The governor of Baja California
made his first official speech in California
last week, commemorating a collaborative academic and research relationship
formed between UCSD and el Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Mexico.
An agreement signed by Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and COLEF President Tonatuih
Cuillen puts current projects undertaken by the two universities under the
auspices of UCSD’s Center for United States-Mexican Studies.

As part of the Charles Nathanson Lecture series by the School
of International Relations and
Pacific Studies, Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán spoke about the future of
economic relations between neighboring Baja California
and California, touching on cross-border
issues ranging from climate change to HIV prevention.

The governor expressed his optimism for the future of the
partnership between the United States
and Mexico and
showed a video called “Baja California:
The Mexican Frontier for Successful Business” as an introduction to his speech.
The video demonstrated the economic viability of a relationship with Baja
California, and touted its strengths such as the
ability to remove obstacles for businesses and increasingly educate the
workforce.

“I would call it a great opportunity, rather than a
challenge,” Osuna Millán said.

In addition to discussing Baja
California’s economic statistics, including the low
unemployment rate and a 6.4-percent growth rate for 2006 (which surpasses the
national rate of 4.9 percent), the governor also talked about issues he
believed deserved transnational attention. He spoke of the need to combat
weapons trafficking across the border, as well as his intent to work toward the
increase of regional solidarity.

“There must be absolute respect for the dignity of any
person crossing the border,” he said in response to the controversial border
situation.

Questions from the audience ranged from the ecological to
the economic effects of the construction of new ports. One audience member
acknowledged the increase in trade between the United
States and Mexico
as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but asked the governor
what held back personal relationships between the two countries from growing at
a similar rate over the past 15 years.

“While the free trade agreement has increased trade, human
relationships haven’t increased to the same degree,” Osuna Millán said. “They
may even have begun to deteriorate. I am going to focus on promoting a
dignified rapport between the two nations.”

Another audience member questioned the recent warnings the U.S.
government released about traveling to the Tijuana
area and asked what the governor thought about the public safety of Baja
California. Osuna Millán blamed the media for
sensationalizing the crimes that took place and compared the number of cars
stolen daily from San Diego’s Fashion Valley that don’t appear in the news
headlines to the crimes that occur daily in Tijuana.

“There are more homicides per capita in Los
Angeles, in Detroit,
in New Orleans, each day than in Tijuana,”
he said. “The media is overstating the problem. I don’t want this to become a
stereotype of the city.”

Osuna Millán closed his speech with a final message about
the future of the relationship between Baja California
and California.

“I have a vision of a region were both areas will thrive,”
he said.

In a press conference following the speech, Executive
Director of the Center for United States-Mexican Studies at UCSD Rene Zenteno
called the agreement signed between UCSD and COLEF a long-awaited victory.

“It’s like they have been engaged for five years, and today
the colleges were married,” Zenteno said.