Ihave lived and worked in all three NAFTA partner countries. For the past 20 years, Mexico has been home. I am the product of a stateside university education, a career with IBM and a lifetime of being Latino. I think and feel with two hearts and minds. A first generation U.S. citizen, Spanish was the language spoken at home. At school we were punished if caught speaking Spanish.

Times have changed.

I don’t know how ya all survive in the Southwest without speaking Spanish. Stockton California , two hours East of San Francisco,, is a San Juaquin Valley community dependent on agribusiness. The city’s hospitals report that 75% of all newborns are Mexican.

I read U.S. and Mexican newspapers and the same for my viewing of T.V. journalism. I am a junky for political news and commentary in both languages.

I wish citizens, North and South of the borders , had access to such differing national viewpoints.

As average Joe, Jaque or Pancho (NAFTA citizens), either language and or cultural differences have prevented us from engaging in meaningful dialogue and debate. We are uninformed of each other’s differing political opinions, life experience and socio economic struggles. Some political representatives and academicians communicate across borders but not their constituencies.

The benefit of “seeing ourselves” as others see us is enormous (be it an individual or a nation). As a yank , I find it fascinating to hear and read Mexican pundits and opinion makers comment on George Bush and the war in Iraq or the issues surrounding immigration. Viewpoints you won’t hear in the states because journalists here reflect the obvious concerns of their audience – “how United States’ policy and actions in the world affect us as Latinos” .

Having lived in all three NAFTA countries I can state with absolute certainty that the average Canadian or Mexicano can tell you a lot about U.S. history and current events. Contrary in the states, U.S. citizens know very little about Canada or Mexico.

Perhaps organized community forums, focused on exchanging perceptions and common problems, could help us all progress as nation states and cultures. To heed the advice of neighbors who don’t have an intra national political agenda or belief system to promote. A sort of. group therapy approach to socio political advancement. Mirrors at the borders instead of fences.

We as separate nation citizens, shape political agendas that are of mutual concern to the NAFTA triage. Yet, as a public, we are not privy to the information we need about border problems. Insufficiently educated to direct our representatives to programs and solutions important to all NAFTA citizens.

Public dialogue between journalists and citizens of NAFTA could create an historic first step in generating new and effective alternatives to the unsolved problems of: immigration, security, labor exploitation, and the environment. Problems that politicians and multi national corporations have only made worse.

Border guards have tripled in the last seven years while illegal border crossings have gone up by fifty percent. The average factory worker makes ten dollars a day in Tijuana and Ensenada while the cost of living approaches that of San Diego . Mexican worker salaries have increased 3% while the cost of living has increased 12% over the past seven years. Worsening border pollution is affecting Beaches and wetlands from Ensenada to San Diego . Pollution and a scarcity of water are problems along the entire 2600 mile border separating Mexico and the United States.

Public opinion polls were invented in the U.S. and reached popular use in the 1950′s. Despite a short five year history of polling citizens, public polls are now as popular in Mexico as they are in the states. Polls, conducted on both sides of the U.S. Mexican border, express dissatisfaction with NAFTA..

Public opinion contradicts the general conclusion of economists that NAFTA is a big success for all three partners. Cross border labor and business groups could begin to address the inequities of NAFTA by directly involving workers and entrepreneurs affected by .the accord. A tri national series of debates whose mission is to generate problem solutions to conflicts and inequities in exporting goods and services.

Another iissue for tri national dialogue would be Mexico’s refusal to support the U.S. in the United Nations regarding the pre emptive strike against Iraq. A discussion about the use of power and Mexico’s historic proclivity to remain a neutral and peaceful nation could help norteamericanos understand the benefits of a less meddlesome state department and intelligence community.

We could develop forums of to formulate plans for attacking corruption on both sides of the border. Mexicans could learn from yanks in dealing with undesirables in Government. Richard Nixon left in shame for deceptions that most Mexican presidents would consider a minor indiscretion. .Trent Lott made a racial inference that lost him his leadership in the Senate while Mexican congressmen disrespect with impunity the cultural mores of Mexico.

I believe individual citizens and journalists must lead the effort to enhance border issues dialogue. I don’t foresee traditional institutions stepping up to the plate. As a member of the San Diego Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, for three years I attempted to gain the Chamber’s involvement in cross border business issues.

The international committee, formed to stimulate cross border cooperation, was disbanded for a lack of interest. They talk the talk about The San Diego – Tijuana region but few walk the walk.

The same can be said for San Diego journalists. As a member of the San Diego press club I find the dialogue at reporter gatherings to be myopically parochial. When I mention an issue about Mexico , their reporter eyes hood over like Iguana lizards. They reflect San Diego’s conservative bent for regarding Mexico as our charming but “messed up” neighbor to the South. San Diego Dialogue, a San Diego State University. think tank on border issues, claims that 55% of San Diegans have never crossed the border into Mexico .

There are journalists assigned to covering Baja and Mexico who do an excellent job of reporting, but most of their work does not make it into print, let alone page one. You must go to the wire services on the internet to get decent English language coverage of Mexico. I believe involving the press is imperative to promoting and generating excitement for “grass roots” border improvement initiatives.

I don’t believe there are more newsworthy issues in the America’s than those affecting border relations, commerce and culture. Aside from social benefits, I believe that increased media attention would produce new and exciting bi national programming that is presently almost non existent.

The general press, on both sides of the border, have underestimated the interest among NAFTA citizenry in directly addressing Issues that significantly affect all our lives, today and more so in the future.

I am reliving the 1960’s. Born in Oakland California in 1940, the son of immigrant farm workers, I grew up with a working class immigrant’s identification with the disenfranchised. I spent the 1960’s in demonstrations against what America was then: a racist country, fighting a war that was destroying a nation of people on the other side of the world. Like Iraq, we had little chance of winning an ill defined victory in Vietnam. We lost 50 thousand in that war and our position as a favored nation throughout the Western World. The first war in which our fighting men and women were not welcome home as heroes. They not only had to endure the psychological wounds of war, the loss of limbs and the loss of loved ones; they also had to bear the country’s shame as well.

Like millions of other young people around the globe, I demonstrated for equality and a non aggressive U.S. foreign policy. : Sit ins against racist corporations, shop ins against non union grapes sold at Safeway – We filled grocery carts and clogged check out lines only to declare we had no money to pay. We were carted off to jail and this only increased our feelings of solidarity. Brave fellow demonstrators went to Chicago and Selma Alabama to protest. I confined my protesting to Berkeley and San Francisco where cops were trained to handle demonstrators with respect. In Chicago the cops were tough Irish street fighters who beat you with batons. In Selma they just murdered you. I felt safe in Berkeley, where a significant number of cops had masters degrees in social work and identified with our cause.

