Assembly Select Committee on California-Mexico Bi-National Affairs

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Hello? Hello, this is Armando.

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Yeah, I can hear you fine. Are you talking to me?

Yes.

All right. Sounds good. What's going on?

All right, have a good day.

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No, not yet.

Good. Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome you all to the Select Committee on California-Mexico Bi-national Affairs Committee. My name is Eduardo Garcia. I will be chairing today's Select Committee hearing. I want to welcome you all to the California State Capitol. Today's hearing is being televised on the Assembly, State Assembly channel. And we will be making sure that we also will be receiving some comments on the website. And then, of course, at the end of the agenda, taking public comments. This is our first hearing for the year for the California Bi-national Affairs Select Committee.

We have a very, very good agenda set up that will be focusing on California-Mexico's shared educational and economic opportunities. We have selected a very good set of panelists, a diverse group of panelists that will be talking about the different programs and investments that are being made in a bi-national manner. I wanted to emphasize how significantly important, and you'll hear from our presenters, the California-Mexico relationship is from an economic standpoint, from a cultural standpoint, and as you'll hear today from an educational standpoint. We are very excited to have this hearing today.

And we're also excited about the timing of this hearing, given the recent historic changes that are taking place in Mexico today. This past weekend, Mexico elected Doctor Claudia Scheinbaum, who will become the first female President in the country's history and who has ties to California from an educational standpoint. And we are extremely excited to establish a working relationship with her Administration to ensure that California and Mexico's economic, cultural, and as today's subject will highlight, educational tie ins continue to strengthen from a policy standpoint as well.

We will have a series and a number of Members come in and out of the hearing room today as they are attending their own legislative priorities as well. But I have been told that a number of different legislators will join us throughout this hearing today. With that, those are my opening remarks, and I will ask my colleagues to see if they have any remarks that they would like to start this hearing with as well.

Thank you, Mister Chair. And good morning, still. It's hot enough in Sacramento that feels like the afternoon, but it's still good morning. Appreciate the opportunity to be part of today's hearing. Truly looking forward to the panels. Just want to congratulate the Chair and his team, his staff, for putting together an excellent panel that will further provide information certainly to Californians about the importance of the California-Mexico relationship.

But now more specifically on how tied we are from an educational perspective, which is something that often is left out of the bi-national conversation, but significant nonetheless. As we will hear from the panelists. I have the honor, like the Chair, of serving a district that borders the country of Mexico and have had the real honor of serving a role or capacity for well over a decade.

And I'm excited that California continues to take the lead on these issues and continues to make sure that we acknowledge this very unique location where we are with our neighbors to the south and we truly integrate what we do as a state when it comes to economic development policy and frameworks, and in this case around the space of education, which I think is one that will continue to strengthen us as a state, certainly, and continue to strengthen our economy. So again, thank you Chair, for the invitation and for organizing this today. Truly looking forward to all of you today. Thank you.

Good morning, Assemblymember Juan Carrillo. First, I want to thank the Chair for allowing me to be part of this Committee. Really looking forward to it. I represent the Assembly District 39, which is north LA County and a portion of San Bernardino County, the cities of Palmdale, Lancaster, Hesperia, Victorville and Adelanto. And really excited to be part of this group, excited to take part in the conversations.

Me myself, being born in Guadalajara, coming here at the age of 15, it really gives me great pleasure to be part of this Committee and being able to have those conversations to strengthen the economic, educational and many other topics of interest between California and Mexico. Really looking forward to the conversation. I want to thank again the chair for allowing me to be here. Thank you, Mister Chair.

Thank you to both of my colleagues. When other Members come in, we will definitely give them an opportunity to ask the questions and engage with our panelists. Thank you to all of the panelists again that are here. Special thank you to Senator Alvarez and his team for helping us put together this agenda. Let's jump right in to the first panel: exchange of bi-national higher education programs. We have two presenters, Margarita H. Colmenares, Vice President of Investments of Manos Accelerator. And we have Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos, CEO and Founder of California-Mexico Study Center. Thank you Professor, for your patience. We'll start with the first presenter and thank you so much. Your bios are in the folder. We appreciate all of the professional work that you've done and you may begin.

Thank you and good morning. My name is Margarita Colmenares and I am here on behalf of the Manos Accelerator. I'm honored to be here today to discuss the critical importance of bi-national education initiatives between Mexico and California. These initiatives are pivotal for fostering educational collaboration, particularly in the high tech sector, which is vital to California's economy and global competitiveness. California, with its diverse population and robust economy, thrives on innovation and global collaboration.

Establishing and maintaining strong binational initiatives with Mexico not only straightens our cultural ties, but also promotes growth, economic growth, technological advancement, and educational excellence. The Manos Accelerator has for some years now, had a relationship with Mexico. Next slide. And the Manos Accelerator provides different facets of assistance to startup companies that are launching in the Silicon Valley.

The breakdown is about 60% Latino led, US Latino led corporations, and 40% from Mexico. Next slide. This slide shows a map of some of the relationships that Manos is striving for with Mexico. And you'll notice that they are, a lot of them are the centers of growth, economic growth within Mexico itself. Next slide. One of the things that Manos does is they hold demo days where the CEO's provide pitches to Silicon Valley investors and Manos facilitates this opportunity to put them in front of potential investors. And you'll hear later the connection between Mexico and the empresarios and the students. Next slide, please. Did we miss a slide that showed an ecosystem?

Yes, that one. Okay, so this one shows the different ties that Manos has set up with universities, with high tech companies, with angel investors, etcetera. So that is the Manos ecosystem that either students or business people are invited to participate in, or someone who's launching a company. Next slide, please. So the immersion program, and now I'm speaking specifically about the students, consists of one week in Silicon Valley and the students come out and they get to visit some of our high tech companies, such as Netflix and Salesforce and Tesla, etcetera. And they get exposure to the culture, if you will, at those sites.

Combined with that, and next slide, combined with that are workshops which teaches students about starting a company in Silicon Valley. There's interactions with industry leaders. They visit and interact with industry leaders, gaining insights into the latest advancements and trends. There's workshops and seminars where they cover a range of topics, including the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.

There are academic collaborations, and they have visits to places like Stanford or UC Berkeley. And there's also the cultural experience, beyond academic and professional, of understanding the rich and cultural diversity of California. So the student immersion program not only enhances their academics but also broadens their perspectives. Next slide. Parallel to that, there is an impresario program where chambers of commerce sometimes, let's say of Baja California are invited to come and participate in this program as well. So there have been exchanges like that as well parallel to what the students do with the professionals.

And it's the same idea is that introduction to and relationship building with. Next slide. So everything as you can imagine, someone coming in who has not been to Silicon Valley, they kind of get a backstage pass to come and visit Silicon Valley. Next slide. Example of a gathering where they meet with capital investors. As I said before, the CEO's have the opportunity to actually provide a pitch before investors. Next slide. Examples of some of the companies and next slide. That's our contact info. Manos is unique in its approach. It is one of the oldest accelerators of its kind and actually focused on Latinos and especially with the bridge to Mexico, it is unique in that perspective.

Thank you very much. Our next presenter will be Professor Armando Vasquez-Ramos, CEO and founder of the California-Mexico Study center. And I'll ask our third presenter, Adela de la Torre, President of San Diego State University, if she'd like to come up as well. And Miss Margarita Colmenares, you're welcome to stay up here. We'll get into questions after our third and final presenter. So Doctor Armando Vasquez-Ramos, welcome. Good morning. And the floor is yours.

Muchas gracias, Eduardo. I am so delighted to join you today. And also I'm just so happy. I just flew back this morning from Mexico. I've been down there for the last week and the celebration of Claudia's election is just unprecedented. What's most important is that we are now in a new era. The legacy of López Obrador and the sweep by Morena almost of the entire country represents a great opportunity for the investment in policies as well as the collaboration.

Specifically, as you know, I have been advocating for both your Bill AB 2852 as well as a sponsor for it. The Alvarez 2633 legislation creating joint international degrees in particular with Mexico. So I really think that today is a celebration for this mega region, which is the California fifth economy of the world and the 12th economy of the world that has had a very limited amount of policy interaction and in this case specifically of academic exchange.

I'm glad to follow the presentation by Margarita on the Manos program that has been around over the last 20 years or more and has of course created great connections. But I have to say it's also the exception. There's very few initiatives, especially in the academic exchange area. So to me, it's really a great opportunity to share with you a little bit about how the effort that we have been working on for the last 10 years, having pioneered a concept, a program for Dreamers to study abroad. 10 years ago, 2014, right after the DACA program was created by Obama.

But also, I'm so delighted to share with you that on Sunday we also elected the first Dreamer to be for the next six years in the Mexican Senate, one of my most outstanding graduates of the California-Mexico Study Center. Dreamer study. That's Karina Ruiz, who was elected part of the enlarged appointments that are done by each party. And so we're really looking at a new era of having a voice and a vote in the upper house. But also the Diputados Migrantes is immigrant Congress Members that will be advocating for a much larger role of the Mexican diaspora.

We are now 65 million Latinos in the US, and at least 70% of that is of Mexican origin. But we don't have any policies that reflect that on either side. And Mexico is beginning to recognize the opportunity that we have to create those bridges. Now. The Bill introduced by Eduardo Garcia, which unfortunately may not proceed out of Appropriations, is really the great opportunity that I want to advocate for, for someone, possibly David, since Eduardo is not coming back. To reintroduce what is known as the California-Mexico Higher Education Development and Academic Exchange Program. We had expected to get a lot more support, but of course we are realistic that there is no funding available due to the deficit.

