wooden bird cages strapped to his back, and is selling parakeets and cardinals to passersby. An old man in a white shirt and cap pushes a little metal ice cream cart into the plaza, and is immediately surrounded by children.

Other vendors have set up shop in the bright blue and fuchsia booths surrounding the plaza, and are selling pottery, jewelry and hand-woven ponchos.

It's a scene that could be taking place anywhere in Mexico, anytime during the last 50 years except for a few major differences.

Many of the people strolling through the plaza are not Mexicans but Americans from Douglas, Arizona, just across the border. The music that drifts across the plaza comes from transistor radios, and includes not only Mexican songs, but

Agua Prieta

the latest American rock music. Many conversations are not in Spanish, but in a mixture of Spanish and English.

"Ustedes recuerdan when Pancho Villa marched on Agua Prieta?" one elderly man asks his cronies. "Madre de Dios, I was in Douglas, watching from the roof of the Gadsden Hotel. A bullet flew right past our heads and landed behind us. Pense que ibamos a morir!"

The vendors in the plaza are selling not only ponchos and hand-made crafts, but also wool sweaters, cotton shirts and plastic toys. People pay for their purchases in dollars or pesos or both.

This scene illustrates why the border cities of Douglas and Agua Prieta are unique. There is a sense here of two cities, but one community. The language, customs and people of each flow back and forth across the border and meld, until what arises is a third culture a culture that combines the traditional and the modern, the Mexican and the American.

"We think of ourselves as one large city that just happens to have a fence running through it," says Gualberto Vindiola, Jr., Subdelegate for Tourism in Northeast Sonora, and the owner of one of the largest retail stores in Agua Prieta. "We don't think, 'On this side of the fence is Mexico, and on the other is the United States! Going through that fence isn't like going from one country to another; it's like going from one neighborhood to another."

Douglas, located on U.S. 80 in the southeastern corner of Arizona, and Agua Prieta, on Mexican Route 2, make up only one of seven border crossings between Arizona and Sonora. Moving west, the others include Naco; Loquiel; Nogales; Sasabe; Lukeville and Sonoita; and San Luis. In all these places, one feels a sense of unity between the cities on both sides of the border, and sees the historic, cultural and economic ties.

One of the reasons Douglas and Agua Prieta developed such a close relationship is that they have been so isolated. They are located in what was once some of the wildest and most remote land in the West.

They lie at 4,000 feet, in high desert country surrounded by mountains. The land once belonged to the Apaches, who raided ranches and settlements in both Arizona and Sonora. Cochise's impregnable stronghold was near here, and Geronimo once roamed the hills. During a raid, help might be days away, so people in the area began banding together for protection. This was the beginning of the spirit of cooperation between Mexico and the United States. In fact, Geronimo was actually on Mexican soil when he was captured by the U.S. Cavalry which had full cooperation from the Mexican authorities.

In the 1880's and 1890's, this land became a center for cattle ranching on both sides of the border. Huge roundups were held in the spring and fall, and thousands of animals were sent north to market.

From the beginning, there was not the feeling that this area was two separate countries, but rather that it was a special place, in some ways almost a country unto itself, an isolated spot far from major centers in either the U.S. or Mexico.

And indeed, this geographic isolation has continued up to the present. Until just a few years ago, there were no paved roads connecting Agua Prieta with any other place in Mexico. Mexicans who wanted to get to the city often had to go through the United States first.

Even now, many people still feel that Douglas and Agua Prieta have more in common with each other than they do with cities in their own countries.

One of the results of this isolation, and the special relationship that developed because of it, is that people on both sides of the border have intermarried, binding the cities even closer.

Seventy per cent of the population of Douglas is Spanishspeaking, and many of these people have relatives in Agua Prieta. Hundreds have dual citizenship. People stream back and forth across the border as casually as most Americans walk across the street. There were nearly five million border crossings between Douglas and Agua Prieta last year, and the great majority were people going to visit friends or relatives, do some shopping, or going out for an evening.

Many people in Agua Prieta send their children to school in Douglas, and all day long children can be seen running back and forth across the border, yelling at each other in that particular blend of English and Spanish.

"Frank! Un momento! I can't run that fast!"

"Pues, hurry up! We'll miss la comida!"

The close family ties between people of the two cities is mirrored in the relationship between the local governments. Douglas Mayor Paul Huber, Jr. and Agua Prieta Mayor Adelberto Bernal meet frequently to discuss joint solutions to economic or social problems that affect both communities.