We paid the dues, others more than me, as change agents. We slept on the floor of the Farm worker’s Union hall in Delano. Bringing food caravans from sympathizers in the Bay Area to help striking workers. By the end of the Vietnam war we congratulated ourselves for having “made a difference”. Today’s headlines create a deep sadness for us old activists. We made sacrifices to bring a better life to an underclass that has not really progressed much. Instead the gap between the haves and have nots in America has widened-hurricane Katrina taught us that. And we are again steeped in a military quagmire with no clear victory in sight.

We made the Vietnam mistake because we are not good at understanding other cultures. We over estimated the resolve of the South Vietnamese and underestimated the Viet Cong. The same can be said for Iraq. Unfortunately our solution to the “Mexican Problem” reflects the same cultural ignorance along with a strong dose of Xenophobia.

The House of Representative’s bill making 11 million undocumented workers felons is the best example of our politicians being clueless. This type of legislation not only makes us look bad to all of Latin America, it does not address the root cause of workers finding any way possible to leave poverty behind and create a better life. They burrow tunnels, risk death by crossing in blistering desert heat and are often victims of assailants who prey on helpless “pollitos” (undocumented).

Mexico does not criminalize undocumented workers, including tens of thousands of the more than 500,000 retirees from the United States living in her country. These old folks live here undocumented because they cannot demonstrate immigration limits of $1,000 a month income for a single person or $1,500 for a married couple According to Mexican law they are not illegal, simply undocumented. If discovered, Mexican immigration helps them get documented. These social security recipients could not enjoy the lifestyle they enjoy in Mexico on $1,000 per month in the states. Therefore, as an expatriate in Mexico, I cannot (in good conscience) refer to undocumented workers in the U.S. as “illegals”. You never hear Mexico praised by yanks, who benefit from Mexican immigration officials treating Anglo undocumented in their country with respect.

This is an economic and administrative problem that cannot be corrected via criminal prosecution. We must address the problem with economic solutions instead of criminalizing almost 10% of the U.S. population. This “dirty band aid” approach will only lead to more serious social and political infections.

The political irony, that more than one half of the Western United States belonged to Mexico (before we took it from them forcibly), seems to escape most U.S. citizens and their elected representatives. Relations between Mexico and the U.S. made the Mexican border, until the early 1980’s, as easy to cross as it is for Canadians traveling into the states today. Mexicans are fully aware that Canadians cross the border easily and can only assume that some racism motivates the unequal treatment. Didn’t some of the September 11 terrorists enter the country from Canada? So far, no known terrorists have crossed via the Mexican border.

PROBLEM SOLUTION

The minimum wage in Mexico is $5.00 a day and it is impossible to raise a family on that amount. At the border, foreign owned manufacturers, on average pay workers $10.00 a day. These dismal salaries keep more than half of the country’s workers in poverty. Despite these pitiful wages, Mexico has actually lost ground with foreign manufacturing to even cheaper Chinese labor.

If U.S. corporations are committed to helping their nation stem the tide of undocumented workers they must begin to be more generous with Mexican employees. NAFTA has not improved the lot of the average Mexican worker but it has boosted the profits of U.S. companies. I find it curious that American media have not raised the question of U.S. companies’ obligation to be good NAFTA partners and pay workers a decent wage. Why is this issue not part of the immigration problem/solution dialogue?

My personal solution is to create an international Industrial zone that extends from the border one hundred miles South into Mexico. Over half the foreign owned manufacturing plants are already in this zone due to the convenience of close and inexpensive export to the states. This border – industrial zone will offer workers a decent salary. Lifting unskilled workers from $10.00 a day to $20.00 a day. This is still a lot cheaper than U.S. wage scales. These Northern Mexico Border States are also the least populated with the space to absorb millions of Mexicans who will want to locate there.

Infrastructure to support hundreds of new plants and a burgeoning population can be made by the U.S. in the form of loans to be paid back by Mexico from payroll and property taxes. The roads, sewers, bridges etc. required will generate tens of thousands of additional jobs. Our President, Congressmen, and border governors must use all their political muscle to convince major corporations to open new plants in this zone.

Mexico will be responsible for providing incentives to employers. Waive onerous labor laws that have caused many companies to locate elsewhere and provide medical benefits to workers at no charge to employers. Mexico’s vast socialized medical system should be able to provide the necessary medical care. Given the high cost of medical care in the United States this should be a huge incentive to companies. We could also solicit U.S. drug companies to fund teaching hospitals in which U.S. doctors can learn more about natural healing herbs and procedures not known in their country and Mexican doctors can learn state of the art medical technology from U.S. colleagues.

Medicare coverage by Mexican providers should be extended to the half million ex patriates living in Mexico. Medicare and U.S. companies will benefit from incentives for workers and retirees who use Mexican health providers who are 30 to 70% less expensive. This provider option would also appeal to Hispanic workers who feel more comfortable with physicians who know their language and especially their culture.

Mexico, in return for U.S. private and governmental development efforts, will agree to integrate Mexican and U.S. Immigration agents to help secure the border. Mexico has not accepted any enforcement responsibility for the flow of immigrants north. However, we could exchange cooperation in securing the Northern border by aiding enforcement at Mexico’s problematic Southern border with Central America. Providing them with equipment and training to reduce the flow of undocumented across Mexico’s border with Guatemala. This would be in our best interest, since Mexico is typically just the first border crossing before entering the U.S. from Central America.

Mexican immigration will be asked to cooperate by providing more opportunities for foreigners in the international commerce zone. Laws presently limit the number of foreign workers in a company. The ratio is one foreigner for every nine Mexicans. The law also states that if a Mexican can fill the job, foreigners should not be hired for same. By opening its doors to foreign managers and skilled U.S. workers, Mexico will benefit from the training and development their workers will receive. In this scenario everybody wins.

What I am proposing is that we cooperate in solving a common problem. Cooperation with the best interests of the average Mexican citizen will in fact be a new paradigm for – U.S relations and the only one that can truly treat the cause of the problem. In the past, our only criteria for aid to Mexico was that her government maintain control of her citizens in order to assure a stable border. No matter that her people were “kept in line” by intimidation and fear in a despotic autocracy. The border issue has presented a new opportunity to depart from our historical past. Now that there is true democracy in Mexico we must invest in its success for the common good.

Expatriates in Mexico should be concerned about this immigration issue because it could affect us all. The front runner for president, replacing Vicente Fox – whose six year term expires at the end of this year – is Manuel Lopez Obrador. A left wing populist who has already criticized Fox’s condescension to U.S. interests in Mexico. If things go down hard for Mexicans in the U.S., what retribution would we face? I for one want to stay in Mexico, my home.

