03/27/2001

Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. – The twin border cities of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, got an Oscar this weekend for best supporting actor in a way.

Benicio Del Toro, the actual winner, dedicated it to the cities' residents.

Nogales was a stand-in for Tijuana in Traffic, and Del Toro played a Tijuana detective struggling to stay honest in a quagmire of drug-trafficking corruption.

Nogales was chosen because filmdom needed a safer border city in which to film.

Del Toro said he honored the cities of Nogales because they helped him – and the film – so much.

"When you go on location, you go into people's neighborhoods all over the country, all over the world. As an actor, location is so important,'' Del Toro told The Hollywood Reporter after the ceremony.

"The people (of Nogales) are so humble, so beautiful, that it made it easy for me to get into it,'' he added. "I think it helped all of the actors, and I think it helped the film."

City leaders on both sides of the international line say they are grateful. They also say they hope the gesture will lead to more movie business for the region 60 miles south of Tucson.

Marco A. Lopez Jr., mayor of the Arizona Nogales, said Del Toro's recognition was exciting. He also acknowledged a rash of media calls to find out whether the real Nogales is like the drug world in the film.

"We are not,'' Lopez told The Arizona Daily Star. "We don't have that big a problem, and what we do have is being resolved.''

The view is pretty much the same at the Nogales Chamber of Commerce, said office manager Gloria Valenzuela, who also watched excitedly as Del Toro made his dedication.

"I think we're going to get a lot more responses from the movie people. I think it will help us,'' said Valenzuela, whose office had regular contact with the movie's location managers while Traffic was filmed a year ago.

In Nogales, Mexico, Radio XENY reporter Raul H. Leyva said many had felt the movie would give the world a negative view of their city but that in time, they came to accept the filming.

Besides, he said, to deny the reality of the city's own drug trafficking would be like "trying to block out the sun with your finger.''