The police departments work closely together, and the fire departments answer each other's calls.

The power, water and sewer systems of the two cities are completely compatible, and can be linked up to provide back-up service in case of emergencies or shortages.

Taxis are licensed in both Arizona and Sonora, and you can dial direct from one city to another, rather than having to go through an international operator.

Civic leaders belong to service clubs in both Douglas and Helmeted workers at the Phelps Dodge smelter in Douglas are dwarfed by giant equipment. The copper firm is the area's largest single employer, with 500 on the payroll from both sides of the border. Agua Prieta, and the Chambers of Commerce jointly publish maps and brochures in English and Spanish.

Each city celebrates the holidays of the other. Hundreds of people come over from Agua Prieta for the Fourth of July, and much of Douglas sweeps across the border to celebrate the Sixteenth of September, Mexico's Independence Day.

The cities also sponsor joint activities, such as the Two Flags Art Festival, which this year will be held from October 12-18. The Festival includes dances, dramatic productions and art exhibits, and draws hundreds of entries from both countries.

Other evidence of this merging of Mexican and American cultures can be seen every day in the streets of Douglas and Agua Prieta. Signs in many stores on both sides of the border are in Spanish and English. When one Douglas dry goods store had a sale recently, for instance, it put two huge banners in the window. One said "Sale of Sales!", the other, "Venta! Gran Promocion!"

People get the daily papers from both cities, and it isn't unusual to see someone sitting in a restaurant in Agua Prieta reading the latest issue of Time magazine.

Americans wear Mexican shirts and boots, drink tequila and smoke Delicados, a brand of Mexican cigarettes. Many people in Agua Prieta wear Levi's, prefer American scotch and smoke Salems.

The whole concept of time is also a combination of both Mexican and American attitudes. Stores in Agua Prieta don't close for two or three hours in the afternoon the way they do in most other Mexican cities. The custom of the siesta is not followed here. On the other hand, the pace of life in Douglas is much more relaxed than it is in other U.S. cities. Meals, particularly lunch, are more leisurely, and are viewed as a time to spend with friends or family. People here also do much more of their business in person. A storekeeper in Douglas who needs to talk with a businessman in Agua Prieta likely will drive across the border and discuss matters over a cup of coffee rather than by doing everything by phone.

And of course the language is a combination of English and Spanish. People move easily from one to the other, choosing whichever has the most expressive words for what they're trying to say. The result is a language that seems somehow richer than either of the other two.

The cities themselves seem to blend together, the way the languages do. The fence at the border does not separate them; rather, this is where the two mix most completely, where one is indistinguishable from the other.

One of the reasons for this might be that both cities have similar origins.

Agua Prieta was founded in 1897, Douglas four years later. Both cities were set up because of mining activities in the area, and the two quickly became economically interdependent.

Agua Prieta was a port of entry for U.S. machinery needed by the mines at Nacozari and Cananea, and it was through here that ores from those mines were shipped to a Douglas smelter to be processed. The two cities also became one of the major centers for the cattle industry in the Southwest.

Agua Prieta remained a quiet city until 1915, when Pancho Villa, then a general for the Mexican revolutionary forces, tried to occupy the town, apparently hoping to make it his headquarters. Mexican federal troops were moved into the area, and people in both cities climbed into ditches and onto roofs to watch the ensuing battle.

The fighting that followed caused casualties and property damage on both sides of the border, but eventually Villa was beaten back.

Agua Prieta continued to play an important part in the revolution, however. In 1920 a number of generals, including Calles, Obregon and Rodriguez (who all later became Presidents of Mexico) met in a warehouse and formulated the Plan de Agua Prieta, which eventually led to the overthrow of the military government and the establishment of democracy in Mexico.

Today, Agua Prieta is a city in which the past and present coexist.

The government offices are located in a new building overlooking the Plaza Moderna, the recently-completed civic center which includes a theater, schools, and a gymnasium. Many of Agua Prieta's stores and offices are located in streamlined concrete structures downtown.

But the main streets are also lined with old adobe structures that seem to have been there since the time of Villa. The buildings are bright greens, pinks and blues. Huge pictures and hand-painted lettering tell passersby what they can find within.

On one yellow building not far from the border, "Tapiceria y Carpinteria Monterrey" is printed in two-foot-high letters, and an enormous, bright green chair is painted above the door.

An import store just down the street has a huge globe painted on the front.

Automobiles in Agua Prieta have these same splashes of color. People decorate the dashboards with tassels, flowers, flags and statues, then might put decals, bumper stickers and abstract designs on the outside.

