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Familiarity, it seems, breeds tolerance. "The Mexican American in Nogales, Ariz., is not reticent to say he's Mexican," says Paul Bracker, a local businessman. "There is a healthy attitude here toward heritage." Says Robert Stuchen, vice president of the Capin Mercantile Corp., one of Arizona's largest employers: "My kids are not aware of prejudices here in Nogales. We're probably more Mexicanized than the Mexicans are Americanized." Merchant Fred Knechel, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Calexico, Calif., across the line from Mexicali, contends that there are "class prejudices but not racial prejudices on the border."
The lives of many residents straddle the boundary. "Half of my family is in the U.S.," says Francisco Xavier Rivas, 36, who runs an industrial park in Mexicali. "It's interesting when we get together. Those from the U.S. speak almost no Spanish, those from Mexicali speak so-so Spanish, while those from Mexico City speak very good Spanish." Cathy Hernandez, 29, was born in Juarez but went through high school in El Paso. She is an international banking officer at the First City National Bank of El Paso. Her husband Javier, 32, works as a supervisor at a racetrack in Juarez and speaks little English. They live in El Paso, and she became a U.S. citizen four years ago. She enjoys the international mix. "We celebrate most of the Mexican holidays because my husband gets the days off, and we celebrate American holidays because the bank takes them off."
Dr. Frank J. Morales, an orthodontist in Matamoros, has a thriving dental practice with roughly 40% of his patients from the U.S. Married to an American, he has houses in both Matamoros and Brownsville, and estimates that half his affluent neighbors in El Jardin (the Garden) section of Matamoros have second homes in either Brownsville or the nearby Texas resort of South Padre Island.
There may be more tension between the nortenos, Mexicans who live along the border in northern Mexico, and their countrymen in Mexico City than between Mexicans and Americans. The nortenos see themselves as more industrious and democratic than the others, whom they sometimes call guachos (the kept ones), accusing them of living largely off government services. "We started using computers in our business ten years ago," boasts Eugenio Elorduy, a prosperous Mexicali businessman. "In Mexico City, the computer boom is just starting."
The nortenos on the other hand, are often viewed by interior Mexicans as having sold out their country by acquiring American habits. Some Mexican Americans also feel this friction. George Uribe, 60, was born in Mexico City, has a Mexican wife, but has lived in Nogales since childhood and is now a U.S. citizen. An executive in a large vegetable-distribution company, he concedes that "people in Mexico City tell me I'm a traitor. They say, 'Think of your patria (country).' " Says Uribe: "My patria, hell. I don't want to starve. I want to make a decent living."