Boys Town or Boy's Town or Boys' Town (Mexican brothels near Texas border)

Tue Aug 28 17:54:07 UTC 2007

Having grown up in Texas, by my late teenhood in the early 1960s I was certainly familiar with the less wholesome sense of the term "Boys' Town." To this day, I do a small double-take whenever I hear a reference to Fr. Flanagan's worthy insitution (although, knowing the things we now know, we may have questions about what all transpired THERE!).

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:16:08 -0400
>From: Barry Popik <bapopik at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Boys Town or Boy's Town or Boys' Town (Mexican brothels near Texas border)

>Anyone remember a "boys town"? Not in OED?
>...
>HDAS has "boys town" and it's "_Navy_, the junior officers' quarters on
>shipboard"? How do you speak to the editor of HDAS and invite him to Texas?
>...
>...
>
>http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/boys_town_or_boys_town_zona=
>_de_tolerancia_zona_roja_zona_rosa/
>...
>
> Entry from August 28, 2007
>Boy's Town or Boys Town (Zona de Tolerancia; Zona Roja; Zona Rosa)
>
>"Boy's Town" or "Boys Town" is a place in Mexico near the Texas border wher=
>e
>"boys" go to find "girls." These places of prostitution are also called
>"Zona de Tolerancia" (Zone of Tolerance) and "Zona Roja" (Red Zone) and
>"Zona Rosa" (Rose Zone or Pink Zone). The term was popular by at least the
>1950s.
>
>The term has nothing to do with the Boys Town (now Girls and Boys Town) in
>Nebraska that was founded by Edward J. Flanagan in the 1920s for at-risk
>children. However, it is possible that the prostitution sense borrowed from
>this established term.
>
>
>Wikipedia: Boy's
>Town<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy%27s_Town%2C_prostitution>
>*Boy's Towns*, also known as *Zonas de Tolerancia*, *Zonas Rojas* or *Zonas
>Rosas*, are formally designated zones within several Mexican cities where
>legalized prostitution exists. These normally walled compounds, most of
>which are located along the U.S.-Mexico border, operate as red light
>districts. Notorious Boy's Towns are located in Ciudad Acu=F1a, Nuevo Lared=
>o,
>Piedras Negras, and Reynosa.
>
>Wikipedia: Girls and Boys
>Town<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_and_Boys_Town>
>*Girls and Boys Town*, formerly *Boys Town* and *Father Flanagan's Boys'
>Home*, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the care of at-risk
>children, with national headquarters in the village of Boys Town, Nebraska.
>The property was listed as a National Historic Landmark on February 04,
>1985.
>
>The original Boys Town was founded as a boys orphanage in 1921 by Edward J.
>Flanagan, a Roman Catholic priest working in Omaha. The "City of Little Men=
>"
>pioneered development of new juvenile care methods in 20th century America,
>emphasizing social preparation as a model for public boys' homes worldwide.
>
>
>20 December 1957, Brownsville (TX) *Herald*, "U.S. Ambassador To Probe
>Matamoros Vice Industry," pg. 1, col. 2:
>Recurrent rumors in this area frequently refer to a section of Matamoros
>known as "Boys Town" where Mexican officials are reported to take a somewha=
>t
>easy-going attitude toward prostitution.
>
>9 March 1961, Corpus Christi (TX) *Times*, "Reynosa: Old, New Mingle in 'Si=
>n
>City'" by B. F. Kellum, pg. 18:
>Just about everyone on both sides of the Rio Grande agrees most tourists wh=
>o
>get into trouble do so because they wander about a mile west of the
>international bridge to "Boys Town," a sprawling community of neon signs,
>cantinas, dope pushers and prostitutes.
>
>Conservative estimates place the number of prostitutes in "Boys Town" at
>800, ranging from 14 years up.
>
>Prostitution is legal and government-regulated in Mexico. The girls even
>have a sort of social security that pays them a few pesos a day when they
>are unable to work.
>
>The tourist usually gets cheated=97but most expect it when they venture int=
>o
>this town-within-a-town.
>
>24 June 1977, San Antonio *Light*, "Prostitutes Protest In Nuevo Laredo,"
>pg. 8A:
>NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (UPI) Protesting prostitutes are complaining city
>officials are allowing harlots to work in the normally off-limits downtown
>area, and they want the mayor to put a stop to the practice.
>(...)
>"Mr. Mayor. We believe everything has a place: You in your office and
>prostitutes in the red light district," said one sign carried by the group
>of prostitutes who were joined in the protest march by waiters and the
>owners of eight nightclubs in the "Zone of Tolerance," which Americans refe=
>r
>to as "Boy's Town."
>
>Mexican law permits prostitution in supervised zones located away from the
>city. The prostitutes are required to register and undergo periodic medical
>examinations.
>
>1 May 1990, *Pacific Stars and Stripes* (Tokyo, Japan), "Border town
>brothels still lure Americans," pg. 7:
>CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico (AP)=97In a handful of cities on the Mexican border,
>American men still throng to the brothels of "boys' towns," legal
>prostitution zones little changed by fear of sexual disease or campaigns fo=
>r
>more wholesome tourism.
>
>At least five Mexican border cities have flourishing boys' towns, and thoug=
>h
>some have been moved away from central tourist districts, they remain
>popular attractions for businessmen, hunters and teen-agers.
>
>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."
>
>Visiting the prostitutes, Williams said, was just "part of growing up in
>West Texas."
>(...)
>OUTSIDE along the dusty streets of boys' town=97also known as La Zona de
>Tolerancia or Zone of Tolerance=97scattered groups of men from nearby Air
>Force installations, teen-agers and other Americans wander to bars like the
>Rio Club and La Camelia.
>
>3 November 1981, Frederick (MD) *Post*, "Maverick mayor: 'Jorge is the
>change,'" pg. B4, col. 1:
>MATAMOROS, Mexico (AP)=97A radio station owner with a grandfatherly face, a
>handlebar mustache and an easy smile is turning this border city upside dow=
>n
>with his maverick brand of populist politics.
>
>Since taking office Jan. 1, Mayor Jorge Cardenas Gonzalez has closed
>cantinas on Sundays, donated his $12,000 salary to illuminate crime-plagued
>neighborhoods and told barkeeps in the infamous "Boys' Town" redlight
>district to move out or shut down.
>(...)
>Shootings and knifings within the "zona roja" have alarmed the surrounding
>residential areas.
>
>"We're going to run a socially moral city, that is my aim," he said.
>
>(Trademark)
>Word Mark BOYS TOWN TIMES
>Goods and Services (EXPIRED) IC 016. US 038. G & S: SEMI-MONTHLY NEWSPAPER
>PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF THE HOMELESS BOY. FIRST USE: 19381024. FIRST
>USE IN COMMERCE: 19381024
>Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
>Serial Number 71449479
>Filing Date December 15, 1941
>Current Filing Basis 1A
>Original Filing Basis 1A
>Registration Number 0398772
>Registration Date November 24, 1942
>Owner (LAST LISTED OWNER) FATHER FLANAGAN'S BOYS' HOME UNKNOWN BOYS TOWN,
>NEBR.
>Type of Mark TRADEMARK
>Register PRINCIPAL
>Live/Dead Indicator DEAD
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org