After residents complained about the noise, the district was moved out of town and the party atmosphere subsided.īoys towns also flourish in the border towns of Reynosa, Juarez, Neuvo Laredo and Piedras Negras.
Until the early 1980s, boys town was near the center of Acuna, a city of about 120,000. The agent, who did not want to be identified, said he was there only to drink and look. ″It’s too much of a chance, going home with something you don’t want,″ said a Brownwood, Texas, man who made a side trip to Acuna from a seminar for undercover narcotics agents in Del Rio. Some say the threat of disease limits them to looking.
Men visiting boys towns say many prostitutes require condoms. He credits education efforts by the association and other groups, such as the Pan-American Health Organization that he leads.Īcuna health officials last week cited some prostitutes for not having health certificates and checked them for disease. Ortega of El Paso, executive director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Association, said AIDS is ″almost nonexistent″ among the prostitutes. in the big cities,″ said the man, who declined to be identified. ″I believe there are more problems with diseases. Smaller and older brothels cater to Mexican clients.Ī Del Rio businessman in his 40s who has frequented the brothels for more than 20 years says there’s little fear of AIDS or other sexual diseases. The half-dozen bars, most only a few years old and well-appointed, are clustered on a small hill along a gravel road south of town. Outside along the dusty streets of boys town - also known as La Zona de Tolerancia or Zone of Tolerance - scattered groups of men from nearby Air Force installations, teen-agers and other Americans wander to bars like the Rio Club and La Camelia. ″This is really mild compared to a lot of places.″ ″We’re just here to check it out,″ said one Texas man, gazing around the bar. While nude dancers perform on stage, prostitutes lead customers toward the bar’s back rooms. On a Thursday night in Acuna, across the border from the Texas town of Del Rio, about 50 American men mingled with Mexican women at the Hunters Saloon beneath a glittering banner that proclaims in English: ″Welcome Hunters.″
Visiting the prostitutes, Williams said, was just ″part of growing up in West Texas.″ They’re accepted with little controversy, although Texas’ Republican gubernatorial candidate, Clayton Williams, drew heat after admitting recently that he frequented border brothels during his college years more than 30 years ago because they were the only place to get ″serviced.″ society places on them that affect their overall health and well-being," they wrote in an accompanying study editorial, "Any discussions associated with pressures should include topics of 'what it means to be a man' and soliciting and giving consent.CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico (AP) _ In a handful of cities on the Mexican border, American men still throng to the brothels of ″boys towns,″ legal prostitution zones little changed by fears of sexual disease or campaigns for more wholesome tourism.Īt least five Mexican border cities have flourishing boys towns, and though some have been moved away from central tourist districts, they remain popular attractions for businessmen, hunters and teen-agers. "It is critical to engage young men in self-reflection about the real pressures U.S.
David Bell, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Samantha Garbers, an associate professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health called for stepped-up responsibility. Researchers want more conversations about boys developing healthy relationships and early, age-appropriate sexual education among parents, in schools and in health care settings. Parents may still be reminding their preteen kids to brush their teeth, clean their room and turn their book report in on time.īut are they forgetting something? Like having the sex talk?Ī study released this week in JAMA Pediatrics found that 3.6% to 7.6% of boys and young men say they are having sex before age 13 – or 1 in 13 boys.