On May one of this year (2006), millions of Hispanics, other immigrants and friends took to the streets to demonstrate their displeasure for the treatment of immigrants as “illegals”. Why don’t we just say it like “it is”- the “illegal” moniker is an institutional method for dehumanizing folks, who only want to earn a living wage. That these mostly hard working and law abiding folks are criminals is patently absurd. What I found curious about the demonstrations is that the grandchildren of immigrants are the ones “taking the front line” in the fight for respect and dignity.

Older hispanics tend to be more moderate and less vocal. Examples are the differing reactions from Reggaeton rapper Yankee Daddy, a third generation Puerto Rican, and Jose Felicano, a senior citizen who moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico in the sixties. Feliciano said he would work the day of the demonstration because, “Like all Hispanics in America, I have to work to support my family”. He also said that if Hispanics want to advance in the U.S., they need to learn English. Yankee Daddy said that he would not take a million dollars to work on the day of demonstrating for immigrant unity.

My grandmother did not appreciate nor respect the “cultura Americana”, she always exclaimed that English was the “the devil’s tongue”. She and my grandfather did not come to the United States because of political or religious persecution. Nor did they come out of a love for freedom or democracy. They came because they were starving to death in Southern Spain and were offered free passage to Hawaii where they could survive cutting sugar cane. They improved their lot by moving to San Francisco. A home base for harvesting the agricultural bounty of Northern California

There was no need or motive for my grandparents to assimilate. They spent their lives in an enclave of farm workers and farm owners where Spanish was the only language necessary to get work. “El dolar habla en este Pais”, the dollar speaks in this country, was my grandmother’s response to our cajoling her for not learning English.

My parents had quite a different view of the United States. They learned the language. They could read, though writing was difficult. They went to American schools but were constantly moving. Seasonal harvests and my grandmother’s distrust of Americans eliminated any real opportunity of completing a formal education. But they grew up to be patriotic Americans who believed in the democratic system and a better life for me through education. They had every motive to assimilate.

As the only college graduate in my family, I lived out the American dream for my parents. How proud they were and how egotistically disdainful I was about my college graduation ceremony. I refused to attend out of ideological immaturity. A self centered rebel, busting my mother’s bubble of celebrating publicly her pride in me. The sacrifices they made were not sufficiently honored by me. I was angry at an America imposing its onerous will on Viet Nam and Central America while ignoring civil rights at home.

Unlike my assimilation driven parents, I yearned for my Spanish roots and the values of “mis abuelos” (grandparents). I was a “60’s radical” convinced that my parents had been foolishly sucked in by this hypocritical system that violated “our” cultural values. They did this out of a rational need to improve their lot. Only I had the luxury of a “socio-political-cultural” attitude.

A Mexican research group studied the changing attitudes of Hispanics from generation to generation and found that some buying habits changed. An example is a preference for Coke among first generation (Coke overwhelmingly controlled the market in Mexico) as opposed to Pepsi among younger Hispanics. But the overwhelming change had to do with an increase in ethnic pride and identification. The popularity of Latin music, dance and artists has greatly helped Hispanic pride: Selma Hayek, J. Lo, Ricky Martin, etc. etc.
For us old Hispanics we only had Anthony Quinn (Anglo name change) and Ricardo Montealban. It was not hip to be Hispanic pre 1960 but now it is hipper than hip to be Latino.

Young Mexican Americans are educated about the U.S. – Mexican War and in Mexico it is ingrained in the historical conscious of all her citizens. The Guadalupe agreement resulted in half of Mexico being ripped away in 1848 after a U.S. invasion that ended with the capture of “the halls of Montezuma,” Mexico City itself. The loss changed Mexico’s destiny and still tears at the country’s heart. Primary school textbooks harp on it. Intellectuals often refer to it. Museums are dedicated to it. General Ulysses S. Grant, who took part, called the invasion “the most unjust war ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.”

In the United States, some anti-immigration activists see migrants as a threat to American land and culture, part of a Spanish-speaking invasion that will reclaim the American Southwest. The concern is fed by Mexican references to the booming immigrant population as a “reconquista,” or re-conquest, and by the Mexican government’s efforts to reinforce the migrants’ ties to their homeland.

In covering the Los Angeles pro immigrant demonstration, Mexican television reporter Alberto Tinoco sounded almost giddy. “With all due respect to Uncle Sam, this shows that Los Angeles has never stopped being ours,” Tinoco said on the Televisa network’s nightly newscast. Mexican writers Elena Poniatowska and Carlos Fuentes have spoken of a “reconquista”. Poniatowska says Mexicans are recovering their lost lands “through migratory tactics.” Fuentes portrays it as a powerful northward thrust of the Spanish language that will enrich both nations.

It may not be on the minds of job-seeking migrants, but the memory of the Mexican-American war “is a very important issue in the bilateral relationship. And it’s always kind of floating around in the background … at the diplomatic levels,” said Ana Maria Salazar, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense.

Despite the arrogance of U.S. congressmen, who feel they have a right to declare fourteen million hardworking Americans (Latinos are from the Americas) criminals. The Xenophobes will not prevail over history, geography and the need for cheap labor. The international worker will continue to enter the United States or we can all move back to where our ancestors came from. The only non criminal, the American Indian, will then re inherit the land once taken from him.

The hotly contested results of this year’s presidential election left a bad taste in the mouths of most Mexicans.  Left of center candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the declared loser by only 233,000 votes, has charged electoral fraud and is asking his supporters to disavow the new administration of president elect Felipe Calderon. Massive demonstrations by Lopez supporters brought Mexico City to a stand still and cost downtown merchants tens of millions of dollars in lost business since the contested July election.

Obrador and his party (PRD) filed their formal complaints with IFE, the governmental tribunal established to adjudicate claims of voting irregularities or misconduct.  In addition to demanding a total recount of the votes,  they also charge that campaign advertising, by both the PAN (Fox’s ruling party) and PRI (dinosaur party rule for 70yrs.) violated statutes of fairness.  The IFE, which includes representatives of the PAN and PRI parties, has no representation from the PRD.  .

On September 6, IFE decided there was insufficient evidence to overturn the victory of Calderon.  A blanket rejection of the claims of irregularities, without justification for said decision, has resulted in PRD congress members and voters threatening to obstruct the transition of power.  They are threatening civil disobedience on inauguration day.  And were already successful in blocking President Fox from delivering his state of the union message to congress on September one.

This has been one of the most emotionally charged elections in Mexican history.  Fifty percent of Mexico’s electorate live below the poverty line and are demanding fundamental changes in the distribution of wealth.  An issue Lopez Obrador addressed most specifically in his campaign.  His slogan was “for the good of all, especially the poor”.

Mexicans don’t trust the institutions of government including the electoral apparatus.  In 1986 Salinas de Gortari was declared the winner over left wing candidate Cautemoc Cardenas and almost everyone in Mexico believes the ballot count was rigged to rob Cardenas of the presidency.  The difference in this election is that Mexicans in 2006 are now “mad as hell and won’t take it anymore”, to borrow a line from the movie “The Network”.  In addition to civil disobedience in the nation’s capital, the state of Oaxaca has been in a localized civil war.  Students, teachers and labor unionists violently took over the state capitol and ran tourists out of this most favored of Mexican destinations.  They are demanding the state governor’s resignation and thus far he has refused.

