Déjà vu - The University of Arizona
and UNAM
By Rodolfo F. Acuña
Carlos Slim is not the richest
man in the world because of his good looks. He got there the old fashioned way,
he used government resources. Slim derived his fortune from his extensive holdings
through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, that is heavily invested in
telecommunications, education, health care, industrial manufacturing, food and beverages,
real estate, airlines, media, mining, oil, hospitality, entertainment,
technology, retail, sports and financial services.
The money maker is the telecommunication
company, Telmex, that he and his partners bought in 1990 from the Mexican government
at fire sale prices. By 2006, Telmex controlled 90 percent of the telephone
lines in Mexico. By March 2015 Slim’s fortune was an estimated $71.2 billion
much of it accumulated through privatization of publicly owned groups.
One of his most controversial
ventures was ASUR (Aeropuertos del Sureste) through which Slim controls a dozen
Mexican airports. Slim reorganized his various enterprises using vertical
integration and market consolidation strategies.
By this time, you may be asking
what does this have to do with the University of Arizona and UNAM? In February,
Ann Weaver Hart, the president of the U of A, released a statement saying: “The
UA has been selected by the National Autonomous University of Mexico as the
site of a branch center focused on collaborative research. This new center is a
culmination of a relationship of many years with UNAM in areas ranging from
astronomy to arid lands studies. The UNAM Center for Mexican Studies at the UA
will be a unique expression of the depth of our relationship with one of Latin
America’s premier research institutions.”
Coming at the end of a two
year fight over a similar arrangement between CSUN and UNAM, my first reaction
was here we go again.
Most of us remember that in
2010 UNAM along with many institutions in Mexico broke relations with Arizona
and the UA in protest of SB 1070 and the rabid anti-Mexican climate in Arizona.
UNAM and Mexico wanted to make a statement condemning this abuse. However, five
years later most were for letting bygones be bygones, and for 1070 to join the
waste basket of forgotten memories.
No matter that the aftershocks
of 1070 were still being felt; that Arizona was still trying to rewrite
history; and the nation’s premier K-12 Mexican American Studies program had
been eliminated. That the Minute Men and the Tea Party still controlled Phoenix
and Governor Doug Ducey refused to repeal anti-Mexican legislation. Despite
this Arizona was being given a fresh start.
Ducey led a trade mission
trip to Mexico City. “At a reception he acknowledged Mexico as our friend and
neighbor.” Ducey told anyone who would listen that “he was representing our
Tucson Hispanic Chamber and affiliated chambers in SierraVista, Douglas and
Nogales. Repeatedly during the trip, Ducey spoke to the 45 business leaders and
cabinet members and Mexican guests about a “‘new day and a fresh start’ for Arizona
in Mexico.”
The bottom line was Arizona
trade with Mexico amounted to over $15.9 billion dollars a year. Ducey made it
clear that Arizona business leaders on the trip included leaders in industries
such as transportation, legal, metal fabrication, real estate development and
mining products.
At Mexico City the University
of Arizona and UNAM exchanged memorandums. Reading between the lines, absent
were speakers addressing President Enrique Pena Nieto’s federal reforms and his
self- vaunted energy reforms. There was no mention of any resolution of Los
Normalistas de Ayotzinapa disappearances– and it did not seem as if anyone
cared.
Even when addressing the border
crisis, the focus was on the imbalance in trade between the two countries.
Carlos Slim hosted a reception for over 250 business and political leaders. It
was clear that human rights were not a priority of the “Hispanic” leaders who
took the opportunity to take selfies with Slim.
Meanwhile, the UA center was
called Mexican Studies. The prime movers, according to sources, were the
Arizona Office of Tourism and the UA Eller College of Management Economic and
Business Research Center. They had conducted a study that found that visitors
from Mexico contributed $7.3 million daily to Arizona’s economy.
