Nogales, Sonora

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Mural on the Nogales, Sonora side of the US-Mexico border. It depicts the harsh realities of undocumented travel through the Sonoran desert. The wall itself, at this location, is constructed of Korean War-era tin sheets used as makeshift airplane landing strips.

Picture of the border between Arizona, on the left, and Sonora, on the right.

Heroica Nogales, more commonly known as Nogales, is a city and its surrounding municipality on the northern border of the Mexican State of Sonora. The municipality covers an area of 1,675 km², and borders to the north the city of Nogales, Arizona, United States, across the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2000, the census reported that Nogales had a population of 159,103 people, representing approximately 50% growth from 1990. According to some sources, the real population was then about 250,000. By the 2005 census the official population of the city was 189,759, and that of the municipality was 193,517. The city and the municipality both rank third in the state in population, after Hermosillo and Ciudad Obregón/Cajeme. The municipality includes many outlying but small rural communities. Nogales is served by Nogales International Airport.

The population growth is in part due to the influx of industry that has come since the opening of the maquiladora industry through the National Industrialization Program, decades before NAFTA. Manufacturing now accounts for 55% of the city's gross domestic product, and services are growing as well.

Nogales officially became a municipality on July 11, 1884, date of the publication of Law No. 29, which had been signed the previous day by the then Governor of Sonora, Luis Emeterio Torres. Nogales was declared a city on January 1, 1920.

Nogales is known for its recent enormous population growth which covers the hills along the central narrow valley that extends from South to North. Dispersed among the houses, the visitor will find a mixture of factories, stores, etc. However, recently, the southern half of the city has experienced a modern urbanization development which includes shopping malls, wide avenues, and modern house conglomerate.