E AGUA PRIETA

The ever-present fence separates the communities and is a continual reminder that Douglas and Agua Prieta are in fact located in different countries.

Ingot-like copper anodes from the Phelps Dodge smelter await shipment from Douglas. The smelter produces approximately $400,000 worth of processed copper daily.

The neighborhoods have this same kind of spontaneous quality. The corner grocery stores are often covered with signs advertising soft drinks, Delicados, Presidente Brandy and Fiesta cigarettes. Zoning laws are not as rigid as they are in the U.S., and in one block there might be several adobe houses (all different colors), a tortilla factory, a drugstore, and a scrap metal shop.

Life here pours out of the houses and stores and spills into the streets. Children run up and down playing soccer or tag. In the evenings, people sit on their front steps, or lounge in front of the little shops, relaxing and talking about the day. Street vendors move through the neighborhoods, selling ice cream or hot dogs.

The City of Douglas bears many resemblances to Agua Prieta. Here, too, people sit on their porches in the evenings, chatting with friends. And here, too, much of the community life revolves around the parks. And the main streets of Douglas, like those of Agua Prieta, look much the same as they did thirty years ago.

The buildings here are different, however. They are two and three-story structures with high, narrow windows and elaborate facades. They aren't pink or blue, but white or beige. The streets are precisely laid out, and if they don't seem as spontaneous as those across the border it's probably because, from the very beginning, every facet of the City of Douglas was carefully and deliberately planned.

At the turn of the century, the Phelps Dodge Corporation decided to build a new smelter to handle ore from the mines at Bisbee, Arizona and Nacozari, Mexico. The area north of Agua Prieta looked perfect; it was level, had adequate water, and was convenient to the mines on both sides of the border.

So in 1901 a group of mining, ranching and business officials formed the International Land and Improvement Company, and set about planning the construction of the smelter and a new city to go with it. They decided to call the city Douglas, after Dr. James Douglas, president of Phelps Dodge.

The officials of the Company (which included such men as famous frontier sheriff "Texas" John Slaughter) turned out to be far-sighted city planners. They gave Douglas its wide, tree-lined streets ("They have to be wide enough to turn a Color abounds on the Mexican side of the border communities.

20-mule team around in the middle"), its parks, and some of its most beautiful residential areas. They also established a power plant, telephone system and water works long-awaited conveniences for many pioneer towns.

Phelps Dodge, which still operates the smelter and has its western regional headquarters in Douglas, erected the first permanent building a public hall used as a meeting place and school. Today it houses the Copper Queen Library. The mining corporation also established a hospital, built residences for employees, and opened a company store in which anyone could shop.

But the building that dominates the skyline of Douglas, and indeed of both cities, is that of the five-story Gadsden Hotel. And this seems fitting, for the history of the Gadsden reflects the history of the entire area.

The hotel was built in 1907, at the height of the mining and cattle booms. It was constructed by the Douglas Investment Company (Dr. Douglas at the time owned two banks) and no expense was spared. The Gadsden was to be one of the most magnificent buildings in the West.

Marble columns were imported from Italy for the lobby, and rose two stories to support the ceilingwhich was decorated with thousands of dollars worth of gold leaf. Sunlight filtered down through stained glass skylights, and a marble staircase rose majestically from the lobby to the mezzanine.

The hotel quickly became the center of the social and economic life of both Douglas and Agua Prieta. Miners, land barons, cowboys and cattlemen all of them stayed there. Some of the biggest mining and cattle deals in the West were closed over drinks in the Saddle and Spur tavern, where ranch owners paid a fee to have their brand painted on the wall. Ben Williams, former Mayor of Douglas and the holder of extensive ranch lands, estimates he concluded more than three million dollars worth of business at the Gadsden.

The hotel was also the place from which Williams and several others watched Pancho Villa try to take Agua Prieta.

"You could see everything from the roof of the hotel we watched both sides firing on each other," Williams recalls.

"At one point, Villa and his men decided to besiege the city with cannon fire. They strapped a small cannon on the back of a horse, with the barrel pointing out over the horse's rear. Two men led the animal to the front of the lines, turned it around, loaded the cannon and lit the fuse. There was a terrific explosion, and the horse went flying head over heels. They didn't try that tactic again!"

In 1927, the Gadsden burned to the ground. The owner, Franklin Mackey, vowed to rebuild an exact replica. He got the original plans, and the only changes he made in the structure were to have everything built from concrete and steel instead of wood.