What is happening to our beloved Mexico?  Are we in for more radical and destabilizing actions on the part of a disenfranchised populace?  Is foreign investment likely to be affected?  The growth pains and conflicts are understandable.  Mexico’s economy, a short 25 years ago, was state controlled and owned.   The PRI party was assumed to have control in perpetuity, having held autocratic control for the first 70 years of the republic’s history.  President Carlos Salinas de Gortari radically changed the paradigm of control and his successor president Zedillo made further reforms that led to the first opposition party presidential victory by Fox in 2000.   Reforms for making IFE a more responsible and credible institution must surely be implemented after this past election debacle.

Most political observers agree that Mexico’s conservative nature will win out over the more radical elements in the body politic.  However, it will behoove president elect Calderon to involve the losing PRD party in building a nation with less disparity between the haves and have nots.  Mexico’s primary challenge is to develop citizen respect for the institutions of government .

It is mind blowing to me as a U.S. ex patriot that the violence enacted in Mexico City and Oaxaca were tolerated by the police and politicians in power.  I watched in awe the television footage of policemen being beaten by demonstrators.  This type of violence would not be tolerated by U.S. police officers or elected officials.  In the case of Mexico City, local journalists explain that the police did not react to a mob crashing their line of defense with a huge steel beam because they are sympathetic to Lopez Obrador and his supporters.  This was definitely intent to cause bodily harm and would have resulted in the shooting, or at least disabling, of aggressive demonstrators had the incident occurred in the United States.

In addition to electoral reforms, Mexico must develop and elect more responsible political leaders.  The caliber of the average Mexican politician is pathetic and PRD party members last month provided the example.  Their shouts of traitor and disorderly behavior, in the halls of congress, disallowed President Fox to deliver his state of the union address.  These are the acts befitting hooligans not democratic reformers.  A very undemocratic expression of “you must submit to our demands or else”.  One of the major problems with selecting congressmen and also city mayors is they can only serve one three year term.  This provides no re election motives for working to satisfy the electorate.  Constituent needs are ignored in favor of grabbing all the spoils you can during this short single term.

A psycho-political debility in Mexico is the fear of major change in government.  As I mentioned early in this article, Mexicans are by nature conservative.  In healthy democracies and elections around the world, the pendulum swings both left and right.  A true democracy is flexible and bends with changing political winds.  Dramatic shifts in political policies are viewed as reversible if not successful.  Mexico’s status quo has an exaggerated mistrust and fear of the political left.  The Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE) reflected this fear in not allowing a recount of the votes contested by the losing party.  Unfortunately this puts a crooked slant on the face of victory for Felipe Calderon and his PAN party.  He is starting his term in office with suspicions that he represents the status quo and Mexico needs changes and reforms he is unlikely to embrace.  Calderon must take office boldly and assure citizens that a better economic life for all is his number one priority.

Mexicomatters is a consulting firm that has served foreign investors since 1984.  For a free consultation, e mail: www.mexicomatters.info  or call 619 819 9369

The nation’s pursuit of a sealed border would cost taxpayers and businesses tens of billions of dollars.

It would require new fencing, technology and additional agents, and would mean lost revenue for border businesses.

Border cities such as San Diego and El Paso and Laredo, Texas, already have lost millions since officers began more rigid checks after Sept. 11. The Silva Super Market in El Paso has survived, like most businesses on the border, but makes less than it used to because customers stay home rather than endure lines to get across that can be hours long, owner Martin Silva says.
“This type of security affects both economies,” Silva says. – “I think you’ll find that all along the California to Texas border.”

The government could find and allocate the money required to attempt a border seal but historically has made such major priority shifts only for national-security threats or programs to keep the economy afloat, says Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign-policy studies at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public-policy think tank in Washington, D.C. – “We could actually shut that border and we wouldn’t have to bankrupt ourselves,” he says. “You could if you decided it’s your top priority.” – That’s very unlikely, a Star investigation found.

While some experts and politicians rank sealing the border as the top U.S. policy priority, the nation as a whole doesn’t agree, O’Hanlon says. Unless terrorists begin pouring in through the southern border, politicians and citizens probably will balk at the costs, he says: “My guess is that we’ll come to the conclusion that it’s just not worth it.”

Costs of Border Seal

The complexity and enormity of the proposed solutions make it difficult to pin down an exact price tag for an attempted border seal. Even if natural barriers such as canyons, rivers and shifting sand didn’t make a full-border wall impossible, fencing the nearly 2,000 miles simply would cost too much, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff already has said.

At $3.2 million per mile — the estimate used by the office of U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. for the 700 miles of fencing the House of Representatives wants to build — a borderlong fence would cost $6.4 billion. The 700 miles of double fencing supported by the House would cost an estimated $2.2 billion plus maintenance. The Senate approved a proposal for less fencing and more vehicle barriers, but last week decided to consider supporting the 700-mile fence as well. A “virtual fence” of cameras, sensors, aerial drones and other technology would cost an estimated $5.5 billion or more, says U.S. Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.

Costs for those projects could double if they encounter the environmental and logistical problems that plagued construction of 14 miles of secondary fence in San Diego in the mid-1990s. Fences, barriers and other equipment to seal the border would require agents to monitor them, too.

The U.S. Border Patrol has about 10,500 agents on the southern border, more than five per mile, agency officials say. In his 2007 fiscal year budget, President Bush requested $454 million for 1,500 new agents and associated costs including relocations, information-technology upgrades, and training and construction costs to update agency facilities, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection press release says. That’s part of his larger plan to add 6,000 agents by 2008.

Using that figure — $302,806 per agent — it would cost $4.2 billion to hire the 14,000 agents the Senate has proposed hiring. It would cost an additional $21.8 billion to hire 72,000 more and reach a total of 100,000, which would provide the same coverage that proved successful when the Border Patrol slowed traffic in El Paso in the mid-’90s.

The government would have a better shot at stopping illegal immigration if it invested those billions in developing the Mexican economy and eliminated backlogs for legal entry, says Deborah Meyers, senior analyst for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.
The money also could fund a program to help employers verify that applicants are legally able to work in the United States, says Judy Gans, immigration policy program manager at the University of Arizona’s Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy. Those concepts have support from some analysts and politicians, but an expanded border fence has garnered much more.

