Early Settlement Patterns

The population of Nogales, Sonora, did not resemble the stereotypical mining or frontier boom town. In its early phase, the number of immigrants seeking work remained small. While the growth of cattle, agriculture, and smelting served to entice laborers to El Paso-Ciudad Juárez, similar conditions did not exist around Nogales.^[19] Sonora's principal mining and refining operations lay inland at Minas Prietas, Nacozari, and Cananea. Economic activity in Nogales centered on trade and cattle, neither of which required large numbers of workers. The records of the largest ranches in the area, La Arizona and Santa Barbara, showed a stable number of laborers, mostly Yaqui Indians.^[20]

Nogales's earliest residents included a sizable number of aspiring merchants as well as former government officials seeking to take advantage of expanded ties with the United States. Many of these, like the Camou family, had already profited from trade with Arizona and moved to the border either to expand operations or to initiate new ventures. Because the town was at an altitude of over 4,000 feet and had a mild climate, many of Sonora's affluent families, some from as far away as Guaymas, built summer residences in Nogales. The border town became a favorite retreat for Sonorans trying to escape the hot July and August nights of Hermosillo and Guaymas. These merchants and their allies in the aspiring middle classes, took over the reins of this nascent community and charted the town's development. Nogales' relatively small population-by 1893, for example, it still only had about 4,000 inhabitants-facilitated their control of the border community.

Among Nogales' first influential settlers were Manuel Mascareñas, a hacendado and politico, Ignacio Bonillas, an engineer born in Tucson, and businessman Próspero Sandoval. Most of these individuals had been minor players in the interior. On the border, however, they acquired status as international traders or customs brokers, selling and ordering goods from the United States for Mexican clients and shepherding the goods through a maze of customs regulations instituted

by both countries. With its majestic marble pillars and bell tower, the Mexican customshouse in Nogales, Sonora, dominated the urban landscape, symbolizing the importance of commerce to the survival of border towns.

Manuel Mascareñas Porra appears typical of the Mexicans who established operations in Nogales. He arrived in Guaymas from Durango in 1873 and married Luisa Navarro, spending most of the decade of the 1870S in the port, where he dabbled in commerce and politics. He served several terms on the Guaymas city council. Subsequently, he moved to Hermosillo where he formed a partnership with Rafael Ruiz and opened a small retail business. Mascareñas continued to take part in politics, being elected several times to the Hermosillo town council. In 1883 he joined the land rush to the north and purchased the hacienda Santa Barbara which consisted of more than 15,000 hectares. By 1900, after acquiring adjacent lands, he had amassed more than 36,000 hectares.

At first Mascareñas focused his attention on cattle ranching, importing American Herefords to breed with Mexican cattle. In a few years he had one of the most productive and profitable cattle enterprises in the north, exporting large amounts of beef to the United States by rail. The ranch also produced wheat, corn, and other agricultural staples, which grew along the fertile bottom land adjacent to the Santa Cruz River. Together with the neighboring La Arizona ranch, owned by Guillermo Barnett, Santa Barbara supplied much of the agricultural products consumed by the two Nogales.^[21] It wasn't long before Manuel Mascareñas became involved in Nogales politics. By 1887 he had been elected municipal president of Nogales, later becoming the Mexican consul in Nogales, Arizona, and serving in that capacity until the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.

Anglo-American inhabitants of Nogales, Arizona, had previous experience in trade and mining in California and Nevada. Settlers in Nogales included long-time miners in the southwest such as John T. Brickwood, John J. Noon, and George Christ, as well as recent immigrants from Europe such as Luis Proto. John Brickwood reflected the experiences of many of the first Anglo-Americans who settled at Nogales. Born in Illinois in 1849, he migrated first to California in 1869. After less than one year, he relocated to Prescott, Arizona, where he continued to work in mining. Attracted by the news of railroad construction in the southern portion of the state, he moved to Tucson

in 1879 and, in his words, became involved in the "saloon business." He arrived in Nogales in 1882, married a Mexican woman named Guadalupe Cañes, and had ten children with her. Beside a saloon and hotel on the border, he also acquired more than eighty acres of land along the Santa Cruz River which produced wheat and corn.^[22] He took an active role in politics and served as mayor of Nogales. Born in Greece in 1854, Luis Proto emigrated to California in 1878. After a stint in Tombstone, he relocated to Nogales, Arizona, where he opened a grocery store. As appeared to be the case with most American settlers, he acquired land in the Santa Cruz valley and also owned several mines in Sonora.^[23]