Cross-Border Issues Group completes summer program in
Cuernavaca, Mexico
UNM students Eric Bechtold,
Katie Johnson and Damon Scott, along with UFLP student
Omar Rodríguez in green shirt in center, prepare
for Mexican public radio interview in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
During
the month of July 2007, a small group of students from the
University of New Mexico and the Universidad Fray Luca Paccioli
in Cuernavaca, Mexico, worked together in Central Mexico to
produce reports on migration issues.
Working mostly in Spanish, the students produced a live one-hour
PowerPoint presentation in Spanish for Mexican audiences and
long-format radio reports in English for U.S. audiences.
The radio reports included interviews with migrants, and their
families and Mexican journalists, economists and government
officials.
The program also provided opportunities to shadow Mexican
journalists, serve as guests on Mexican public radio programs,
tour historic and cultural sites around Cuernavaca and Mexico
City and enjoy home cooked meals with the families of the
Mexican students. In addition, UFLP arranged eight Spanish
language refresher classes for the American students.
"The program provided a wonderful opportunity to experience
the culture and learn Spanish, while doing in-depth journalistic
work in the mountains of central Mexico, which are cool even
in summer," said the program organizer, UNM Communication
and Journalism professor Richard Schaefer. "UFLP Broadcast
professor Arturo López Durán set up an ambitious
schedule of professional and cultural travel experiences for
us, around Cuernavaca, which is one of the world's most beautiful
cities."
The program received financial support from UNM's Offices
of the Vice-President for Student Affairs and International
Programs, as well as strong institutional support from UFLP.
This made the program reasonable for UNM students, whose major
expenses included the 3-credits of UNM tuition and round-trip
travel to Cuernavaca.
Schaefer has already begun planning a similar program for
July 2008, perhaps with more language training opportunities
and travel in southern, as well as central, Mexico. In April
2008 a group of UFLP students will also visit New Mexico and
work with UNM students. Students interested in either program
should contact Dr. Richard Schaefer at
.
Six
Cuernavca Radio Programs
CAMPESINOS:
In
many ways the Mexican state of Morelos is similar to New
Mexico. Both have slightly under two-million inhabitants
taking advantage of the mild climates and marvelous scenery.
Both have their own living indigenous cultures that add
to the richness of life there.
Some thirteen years after Mexico
and the United States signed the North American Free Trade
Agreement, goods now move freely across the border. The
prices of most items have stabilized. . . food costs less
in Morelos. . . . electronic goods cost a little more.
But even in the wake of NAFTA,
one commodity is not free to cross the border with impunity—That’s
labor. Richard Schaefer reports. STORY
RUNS: 4:59
EL
MURO:
The
border between the United States and Mexico represents
the convergence of two fantasies. Some Americans fantasize
that a wall will stop the illegal workers and drug traffic
coming from the south. Mexicans
and a many others fantasize that someday they will be
able to work and visit loved ones across a border that
has no walls.
Katie Johnson reports that today
reality lies somewhere between these two fantasies.
STORY RUNS: 6:23
REGRESAN:
European immigrants who came to
the United States over a century ago knew they were leaving
everything behind. . . that they would never see or talk
to their loved ones in Europe again.
Today, when poverty pushes Mexican
migrants north, they come with the dream of one day returning
to Mexico. Although jet travel and cell phones reinforce
these hopes, it’s politics that separates today’s
migrants from their families in the South.
Carolyn Gonzales reports that
the dream of returning home grounds the success stories
of today’s Mexican migrants.
STORY RUNS: 5:04
MUJERES:
Mexico is a country full of pride.
. . Pride of history, culture. . . even food.
It’s also a country with
men full of pride.
Often men cross the border from
a lack of self-pride. When jobs are scarce and a husband
or father cannot provide for his family, going to the
United States is a matter of pride, as well as economic
survival.
But where does this leave the wives and mothers of Mexico?
The difficulties of women, whose
husbands go North for the promise of the American dream,
have become so commonplace in Mexico, that it’s
hardly seen as a problem by many.
Krystal Zaragoza looks at the
difficulties that arise when the men go North.
STORY RUNS: 5:38
LA
ECONOMIA:
Mexico has the twelfth largest
economy. . . making it the economic titan of Latin America.
But even for this economic titan, the nearly-two-thousand-mile
long border Mexico shares with the United States is proving
very difficult to manage, both economically. . . and politically.
In this final report in our immigration
series, Eric Bechtold reports on the difficult conditions
behind the current wave of migration across that frontier.
STORY RUNS: 7:19
UNIVERSITY
SHOWCASE: IMMIGRATION & CROSS BORDER
University Showcase features
University of New Mexico scholars talking about their
work.
In
this program, Dick Frederiksen interviews Carolyn Gonzales
and Richard Schaefer about immigration issues and the
Cross Border Issues exchange program in Morelos, Mexico,
in July 2007.
SHOW RUNS: 29:02