At the same time, I want to share with you that we have now worked for the last 34 years with the López Obrador Administration. But collaboration agreements that we have with UNAM, with Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, with El Colegio De La Frontera Norte, Centro Cultural Santelonco, and many other institutions where we have built this relationship independent of my previous role as a Professor at Cal State Long Beach. And I'm glad to hear that Adela is going to be with us.

I met Adela when she was the Department Chair of Chicano Studies at Cal State. I look forward to hearing your remarks. My own beginning was at Cal State Long Beach in 1969, when I was one of the student leaders established the Chicano Studies Department at Cal State Long Beach. And I have been pursuing this day where we can create this relationship with Mexico. Specifically, the academic exchange, which is almost none. The entire Cal State system sends to Mexico less than 100 per year. That was before the pandemic.

I have no idea how much, if they have already ramped up the program, which has been traditionally to a private University. And given the success that we have had with our Dreamer study grad program, that over the last 10 years, I have taken 25 groups, over 800 participants that have been able to return 100%, and that - through that process they clear their prior undocumented entry.

And this is when it dawned upon me that I needed to promote a concept, an idea that Eduardo was so engaged with, and introduced his AB 2852 legislation. And that continues to be to me a high priority because we have literally no institutional linkages. I know San Diego State has had for decades, a significant amount of interactions. University of California in San Diego and some of the other UC campuses. UC has a Casa California, Mexico City, but we really have a very disproportionate amount of researchers of academic and student exchange. And this is also what I really, really appreciate.

The leadership of David Alvarez in his AB 2633 Bill, which promotes the idea, authorizes the CSU to create joint degrees with international institutions. Specifically, the example that he provides is the work that the UC is doing already .... And so finally, I wanted to give you this perspective. AB 2852 was proposed with the following concept, that we needed to create a new fund that would be bi-national, that would be with matching from Mexico, but also that would eliminate international tuition, because Mexico has sent all of their elite students to the elite universities in the United States, and very few come to California.

They send them to the Ivy League schools and pay $60,000 , $70,000 on more in tuition per year. The concept of Eduardo's Bill was to create a fund, but also what I proposed to him is that we would do an equal exchange, one to one exchange. You send me one, I send you one, and nobody pays out of state tuition. The CSU has been paying private tuition, first to the Iberoamericana University, and then now with the Tec de Monterrey in Querétaro, and isolating our students to a very distant place from the heart of Mexico, which is Mexico City.

So I just wanted to give you a short background about my experience over the years. I mentioned already my connection to Cal State Long Beach, and of course, also in the 1990s, I worked for three years at the CSU Chancellor's Office, in the office of International Programs. And that's when I realized that we were doing very little exchange. But 30 years later, the numbers have not changed. And the irony that we send less than 100 to Mexico and we send 500 to Spain, and let me tell you, that has to change. And it's not going to change unless there's new funding.

And with the concept of a one to one exchange, we eliminate the most costly aspect of student exchange. And of course we need to promote regional academic and research exchange and there's no funding for that. There has been never any commitment for that initiative. And this is what we need to promote, especially in this era that is changing.

We just had a meeting with Konaseet, which is the counterpart to NSA, and also it provides the funding for all the scholarships to study abroad in Mexico, is very interested in this concept and we wanted to get an initiative before the end of this Administration. But let me tell you, I am sure, because we have become very closely connected with Claudia Scheinbaum. In fact, she gave me the key to Mexico City in the summer of 2022, after she hosted a day long seminar with a group of my Dreamers.

And of course, last summer, I brought to the stage to welcome her at one of her informational assemblies, Karina Ruiz, who happens to be a 39 year old Dreamer, who is already a grandmother of three grandchildren and three US born children. And she is dynamite. She is a national Dreamer leader out of Arizona and who will become the first Mexican immigrant to be in the Senate of Mexico for the next six years. And of course, we anticipate that we will be able to get her to head the Commission on migration and borders. So I'm really excited to share this background because I think that this is just the beginning.

What could be a wonderful relationship if we can bring to the table educational leaders, policymakers, and of course I'm glad to come after the presentation by Margarita and the great work that Manos has been doing, because we also need to bring to the table the private sector, the corporate world, because let's put it this way, we are each other's number one business partner.

The region, the mega region, is composed of 170 million people, 130 million in Mexico. And half of the 40 million, or almost half of the 40 million Californians are of Mexican origin. So what's wrong with this picture? We need to create a synergy for us to plan for the future. And of course, the key factors is the labor force preparation at all levels. It also has to do with the educational planning on a long range of how higher education can prepare the economy of California and Mexico to remain competitive. And the fifth economy of the world, the 12 economy of the world. And actually to advance that. And then finally, needless to say, is the people to.

People relationship that we need to promote. Not only do we have our very, very strong presence of the Mexican and Latino culture, but we need to also promote the research and the policies that relate to energy. Mexico has one of the highest concentrations of lithium.

I know that Eduardo has already been pioneering the relationship with some of the folks in Sonora, but let's talk about are we ready for the next pandemic? We have no policies with Mexico in health. We have no policies to the issues that affect both parts of this mega economy that has to do with water sources, that has to do with climate and environmental issues, as well as, of course, the border issues.

And it has been almost entirely, our concern has been almost entirely on the border region and issues that pertain to immigration. It's beyond that. It's an economic agenda, it's a labor force agenda, and finally, I would say also is recognizing that the population is predominantly Mexican, Mexican origin, and that's what we'll continue to make the backbone of the economy's labor force, but also of higher education.

And I want to just close by saying that I really, really appreciate David's leadership in passing and having the Governor sign AB 91, that now allows for the--we call them cachanillas--the students from Baja California that cross over every day to study in the San Diego region, to attend college, community colleges with a paid tuition.

And these are the kinds of ideas, as I proposed already, that we need to explore what the Europeans have been doing for more than 50 years, which is want to change no international tuition to profiteer from, and also because they promote mobility, multilingual exchange, and California and Mexico, and let me repeat that: California and Mexico both have to become bilingual.

And we have a partner in my initiative in the CSU San Bernardino campus that will feature this in September at his annual lead summit, Dr. Enrique Murillo, and we expect to meet the policymakers, the academic leaders of Mexico, that we have been engaging in this concept as well down south.

And certainly we hope to have the participation of California higher education leaders and legislators. So let me leave it at that because I know I covered quite a bit and we may have questions to respond to later on. Thank you for inviting me, and I look forward to the interaction.

Thank you, Dr. Please stay tuned. I know there will be questions for you. We will move on to our third panelist, Adela de la Torre, President of San Diego State University. Welcome, and thank you for being here.

Good morning, Chair and Members. I want to thank all of you. I also want to thank Armando and Margarita. Yes, I know them both. It's a small world, but I also want to speak about something today that I think is pretty remarkable and give kudos to my faculty and staff in developing a very unique center: the Center for Mesoamerican Studies in Oaxaca.

This was established in 2022, and with the idea of creating an environment where we could foster transborder diplomacy, cross disciplinary relationships, and binational cooperation. So the Center is actually the only physical entity of a U.S. institution in Oaxaca. So I think it's important to understand that San Diego State has had a long history in binational cooperation.

But this, I think, is very unique, and what it does provide is classroom space, it provides office, event space, staff, support staff, students, and faculty. Again, just think for a moment: many times, a lot of the barriers of why people don't go to Mexico is there's not a space that they can go to. Yes, they can go to a hotel, they can walk around a city.

They may be able to visit people, but this is really an investment of the institution in order to support this type of regional partnerships. We actually have equipped it such that even the Internet that is used--Engine Room--which is used throughout the country by universities, it enhances security, so if people are doing any type of research, we really make sure that the people that are doing this, as well as our students, have the kind of connections that are supported by our CSU system.

So, in a nutshell, we view it at San Diego State that this is the heart of our educational research and professional development in Mexico. So you might ask, why Oaxaca? And so if you know Mexican history, you know Oaxaca is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse state in Mexico.

Not to mention aside, Porfirio Diaz was from there, Benito Juárez was there from there, but it also holds the highest percentage of native and indigenous language speakers in Mexico. So you have 16 native languages and more than 150 dialects of these languages.

It has amazing archaeological sites, the complex, very complex ecosystem in terms of biodiversity, deep agricultural history, cultural heritage, and a village life that provides a rich environment for cutting edge research into the origins and impact within the state and beyond.

So in the 1960s and 70s, many Oaxacans migrated to the United States in response to the social strife and economic decline settling in California. So today, the Golden State has the country's largest population of indigenous Mesoamerican communities and the largest concentration of indigenous Oaxacans. So right now, it's estimated that in California, we have 350,000 Oaxacans.

Many of them live in the Central Valley, Central Coast, San Francisco, metropolitan area of LA, and San Diego County. So the relationship between Oaxacacalifornia, and San Diego State University is quite extensive. So just a little bit of history of San Diego State: we were founded in 1897, so we're the second oldest CSU in the system, and we're the oldest university in the San Diego region. We also have a moniker that's called the Aztec, which was adopted by students in 1925.

And there was considerable thought given to the name, taking into account the importance of the legacy of the region's history. But particularly the Aztec, who is what we--that is our moniker--is a symbol of strength and pride, often associated with the resistance of the Spanish conquerors who sought to systematically exploit indigenous peoples, like many in southern states.

Oaxacans suffered exploitation at the hands of Spaniards, primarily consisting of forced labor, over-discrimination, cultural language repression, and loss of land. As California experienced an influx of Oaxacans, the Chicano Movement was at its peak, and the Aztec symbol continued to be emblematic of this strength and pride for Chicanos.

You know, since I was a chair of chicano studies many, many times, I have to speak about this intersection. For me, it's organic, it is natural because we really--when we look at our own identity structure, chicano studies played a critical role. So when we look at our movement, we look at the fact that we trace our roots back to the Aztec Empire, of which the people of Oaxaca were a significant part. The Aztec symbol provided strength to rise above the forces seeking to subjugate, and in many ways eradicate the heritage of their indigenous past.