Actual Costs

The cost of a 14-mile steel mesh fence under construction in San Diego offers a reminder that projects can go over budget.
In the early ’90s, officials estimated the secondary fence would cost $14 million — $1 million per mile, says John Pike, director of Virginia-based GlobalSecurity.org, a nonpartisan security-information Web site. The first nine miles rang up at $39 million, or about $4.3 million per mile, with all associated costs. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security approved an additional $35 million to complete the final five miles, 3 1/2 of which were delayed by rugged terrain and legal wrangling about environmental concerns. The president requested another $30 million in his 2007 budget.
All that would push the total cost for the 14-mile fence to $104 million, or $7.4 million per mile. With steep cliffs, rugged mountains, sand dunes, deserts and large stretches of private land in Texas where some of the 700 miles of new fencing would go, that project could encounter similar setbacks.”The San Diego precedent demonstrates that this is clearly more complicated than it sounds at first blush,” Pike says. “It’s not like fencing in your backyard so your dog doesn’t get out.”

Border Businesses Hit Hard

The economic ramifications of increased border security hit businesses on the border, too. When the Silva Super Market opened in 1920 on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, a single wooden bridge connected El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. The U.S. Border Patrol didn’t exist. Today, four concrete bridges arch above the concrete-funneled Rio Grande, connecting the two cities. Customs and Border Protection officers check everyone who crosses.

For nearly 11 miles, three layers of steel-mesh fence stand between the river and El Paso. Hundreds of Border Patrol agents monitor the area day and night on dirt roads between them. For all the changes, one constant remains: Nearly half of the customers at the Silva Super Market are from Juarez. “We are one economy. I can’t stress it enough. Any border town will probably tell you that,” says Martin Silva, whose grandfather founded the store. “You have both American and Mexican nationals shopping in Juarez and El Paso, and that just contributes to the overall health of both country’s economies.”

Money in the borderlands is fluid. Mexicans come to the United States to buy clothes, shoes, toilet paper and groceries. Americans head south for tequila, medicine and souvenirs, and to visit dentists and bars. About 960,000 people cross from one country to the other every day, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico reports. From the late 1970s to 2001, Mexicans accounted for $2.3 billion a year in retail spending in Laredo, Brownsville, McAllen and El Paso, a 2006 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas showed. That’s about 26 percent of total retail trade in the four Texas border cities and 2 percent of overall Texas retail sales, Fed economist Roberto Coronado says.

Mexican visitors have a $3 billion impact on the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, says Suad Ghaddar, an economist with the Center for Border Economic Studies at the University of Texas-Pan American. That spending supports more than 64,000 jobs, Ghaddar says. The impact in California is about $4.5 billion, she says, supporting 67,000 jobs.

Direct spending by Mexican visitors to Arizona hit $963 million in 2001, a study by the UA Economic and Business Research Center showed. After Sept. 11, the government instructed Customs officers to run more background checks and ask more questions of border crossers. Subsequently, the number of people passing into the United States fell by 16.5 percent, from 290 million in 2000 to 242 million in 2004, the most recent data available, the Federal Reserve Bank study says.
Longer wait times discouraged many from making the trip to El Paso, Silva says.

Increased waits in San Diego — about 45 minutes per vehicle — cost the county 8.4 million trips a year that would yield nearly $1.3 billion, a 2006 study by the San Diego Association of Governments shows. Two-hour waits for semitrailers carrying goods cost the county $455 million in annual revenue, the study says. The losses will continue if wait times continue to rise, the study says.

But while the wait times discourage border crossers, they don’t stop them from somehow buying the goods they can’t get south of the border, the Federal Reserve bank study reported. Despite longer waits, retail trade along the border has grown since 2001, suggesting Mexicans spend more in fewer trips, says Tom Fullerton, an economics professor at the University of Texas-El Paso. The crackdown after Sept. 11 had a short-lived negative impact, Nogales Mayor-elect Ignacio Barraza says. Sales taxes have held steady since, he says.

“They are prepared, rather reluctantly, to wait in line as long as they have to in order to come and make their purchases,” Barraza says.

Downtown El Paso has lost about a quarter of all business since Sept. 11, but few stores have shut their doors, Silva says. Border shoppers and store owners from San Diego to Brownsville echo that theme: Business hasn’t recovered since Sept. 11, but as long as the ports of entry remain open, enough Mexicans will cross to keep businesses afloat. Silva tells a story to explain. In the late 1990s, after the Border Patrol launched Operation Hold the Line to cut down on illegal crossing, a Juarez maquiladora bought 1,500 gift certificates as employee Christmas gifts. He wondered how many would be redeemed considering most maquiladora workers didn’t have visas to cross into the United States.

By the end of the holiday season, 1,350 had been redeemed. Whether the workers crossed illegally or gave the certificates to relatives, it showed cross-border commerce can survive border enforcement, Silva says.
Inefficiency equals losses

It’s not border enforcement programs, but inefficient implementation that causes problems, says Maria O’Connell, president of the Border Trade Alliance, a Phoenix-based group that promotes free and efficient trade. For instance, she says, the requirement that U.S. citizens carry their passports when crossing the border starting in 2008 won’t affect commerce if there are enough agents and sufficient technology. If not, she says, “that can create economic chaos at the border.”

As a resident of El Paso, Silva, the market owner, respects the extra time customs officers spend questioning crossers to keep out terrorists and criminals. But he can’t deny it strains the symbiotic relationship between Juarez and El Paso.
“When people feel they have a two-hour wait to cross a bridge that should normally take five minutes, they tend to stay away,” he says.

War, genocide, terrorism, global warming, world hunger and thirst, overcrowded prisons, pandemic drug addiction and aids – the bleakest of times in the life of this senior citizen. I was raised in the innocence of the fifties and a young activist in the ideological sixties. Like most of my generation, we long for the “the good old days”. Bewildered by why we have advanced so much technologically while seemingly to regress in the practice of humanity and brotherly love.

Why have we not evolved to a better place in solving our international differences? Why domestically, do we have more divorce, violence, suicide, drug addiction and delinquent behavior? Why do we remain xenophobic and racist? Why are children killing other children at school?

There are answers and solutions to the above. And with agreement and commitment, the old eternal hippy optimist in me, believes we can affect solutions to better our world. On the international front the major culprits to peace are: religion, oil and U.S. foreign policy. Let us examine the big R first – RELIGION. Christians, Jews, Moslems, and Hindus have been fighting over “the holy land” for thousand of years and there is no end in sight.

Whatever your religious belief, we must begin to insist that our spiritual leaders invoke other religious leaders in coming together for a new ecumenical council. To celebrate and agree that our common doctrine and belief in a higher power requires us to stop killing and harming each other. Put your spirituality to the test and tell your priest, rabbi, pastor, monk or whatever – to stop preaching and start praying, chanting and practicing, along with other faiths, to end this stupidity of religious combat that kills and destroys entire civilizations.

