1551 N. Studebaker Road, Long Beach, CA 90815

Armando Vazquez-Ramos, Board President and CEO

Office Phone: (562) 430-5541 ~ Mobile phone: (562) 972-0986

Email: californiamexicocenter@gmail.com

Website: https://www.california-mexicocenter.org

FOR INFORMATION, CONTACT: Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos: (562) 972-0986

The CSULB Chicano and Latino Studies department and the California-Mexico Studies Center will host a lunch meeting next Friday, March 22 at 11:30am in the CSULB Chartroom, to celebrate the signing of a letter of intent between CSULB and Mexico's Zacatecas Autonomous University (UAZ).The agreement will be signed by Dr. Jeet Joshee, CSULB Vice President for International Education and Ing. Armando Silva Chairez, President of the UAZ.

In addition, we are pleased to announce that the Honorable David Figueroa Ortega, L.A. Mexican Consul General and Omar Martinez, President of the Zacatecas Federation of State Clubs, known as Home Town Associations (HTA's), will be in attendance as our guests of honor and to represent both institutions that will be crucially supportive of this important collaboration.

The son of a 'Bracero' agricultural worker, Consul Figueroa Ortega heads Mexico's largest consulate in the world and Mr. Martinez leads an umbrella organization that represents over 100 HTA's in Southern California from Zacatecas, which is the state of origin for approximately 1.7 million Mexican immigrants in the U.S.

Zacatecas is a source of agricultural migration to the U.S. that dates back to over 100 years, boasts highly successful business owners like Omar Martinez and Rigoberto Castaneda (a prominent L.B. restaurant owner and the Zacatecas Secretary of Migration Affairs), and major political leaders like L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar.

Even more important, there are thousands of CSULB graduates and students currently attending that come from 'Zacatecano' families, since over 500,000 of them reside in this region.The intent of the agreement is to formalize a partnership that has evolved during the last 3 years, since the Chichimeca Regional Studies conference held at CSULB in November 2010, and the subsequent full-semester research projects by UAZ professors Dr. Jose Francisco Roman and Dr. Leticia del Rio, as CSULB visiting scholars.

We’d appreciate your participation and coverage and we look forward to seeing you at the event next Friday, March 22 at 11:30am in the CSULB Chartroom.

Jose Moreno, Chair

CSULB Chicano & Latino Studies Department

Armando Vazquez-Ramos, Director

After an almost two-year ban on study abroad programs in Mexico, Cal State University Chancellor Timothy P. White has decided to resume the program for 2013-14, according to Erik Fallis, a CSU spokesman. According to Fallis, a CSU executive decision in 2007 prohibited study abroad programs in areas included in the U.S. State Department Travel Warning but allowed the chancellor to make exceptions.

“The State Department issued such a warning in 2010, specific to certain areas in Mexico,” Fallis said. “Some programs outside that area continued to operate under an exception. In 2011, as the violence spread and became more shocking, most programs in Mexico ceased operations. This included the system program at Queretaro.”

Fallis said that in 2010, the warning listed six cities: Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterey and Matamoros. The three states mentioned were Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua. “At that time, the system program at Queretaro continued, as did several campus programs,” Fallis said. “The exceptions allowed programs to continue operation.”

According to Fallis, in 2012, the State Department expanded the amount of information in its warning and provided a more differentiated list of danger zones within Mexico, including some areas listed with “no advisory is in effect.” Fallis said this prompted the CSU to request an outside risk analysis, which staff compiled into a summary report and allowed the chancellor to use available information and make case-by-case decisions on exceptions for study abroad programs. “Queretaro will now resume as a system-wide program,” Fallis said. “Campuses do not opt in, but CSU students will have the ability to apply when the program is prepared to take new enrollment. This is similar to the system program in Haifa, Israel, which resumed after receiving an exception in 2011.”

According to Sharon Olson, Cal State Long Beach director of education abroad in the Center for International Education, about 700 students study abroad each year and there has been interest in students wanting to study abroad during the ban.Cecilia Fidora, CSULB assistant director of education abroad, said that students can apply to study abroad in Mexico by April 9; financial aid applies, and the estimated cost is $16,540 for the year. “There will be a pre-departure orientation with emphasis on health and safety [which] will be held May 11 at [Cal State University Northridge],” Fidora said. Fidora said that there are currently no students on the list for studying abroad at the Queretaro campus.

March 6, 2013SACRAMENTO, CA – The California State University (CSU) announced today that it is changing its existing ban on education abroad and academic exchange programs with Mexico, in response to inquiries from Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker John Perez and State Senator Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on California-Mexico Cooperation.

In a September 27 letter to the Senate President pro Tem and the Assembly Speaker, CSU Chancellor Emeritus Charles Reed announced that he had directed his staff to “begin review of the current situation in Mexico and its potential effects on [CSU] students.” In a letter released today by Chancellor Timothy White to the legislative leaders, Chancellor White announced that his office will, “evaluate, on a case-by-case basis, requests for student programs and academic-based travel in Mexico to areas that do not have an advisory in effect.”

Chancellor White’s announcement comes on the heels of a September 11 hearing of the Senate Select Committee on California-Mexico Cooperation, where Correa inquired about CSU’s existing policy. Following that hearing, Correa helped draft a letter, which was signed by the Senate President pro Tem and the Assembly Speaker on September 25, asking that the existing ban be reevaluated.

“This is a turning point for our state’s academic system as we now can begin to partner with countries across the globe. I want to thank President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez for their leadership on this issue and for making educational exchange programs between the U.S. and Mexico a priority,” said Correa.

“Millions of U.S. citizens, including students from other public and private universities, safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day,” said Correa. “I am very encouraged that CSU, by changing its policy, has opened the doors to allow our students and future leaders to pursue opportunities to better understand the U.S. and Mexico's shared heritage and culture,” he added.

Correa’s interest in reexamining the travel ban was prompted after receiving a copy of a letter from U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Earl Anthony Wayne addressed to Chancellor Emeritus Reed, in which the Ambassador encouraged the CSU to lift its existing travel ban, which was enacted by executive order of the Chancellor in 2007, amid concerns over the safety and security of CSU students. Yet, since February 2012, the Department has revised its Travel Warning policy relative to Mexico and now encourages travelers to reference a state-by-state assessment of security conditions, which are divided into northern and southern regions.

POR: Araceli Martínez Ortega / araceli.martinez@laopinion.com | 03/10/2013 | La Opinión