Slim had visited Phoenix in
September 2014. Among the guests were the League of United Latin American
Citizens (LULAC), Promise Arizona, and East Valley Patriots for Social Justice,
the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, United Cerebral Palsy of
Central Arizona, along with various other community and advocacy groups. Slim
told the business leaders that they should support Ducey because he pushed for
positive business relations with Mexico. Nothing was said about repealing
anti-immigrant legislation.
According to accounts, before
the event, Slim “was mobbed by people wanting to shake his hand and snap a
selfie before the event began; he spent the majority of his keynote address
talking about the changing economic paradigms in society.”
For anyone engaged in what
Slim called “critical thinking,” the events were disheartening because much of
the Latino leadership displayed a lack of a historical memory or ethnic pride. Failing
to defend the interests of immigrants and students, they ignored the fact that
the schools were being rapidly privatized. What was more disheartening was that
no one seemed to care, and the leadership of the Latino community was once more
rolling over. The ruling classes in the United States were only too willing to
erase history so business could go on as usual.
In conclusion in order not
to forget what had happened at CSUN, I spoke to several Tucson community
leaders about how the idea of the center had come about. DA Morales pointed out
“The UofA, now, after years of ignoring any program that seeks collaborative
research with Mexican universities is awakening, but not in the humanities or
social sciences....in the business college.” The business college had an
economic interest much the same as the CSUN administration and College of
Social and Behavioral Science had had. The only difference was that at CSUN ChS
fought back.
Activists in Derechos Humanos
singularly protested NAFTA since 1990. One said “of course what is happening
now is the result of that great displacement and disenfranchisement of workers
and their families. In Mexico, the result of Harvard and Princeton trained
politicians who readily hand over their country for their personal gain; we
find rhetoric of collaboration.” There is a similarity between the latter and
the Arizona Hispanic business leaders. She added, “Where is the collaboration
in migration? In human rights? In the drug trade?”
The source added “At one level.....[from]
faculty and possibly at the Heads level, this whole thing has been kept from
sight and certainly from discussion.” The professor added that Ducey’s “backers
were the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here in Tucson as well as the Eller
Business College.”
Throughout this process, Slim
was the main attraction, and “his role in breaking unions in Mexico, charging
exploitive rates in communications and building a huge cartel were forgotten.“
Add to this ChS programs invited Slim to lecture on trade with Mexico. El
diablo nunca duerme!
Footnotes:
There are many versions of
how Slim has been able to accumulate his fortune so rapidly. The stories fill
the internet. Daniel Hopsicker, “Carlos Slim & the Narco-Politicos,” Madcow
Morning News, Feb 3, 2009. Diligent Bureaucrat, “Privatization Billionaires,”
Daily Kos, Mar 01, 2015. http://www.dailykos.com/…/13646…/-Privatization-Billionaires#
Ann Weaver Hart, President
February 25, 2015, http://president.arizona.edu/newsletter/february-ua2u
“Arizona’s Fresh Start in
Mexico,” 1030 the Voice, http://www.kvoi.com/hispani…/arizonas-fresh-start-in-mexico/
“UofA To Establish New Center
for Mexican Studies,” Arizona Daily Independent, June 29, 2015, https://arizonadailyindependent.com/…/uofa-to-establish-ne…/
“The Carlos Slim Foundation
Presents AccesoLatino.org to Top Arizona Latino Leaders,” Sep
22, 2014, http://www.prnewswire.com/…/the-carlos-slim-foundation-pres….
Patrick O'Grady, “Carlos Slim, one of world's richest businessmen, comes to
Phoenix to talk trade,” Phoenix Business Journal, Apr 2, 2015. http://www.bizjournals.com/…/carlos-slim-one-of-worlds-rich…
Amelia Goe, “Carlos Slim Helu:
Arizona-Mexico relations yet to reach full potential,” Cronkite News, April 22,
2015, http://tucson.com/…/article_19210689-7b3a-5354-8fb0-2a91cd8…
DA Morales, “TUSD using Mexico’s
economic model? The rich get richer quicker; HT Sanchez & Carlos Slim
thrive in poverty,” Three Sonorans, June 15, 2015. http://threesonorans.com/…/is-tusd-using-mexicos-economic-…/
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