Boy's Town, Nuevo Laredo

[citation needed] The origins of the Boy's Town concept along the Mexico–United States border can be traced in part to the relationship that developed between the United States Army and various ad hoc entrepreneurs in northern Mexico during the army's 1916–17 Punitive Expedition; specifically when General John J. Pershing's forces were pursuing General Pancho Villa in Chihuahua.

While the troops were based 100 kilometers south of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, at Colonia Dublain, a small group of vendors, launderers, barkeeps, and prostitutes set up businesses next to the army camp.

Eventually, General Pershing ordered that the prostitutes be restricted to the southern end of the camp where they would be inspected and certified by the military medical officers.

[2] These enclosed compounds, called zonas de tolerancia or Boy's Towns, were eventually established in at least seven Mexican cities along the U.S.-Mexico border (San Luis Río Colorado, Agua Prieta, Ojinaga, Ciudad Acuña, Piedras Negras, Nuevo Laredo, and Reynosa).

Later, several other cities, not located on the border, established enclosed zonas as well, including Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, and Salina Cruz, Oaxaca.

[2] A number of brothels and bars catering to prostitution still operate in the downtown area outside Boy's Town with the tacit approval of the government.

Furthermore, Boy's Town is protected by a substation of the municipal police complete with jail, and there is a health clinic that performs blood tests and weekly screenings of sex workers for venereal diseases.

They provide an inexpensive environment for local males (and occasionally couples) to relax, listen to Cumbia, Norteño, or Ranchera music, and dance late into the night.

In addition to entertainment facilities, a number of small restaurants and street eateries cater to patrons visiting the bars and brothels and to the individuals who live and work there.

Boy's Town was referenced during the 1990 Texas gubernatorial race when Republican candidate Clayton Williams admitted that he had made visits for "servicing.