Mackey himself was something of an institution, an example of one of the types of men who became leaders in Douglas and Agua Prieta at this time.

Mackey made much of his fortune during Prohibition. He opened a still in Juarez, Mexico and produced "Mackey's Straight American Whiskey", which he then sold to bars and night clubs along the border.

When the Mexican government threatened to close the distillery if he retained his American citizenship, Mackey became a Mexican citizen. When the distillery closed after the demise of Prohibition, Mackey became an American again.

Under his guidance, the new Gadsden Hotel became even more beautiful than the old. Craftsmen from Italy were brought over to supervise the installation of the marble columns and staircase. Mackey commissioned Tiffany's to create special stained glass windows of southwestern desert scenes, then called in artisans from France to install them across one wall of the mezzanine. The ceiling was again decorated with gold leaf $10,000 worth, by 1929 prices. Paintings and tile murals were commissioned.

Today, the hotel looks much the same as it did when Mackey finished his work. The golf leaf still gleams on the ceiling, and experts say the Tiffany windows are priceless. Many of the rooms are being re-decorated with antiques. The hotel is being considered for designation as a national historic monument.

Meanwhile, it continues to be a center of life in this area. More than any other single place, it captures the feeling of how old and new, historic and modern, Mexican and American come together in Douglas and Agua Prieta.

Business and civic leaders from both cities still get together here, although now they talk about other matters besides mining and cattle.

For although Douglas and Agua Prieta are just as economically dependent on each other as they were in the days when the Gadsden was first built, the ways in which they rely on each other have become much more complex.

For instance, one of the strongest links between the two cities today is the twin-plant concept. This allows American firms to have their manufacturing facilities in the United States, and their assembly plants in Mexico. There are now 23 such plants in the area, and they employ 3,400 people in Agua Prieta and 500 in Douglas. Since the twin plant concept originated in the late 1960's, the population of Agua Prieta has increased from 17,000 to 27,000. It is now larger than Douglas, which has a population of 14,000.

This increased industrial activity has also helped retail sales on both sides of the border. For years, each city has specialized in providing goods and services the other doesn't have, and people routinely shop in both places. It is estimated that people in Agua Prieta spend 65 per cent of their take-home pay in Douglas.

Agua Prieta provides such things as automotive repair, furniture and upholstery stores, beauty parlors and barber shops, and bakeries.

The only real division in the Douglas-Agua Prieta relationship is the international boundary. Last year approximately five million border crossings were recorded the vast majority being local residents routinely crossing for business and pleasure.

People shop in Douglas for groceries, clothing, and major appliances. On Sundays, for instance, the A. J. Bayless Supermarket is jammed with cars bearing Sonora license plates.

This is not to say that cattle and mining aren't still main-stays of the economies of these cities. There are extensive ranches on both sides of the border, and until recently, more than 100,000 head of cattle a year were shipped from Agua Prieta through Douglas more foreign cattle than were shipped through any other U.S. city.

The Phelps Dodge smelter turns out $400,000 worth of copper a day, and remains the biggest single employer in the area, with more than 500 employees from both cities.

Agua Prieta continues to be a center for the mining opera-tions to the south. Recently a new copper mine opened at Nacozari, some 65 miles south, and is expected to employ 4,000 people within the next 15 months. This, in turn, will help retail sales and employment opportunities in the entire border area.

Douglas and Agua Prieta are also concentrating on diversifying their economic base through the development of tourism. The Chambers of Commerce are preparing tours which can be packaged and sold at travel agencies through-out the U.S., and are also collaborating on new brochures.

Now that Agua Prieta is part of Mexican Route 2, it is being heralded as the gateway to Mexico's West Coast and the resorts at Mazatlan, Guaymas and Puerto Vallarta. A full-time tourism office has just opened as has a new motel, La Hacienda.

Douglas is in the center of one of the most historic areas in the United States. It is just 60 miles from Tombstone, and 65 miles from Cochise's stronghold in the Dragoon moun-tains. Several ghost towns are within an hour's drive.

But perhaps the most interesting attraction of all for visitors are the two cities themselves their unique relationship and way of life.

Gualberto Vindiola, Jr., the Subdelegate for Tourism in Agua Prieta, put it best when he said, "Living here gives a person not only the opportunity to learn two languages, but two cultures. And when these cultures blend, as they do here, neither dominates the other. Rather, we pick and choose what we want from each way of life, and then incorporate it into our own. "In a very real sense, it is the best of both worlds."