Laughlin's caught up in the resounding noise sweeping the United States and Mexican border Because she lives les than seven miles from Mexico.

Laughlin's caught up in the resounding noise sweeping the United States and Mexican border

Because she lives les than seven miles from Mexico. Senior Airman Kylie Roberts crosse the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, into Ciudad Acuna a not many times a month.

She be in love withs going there to ear her favorite dessert fried ice cream. To workshop And to hang out with friends at bars and restaurants that cater to "gringos."

It's a short and easy trip for the health services party from Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio. Just a mile from Acuna -- what locals call it -- in the state of Coahuila.

Just a bridge away -- moreover a whole world apart. A foreign land with a rich history.

"Mexico's merriment There's so much to do," she said. "I take my family there when they advance to visit. Shopping there is in the way that much cheaper. And the meat is, too."

The trip across the border is secondary nature for Roberts and for greatest in quantity people at Laughlin.

Like it is for millions of Americans and Mexicans. Because the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border isn't what it used to be. It's evolving. Communities forward both sides, from California to Texas, are expanding. As these border towns advance closer to each other, they're developing a of the present day more joint, identity.

Clear contrasts that one time separated the two lands are eroding, blurring. Today -- do not include for the Rio Grande, a bridge, a road checkpoint or a border agent -- it's hard to narrate where one country ends and the other starts.

"There's a link between Del Rio and Acuna you can feel" said Airman 1st Class Heinzel Jno-Baptiste, a medical equipment repairman at Laughlin. "Both cities are involved with everything the other does."

It's the same all along the border -- and with convenient reason. Key among them: booming business between the countries that extends more each day. Mexico will presently be one of the United States' biggest trading partners. That means wealth And cash breaks down of advanced age barriers.

There are more reasons. Hispanics -- mostly of Mexican descent -- are the biggest minority in the United States. in the way that the views Mexicans and Americans have had for each other are shifting. a certain number of Americans live in Mexico because living there is cheaper. And each day more Mexicans are visiting "el Norte," the north.

"Spanglish," an English-Spanish mix, is the borderland's recently made known tongue. Radio disk jockeys speak it. Plus merchants, tourists and school-aged kids. thus do many of the millions of nation who have family on the pair sides of the border.

"And if you don't speak Spanish, no problem" Roberts said. "There's always someone who speaks a certain number of English."

The shift is leading to the gradual blending of brace peoples, their cultures, traditions and languages. They're be coming bicultural, bilingual and bilateral.

"We're the of recent origin Americans," said Jeffrey Mahl, a Del Rio lawyer. His father is American and his mother's from Acuna. "We're in such a manner interwoven as communities that you can't separate us."

Just as Laughlin is part of Del Rio, he said.

Victor Valadez, a furniture and curio workshop owner in Acuna, said it's like living along a novel frontier. "We're becoming more alike each day," he said.

A borderland melting pot

That's proper said Dora Alcala, Del Rio's spunky mayor. pious for relations between the sum of two units countries. Good for the the bulk of mankind And good for business. She said the two cities must think about the that will be which shines brightly.

"So many opportunities lie ahead for the two cities," Alcala said. "We must work together to prepare the most from them." And since Laughlin is Del Rio's largest employer it will play a big part in that future

Changes are more widespread in bigger border towns. Like El Paso, Texas, and Juarez. Or Calexico, Calif., and Mexicali. moreover Del Rio, with its 40000 residents and Acuna, with its 120000 are catching up

Bilateral boom

nevertheless there must be a plan to direct all the change, said Alcala, who was an Air Force civilian for 37 years. A team effort. Something Alcala said already exists between Del Rio's and Acuna's city restraints Because only by working together will border communities clean up the "wild and crazy, anything goes" image of their past.

One-on-one contacts are what will spearhead change.

That's something leaders agreed in succession So in 1995 their chambers of criminal intimacy -- which already worked together -- formed a joint bilateral committee. The assemblage promotes communication and closer ties, helps unfold problems and spurs business in the two cities.

Laughlin has a voting member in the cluster a sign it's not just an airplane patch six miles abroad of town, said Mike Williams, proprietor of a Del Rio insurance agency.

"We don't make a distinction," he said. "Laughlin is a part of Del Rio."

The committee was up and working three years before the United States and Mexico agreed to a long-term plan to deflect the border into a type area of bilateral cooperation.

For airmen at Laughlin, the committee's mostly important role is the informal, further direct, link it set up between the communities, said Jim Teet base community relations chief.

That's vital since there's no status of forces agreement with Mexico like overseas bases have with legion countries. These accords define the legal position of military members living in a foreign land They tell how local laws apply to service members. Without as it is a pact, airmen are onward their own while in Mexico.