The Urban Structure of El Centro in Border Cities : A Case Study of Reynosa , Tamaulipas , México

The urban structure and built environment of the downtown area (El Centro) in Mexican cities bordering Texas are significantly different from those of their sister cities on the other side. The Mexican imprint on the urban structure of the El Centro is identical in many aspects to that of other interior Mexican and Latin American cities. However, the proximity of the United States and the relatively free exchange of goods and people along La Frontera, particularly in the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande Valley, have altered the urban structure of border cities resulting in a distinct variation of Latin American urban structure. With the advent of NAFTA accompanied by the increasing industrialization of the borderland and an accelerated interchange of goods, services and people; the urban structure of these areas is changing even more rapidly. Such a juxtaposition of a developed country adjacent to a developing one and the associated urban structure can be found in very few places in the world. This paper will explore the built landscape of the downtown area of Mexican border cities in an urban morphological framework using Reynosa as a case study to focus on the urban models that have been used to describe border cities