The goal of the U.S.-MEXICO FUTURES FORUM is to generate fresh perspectives on a critical set of issues that will be important for each country and central to their relationship. In collaboration with the International Studies Department at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), we will bring together scholars as well as social and political actors who will be shaping policies, ideas and U.S. Mexican relations in the future.

Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Alfredo Corchado and Ricardo Sandoval
“How to Report in Mexico Without Being Jailed, Kidnapped or Killed”

Thousands of murders have been linked to drug trafficking along the U.S.–Mexico border. The victims include many of the women killed in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua since 1994. Journalists Alfredo Corchado and Ricardo Sandoval have spent much of their careers writing about the border, despite death threats and a tragic indifference among the bureaucrats of both nations. In this talk, the two will offer insight into the region’s troubles and illustrate the perils journalists confront today along on the border.

Alfredo Corchado is Mexico Bureau Chief for the Dallas Morning News. Last year he was awarded the prestigious Maria Moors Cabot award, honoring his years of groundbreaking coverage of Latin America and the U.S.–Mexico border. Since 1984 he has written award-winning articles about life and death along the border — and the region’s social and cultural vibrancy — for the Wall Street Journal, the El Paso Herald Post and the Morning News.

Ricardo Sandoval is Assistant City Editor at the Sacramento Bee. As a foreign correspondent in Latin America from 1997 to 2005, he covered crime, migration and insurgent movements in Mexico , Colombia and Venezuela — work that earned him awards from the Overseas Press Club and the InterAmerican Press Association. He is also the co-author of the 1997 biography, The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.

Co-sponsored with the Graduate School of Journalism.

Thursday, February 28, 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Library, North Gate Hall

Garrett Brown
“Striking Copper Miners in Cananea, Mexico — Fighting for Their Lives”

Copper miners at the giant open-pit copper mine in Cananea, Mexico, have been on strike for seven months to protect both themselves and their historic union, which have been jeopardized by the transnational mine operator Grupo México. The outcome of the current battle of the 1,200 union workers at the historic mine, where the 1906 strike led to the 1910 Mexican Revolution, will have a tremendous impact on workers’ rights and labor relations throughout Mexico for years to come.

Garrett Brown (MPH, CIH) is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and compliance officer for Cal/OSHA’s Oakland District Office. Since 1993, Brown has also been the volunteer coordinator of the Maquiladora Health and Safety Support Network which provides information, technical assistance and training to workers in Mexico, Central America, Indonesia and China.

The report of the independent occupational health team’s survey of the Cananea mine, as well as 25 photographs of the mine, is posted at: www.igc.org/mhssn

Monday, March 3, 4:00 pm
CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch Street

Philip Martin
"International Migration: Global, American and Agricultural Issues"

About 9 percent of industrial country residents are international migrants. While many migrant-sending countries hope that remittances can spur development, the U.S. and other migrant-receiving countries are debating what to do about unauthorized migration. In the U.S., agriculture is developing a peculiar human capital structure — almost all farm operators are U.S.-born and almost all hired workers are foreign-born. This talk outlines the major migration issues, the contributions of research to policy making and opportunities for policy-relevant research.

Philip Martin is a UC Davis professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the chair of the UC Comparative Immigration and Integration Program.

Wednesday, April 2, 12:00-1:15 pm
Room 554, Barrows Hall

Alfonso Valenzuela Aguilera
"Surveillance, Territory and the Rule of Law in Mexico City

Professor Valenzuela Aguilera will address the role in which legal frameworks and perceived norms shape the social control of space in Mexico City. He will examine the classic prevention/intervention/suppression model that frames our thinking on crime and the implications that mainstream surveillance policies are having in the urban realm.

Alfonso Valenzuela Aguilera is Professor of Urban Planning at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Urban and Regional Development at UC Berkeley. He is the author of numerous articles and the forthcoming book Urbanists and Visionaries. Planning Mexico City in the first half of the XX Century (Miguel Angel Porrua Editores).

Monday, April 7, 12:00 – 1:15 pm
Room 554, Barrows Hall

Daniel Kammen
Title to be announced Daniel Kammen is a professor in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley. He is also the director of the university’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.Date and location to be determined