There should be no higher spiritual priority than this. Tell your “godly guy” to stop proselytizing and get humble. If they cannot accomplish this, they should give up their tunic, habit or robe and join the godless atheists because they don’t deserve god – they are just shuckin and jivin charlatans who want believers as opposed to what they proclaim but not practice: universal godly peace.

As for culprit number two – OIL – We can all vote for Mike Gravel for president and end our nation’s addiction to oil. A retired senator from Alaska, he distinguished himself in the senate as a champion of the environment. At age 77 he says he never wanted to return to political life but cannot stand by and watch the idiocy of our leading presidential candidates waffling on Iraq and not declaring an end to the burning up of our planet with fossil fuels.

Senator Gravel is emphatic that he would take our troops out of Iraq in 120 days and switch to a variety of renewable energy sources to fuel our nation. The technology is there, says the senator, to convert our nation from petroleum in five years. It is only commitment and leadership that is lacking. I know he is right. He is the only one talking sense about the urgency in solving the earth’s most serious problem: the burning of fossil fuels and the killing of innocent people over the need for same.

CULPRIT NUMBER THREE – U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

Have you ever read our foreign policy? I would like to see it written so that we can all understand it, debate it and get behind it. Hell no, it is not written. If it were, and reflected reality, it would read: “Do what is best for America and the hell with everybody else”. These are not my words or attitudes; it is the voice of world opinion. And we have not been listening. How is it that we have dropped from being the world’s heroes, after world war two, to now being described by Senator John Edwards, international leaders and journalists as “the planet’s bully”. My Mexican/American friends, who have dual citizenship, use to travel abroad proudly on U.S. passports. Now they use their Mexican passports because Mexicans are better received. Mexicans are not trying to save the world for democracy and don’t interfere in the sovereignty of other nations.

Our foreign policy is not written because that would hold our leaders accountable to a real policy and code on how we are to govern ourselves in the world. It is not written because our geopolitical paradigm is based on convenience. It has nothing to do with morals, democracy or strategic planning. We have supported too many dictators in the past, including Sadam Hussein, to hypocritically hide behind the “championing democracy” banner. No need to go to the other side of the world for examples. Mexico, at our border, suffered a 90 year autocracy that ruled by oppression; killing and jailing political opposition. All those years, the mafia like PRI party was supported by the U.S. and we knew what was going on.

The lone voice in our congress was Senator Jesse Helms who continually pointed out the hypocrisy and immorality of supporting the despotic Mexican government. Any intelligent and educated being, inside or outside of America, knows that the “fight for democracy” philosophy is not supported by historical fact. International opinion believes our foreign policy has everything to do with maintaining a pampered American lifestyle. A lifestyle where everything is disposable including the planet and all it’s flora and fauna.

General Motors Chairman Charlie Wilson, when lobbying congress for federal assistance with auto worker’s medical care, told the U.S. Senate in 1955, “What is good for General Motors is good for America”. That is, in affect, what we are telling the world – “what is good for the U.S. is good for you”. And the world, like the 1955 congress, ain’t buying it. George Bush combines the international culprit of religion with a corrupt foreign policy and arrogantly tells us that god is his navigator in matters of foreign affairs. This “god on our side” philosophy takes “the white man’s burden” to ridiculous extremes, justifying the assassination of world leaders who disagree with us and imposing our brand of democracy on those who may or may not want democracy in any form.

If we, the American people, insist that we stop warring and polluting, those multiple billions of dollars could go toward taking drug addicts out of prison (we have more imprisoned citizens than any other Western nation) and into effective rehabilitation. Cure the plight of our deteriorating school system that causes our literacy rate to be one of the lowest in the developed world. And, in some cases, lower than undeveloped countries. Provide tort reform to fix corrupt personal injury abuses that are causing our best doctors to quit practicing medicine. Understandable, considering outrageous malpractice premiums and the economic need to let HMO bureaucracy determine what’s best for the patient instead of the physician. Better oversight of drug companies who charge double for the medication sold to United States consumers when compared to the same drug sold in Mexico.

The family and our children are suffering because we have lost our way. Materialism has replaced maternal and paternalism. But, with the money and energy rescued from international intervention and pollution, we can turn our resources inward. Helping families with quality medical care, better education, housing, child care and social services that have the resources to effectively address and treat family depression and dysfunction.

In short America. Let’s get busy and get our priorities straight.

After we learned that our daughter and son-in-law would be moving to San Diego, a friend of John’s told him that there is a pass for people who travel back and forth across the border frequently. Since we have friends in Ensenada and like the city, we thought it would be worth exploring. Here is what we found out.

The name of the program is SENTRI (Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection)

Go to www.cbp.gov. There’s a menu on the right side, and toward the bottom you’ll see SENTRI. Click on it, and on the page that comes up click on Apply on-line. Follow the directions and your application will be submitted. This part of the process costs $25, which you can conveniently pay with your credit card.

In a few days you will get a conditional approval and a notice that you need to go for a personal interview and fingerprinting at any one of a number of border stations. The nearest to us was at Nogales, about 1½ hours from Tucson. We had to make appointments, which we were able to do on the Internet site. The site also provides a list of the documents needed. You should make copies of all of them. It says “Bring original passport,” so I didn’t make copies of ours, but I found out I should have. However they made copies for me. I also had made copies of both our driver’s licenses on the same sheet of paper, so when we were called to separate windows, I tore it in half and gave him the copy of his license. This was also a no-no, I found out.

But to go back for a minute to the process. If you go to Nogales, the office is in the big building right at the border, but there is no parking, so you need to park on the street or in one of the many parking lots located near the entrance to the Customs and Border Patrol complex. The SENTRI office is on the second floor.

When we got inside, we had to sign in and wait to be called up to one of the windows. We were a bit early, but we were actually called up before the times of our appointments. The agent who interviewed me was very pleasant and efficient and answered all my questions. These are some of the answers.

• SENTRI is a 5-year program. At the end of that time, you must re-register.
• The cost is $97 in addition to the $25 already spent to apply.
• Each individual must register separately. You can’t register as a married couple.
• The pass is good at all border crossings that have a SENTRI lane.
• Each person can register one vehicle as part of the cost. It must be inspected at the site. To go through the SENTRI lane, every passenger in the car must have a pass, and the car must be approved. It can be driven by anyone with a pass.
• Any change in personal information must be reported to the SENTRI office. This includes renewal of the car insurance.

The officer made a point of reminding me that I was now a Trusted Traveler and would be held to a high standard. He cautioned me to be especially careful about what I tried to import from Mexico and gave me a list of specific items that are permitted and not permitted.

After our interviews, we were fingerprinted. No more messy black ink. They had a nice little electronic machine on which I had to press first all four fingers of my left hand, then all four fingers of my right hand, then both thumbs. Unfortunately, the machine was very sensitive, and it didn’t pick up my prints the first time. So the officer tried again. Again it didn’t work. He assured me I wasn’t doing anything wrong—it was just the machine. The problem was that if any of the prints failed, we had to repeat the whole process. Finally on the fourth try, it worked. John, on the other hand, got his done right the first time.

