The bilateral relationships between the communities at the U.S.-Mexico border are better than ever. That was the conclusion of a roundtable integrated by Lynne Walker, executive director at InquireFirst in San Diego; David Shirk, director of the Justice in Mexico project at the University of San Diego; Jose Galicot, president of Tijuana Innovadora; and Andy Carey, executive director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Philantrophy.

Marcela Celorio, consul general Mexico in San Diego, led the roundtable as part of the celebration of the exhibit called “El Universal: 100 Years in the Life of Mexico” which exhibits at the Arts District in Liberty Station.

“The bilateral relationship between the United States and Mexico is very important; and nowadays, the relationship between border communities is stronger than ever,” said Carey to La Prensa San Diego. “Throughout our history, the relationship between Mexico and the United States has been managed from the capital of each country, including in immigration, jobs, visas, and other subjects, but the border region has always gotten along, we have always looked for a way to share, work, and live together in both sides of the border. So now, we have to keep moving forward and build a stronger relationship, and not let the political rhetoric to be a reality, because is not true in economy, commerce, and arts and culture issues.”

Shirk, who also directs a research initiative on the Cali-Baja region at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, said that the relationship between both countries got better after the political rhetoric of last year elections.

“Even of what has been said of Mexicans and Mexico, there is a great sympathy for Mexico by the United States. This is a great opportunity for us to have a conversation about the importance of Mexico for the United States,” Shirk said during the roundtable analysis. “The evidence of the benefits of the U.S.-Mexico relationship can be seen at the renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Nobody is going to let the United States to stop the economic relationship with Mexico, because there are a lot of benefits of this relationship for us.”

The professor added that there are plenty of opportunities to improve the relationship between the two countries even in California.

“California has vision, but we need to experiment with integration models, and that can be related to the academia. In Texas, Mexicans can have the same tuition as U.S. citizens. We can establish this immigration status model in California so Mexican students can study here and pay the same tuition as U.S. citizens,” Shirk added. “We are as visionary as the state of Texas, but we haven’t accomplished something like that, and there are more things to do.”