Museo de Belles Artes, Ciudad México. (Mouseover image: Participants in the 2008 annual meeting of the Forum in Mexico City.)

The United States and Mexico share a complex history, increasingly integrated economies, cultures that spill over boundaries and a 2,000 mile border. While we are inextricably bound together, the title of Alan Riding’s 1985 book about Mexico still seems apt: Distant Neighbors.

The U.S.–Mexico Futures Forum, now in its seventh year, seeks to shrink that distance. The Forum, jointly organized by the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at the University of California, Berkeley and the International Studies Department at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, brings together scholars and political leaders, public intellectuals and journalists, leaders from social movements and business executives. The participants include those with long experience analyzing the U.S.–Mexico relationship and those who bring a fresh perspective to the table.