Then we had to pay our fees. They told us we had to pay separately. We couldn’t write a single check or record a single credit card transaction. Well, that was no big deal.

Then we went down to get our car inspected. We had to retrieve it from the parking lot and drive it down to the inspection bay, just this side of the border crossing. The inspector gave it a very thorough examination, looking under the car, inside the trunk, under the hood, and in any cavity that could conceivably conceal anything. Then he handed John a card that was his pass and affixed an electronic antenna to the windshield. It looks just like a label—about 1 ½ x 2 inches. But that’s what will get us through the fast lane.

We wanted to register our second car, but had been told we’d have to bring it in to be inspected. Or we could add it later, but that would cost an additional $42. So, being the cheapskate I am, I decided to drive the second car back. The officer entered all the vehicle information so that we could just bring it in the next day. I asked if we needed an appointment. He said no, but to be sure to call them first so they could have the papers ready. What he didn’t tell me was that no one would answer the phone.

So the next morning, just before we were ready to leave, I called and got an answering machine. I left a message, and we started out. On the way, I left another message with my name, my application number, and my cell phone number. I tried to call again several times, but never got a real person.

When we got there, we drove right over to the inspection bay and said we were there for a SENTRI inspection. Three other cars came in after us and were inspected. When I asked why we hadn’t been, the inspector said she didn’t have our papers. Apparently no one had listened to their phone messages. So I left John there and went up to the office where an officer found my folder right away and told me to go back and that someone would be right there to inspect the car.

Sure enough the same inspector came over soon after I got back, inspected the car, affixed the antenna, and gave me my SENTRI pass. Even with the delay, we were out of there in half an hour.

Now, we have to see how well it works when we actually cross the border. But anything is bound to be better than waiting in line for hours, smelling exhaust, wasting gas, and growing more and more impatient and frustrated.

Yellow journalists, especially San Diego’s xenophobic media outlets, are wantonly abusing free speech by scaring folks away from traveling Baja.  The proverbial example of yelling fire in a crowded theatre is exactly what these panderers of fear are guilty of.  And the worse offender is ABC network affiliate channel 10, who produced a recent series covering U.S. victims of violence in Northern Baja.
Nine “investigative” scary reports in the month of May.  That is more than two per week.  How many “investigative reports” are posted on the “investigative team” web site about crime in San Diego in May?  I found none.  Who are “the 10 investigative team”? On their website is  a nice photo of them but they are nameless.  Just another set of pretty faces on television, anonymously producing ca ca equivalent to what I can find on the internet from anonymous cyber freaks.
These specious and prejudicial reports were entered into “evidence” in a case brought before family court judge, the honorable Edward Allard, June 6 of this year.  I was asked to testify at the hearing, as an expert witness on Baja California.  The mother of a 14 year old girl brought her ex husband to court in an effort to bar him from taking their daughter on visits to Baja.  The mother’s fears were understandable, given the constant drum beat against Baja by the media.  Fortunately judge Allard ruled against the mother, indicating there was not clear or sufficient evidence to hear her arguments in open court.
Baja “fear attacks” don’t hold up in court but that doesn’t prevent “the investigative” channel 10 news team from secreting their venom – with devastating affects on our Baja economy.   Reports like these have sent a shock wave through obvious tourist sectors: realtors, developers, restaurants, hotels and shopkeepers. And those folks who sell goods and services to these industries and their employees.  Essentially everyone’s pocket book is being affected in  Baja’s heavily tourist  dependent economy Media fear mongers have created panic among even the most veteran of Baja travelers. When crime statistics are factually compared, Baja California is a safer place to be than San Diego –always has been and still is.  However, the facts don’t change the real fear this mother, who lost the custody ruling, still feels.  I had an opportunity to speak with her after the hearing and I was moved by the genuine angst she experiences every time her husband takes their daughter to his vacation home in the La Fonda area.
As a parent, I empathize with her desire and need to protect one’s child.  I shared with her that I would have similar fears if my 15 year old son was roaming the back alleys of San Diego.  My young man is not restricted by my wife or I to be on the streets of Ensenada –day or night.  Nor did my parents restrict me, as a teenager, from the streets and blues club of Oakland, where I grew up.   As parents, we know the streets of Ensenada are safe and well protected by the police of our city.  Our son is a responsible kid who makes good decisions about who he is with and where.  An outstanding student who does not use drugs, I would be penalizing him by unjustifiably limiting his freedom with my unfounded fears.
I explained to the anxious mother that, in my 26 years of residence in Ensenada, there have been no incidents of violence against tourists in the La Mission area where the father’s vacation home is located. I further invited her to come to my home, in a typical Ensenada neighborhood, so that she and her daughter could meet my son and his many adolescent cousins.  We could all: “hit” the Ensenada streets together at night.  I would like her to experience “first hand” how irrational her fears are.
The attorney, representing the mother in this case, is a seasoned Mexican traveler who loves Baja and Baja Californianos. She is the organizer of a philanthropic effort with the Discover Baja club.  Every year, she re-enlists, fifty burly and tough so. Cal developers and contractors to donate their time and expertise to help Baja’s poor build their own homes.  According to the attorney, these “tough guys” have also been frightened by press reports and canceled their charitable  trip this year: “If these testosterone  filled males are afraid of Baja, it is understandable that my client would be fearful for her daughter’s safety” said the attorney .
We can no longer be passive about the onslaught of sloppy, sensationalist reporting by these callous gringo tabloid “tontos”.  We must fight back as Baja Californianos, gringo or Mexican residents of this beautiful and hospitable peninsula.  In the sixties I participated in sit ins, strikes and demonstrations against racial injustice.  This is another form of injustice and we must confront it.
We, “Cachanilla” (term for Baja Californianos) know that the violence being reported by the U.S. media is too little too late.  These drug wars have been going on for the past four years.  Why did it take so long to begin covering the problem?  I submit that investigative reporting is no longer the goal. The goal is to sensationalize in order to tantalize-not inform, the public.   Why are they not reporting that, instead of getting worse, the security in Baja has greatly improved since a rash of incidents took place five months ago?  Military presence is everywhere and we welcome it because it is working to safeguard us and our cherished tourists.
Ratings and ad revenues are the sole objectives in this “vast wasteland” of negative reporting.   Whether the story is about Britney Spears, Reverend Wright or Baja drug wars: half truths, innuendo and gossip have replaced digging for facts.  Edward R. Murrow must be turning over in his grave.  Shame on you San Diego Press club and every other member of the journalistic community for not shedding light on this freedom of the press abuses.  I hereby resign my membership and participation to your wine sipping Press Club events in which you practice back slapping instead of examining your professional ethics. Stop calling yourselves journalists.  Tell it like it is: You have all lost your professional “cojones” in an effort to keep working in a “sell your soul to the company store” media cesspool.
I am organizing a demonstration at the studios of ABC station 10 to fight back.  We must use their tactics of tantalizing the public in order to obtain the coverage for uncovering real crime stats on both sides of the border.  From my sixties civil rights experience, I believe a demonstration will have the affect of bringing attention to another form of injustice.  Nothing short of direct action will succeed in getting out the truth.

