ABSTRACT
Despite common antecedents among Mexican border communities, social disparities there, as in the rest of the republic, go from one extreme to the other. Affluence along the border tilts from west to east: Tijuana boasts the highest per capita income; take-home pay, as well as wealth, tends to drop as one approaches the Gulf of Mexico. In Tijuana, the rich dwell on the hills to the south, in the colonia Lomas de Chapultepec that overlooks the modern Zona del Rio or downtown in the Bolanos Cacho, one of the oldest neighborhoods. In Ciudad Juarez, the Colonia Campestre, home to the affluent, shelters lawns and gardens in the American style that surround the chalets of bankers and businessmen. In Ciudad Juarez, which provides a microcosmic view of the political process, the council and the mayor are elected every three years in highly partisan fashion.
