International Border Community
Nogales boasts a 200 year history of entrepreneurship, mercantilism and international trade.
Nogales Offers the Best of Both Worlds
Nogales, Arizona, is a progressive city that has been able to maintain its small town charm, rich traditions, and vibrant culture. The city is the county seat for Santa Cruz County and shares its rich heritage with Nogales, Sonora, its sister city in Mexico.
Located along Arizona’s southern boundary, the City of Nogales, Arizona, borders Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, and is Arizona’s largest international border city. Nogales, Arizona, is a major international gateway along the United States-Mexico border. Due to the International Border, Nogales is the economic capital of the region and serves as one of the major gateways into the United States. Visitors cross the border between both cities for site-seeing and shopping on a daily basis Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora form a single, functional and complex urban fabric in which some members of the same family may live on the United States while others may reside in Mexico, creating a sense of fluidity that impacts all aspects of life, including culture, language, heritage, character, identity, context, environment and economy.
A distinct flow of people, cultures, businesses, goods and ideas characterize this bi-national community.
Nogales has the feel of an international city set in a beautiful high valley with warm and diverse people.
Ambos Nogales, Sister Cities
Referred to as Ambos Nogales, the communities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, México comprise the largest international border community in Arizona, with a combined population of 177,732 inhabitants as of the 2000 U.S. and Mexican censuses (U.S. Census Bureau 2000, Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica 2000).
Ambos Nogales was once an easy, friendly and relaxed two-nation border town. The urban fabric is now split in two, separated by an international border, yet still Ambos Nogales remains heavily reliant on each other. Ambos Nogales continues to share their families, cultures, heritages, characters and identities. The economy of Ambos Nogales is strongly intertwined. Being a community member in Ambos Nogales provides a unique opportunity to learn the languages, cultures and traditions from both Mexico and the United States. There is a distinctive flow of people, cultures, businesses, goods and ideas characteristic of a bi-national economy that makes Ambos Nogales unique. Members of Ambos Nogales, as well as tourists from both nations, frequent both sides of this international border creating an influx zone that is fluid and supports a natural constant movement from one side to the other much like the ebb and flow of waves on the shore.