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Vínculos
A quarterly e-letter from the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies
November 10, 2004
Dear Colleagues,
As the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies marks the 25th anniversary of its founding, we are entering an active and exciting 2004-2005. We are coordinating our key 25th anniversary event with President Vicente Fox’s planned visit to California in early 2005; we will be announcing details about that event as soon as they are available.
We are also moving forward with a series of other commemorative events, including a conference on “The Elections in the United States: Implications for Mexico,” to be held in Mexico City on November 11, 2004, and two retrospective roundtables on, respectively, political and economic changes in Mexico over the past 25 years.
The “Roundtable on Political Changes” will take place on May 18, 2005, at the Center, and will involve Wayne Cornelius, Juan Molinar Horcasitas, and Federico Estévez. We have invited Secretary of Finance Francisco Gil Díaz to participate in the economics roundtable, details of which will be forthcoming.
Our anniversary celebration incorporates a number of cultural events as well. One is a series of art exhibits in the Center’s facilities, which was initiated in June 2004; we thank Luz María Dávila for coordinating these exhibits. The Center will also sponsor a concert by the symphony of Baja California, tentatively scheduled for May 5, 2005.
We are also pleased to announce the inauguration of the Distinguished Speakers’ Series, a program designed to bring San Diego community leaders and the Center closer together through programming on current issues in Mexico and U.S.-Mexico relations. To initiate this program, the Center hosted visits by Roger Noriega, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs, in July, and by Víctor Lichtinger, former Mexican Minister of the Environment, in October. Financial support for the Series comes from the Center Circle. In recognition of their support, Center Circle members are invited to private receptions and dinners with distinguished speakers. We cordially invite you to join the Center Circle.
And we will of course continue with our ongoing Research Seminars on Mexico and U.S.-Mexican Relations.
Information on all of the above events will be disseminated via future issues of Vínculos and on the Center’s Web site.
During the 2003-04 academic year, Gordon Hanson and I served as Co-Directors of the Center, and the Center benefited greatly from having two directors fully engaged during that period of transition. For the longer term, however, Gordon and I have agreed that a single-director model is preferable. This past September, I took over as the Center’s General Director. Gordon remains involved in Center programs as Director of the Summer Seminar in U.S. Studies, and I look forward to Gordon’s involvement in Center research projects during the coming year.
We are pleased to announce recent grants to the Center from several entities that will allow us to continue and even expand existing programs. We recently received a generous grant from the Luce Foundation to expand the Summer Seminar in U.S. Studies to incorporate students from Asia. We will work with UCSD’s Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) on this venture. IR/PS has extensive links in Asia that will help market the Summer Seminar program, while the Center will bring its 16 years of experience organizing the Summer Seminar’s content. We expect that the corps of Latin American Summer Seminar participants will remain at between 20 and 25 students. We are very grateful to the Luce Foundation for helping to ensure the continuation of this excellent program well into the future.
We also received generous grants in 2004 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the University of California Institute on the United States and Mexico (UC MEXUS), as well as funds from various other donors, including the University of California Office of the President, the Tinker Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Sempra Energy, the Embassy of the United States in Mexico, the United States Consulate in Tijuana, the U.S. Department of Education (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education), and numerous private entities.
Finally, we have received tremendous support from members of our various advisory boards, who enthusiastically contribute intellectual, financial, and moral support to Center projects and programs. We are extremely excited about our new Mexico Advisory Board, formed this past September and headed by Licenciado Jorge de la Rosa; this board will serve to enhance the presence and visibility of the Center in Mexico.
All of these fascinating activities add up to an incredibly dynamic year for the Center (and an exhausting one for the Center staff!). I look forward to seeing many of you at the various 25th anniversary events, both in La Jolla and in Mexico City.
This is the first electronic version of Vínculos, our new quarterly e-bulletin, to be publish in November, February, May, and August. We hope you enjoy hearing from us, and we look forward to your feedback on this bulletin and on the events we have planned for the upcoming year.All of these fascinating activities add up to an incredibly dynamic year for the Center (and an exhausting one for the Center staff!). I look forward to seeing many of you at the various 25th anniversary events, both in La Jolla and in Mexico City.
Sincerely,
Chris Woodruff,
Director
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