I think Espada Ancha could be translated as 'Wide Sword', and the adjective is related to the width of the blade (as in 'broadsword'), which, as you know, is related to the spanish military broadswords and machetes used from the 18th Century to the 19th Century, the former with some models in a bilobated garnment, and very diferent to the narrow bladed civilian swords as the rapier. In this case, the guards are simplier due to the conditions those swords were made. I think the long blades were not neccessary as the main weapon for the soldier was the spear-lance or the fireweapon, and the nothern land is usually arid, with only bushes (sometimes heavy bushed) and some desert trees as the mezquite and the huizache.
I don't think the clamshell or the equivalent were strictly defensive guards, but scabbard protections, and also an element helping in securing the sword inside the scabbard, and protecting it from the climate.
It is correct to associate this type of sword to the machete and its role as working tool and as a weapon. Still today some machetes are mounted with a knuckleguard, but longer blades, and a pommel in the form of an eagle head, but they have become mostly a tourist item.
There were no specific regulations concerning the dimensions and other characteristic for this swords, and this, complemented by the isolation of the presidios along the centuries in a dilatated territory with a broken geography, produced the variety of forms we know today.
I personally do not have information about this local variants.
Regards
Gonzalo
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