Mexican consul speaks at college
By Dennis Hill
Published in News on November 7, 2014 1:46 PM
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Mexican Consul General Javier Diaz de Leon
Mexico and the United States are economic and social partners, and the future will only see that relationship grow, the Mexican consul general in Raleigh says.
"We are deeply linked to one another," Javier Diaz de Leon said Thursday night at Wayne Community College. "Probably no two countries in the world are linked so closely together, socially and economically, as Mexico and the U.S.
"We are trading partners and we are manufacturing partners. We have long since stopped competing. We are manufacturing together."
Diaz de Leon was the keynote speaker for the college's International Festival, which continued today with events featuring more than a dozen countries.
Diaz de Leon said many young Mexicans feel the U.S. is part of their culture.
"They were born in Mexico, but grew up in the U.S.," Diaz de Leon said. "They have a double sense of belonging."
It will be crucial to the U.S. to incorporate the growing number of Mexican youths into its cultural, economic and political future, he said. They represent a work force and political force that cannot be ignored, he said.
Helping Mexican youths to get an education is vital to U.S. interests, he said. Latinos have a higher unemployment rate and a lower high school graduation rate than other North Carolinians.
"This presents a lot of issues and challenges, but opportunities, too," he said. "The danger is in Latino youth becoming marginalized. Creating opportunities for these young people is in the best interest of North Carolina. The worst thing a country can do is block the education of its young people."
North Carolina is especially linked to Mexico, Diaz de Leon said. Mexico is the second largest market in the world for goods made in North Carolina, and North Carolina ranks 12th in the country in the amount of goods shipped to Mexico.
"We are very important to each other," he said.
The great migration of Mexicans to the U.S. has spanned 20 years, Diaz de Leon noted. Mexico itself at first considered the migration to be a temporary thing, but it has shown itself to be permanent.
"People have stopped going back and they are now bringing their families here," he said. "They are North Carolinians. Their future is here and the future of their children is here."
About 10 percent of the state's population is now Latino, with the vast majority Mexican.
But the steady stream of Mexicans across the border has slowed in the past three years, Diaz de Leon pointed out. One reason has been the state of the U.S. economy, which has not been creating jobs as it did in the 1990s, he said.
And Mexico is aging, he said. Mexicans living in Mexico are having fewer children and that could portend trouble down the road.
"We might see Mexico needing young people in the future," he said.
Mexico has made great strides in the aerospace, automobile and electronic fields, Diaz de Leon said. Mexico is now the leading manufacturer of high-definition TVs in the world.
Last year, North Carolina exports to Mexico were valued at $2.7 billion. The total value of good traded between the state and Mexico amounted to more than $7.5 billion.