Leaders of the movement pushed for and succeeded in changing American society. Significant gains in education, land reclamation, and labor were largely due to chicano leaders like Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Corky Gonzalez, and Reies Lopez Tijerina.

These leaders' success in elevating these social inequalities is critically important today, as a large number of Oaxacans are farm workers who continue to face social disparities, and at the same time, their positive impact on California's economy is important to understand and celebrate.

So SDSU continues to recognize and honor the multiple ways in which our faculty, staff, and students relate to our Aztec identity, embracing our proximity to the Mexican border in both San Diego and Imperial Counties, and the strong presence of Mesoamericans in this great state.

In fact, we solidified our commitment to developing these strong ties by incorporating in our, and memorializing our cross border goals into our global strategic plan, a blueprint for research R1 status, which included international research, internship, and study abroad programs.

I just want to take a moment because San Diego State feels very strongly about us as the state's transborder institution. We are the only university that has a major presence in the San Diego region and Imperial Valley, and we celebrate this relationship that has been going on for decades.

So it is something that is really critical to our identity as an institution. So in addition to our education and research efforts, SDSU continues to develop widespread awareness about the Aztec heritage in its artwork, architecture, agricultural impact, even in its delicious and healthy cuisine.

So for those who've gone to the stadium, you can have actually Aztec-infused food, such as chapulines, which are delicious if you ever have the opportunity. So there's a longstanding interconnectedness with a unique and shared culture and experience that transcends our geographical boundaries and forms one whole region we probably call Oaxacalifornia and why we're having this Center for Mesoamerican Studies in Oaxaca. It makes sense. So our faculty are collaborating in Oaxaca, and it's vibrantly and growing.

In fact, one of the things that we have right now, within the last two years, we have about two dozen faculty who conduct research across fields in anthropology, biology, climate change, public health, indigenous languages and culture, environmental science, identity empowerment, migrant youth, and community development.

Since May 2022, the launch of the Center in Oaxaca, our faculty have conducted at least 11 intensive research projects with over 30 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. This year, our faculty partnered with UNAM, the National Autonomous University or Universidad Nacional Autonoma, Oaxaca, and INA, the National Institute of Anthropology or Instituto Nacional de Antropología Historia, Oaxaca, to research migration across time and space among Miztec and Zapotec communities in Oaxaca, in Baja California, and Southern California.

In the same year, we partnered with SDSU's Miztec instructor on a three-year research project focused on food insecurity, climate change, and migration. The project documented the shifts in food preferences, accessibility, and health practices, along with adaptations in farming, as a result of return migration and climate change.

We also are continuing to collaborate with the library centers in Oaxaca through our SDSU university library. Our library is currently engaged in developing partnerships with libraries, archives, museums in Mexico, including the Biblioteca de Investigación Juan de Córdova in Oaxaca.

We engage in joint projects focused on the digitization, description, and provision of access to library materials that have been funded through grants provided by San Diego State University, the University of California Los Angeles, Modern Endangered Archives Project, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

We're working extensively on developing an online collection of 20th century indigenous language resources for use in research and teaching. These legacy materials will be an invaluable resource for researchers as well as for speakers of those endangered languages.

In addition, the project will further library science investigations by creating and displaying multilingual metadata and exploring the support of multilingual services across these areas. A future project, fully funded by SDSU's Division of Research Innovation, will incorporate student assistance from fields such as library science, history, and linguistics to help complete the work.

The university library is currently pursuing opportunities for additional project partnerships with the Biblioteca Francisco de Borgoa and the Archivo General de Estado De Oaxaca, El Colegio De Mexico, and Igbo Archivos and a cooperation and integration initiative of Igbo American countries, articulated and ratified by the Bureau of American Summits of heads of state and government to promote access, organization, description, conservation, and dissemination of documentary heritage.

I just want to say something. I've kind of told you all of this, but I just want to reflect on this. So I've personally done work in Oaxaca for decades. I wanted to just mention that one of the things that has been really, I think, of critical importance is the loss of language and the implications of loss of language and culture for these indigenous communities. And the fact that we at San Diego State have not only leaned into this, but actually have invested--we actually just hired a new librarian who will be working in Mexico.

And recognizing that Presidente López Obrador commissioned, if you will, all the archives to be placed in the public archive library in Oaxaca, yet they don't have the staff or capacity to do the digitization that is critical for preservation, is really important to understand.

So we've deeply committed to this enterprise, and I think it's paying off, not in terms of just the fact that our folks are going down, but these folks are working with us. So we are working with them to do what is best for them. The other area that I wanted to talk about is the whole idea of professional development and the importance of that for faculty, staff, and students and administrators.

In other words, we need to proactively--and this is what we're doing here--really be proactive in expanding the knowledge and understanding of indigenous heritage in ways in which we can honor, respect, and provide accurate knowledge of the peoples of the Aztec Empire.

You know, we talk about it oftentimes in a very kind of superficial manner, but for us as Mexicans, as Chicanos and Mexican Americans, regaining an understanding, respecting the history, supporting is very critical. And so the projects that we're developing here and the relationship as embracing Oaxacacalifornia, is one of the things that's very important.

So one of the fun projects that we have done with our chefs is that we began a program because of chef training. So last year, we sent four of our SDSU chefs who work for our auxiliary Aztec Shops, and they spent nine days training with chefs in Oaxaca in order to fully embrace the kinds of local, indigenous foods and integrate it into our foods. And so now we offer a menu Azteca.

That's actually a real menu rooted in the culture, and it's been quite remarkable. So, for example, if you haven't tried our tamal Azteca or chocolate Azteca--it's a spicy chocolate drink--it's fabulous. And so, also, as I mentioned, you should also try the chapulines, because we add them with toasted peanuts, chili peppers, lime, and garlic.

It's quite delicious con una cerveza. So we are going to be sending another group, but the idea here is we embrace, we share, we learn, and we really are creating, I think, a really important synergy. Now, I also want to talk about some of the relationships and agreements we've developed in Oaxaca. So the Center is really, really committed.

This is not a one-off. It was mentioned about the Center, the Casa in Mexico City, which, when I was at UC Davis for 16 years, I was deeply involved. I was deeply involved in Conace, I was deeply involved in these types of programs, but it really creates a really institutional presence and a commitment in order to make these things work. So we've been really working with scholars and universities to create these agreements.

So, as we mentioned, we are working with the research libraries, we've established formal relationships, we've committed resources, and we're working in programming, specific programming, and we're doing this in a very respective, respectful and inclusive and creating this active participation.

So we have the research collaboration with the research library, the Córdova, which, this is the largest collection of indigenous textual materials in Mexico, which are housed in a climate control vault that serves to assure the preservation of these materials. It's directed by Dr. Michael Swanton. The library works with indigenous communities to house, restore, and preserve their textual materials.

We're working strongly with BIJC to digitize a rare and significant collection of materials that were originally created to teach indigenous people to speak Spanish, but are now being used to reverse to help Spanish speakers recapture and revitalize indigenous languages. So this preservation is important.

We've established a deep relationship with La Salle, Universidad de La Salle, a private university with outstanding faculty in the areas of Spanish language acquisition, food sciences, nursing, kinesiology, and tourism development. SDSU has established programming with the Department of Education's programs in global literacy.

We have 26 doctoral and undergraduate education students participate in May, and more programs are developing. So think about it. This is less than two years and we have 26 doctoral programs already working in Oaxaca. Then we have SURCO, the University Services Networks of Knowledge on servicios, Networks of Knowledge, and SURCO is an organization that provides support to the U.S. and European universities in developing study abroad programs in Oaxaca, as well as offering their own program in environmental sustainability and ecotourism.

SURCO serves a primary third party entity for our study abroad internship programs, allowing us to grow our programs. Another important relationship is with the University of Technology of the Central Valles, and it was established--we established this relationship early on in 2012, and this focuses on sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, ecotourism, and hospitality development of indigenous communities, and we're now collaborating.

Our faculty--we have a five million dollar grant with U.S. Department of Ag to investigate the impact of mezcal distillation and climate change on small scale farming. Mezcal is incredibly popular and is a growing source of resources to the state. And then we have also a collaboration with our Archivo General de Estados de Oaxaca. This is the state archives of Oaxaca that hold materials associated with establishment of Oaxaca in 1512 and carry through the present.

In 2018, Mexico President López Obrador directed that relevant archival materials from other museums or archives be returned to Oaxaca. So SDSU is developing an internship and digitization project to support the movement of these materials to public access. Then our faculty-led programs: many SDSU students and faculty enjoy study abroad programs in Oaxaca.

Since 2023, the Center has hosted 140 students and faculty who chose Oaxaca for a structured educational program. Of the 13 study abroad programs and internships offered, nine were focused on indigenous communities, languages, and cultures. In fact, SDSU is renowned for its indigenous language programming in both San Diego and Oaxaca that includes Nahuatl, Miztec, and Zapotec.

For SDSU, the preservation and teaching of Nahuatl, which is viewed as the language of the Aztecs, has especially deep cultural identity and political significance for the region. Some of our SDSU's recent study abroad programs in Oaxaca will include: in 2024, 12 associated student leaders, four from the SDSU Imperial Valley, and eight from San Diego participated in an immersion program focused on lives of indigenous communities of the Aztec Empire from pre-content to contemporary times. Students learned from farmers, domestic cooks, artisans, and small businesses.

Also in 2023-24, 72 students participated in multiple programs: global education with La Salle University, a community-based participatory research program that works on issues of climate change, food security, and the impact of migration on Miztec and Zapotec communities of Ixpantepec Nieves, San Pablo Huizo, and Maxochil, Xóchitl, and Sola De Vega.