Jose Perez is the founder of Mexicomatters, serving the foreign investor since 1984.
You can consult with Jose by calling 619 819 9369 U.S. Phone or 011 52 646 1766759, see our website www.mexicomatters.info
Jose email: :leejose@mexicomatters.info

I was born and raised in 65% Afro American Oakland California. My parents were born in Spain and Spanish was the primary language spoken at home.  And in the streets.   The language was Ebonics.  The term Ebonics was presented to the world about fifteen years ago when the Oakland school district made history by teaching kids the common street language I learned from my black playmates.  Elevating Ebonics to a legitimate language.

To further complicate my multi ethnic life, my mother,   who worked in an Oakland cannery with mostly black women, asked these women the names of their sons.  Mom wanted to give me an “American” name in an effort to better assimilate into 1940’s America.  Le Roy came up a lot so Le Roy Jose it was.

Maybe it was my given name or the African rooted flamenco music, performed in house, by Spanish born friends and family that drove me toward African rooted music.  My life, at an early age, became dominated by the sound of black music and most prominently The Blues.    The blues, in 1940’s and 1950’s Oakland, dominated the radio airways: Jimmy Reed, Bobby Blue Bland, Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf became my musical heroes.  At age 15 I started “hangin” in Oakland Blues clubs.  Age restrictions were loosely enforced in these clubs and the authorities pretty much left us alone, preferring to police white neighborhoods.

As a music lover and student of black music, I was blessed by having the great fortune to live in the Bay Area.  My parents loved big bands and on Saturdays we would go to movie matinees at the Fox or Paramount theatres.  For a dollar you could see a movie and at the end of the film, the hydraulic stage would rise and present to us: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, The Dorsey Brothers and almost every orchestra my parents loved to jitterbug to.

In the 50’s it was the blues and in the sixties, as a student at San Francisco State, I hung out in intimate Jazz clubs when San Francisco was the center of West Coast jazz.   I was in “my glory” rubbing elbows with Be Boppers: Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderly, John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk.  In the 70’s it was the Fillmore Auditorium that became my venue:  Jimmi Hendrix, Santana, Big Brother and the Holding company and Steve Winwood.
I moved to Ensenada in 1984 when Oakland became better known as “Cokeland”.  I immediately began exploring live music clubs and was delighted to meet Maestros Francisco and Ernesto Rosas who founded Ensenada Jazz.  Classically trained musicians who have devoted their lives to teaching young people both classical and jazz idioms.   Sustaining their music teacher father’s legacy-“The Young people’s Orchestra of Ensenada”.   The brothers Rosas also founded the annual Ensenada Jazz festival, celebrating its eighth year this October.

This year, I began my small contribution to promoting Afro American music, South of the border, by producing a radio program called “Soul Street”-Sunday evenings on XS 92.9 FM.  The signal coverage is from Ensenada to the border, presenting:  jazz, funk, r&b and of course the blues in Baja.

My latest labor of love is the development of, what I hope will become, a new musical tradition in Baja called The Oakland – Ensenada Blues and Jazz Festival.  I am bringing a Big Band Blues group called Delta Wires voted the best San Fracisco/Oakland blues group by Oakland magazine.  They have that “Tower of Power” three man horn section: gritty and funky.  Homeboys, with that great R&B tradition that Oakland is famous for.  Oakland style ribs and Ensenada’s best seafood tacos will also be available.

Oakland is considered “home of the West coast blues” so you know that the best of this music will definitely “rock the Baja”.  The Jazz contribution to this event is of course the best of Baja-Ensenada Jazz.  So take out “Your High Heel Sneekers, and put that wig hat on your head” and boogie down to Pueblo Antiguo,  First Street and Obregon (one block N. of Pappas and Beer)  on October 11.  The show AND DANCE starts at 7:30 PM.  For tickets call Le Roy Jose Amate – U.S.-(619) 819-9369 or Ensenada 01 646 1766759, or our radio sponsor XS 92.9 FM – 01 646 1720929.  If you come “dressed to the nines” in 1940’s-50’s ‘vines’ ”, I will seat you up close to the bandstand

Jose Perez is the founder of Mexicomatters, serving the foreign investor since 1984.
You can consult with Jose by calling 619 819 9369 U.S. Phone or 011 52 646 1766759, see our website www.mexicomatters.info
Jose email: :leejose@mexicomatters.info

If you, or one of your parents, were born in Mexico, you are eligible for becoming a Mexican national without affecting your status as a U.S. citizen. Until 1998 “dual citizenship” was not possible. You were forced to relinquish one for the other. However, the Mexican congress in 1998, at the urging of a Mexican lawyer in Tijuana, granted Mexican nationals and the sons and daughters of Mexican born to obtain Mexican “nationality” so as not to contradict U.S. laws prohibiting dual citizenship.

The Tijuana lawyer was serving as the president of the largest Mexican party – The P.R.I. (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) in the United States. His mandate was to encourage Mexican citizens, residing in the U.S., to cast absentee ballots for his party’s candidates in Mexico. He soon realized that many Mexicans were reluctant to apply for U.S. citizenship for fear of losing their Mexican heritage and benefits. He felt that these Mexican citizens could be an important power base if they could vote in both U.S. and Mexican elections.

The Tijuana attorney researched legal alternatives. He discovered that in the 1920’s Germany and France motivated their citizens, living abroad, to create a political force internationally by becoming citizens of their adopted countries without losing “National” status as a German or Frenchman. Thus the concept of legally being a “Mexican National” and a U.S. citizen.

If you qualify for Mexican national status, one of your parents born in Mexico, I advise taking advantage of the opportunity. You will be able to legally work in Mexico, establish a tax id number to do business and buy property fee simple in the “forbidden zone” (100 km from the border or 50 km from the coastlines). You simply take the original of your parent’s birth certificate and your birth certificate to the nearest Mexican consulate and they will begin the process.

It is only a couple hundred dollars to obtain a document that could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Example: a friend of mine gained his Mexican national status and not long thereafter, his daughter decided she wanted to become a medical doctor. He could not afford the cost of medical school in the United States. However, as the daughter of a Mexican national, she attended one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world, The University of Guadalajara, tuition free.

So run, don’t walk, to your nearest Mexican consulate and apply for national status. So that next year, at the celebration of the Mexican Republic’s formation, you can shout “Viva Mexico” as a true Mexican.