By Amanda Wilson
For the Salisbury Post
Once upon a time, before the era of double fences, there was a little store on the border with one door open to the U.S. and another door open to Mexico.
This is a story Roy Simpson’s godmother often tells, perhaps because it captures the quintessentially international nature of border communities.
Roy Simpson is a resident of Tubac, a small town 17 miles north of the U.S./Mexican border. As an interpretive guide at a local historic site, he is well versed in the region’s history.
“This was part of New Spain and when Mexico became a nation, it extended all the way through Arizona,” he said.
But the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 redrew the line. History, and a dynamic overlap of cultures in the region, influences everyday life.
“If you go to someone’s house for a birthday party, there will be a pińata, or if you go for a barbeque, its called carne asada,” he said.
But, he said, the peaceful, tolerant atmosphere that has so long defined his community is beginning to change.
Simpson said two drug-related shootings near Tubac last year deeply effected the community.
“Before, the drug traffickers were all going through the mountains and we never saw them,” he said. “The illegals coming through were just trying to get work and every once in a while somebody had their house broken into but that was about it. I never felt threatened.”
Simpson said stronger U.S. Border Patrol presence in remote parts of the desert has recently pushed traffickers into populated areas. Now, he’s concerned about his daughter’s safety.
“I have noticed more and more that the more law enforcement we have here, the more (drug-related) activity we have,” he said.
In addition to a stronger Border Patrol presence, Tubac residents have seen the effects of a highway checkpoint two miles from their town on highway 19.
Though some residents support the checkpoint, Simpson said it had hurt the Tubac economy. Not wanting to deal with potential waits, fewer people go shopping in Tubac.
Simpson said he has a Mexican-American friend who is repeatedly pulled over, questioned and harassed.
“I have lived in countries with military checkpoints and that is what I feel we have here,” said Simpson, a former Peace Corps volunteer.
“It is not military, but it is the same thing. There are guys with guns asking me questions. If we’re going to have a border let’s keep it on the border.”
Simpson said he believes that a border and checkpoints are necessary, but he opposes a fence along the full length of the border.
“We are playing this game of putting up walls. We did that in Berlin and it didn’t work. That fell down, this will fall down too.”
He said he believes the answer to border woes lies in education and in economic reform.
“Eventually, the solution is that we have to work towards other solutions.”