There was a two-week Sustainable Food Futures Internship, a six-week immersion program in the Miztec language that is open to other universities through the Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Title VI Program. Participants included students from Stanford University, Trinity University, along with registered nurses from Madero, and a six-week immersion program in Zapotech language and is open to other universities. I might tell you this, just an aside.

I've been contacted by other university presidents, researchers, because of this deep interest in having a site where you can focus in the areas of indigenous languages and culture. It is very unique, and it's very, very important in terms of this preservation. So our students and faculty began traveling to Oaxaca to expand their research fields, as I said.

2022 was the opening of the Center, but we've been able to produce 56 masters thesis and 13 doctoral dissertations related to the work in the area of Oaxaca and with the impact of the Center--and this is not even--we're just beginning, so this is almost, we just opened our doors.

We're very excited about additional doctorate degrees and dissertations. We're hoping, obviously, that we can do this binationally with other faculty and students. We have just funded 15 graduate students to conduct preliminary research in Oaxaca through the Tinker Field Research Collaborative Grant through the Center for Latin American Studies in 23 and 24.

We have, as I said, our undergraduate program is very unique. So our associated students actually have funded 40,000 dollars a year to fund students going to Oaxaca. This is out of their own fees. They have made this decision. This is largely because we send all of our associated student leaders to Oaxaca. They have an immersion program, and they're eyes are open in ways that they recognize this is an opportunity for students. So I also want to say that there also are students in the Imperial Valley funded out of their student fees, 5,000 dollars a year.

So just think about, these are students who, out of their money, are funding students to go to Oaxaca. So we have another very important program which is our Child Family Health International Program. Child Family Health International is the gold standard for clinical rotations in Latin America, and they've agreed to partner with us.

They have partnered with Stanford, I led a program at Davis, they have programs with Hopkins, but our students are now working with faculty in Oaxaca in order to enhance their understanding and cultural sensitivity about these issues. We plan to continue to expand, and we're hoping again to embrace this opportunity to not only create partnerships there, but also Oaxacacalifornia benefit.

When these students come back as practitioners, as nurses, they can practice with the cultural sensitivity and the language sensitivity. So we're gonna have a lot of events happening. We've had them, such as the Alumni Association. We've had events in November of 22 and 24. We've had California legislative delegations on March in 23.

We had a Women in Violence conference with a Center for Research and Superior Studies in Anthropology, CIESAS, in 23. We had the Center for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage with the Smithsonian Museums in August 23, and as I mentioned, our students retreats, which will be happening annually. So we're hoping to continue in this direction with faculty-led programs, support, and I also welcome any questions, but as you can see, we're really busy in Oaxaca. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Thank you for your presentations, all three of you. I'd like to open it up for questions and center us around the issue, and, you know, it was said earlier, the agendas around the economy, labor force, higher education, and all of you cover all three of those particular areas, and so please, I'll open it up for any colleagues. I'll look to my right. Mr. Alvarez.

Thank you, and thank you to all three of you for your presence today. I think one of the things that we perhaps didn't, I didn't state in my opening statements, and we sometimes just take things for granted, but research does demonstrate that programs with exchanges and with students who go study abroad help produce students that are more well-rounded, more prepared for the workforce, and that's the significance of these opportunities.

And so I wanted to just state that at the beginning, as there is evidence and research-based evidence that demonstrates this and why this is such an important conversation. I'm going to try to just ask one question of the three of you so we can get others to have an opportunity to share. I think the first question is to our first presenter on the MANOS Program, and just, just curious, I saw there were, there were partnerships with institutions.

And since we're focused on educational exchanges, I'm trying to understand exactly how institutions participate with the MANOS Program to make sure that students have these experiences, particularly in this case in the different regions of Mexico, as your map on third slide demonstrate. Like, what are those relationships and what is that pipeline and how can we--what is it, and how can we ensure that more, there's access to more and more participation?

Let me get more information on that for you. My understanding is that the students come to visit the campuses as part--as also in addition to the Silicon Valley companies. So it's an opportunity to see the surroundings, to understand what the different opportunities are in California, but if you don't mind, I will ask Sylvia to get back to you, the CEO.

Yeah, it'd be great to have a follow-up opportunity to learn more. To Professor Vazquez-Ramos, you mentioned your experience as the in the CSU Chancellor's Office working on international opportunities and how the numbers haven't really changed since you were there many years ago.

I'd just be interested, generally, how many students in the CSU system do you estimate are actually participating in study abroad programs? And you mentioned Spain being, you know, one where there's 500 students, I think, per year, you mentioned. So that seems to be a popular destination, but could you give us just a general sense of where our students are having these experiences?

Well, to begin with, the pandemic would all study abroad to halt, and today, higher education study abroad is revamping throughout the United States. I am not aware right now exactly how much progress has been made by the CSU international programs, and my reference to the, the program with Mexico, I believe, has been no more than 70, 75 per year. There has been a lack of leadership, a lack of commitment, an then let me just comment briefly that you are doing amazing work, and I wish that could be replicated with every campus in the CSU.

The UC undoubtedly has been involved with Mexico, but in proportion to the size of our student enrollments, the CSU is half a million, almost half a million students. The UC has probably about half that many, but undoubtedly now, we're approaching almost half of the student body in the CSU being Latino, Chicano Latino.

In the UC system, there's slightly less, but even the community colleges, now we're more than half up and down the state. So the question here is how much leadership needs to be provided, and then I think that you probably have the legacy of San Diego State University for decades to be the closest to the border, but also the one that has had most activity with Mexico. And what we're lacking in the CSU is a--

Mexico initiative, like the UC has had for at least the last 20 years. And in this context, it's a broad agenda. There needs to be a plan. We need to develop, like the 1960 higher education plan in California. Master plan. A master plan for California-Mexico higher education, because we're looking at all fields of study. And, of course, who's the population that is in the pipeline? And on both sides of the border is the Mexican Chicano Latino population. So I think that that's the focus that has been lacking in Mexico. There's only one campus. It's a private University that's system wide.

The CSU Chancellor's Office coordinates a program, but it's done through each campus, which, if you take the average, it's probably about three or four students that per campus go to this program in Mexico at the Tec De Monterrey in Querétaro. Now, the comparison with Spain is that the lure of Europe, traveling in Europe is the magnet.

But also, higher education has had decades long relationships to promote language learning, but also for those places in the far east, of course, in Europe, throughout Europe, Germany, France, Britain, and, of course, many other places except south of the border, because there's also very little bit of academic exchanges taking place with any South American nations. So, again, this is a critical point of view that has always been, as Rudy Acuña says, Anything But Mexican.

We have a tremendous human capital south of the border if we just focus on this mega region, California-Mexico. And, of course, the most important aspect of this is how lives are changed. Undoubtedly, this is what has been generated by all of these wonderful programs that you're doing down there, Adela, because it reinforces. And the comment that you made referencing the funding that's provided by the ASI is because you have engaged them. And of course we have. It doesn't really come as part of the CSU's international programs record.

Many of the programs, like I did for many years, are student led, and there's very little record of how many of those programs are being done. So I think a good question would be to ask all three systems to provide data. What has been the pattern over the last 8-10 years? Granted, there's a halt for at least three years during the pandemic, but I testified before the Ben Wessel Senate Committee on California-Mexico Affairs, and what I presented was that there was consistently 70 to 75 students from entire half a million students in the CSU that had attended this program in Mexico for language acquisition.

Now, the flip side of that is, how many students are we getting from Mexico to any of the three systems of higher education, they don't come to California. Mexico has been stuck in this ... mentality, which I believe that is going to change. And I think that this is the time to promote this idea of a one to one exchange. We also need to get those human capital come to California.

Thank you, Doctor. Thank you very much. I think you raised certainly some questions that for me remain. As you stated, we have heard many prominent Mexican civic leaders, particularly who tend to have an Ivy League education. And why not California? I think that's certainly a good question. Revisiting the master plan, certainly at the time of the 1960s, there was sort of this vision of how, what each of the systems did. We have, I think, little by little, even in the last few years, started to change what the systems do and what we allow them to offer.

And I think as the workforce changes, require us to be more, require our students, who tend to seek professional degrees at the CSU system, they need to be well versed in the more open, dynamic world that we live in. And so this is why these make sense. Last question I'll ask to President de la Torre is maybe from an institution standpoint, what are some of the challenges that remain in instituting programs? You talked about funding is always an easy answer, so maybe, you know, you don't need to tell me, talk to me about that.

I know how you've been creative there, thanks to your students. But, you know, what are some of the other barriers that remain if we wanted to really create and support the CSU system in particular and each campus in order to be able to further develop these programs. Because the examples you gave, there's people who have had experience, students have had experience experiences, but they haven't really been beyond, perhaps it sounds like a short, very short period of time. It hasn't been full immersion, and there's costs associated to that and there's staff associated to that.

So I'm just trying to understand what are the barriers that would remain if we really wanted to break down those barriers without really giving too much to. Yeah, I do have a, because we're not discussing Bills in this Committee, but, you know, trying to allow CSU to offer joint degrees so they can really work in partnership, hand in hand with Mexican institutions. But what other barriers remain?

So, you know, I think one of the things that strikes me. I had 16 years in the UC system, so I have a comparison, and I was very involved with the UC MEXUS Program and also in ... exchanges and represented actually the system in some of the programs down in Mexico. The CSU really does not have a bi-national Committee.

We don't really have this broader vision of where we fit. And I think it becomes very difficult to plan, if you're thinking about, you know, as Armando mentioned, you're talking about a very large system, and I have to laugh about Rudy Acuña's book, Anything But Mexican. It's kind of one of those things, right? Because, you know, I think Armando and I had, and I'm sure Margarita, for decades, have been working on the idea of making Mexico an equal partner in these discussions when we talk about research and teaching and professional development.

