SACRAMENTO, Calif.- CSU Sacramento hosted a lecture from Consul General Carlos Gonzalez-Gutierrez. The lecture was held in the University Union, Ballroom I & II from 12PM to 1PM. The entire lecture was to celebrate national Hispanic/Latino month as well as inform students of the Mexico/California relations.
When Gutierrez walked onto the stage, he first greeted the crowd in his native language, Spanish. He then, translated it into English to thank and greet the audience for coming out to listen to his lecture. Gutierrez was very humbled to be at CSUS and even thanked the big screen off of Highway 50 for giving him his "15 minutes of fame".
It's been 200 years since the Mexican Independence war, and Gutierrez sees this as an opportunity for California and Mexico to come together and help each other. The Mexican Consulate in Sacramento has various programs and services for people of Mexican origin and Mexican immigrants, undocumented and documented. Such programs consist of: English classes for free, marriage licenses, birth certificates and identification cards. The Consulate in Sacramento has a jurisdiction from the border of Oregon to Stanislaus.
The Consulate also focuses on politics and taking a proactive approach to initiatives. Two of these initiatives are the Cien (100) Amigos Group and Mexican Advocacy Day. The Cien Amigos Group is an informal network, even CSUS President Alex Rodriguez is a member.
He focused on three main points during his speech but the one that stood out the most was about organized crime in Mexico. Organized crime seems to be an ongoing problem, centralized in six states, mostly in Sinaloa and Chihuahua. Gutierrez said these groups are trying to take over President Calderon's administration. Since 2006, approximately 28,000 people have died due to drug related incidents.
"This is a multinational problem", Gutierrez states. He would like states like California and others that have a large population of Mexican immigrants to help solve the organized crime issue.
Everything the Consulate does is to help solidify a well working relationship to help the people of California and Mexico, to bring two worlds together.
The writer wrote a reasonable story about the speech, but there was not much in the way of commentary on the part of the columnist.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the column is only half the length it needs to be.
:Perhaps the author forget to post the rest of it?