(SMU) – While Texas’ trade with Mexico is booming, so too is contentious, election-year political rhetoric related to such hot-button issues as immigration and national security. That conundrum is the focus of “Texas-Mexico Relations & the 2016 Election,” a free public event sponsored by SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies from 6-8 p.m. Weds., March 16, at the Consulate General of Mexico, 1210 River Bend Drive, Dallas.
The same program will be presented at Tarleton State University in Stephenville at 6 p.m. Thurs., March 17, at 1333 W. Washington St. Admission is free to both events but reservations are required by emailing tower@smu.edu.
Scheduled to speak are Cal Jillson, SMU professor of political science; Rodolfo de la Garza, Columbia University Eaton Professor of Administrative Law and Municipal Science and international public affairs professor; Prof. Joy Langston of the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City; and Tarleton State University Associate Prof. Jesus Velasco, the Joe & Teresa Long Endowed Chair in Social Sciences.
Discussion moderator will be KERA host and Tower Center Fellow Lee Cullum. These are the first public events sponsored by the SMU Tower Center’s Texas-Mexico Program, established last year with support from Mission Foods.
“Texas and Mexico are deeply connected not only economically, but also culturally,” says Jesus Cañas, a Dallas Federal Reserve Bank business economist who serves with Velasco as co-director the Texas-Mexico Program. “Texas has the second largest concentration of Mexican immigrants only after California, and we notice that in the business landscape as Mexican investment flows to the state to service Hispanic markets.”
Dallas-Fort Worth is a natural home for discussions about Texas-Mexico, says acting Tower Center Director Joshua Rovner. “Now the fourth-largest population center in the United States, it stands at the crossroads of an increasingly integrated North American market,” he says. Consider:
• Texas accounts for 37 percent of total U.S.-Mexico trade.
• Nearly half of all U.S. exports to Mexico are sent from Texas, and about one-third of Mexico’s imports arrive in Texas.
• Nearly 70 percent of all trucks and 90 percent of all trains crossing the U.S.–Mexico border travel through Texas.
With a large concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and a high volume of continental trade, “Texas has lived up to former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk’s promise that DFW would become ‘capital of NAFTA,’ ” Rovner adds.
Velasco calls the Texas-Mexico Program a path-breaking initiative. “No other institution in Mexico or the United States has dedicated such an effort to understanding this relationship,” he says. In addition to fostering public discussions, the program seeks to become a hub of teaching and research on cross-border politics, along with economic, social and cultural relations.
“Mexico and Texas share challenges and opportunities. The program will play a relevant role in finding ways to address them, with concrete policy-oriented recommendations,” says Mexico’s Consul-General José Octavio Tripp.
For more details about the Tower Center or the Texas-Mexico Program, visit http://www.smu.edu/towercenter or call 214-768-3954.