So you're really talking about a need for, I think, a, you know, a Committee that, in my, similar to UC MEXUS, is something that would allow us to begin to talk about this in a strategic way. It has never really been, since I've been President the last six years, and I was at Long beach, too, so I was many years ago. But my point here is that kind of conversation hasn't been brought to the forefront. I think there is an opportunity, and I do think our new chancellor is very committed to understanding that.

I think for a campus like San Diego S, it's funny because I'm used to fronteriza. That's what I am. I lived in Arizona. I was at U of A for six years, been here six years. But living on the border, as you well know, Assemblymember Alvarez, all of it is, you have to be. There's a fluidity there. You really need to understand and embrace that the reasons you look at these policies in a joint way isn't because you're trying to upset the master plan or change the rules. It's that many of our students, particularly in Imperial Valley, but also in San Diego, they live across the border, right. They come to school here.

They have family members that can benefit. And when we talk about things like the region that we live in, the San Diego Imperial Valley region, we need to create a local labor force to accelerate it. Right. So it speaks to some of the broader things that you're interested in that are not money centric, although money is important. But if you create, if you will, the kind of synergy of like mindedness with experience and cultural sensitivity and awareness. Right. You're going to have a different conversation. That being said, I can also be critical that the UC MEXUS program hasn't delivered in its promises as well. Armando is right. He doesn't know the data.

But I remember going down to UNAM looking at. There was a promise for these exchanges. Very few UC students go to Mexico. In fact, the program I had in Oaxaca was probably. This was when I was at Davis, and I led a program there. Was probably one of the largest number of students from the UC system that went into Mexico. So it speaks to a couple of things. One, we need to create the kind of structure. So this doesn't cost money, but it does.

You need to have the type of leadership and experience to really think about how we support this type of policy. We need to create the mechanism in which our students can afford to go. And that's where it's not impossible. Through, you know, semester programs, you can have, you know, their financial aid cover those costs. You have to have, you know, the synergy of the faculty supporting it, which, again, not difficult, that, as I said, the Oaxaca center. It's a San Diego State Center, but it's really open to anyone who wants to come and coordinate an activity that benefits the broader mission of that center.

Thank you. Appreciate that. I'm gonna let our colleagues say a few words and ask some questions. Miss Soria?

Yeah. Thank you, and good morning. And thank you to all the panelists for the great information that you guys shared. I'm from the Central Valley. I represent the counties of Fresno, Madera, and Merced, where we do have a big Oaxacan population. Actually, in fact, just a few years ago, we elected the first Mixteca to sit on the Madera City Council. She's the first ever. I believe there's two Oaxaqueños elected for City Council.

So I just wanted to put that out there, because I am very proud that in our community, we are beginning to see the Oaxacan community really be seen and be represented and be part of the power structures in our communities. Just remarkable to see what San Diego State is doing with the Oaxacan center. Didn't know all the work. So given the fact that we have such a strong population in the valley, I'd love to just kind of follow up and see if there are any future opportunities for partnership.

Also, as a participant of the education abroad program, when I was at UC Berkeley, I was one of those students that ended up going to Spain. Years later, wishing that I would have done something in Mexico, because I am a first generation daughter of Michoacanos. But it seemed like those programs when I was at Berkeley weren't being pushed as much then, obviously going to Europe. But I am a strong believer of these exchange programs. I do believe that we have to do better.

I'm looking forward to really figuring out next steps to be able to push both the UC and also CSUs to maybe work in a much more collaborative fashion and figure out how we strengthen the programs. I also share that I represent UC Merced and that is a Hispanic serving institution. And what an incredible opportunity there is to make sure that our Latino students from UC Merced have some of the same equal opportunities to go abroad. And then also just wanted to ask a question, and I don't know how it works.

I know that there's a lot of our students that are DACA. How does it work? Are they eligible to participate in any of these education abroad programs, especially given the fact that I'm learning about the Oaxacan center and just the connections that are in the valley with the Oaxacan community and the students that are going to hire institutions of education? Just interested in kind of that.

Professor. If you could just quickly respond to that. I know the answer is yes, but just a little context. We have other Members who'd like to ask questions, too.

Yeah, I'll make it very brief. The only way that you can do it is if the participant has DACA status. DACA provides what is known as advanced parole, which is a conditional permit to travel abroad and return lawfully if it's for an educational, employment, or humanitarian reasons. When they return. I'm not sure. Yeah, you have. You can hear me, right? Yes.

Yes, we can.

Okay. Okay. So when they return, they actually clear the prior undocumented entry when they were brought in as children. And that was the original intent of my program because we wanted to empower Dreamers. Within six months through marriage, they get their green card without having to go back and wait for it in ....

And then ultimately what it amounts to is that the institutions need to provide the attention. There is little or no higher education institutions that have taken the risk that have decided to commit the resources through international programs. All CSUs, all UC, and even community colleges have international study abroad programs.

Thank you.

But there's the question, reliability and image media.

That's a great response.

Okay. And then just lastly, just because I have to also leave, I just want to make a comment on. I know I'm getting ahead of the second panel, but I'm very interested in the Mexican pilot program, especially given the fact that the Central Valley has a significant Doctor shortage.

So I will be following up with you guys. I have to step away to another thing, but I did just want to make those comments. Obviously, there's been a lot of success from what I've, you know, been able to briefly read. And so I look forward to working with folks on that issue.

Thank you, Miss Soria. Mister Gipson.

Thank you very much. Real quick, because I also have to run. We are just busy today in the Legislature with our nonprofit, but Doctor Vasquez-Ramos, thank you very much. It's good seeing you again. Thank you. We met in 2023 in my office. He gave me a book. We talked about a HR with the 11 million undocumented immigrants, and a pardon, if you can recall. And I'm still motivated to work with you in that regard.

And so for me, I represent Compton, Carson, North Long Beach Harbor Gateway, North and South Harbor City, and also Wilmington. And also my nephew is from Mexico City. Came to this country looking for a better place and of opportunities. And so from that union, I have biracial nieces and nephews, and we embrace them in our family in so many different ways. And also the work that we've done.

When I was the Chair of CSG West with our border states of Mexico, had an opportunity to meet your. At the end, she was a candidate running for President, and of course, grateful that she is President now. I had opportunity to meet her personally. And so my question is real quick is, what should we do? What should we do? What can I walk away with? With some tangibles?

We've talked about a number of different things, and I've tried to write those things down about relationships with the CSUs and UCs, and elevating a space there to create a relationship, international relationship, relationship that will of course, embrace students from Mexico to coming to the United States and things of that nature. But what can we do as a Legislature, given the fact we don't have any money right now?

You know, I.

Uh, I.

I think President de la Torre is gonna give a response here.

So what I would suggest is going back to the idea of creating these types of commit - you know, basically leadership is key in here, meaning you need to go to the top, just like with the presidents. I mean, the Oaxaca center was completely supported in the vision that I shared with the faculty and students. Right.

And we invested strategically in this area. So I do think the way to move forward is to really create the types of structures internally within the system itself. I will say that I know the chancellor, from my conversations, is very committed to these - enhancing these relationships. So the CSU system, to my knowledge, maybe it's dormant somewhere, doesn't really have a structure that is focused on Mexico or bi-national relationships in higher education. The UC has one, but it's also not been as effective.

They have UC MEXUS at UC Riverside that has a funding mechanism, but system wide, there's never will has been in my mind a vision or call of a Committee of individuals with expertise and interests and commitment. I will say that there are many presidents, I think, that would embrace this opportunity. You know, I would say President from Fresno, the President from San Jose. There are a number of presidents that I know would be very interested in the CSU. So I do think that doesn't cost money, but it allows you to create a system wide approach to leverage what we have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Gipson. Miss Cervantes.

If I can make.

Yeah, if you want to give a brief response. Cause he's gonna.

Yeah, just a quick response. I think there's three tangibles. One that we need to propose a CSU Mexico initiative and to build upon what the UC system has done with its success and its limitations. The other is to immediately request you, as the Committee can request, the data, let's say, for the last 10 years of study abroad in Mexico from all three systems. And the last would be to engage all three systems. Have a talk with the chancellors as well as the President of the UC.

Thank you. Very helpful. Thank you. Miss Cervantes.

Yes. Well, first off, thank you so much to each of the panelists for joining us today. President de la Torre. Being busy was certainly an understatement. We know how important these cultural immersion programs are as they really transform students perspective of self and others. And so we know that we need to do better.

And this is an economic agenda as well as a labor agenda, as was mentioned earlier. And as Chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus, I'm really encouraged by today's discussions and really our intentions to maximize our transit border relationships and really further develop meaningful dialogue. And so these issues are of importance to many of my colleagues and caucus Members. So certainly look forward to having further discussion and how we could further collaborate.

Thank you. Yes, closing comments, please.

Yeah, just listening to all of this. I am a descendant of both Zapotec and Mixtec, My parents, my father was a bracero from Oaxaca who came to Sacramento, and I had a very formative cultural immersion leadership development moment when at the age of 15, I was allowed by my parents to travel to Mexico. It was my own version of study abroad, and I went to Bellas Artes to learn Folklorico dance. This was before I knew that later in life I was going to become an engineer, that I was going to graduate from Stanford University. My parallel life has been La Cultura.

As a teenager, started a Folklorico group here in Sacramento, we taught over 60 students. I know all the dances from La Guelaguetza. Very familiar with, ethnically is what I'm trying to say. I built a base that I didn't realize was going to translate into leadership. What do I mean by that? Every time I was told, maybe you can't do this, I remembered what someone told me, that the Zapotec and Mixtec excel at mathematics. So when I changed my major to engineering, I was not prepared. I wasn't typing in shorthand. But that cultural experience gave me the base to know who I am and where I came from.

