The Battle of Ambos Nogales Led to America’s First Border Fence With Mexico
1918 was a tense time at the US-Mexican border. In 1916, Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, New Mexico, had led to a US incursion into Mexico that lasted into 1917. America’s joining WWI in 1917 did not help calm things down: with war declared against Germany, American authorities now feared attacks from Mexicans instigated by German agents.
In that tense environment, in mid August, 1918, American military intelligence reported the presence of strange Mexicans, plentifully supplied with arms and munitions, in the Mexican border town of Nogales. There were also reports of white men, presumably Germans, instructing gatherings of Mexicans on military tactics. Simultaneously, an anonymous letter was received from somebody claiming to have been an officer in Villa’s forces, warning of German influences in and around Nogales.
Nogales was a border town split down the middle, with only a wide and open boulevard, named International Street, separating the American part of town, in Arizona, from the Mexican part, in the state of Sonora. Together, the two towns were known as Ambos Nogales, Spanish for “Both Nogaleses”. Historically, the border had been open and unrestricted, with no impediments to crossing from one Nogales to the other. That changed in 1918, however. Thenceforth, crossing into Nogales, Arizona, was restricted to inspection points, and soldiers were posted on International Street to control human traffic into the US.
In the months before August, 1918, at least two Mexicans had been killed while attempting to cross International Street, including a deaf mute who was unable to hear American border guards’ instructions to halt. That built up a store of resentment against US border agents by their Mexican counterparts, and things finally came to a head on August 27th, 1918.
It began when a Mexican carpenter returning to Mexican Nogales was ordered to halt in the middle of International Street by a US Customs official, who wanted to inspect a parcel he was carrying. Only a few feet away, Mexican border agents directed him to ignore the American command, and continue into Mexico. As he hesitated between the competing groups of border agents shouting contradictory instructions, an American soldier raised his rifle to encourage the carpenter to return to the US side. Amidst the confusion, a shot was fired, and the carpenter dropped to the ground.
Thinking the carpenter had been shot, a Mexican Customs official drew out his pistol and shot an American soldier in the face. A US Customs official then drew out a revolver, and shot two of his Mexican counterparts dead. In the meantime, the carpenter, who was unhurt, got up and sprinted to safety down a side street. As gunfire erupted, Mexicans citizens rushed home to grab their firearms, and returned to help the Mexican border agents. Before long, Both Nogaleses were engulfed in a running firefight.
As the fighting intensified, troopers from the 10th US Cavalry Regiment, stationed in Fort Huachuca, were called in. They were followed by a detachment from the 35th Infantry Regiment, whose members set up a machine gun and opened fire on Mexican positions. In an attempt to quell the violence, the mayor of Mexican Nogales tied a white handkerchief to a stick and ran down the street, waving it to try and get the combatants to cease fire. He was shot dead. Finally, around 7:45 PM, fighting stopped when the Mexicans waved a large white flag over their Customs building. After peace was restored, American and Mexican authorities agreed to divide the two Nogaleses with a chain link fence – the first border wall between the two countries.