I'm a former White House fellow. I've served in DC twice at the highest levels of governance. I was the first female elected to lead the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineership. And I've worked with startups related to Manos. You know, I worked with a startup that is taking renewable energy and desalinating water using renewable energy, not our traditional methods. I say all this because that Folklorico, which is totally doesn't seem related to studying engineering and the science is totally related in the sense of the leadership.

I heard this word many times today, so I want to leave you with that thought. I know we're thinking right now, University level college, and by the way, I've gone through the community college system, CSU and UC, but I ended up with a degree in engineering from Stanford. So I've been touched by all the institutions. My experience, I will remind you, was at the high school level. And I know that's beyond what we're thinking here, but it's something to think about. It's about leadership development. In the end, all of these experiences and really knowing who you are and where you come from.

Thank you for sharing that. It reminds me of what I learned when I did the visit, delegation visit, and I hope our colleagues get to come and visit Oaxaca and learn about some of the political system of usos and costumbres, which is a consensus building type of decision making, which certainly these days in our country would be a welcome thing. I want to thank all three of you. I know we have some work to do. You've given us all great feedback. We appreciate your time, and thank you very much for being here. We're going to recess for a second as we take the next panel and we wait for our chair to return. We'll be in recess.

Thank you.

All right, we're going to reconvene. Let's get started with our first presenter. And. All right, the honorable Arnoldo Torres.

And before my time starts and Fabiola starts timing me, I wanted to thank you for your initiative and recognizing, as you have said, that there is a phenomenal window open to do things that people have fantasized about that could be done with Mexico. And it is my hope that you will continue in that, in some role, in serving as liaison, in some official or unofficial but substantive role with this new Administration. We come to you because you are carrying some of our legislation.

But we in the year 1997, after NAFTA had passed, we were looking at a phenomenal movement of Mexicanos from Mexico to the United States. NAFTA was supposed to have created 1.5 million jobs. It created 750,000 jobs. The NAFTA agreement completely decimated the cooperative system in Mexico, thus completely causing many of the rural Mexicanos who were making a living through the cooperatives to seek employment in the urban centers. Those jobs were not there. As I indicated, they were along the Mexican border with maquiladoras.

Close to 700,000 jobs were created in the maquiladoras operation, but they primarily employed women. So where did the men go? The men came to the United States in a record movement of contemporary immigration from Mexico that we had not seen before, not since the 1960s and 70s. Most of them came into farmworkers throughout the southwest states, especially in California. And our clinics were confronted with the reality. We did not have the medical staff that spoke the language of the patients that we were seeing. And on top of that, we had a great movement from indigenous populations.

So we didn't have enough speaking Spanish, but we didn't have many or any that spoke the three major dialects from Oaxaca, Zapotec, Triqui, and Mixteco. And within those, you have Bajo y Alto. So you're looking at about six different dialects, which were primarily in the coastal valley, down in Ventura, Oxnard, and in Salinas. The two executive directors of that clinic talked about things that were happening that they could not understand. Women did not like to lay down when they were delivering. They wanted to stand up, allow the natural flow of the child to simply come out. They would not like the cord.

They didn't want the cord cut, umbilical cord cut, because when you cut it, it was a separation between mother and child, a very, very different, completely different approach to medicine. We were not prepared for any of that. Many men in their thirties had three wives, things that we had to report to the state because of the laws that we have to follow. These were really very significant challenges. Then we looked at what our profile was in the medical field of the workforce.

In 1999, 4% of all the doctors in the State of California, or better yet, in the nation, were of Hispanic descent. 5% of all of the dentists in California were of Hispanic descent. But we didn't know how many of those actually spoke Spanish and knew the culture of the day of the new Mexicano coming into the State of California. A very interesting fact now is that Deloitte for a business roundtable, Latino Physician Roundtable, has found that at California's current Latino MD graduate rates, which are 110 per year, the shortage would not be made up until the year 2515.

So anything that's going to be done to have more doctors that are Latino has to be done with Mexico. You cannot do anything to effectively deal with the challenges of a population that is now 40% Latino in the State of California. And the number of Latino doctors has not increased anywhere close consistent to that number. We're never like again. Parity 2515. So in the year 2000, we were very fortunate to work with Marco Antonio Fireball, a distinguished Member from LA, now deceased, and he had the gumption and the fortitude and leadership to help sponsor bills that we. A Bill that we wrote to bring doctors from Mexico.

We had no other choice but to look to Mexico to provide us with the avenue of creating access. If you have a Doctor that's Spanish surname, we do not assume anymore that they speak the language of the population. It would be a mistake. To assume that every Latino in a medical school is going to want to work in a health professional shortage area is an assumption that is far too incorrect. That just does not happen, and it has not happened up to now.

So these doctors that we finally were able to get legislation through, we were not able to implement this Bill until 2019. The first doctors came in in 2021. Why? Because the UC system did not want to cooperate with this program and provide the and sponsor the orientation program for the doctors from Mexico. There are three major studies that have been done on what UC is doing, on the creating more doctors that are Latino and that are culturally, linguistically competent. These three studies do not actually have you embracing what UC is doing.

A lot of money is being spent by UC, and the results are absolutely nowhere close to what the money that you're investing is paying for. We, in our opinion, cannot continue to depend on Mexico forever, but we cannot move forward without doing very, very clear things, and that is to expand this program. We have legislation now that will expand it. And by the year 2045, we would have had over 1000 doctors that have come in from Mexico every three years, beginning in 2025, we would have had over 1000 doctors.

Those thousand doctors will create the kind of access that these doctors that we have now, and the 30 doctors that were in the pilot since October 1, or better yet, since October 1 to May 31. Altogether, we have seen over 250,000 medical encounters to over 70,000 patients. That begins really in August of 2021 to May 31, 2024. Not all 2030 doctors have been practicing. 22 practiced until September, and we've had the remaining six. But the numbers are substantial. This is a point of access that we never thought would ever come about. The evaluation of the program, I think is in your folder.

We put in the legislation with Marco Antonio Fireball, that UC medical school would do an evaluation. UC Davis has done that. It's a one page summary read in conclusion, thus far, the doctors from Mexico program has strong positive feedback from all physicians. Integrated seamlessly, making healthcare more accessible and increasing patient trust.

Staff reported excellent patient care processes and a supportive environment. Doctors from Mexico demonstrated a solid understanding of California medical standards. So the idea that doctors from Mexico cannot cut it, or dentists from Mexico cannot cut it, is an attitude now that has changed somewhat. With the exception of the dentist. The dental board continues to put up a number of protests, not against our Bill, but against other measures that we believe they should be open to. Next year, unfortunately, your termed. It was our intention to come to you and to propose, and now to this Committee, any Member that's interested.

We will propose a pilot program to provide super specialties. Neurologists, neurologists, urologists, orthopedes, dermatologists, a number of different specialties. Not to come into California anymore, but we want them to see the patients via telemedicine and to be reimbursed by the Federal Government and by California's Medi-Cal program. We believe that this is the only way that our population is going to have fair access to very, very important specialty doctors that right now they are not open to.

UNAM did an evaluation and found that with internal medicine, with OBs from Mexico, and with pediatrics, the number of people seeking care in those three specialties increased substantially at all of the four clinic sites that are currently in the program. That shows you that there is a greater need for other specialties. But we can't in all good conscience continue to bring Mexican doctors to California to work three years. The pressure on them is more than anything we thought it would be, and we are very, very concerned that there will be a point where the medical community will say, ya vasta, we don't want any more coming.

So in our opinion, we also think that there should be an effort which we would love to again work with the Legislature to begin to establish other licensing methods. We believe you must create a fifth pathway with at least three universities, schools of medicine in Mexico, where students from the United States, from California, can get their medical education in Mexico, come back to California, pass the USMLEs, and we hope that we have selected those individuals that have a commitment to serving the populations most in need.

California has more health professional shortage areas than any other state in the union. We have some 690 something. We're over 250 more than Texas. That means that we are practicing medicine in third world numbers. In other words, there are 3000 patients in an urban center, in a rural area for one primary care physician, there's not enough docs, 3500 in an urban center.

So you're looking at numbers like you get in Haiti, numbers that you get in very, very third world countries that don't have sufficient doctors, but that's what you have in the richest State of the Union. So there are several other initiatives that deal with immigration that you have carried in the past. We would like to pursue those in working closely with this Committee that we think would make a substantial difference to the stability of the population. With me today is Doctor Perusquia, who is one of the best examples that we can provide.

She is a board, she is a fellow of the American Academy of Internal Medicine, which is in the field of medicine, is a big to do. And what's so impressive about her is that she's from Mexico. So regardless of what this side of the border at times sees in the doctors of Mexico, we have been very fortunate to bring in excellent doctors that are working and serving the very, very poor and the most needed in this state. And Doctor Perusquia would like to share what her experiences have been to date. Doctor.

Thank you, Doctor, and thank you very much for that introduction and kind of setting the stage with the background on this program. And I'd be remiss if we didn't recognize the leadership of former Assemblymember Marco Fireball, who had a vision to addressing this doctor shortage in our community. So thank you again for putting that into perspective. Doctor Frazier.

Thank you. Good morning. I'm Doctor Eva Perusquia, medical doctor with a specialist in internal medicine. That means that I work with adults with chronic diseases. After three years of working at Clinica De Salud Del Valle De Salinas, I can tell you that in average, I take care for about 550 patients per month. From this, 60% have a hypertension, 30% diabetes, 60% obesity, and about 30% anxiety or depression, only for talking about the four more prevalent diseases.

Most of these patients have only the government insurance, Medi-Cal or Medicare, but some of them don't have any insurance, and this condition set them in a very vulnerable position where they must decide whether to pay for medications or pay for food and rent. Nevertheless, the most serious problem we have faced is not the lack of insurance, but the poor communication between patients and primary care physicians, sometimes due to a low or non existent understanding of the language, but in other cases, the cultural difference. And sadly, in many of the cases due to the unwillingness of the medical providers.

These people, who are the main workforce in the community, have a history of low sociocultural status. Some of them, the younger ones, have had access to higher academical degrees, but not in health issues, in health education. And we have to recognize that prevention and education in health are essential to avoid complications that terribly affect the life of the person or the patient, but also the economy of any government. And there's not enough money to afford for this. It results more cost effectively to educate people in health issues than to resolve complications.

As a pioneer physician of this program, we had as first goal to demonstrate capabilities and acceptance in the community. Even though this challenge has been completed, it is still pending to impact the population through education to generate skills that can represent a change of mind. But for this, we need more time. Sadly, a cycle of three years hasn't been enough to establish the basis for a patient educational program, a system in which the patient can handle its own health in its own hands. And in this matter, our work as physicians who share language and culture has been critical.

I have to add here that some of us have learned some words in dialects like Triqui or Mixteco, so that we can get the confidence from these people and also can understand and make them feel confident to tell us all their problems, their issues, family and health problems. This achievement will open paths for the new generations of physicians, Mexicans or not, to continue the work that can make the change needed to improve people's health, not only in Salinas or in California, but also in this country, to whom, really, we are grateful for opening its doors and allow us to participate and help us in its health care system. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I want to close Congress, Assemblyman.

With this, so much is discussed on the shortage. The problem is that the shortage is much greater in our communities because the shortage does not factor in the cultural linguistic competency.

So not only do we not have enough doctors, we don't have enough doctors that speak the language and know the culture of the patient base, yet that has not seeped into the institutions well enough. I do think a very important note of the bill AB 2860 that we anticipate will pass the Legislature.

It's passed the Assembly with no opposition and been on the consent calendar and should be heard on Monday in the Senate. We do include 30 psychiatrists. That is a very desperate need that we know our population has in mental health. In next year, we probably will amend 2860 this program to include psychologists working with UNAM.

UNAM has recommended to us that we create psychiatrists, psychologist teams. We're going to try the psychiatrist first, but we feel very comfortable that the psychologist Mexico will be able to provide us at least the same amount of psychiatrists that we have. But that is a good example of just how desperate our population is for access to care.

There is nowhere, we are nowhere close to providing the access to all of the specialties that they need. Mexico is key. We did not do a lot with the government this last time because the program was working. We have an excellent relationship with our counterparts in Mexico.

Doctor Miguel Angel Fernandez from UNAM, Hilda Davila, who at one time worked for the previous Administration.

We hope that under this new Administration that well be able to do the same and that Mexico can play the kind of role that demonstrates that Mexico has so much to offer to this country. Not the image that has been created by certain candidates for public office, but rather this program underscores that they're seeing a lot of people who don't speak Spanish.

They're seeing people that speak English only. So we're not discriminating under any circumstances. We are trying to simply create reasonable and immediate responses. The last thing I think is important to note for the record, when we did this program, we had a lot of opposition from Latinos in the United States, in California.

That was a very sorry moment. We're glad to say that that has changed somewhat, but we want to make sure that people understand we're not choosing doctors from Mexico over the development of doctors that are born in California. We're saying you've got to do both because we're so far behind.

So I really hope that we'll be able to move with your assistance and hopefully with Members of this Committee. There isn't one Member here that doesn't have over 60% Latinos in their district. Mr. Gibson is a good example, 62.5% of his district is Latino.

So I hope that we'll be able to work with some of them now that you will be stepping down. But it's our hope that we'll still be able to do things with you as time goes on.

Thank you very much. Doctor, the floor is yours.

First of all, thank you so much for this opportunity. My name is Doctor Ilan Shapiro. I'm the Chief Health Correspondent and Medical Affairs Officer for AltaMed. And I have been actually participating with the community from Los Angeles to Orange County for the past eight years. I come here with many hats.

The first one, as someone that actually was born and raised in Mexico City, that I have seen the importance of the binational, bicultural, and linguistic importance of creating that path for our community here in the US. Also, AltaMed has participated in the past, almost two years and a half in the AB 1045 program.

At the beginning was very difficult to explain to a lot of the community members that we were actually really having Mexican physicians that were understanding the language. And not only the language, but the importance of the distritos. And a lot of the memories that we had from our home country.

At this moment, we have proven a lot of the things that we already knew, but we have the numbers. There were doubts at the beginning on would it be effective enough, would the quality be the same? And we know right now that they are equal or sometimes more effective on the culture and linguistic component of it.

And the appreciation of the patients are just as high or higher than any other physician in the entire nation.

We have seen again and again with our seven physicians that we have in AltaMed, that they have accomplished the mission to fight diabetes, weight management, and all the other things that we have in front of us, putting them on the verge of creating something important.

We have heard right now the importance of connecting the dots, connecting not just the language, but adding the cultural aspect of it. And the message continues to resonate when we hear the stories from the patients to us. And usually, I'm not going to lie, sometimes in social media, you can hear a lot of interesting conversations.

But the conversation that we have heard from the Mexican physicians have been extremely positive. People that were not reaching out, they were not changing the ways they were actually fighting against their sugars, have actually continued to get involved with services, and most importantly, improved than a couple years.

It took almost two decades to get to the point that we are right now understanding, and we have heard the numbers. We're going to be missing more than 4000 physicians in a matter of years. We have a choice. And yes, we need to continue doing the long-term planning.

But today, where my patient needs insulin, where my patient actually needs to be taken care of, when my patient actually needs a mammogram, Pap Smear, we need a physician there, someone that will be understanding what they are doing, what they are creating, and most importantly, the connection of the things that we have with our community then. With everything that we have said today, creating that fifth pathway, creating not just the path.

And we have heard this here today, that this actually serves other underserved communities. This actually serves other underrepresented communities because it's not exclusive for one demographic or one language or one group. We're creating access, especially right now that we have such a constraint with all the resources that we have in this amazing State of California.

It's important to create pathways for international Medicare graduates, for programs like this, this one, to make sure that our patients continue to be served, continue to be taken care of. And we are here for that, Assemblymember Garcia.

Thank you very much. I thank all of you for your presentations. I think there's a extreme direct connection to the first panel, the conversation of a formalized exchange program when it comes to higher education with intentionality around economy, workforce, and of course, the higher education being the anchor. The first panel has talked about entrepreneurship. Right.

But I want to center us back to this issue that we're talking about, a nasty issue of access to healthcare that serves as a catalyst in some communities, if not all, as also an economic driver.

Because healthy people. Right. Lead to healthy communities. And that's not, you know, science or political slogan. That's just a fact.

That's right.

And so I want to center us around that discussion and kind of maybe get us thinking a bit about the tie into the first conversation about a formalized program, state sanctioned, when we're talking about the exchange, the one for one, specifically to the doctor program. Right.

Because, and although it wasn't mentioned in the first panel, but, you know, the exchange programs that currently exist that are not formally structured are cultural by nature, which are fantastic, but are not intentional, tied into an economic workforce opportunity that has mutual and reciprocal benefit, because there are also needs and opportunities in Mexico for certain skill sets and professionals from California that could contribute.

Right. Case in point, the entrepreneurs that could go down and bring certain value and vice versa. Right.

But I want to center us around this subject of healthcare and how we might be able to with the partnerships already with the existing universities, as we're thinking about psychologists, as we're thinking about the telehealth medicine, how do we formalize the programs where the state is participating with these universities? And we'll go around starting with you, Arnoldo.

Well, I think the fifth pathway can be done in various areas.

They can be done in nursing, they can be done in PAs, and they can be done with doctors. So that we select, jointly with Mexico the campuses that they want to be involved in that fifth pathway, so that our Latino students, or even non Latino students that want to serve the Latino community and other communities can get educated while in, at these universities in Mexico, come back, get license, and now they're working in these communities that are most in need.

That is no. There is no structure for that. The problem has been that they've tried to do this through the UC, but UC has been the problem to begin with. So to us, we've always had very, very strong apprehension of where the UC system relies and where they're really coming from.

It's been very competitive, and they've undermined us for many, many, many years. That's why it took us so long to implement this program. There is some disposition of change on their part, but the irony is this. The current President of the UC system was the most ardent opponent of this legislation when it was in the state Legislature.

There was no one who opposed this bill more than Doctor Drake, more than the California Medical Association. So now he is the President. And people expect us to work with the UC system to create this kind of a process.

We think that we're better off working with private medical schools and being able to do that, invest with them, as opposed to giving the budget to the UC. That to us, is a very, very important distinction. In terms of the psychiatrist and psychologists again, it just depends on our attitude is this, Member.

We believe that there should be agreements between the government and the state government of California and the country of Mexico. That's where we think they have to be. They have to be at that level of agreement. It cannot be institutional to institution because there's not enough oversight and there's not the same mentality.

There is verbally, which Governor has not spoken about how much they love Mexicans, okay? Every goddamn Governor that we've had doesn't make any difference who it is. Even Pete Wilson loved Mexicans, okay? But when it comes to substance, we don't get it. We get protection of certain institutions in this state over the well-being of our population.

That is now 40% of that 40%, at least 30% of that 100% speak Spanish only. They still need a tremendous amount of assistance. So we believe that the agreements and the understandings, the institutionalization of this relationship must be government to government.

If the Legislature can pass the bills, it still has to be with the agreement that the Governor of this state, whoever it may be, is sitting down, not with governors, but with the President of Mexico, because every state along the border right now has come to me and said, Arnoldo, can you create doctors from Mexico for Texas, for New Mexico and Arizona?

So I'm saying that California can create a completely new era of relationship between Mexico and this country, not just southern border states. You've got 22 other states that are now looking to foreign doctors, but English language doctors from other English speaking countries. The problem is that that's not the only need they have in their states.

They have Mexicans in their states. Why? Because there isn't a goddamn state that doesn't have Mexicans working in the major employment and industries of these states. So I just think that California can truly set a tremendous example by doing things that have yet to be done in terms of an institutional commitment by government to government.

So I am hopeful that that is the direction, because you are absolutely right when you made the bottom line. The bottom line is that all of these things are tied. The economic well-being of California's agricultural sector.

You've got to make sure that our workers in the fields are protected, that they have equal access to care, because why? Because they're some of the sickest populations in the State of California, bar none. And yet we haven't done that. We certainly could do that for other essential worker populations as well. Everyone benefits under those circumstances.

There's no losers here. So I think that this Committee could not be at a better place, at a better time to take the lead. And again, I hope that you will continue in this role because it will take diligence, discipline, focus. There's so much that people want to do.

I think that what you want to start with are with examples that have already proven to be doing things our program doesn't cost the State of California one red cent. We don't take any money. We did the evaluation by raising money from foundations. We spent clinic money to do the recruitment. We don't spend General Fund Dollars.

We made sure our legislation does not allow one penny from the General Fund to have anything to do with underwriting this program. So right now, what better example can anyone point to than the program that we've created and the program that will now bring over 1000 doctors by the year 2044.

We, we could bring in more if we do the Telemedicine Bill. So I just, I think you're on the right track. I think that there's a way to integrate all of these elements together. But I think you will have to pursue immigration legislation.

For example, we are going to start now, this year because we don't know who's going to win in November. We are going to try to amend the new NAFTA that the 45th President did. We would like to have a special visa for doctors for programs like this or any other state that passes legislation or does an Executive order.

But we need a special visa because we're concerned. As Doctor Perrusquia has said, three years is not enough. Well, we have continuity. We'll get the same amount of doctors at that clinic every three years. But her concern is a very legitimate concern when it comes to medical field.

We'd like to look at a five year special visa for a doctor. And we think we could do that because the clinics are gonna be employing them. And just so that everybody who may be listening, we pay the doctors the same salaries, the same benefits. Everything's the same that we pay our current workforce and our health centers.

So there is no bracero equivalent.

I want to hear from the doctors as well.

I would like to add something as a medical Doctor. I don't know about laws or about legislations, but I for sure know that when I have a patient with suicidal ideas and the sooner appointment with the psychiatrist is in three months, we must think about any other alternatives like telemedicine.

And it's not the language because there are many providers who can speak Spanish. But it's the willingness to work and to care for these people and to share the culture and their thoughts.

Thank you.

As I remember, Garcia, we have biotech in Mexico. We have telehealth, we have medical companies that are going there. California is a tech hub, a health hub. And also we need to answer your question about the bi-nationality of this. There's amazing potential to go to Yucatan, to go to Merida, Queretaro.

All these special hubs that we have not touched before, including that by nationality is extremely important. Also the importance of expansion and extension for our communities is so important at the moment that we are limiting to 1000 doctors that it's probably one fifth of what we need in the next 67 years. It's not enough.

Yes, we need to continue creating our own path. We need to be independent as a state. We need to make sure that our communities are taken care of. But we need to go above and beyond the stuff that we already have done before. And we already know that, sadly, has not worked.

We need to recreate what we know, take away the fears that we had before, and most importantly, understand the goodwill and also the learnings that we have had from this amazing, the AB 1045 and making sure that we can amplify it.

Understanding that, especially right now that Mr. Torres has said it, it's not costing the state. It's creating wellness, it's creating a safety net, especially right now, that we're amplifying the access of healthcare for medical to our patients. We want a doctor to be on the other side to take care of them.

Lastly, it's a very important point. I hate to go on, but the doctors, when they return to Mexico, the doctor, the dean of the School of Medicine at UNAM, told us that they would participate in the program on the condition that he would lend us the doctors for three years.

He said, Arnoldo, I am not going to give you the doctors that we have paid to educate and to pay to see the patients in Mexico, but we owe something to our people who live in California. So we're going to lend you the doctors for three years.

We do not want to take these doctors from Mexico and keep them in California. We want them to come, do their stint and then go back. Because when they go back, they'll be better. And that was his point. He says, Arnoldo, they will be better and they can lead a new era in what Mexico can benefit from.

So both sides of the border benefit from programs like this. And it's very important that Mexico recognize that and understand that we do not want to do brain drain. We do not want to take anyone from Mexico permanently to come to California. We don't think that's a positive move.

No, I think it's an extremely important point to be made because it reminds us that we still have a responsibility here in California to accelerate. You know, our work in ensuring that those who are from California or elsewhere in the United States coming to California to get an education in medicine, that we are doing everything that we can to ensure that they have the best quality education and certainly preparation when it comes to cultural competency, to go serve in the communities that need them the most and where they choose to go educate themselves and not utilize these programs as the end all be all solution.

The vision and the mission of these programs were to help us fill gaps in the interim. And this is 20 years ago where those gaps were smaller, and today those gaps have gotten much larger.

Therefore, our efforts must double down, if not triple down, to ensure that we don't have unhealthy people, which, to make my connection, again, lead to an unhealthy community that leads to an unhealthy economy in all sectors of the fifth largest economy of the world, which is California.

I would like to encourage you to stay in touch with the Members of the first panel who are going to continue to be working on the formalization of this educational exchange program.

And I think that the only way that will work is through a very structured and intentional effort where we're trying to, again, enhance programs like this medical Doctor program and of course, other sectors that were touched on, such as the entrepreneurship program and other labor force and workforce gaps that need to be filled here in California and those that could be of benefit to Mexico as well.

I'd like to ask my colleague to my right to see if he has any questions before we get into public comments and then closing remarks.

Thank you to the Chair. Thank you to the panelists, and apologize that I wasn't able to hear the entire presentation. I think for me, it'd be worthwhile spending some time with you one on one to hear more about certainly the history and where the program is at now.

I think my only additional comments, Chair, I think, outlined this quite well as it relates to the first panel, because I do think there's need to be integration of this concept at all levels of higher education.

But I think one of the things, as we've engaged in conversations on healthcare needs in California, and again, the Chair really pointed this out, that this initially was to help meet some of the smaller gaps which have unfortunately become much more significant gaps, and therefore, the need for a program like this persists. Is what do we need to do as a state to ensure that we are educating enough practitioners, right, doctors who are going to be in the field?

Because clearly that's not happening. That's why we find ourselves in this situation with this need. And so we talked a little bit about our master plan of higher education and how in California, the UC's focus on one thing, the CSU's focus on something else, and community colleges have a role to play that's different.

And yet, again, perhaps it's time to think about a new vision for our master plan.

So that if our current system, which is our UC system, who has the authority to, to offer MDs medical degrees, if that's not doing the job of making sure we have the doctors that we need in our state, there's something that needs to be addressed there and what that is and to what extent, I think that's still information that I like to see.

But then with this program and with an exchange like we had in our first panel, making sure that there's opportunities for culturally competency built into those programs, which I know that is part of curriculum and conversations, but it's very different when you actually have the lived experience that I think certainly having doctors from another culture country come to this country can help other professionals understand some of those dynamics.

And also, again, referring back to the first panel, even perhaps some exchange opportunities for people in the medical field to spend some time. And I know that Doctor De La Torre talked about a nursing program in particular. I think it was family childcare and how you can gain some experience through the program in Oaxaca.

So I think that's sort of the interest that remains for me is certainly learn more about where this program is at, what the needs continue to be, and how this program perhaps, you know, changes to meet that need that continues to exist. So that's what I'd appreciate our conversation going forward.

And if you have any initial thoughts today, welcome. You should gladly.

First of all, thank you for being here. As a Mexican American, I can tell you for sure that without this program, at least on the patients that we serve, more than 18,000 patients would not be being seen. Then, thanks to this program, at least from Orange County to LA County, we know that it's working.

The continuum here in California of creating a doctorate is many things. Mentorship from high schools, creating an Escalera program where we can elevate them to college, having a mentorship scholarship, and we can talk about a lot of these pathways.

One of the crucial problems that we're having, specifically here in California, is that when we create a doctor, we are not retaining them. We're shipping them out to other states for residencies, and there's not a lot of opportunities in our state to train them back.

Then I would love to divide the conversation into one of the long-term projects that it's important to create, that residency part, the medical part of it, the mentorship, that pipeline that we needed. If not, we will have more suffering in the next 10 years, and we'll be exporting Martians instead of anybody else from other countries.

Then it's very important right now to actually be crucial with what we have right now with Mexico, understanding the population that we're serving, understanding what we're shipping back to Mexico. It needs to be a communion. Why? Because a lot of people actually work here and we send resources back to Mexico.

And that's the case from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, and an entire list of countries that we have a lot of a close relationship with. You right now have something that no other state has. Real information of Mexican physicians that are international medical graduates serving our community.

We need to learn from what we have right now expanded in the meantime, that, yes. We need to be independent. Yes. We need to create our own pathway. Yes, yes, yes. And make sure that my patients today have their insulin, that those 18,000 patients that we have seen in AltaMed continue to be seen, because one of the.

And I do have nightmares with this. One of the horrible things that we can do right now is that in the future, this program disappears, and we didn't close the gap.

Right. Right. Thank you.

I am 70 years old. So what I'm going to share with you, the Auditor will probably say he remembers it, but he was too young. In the 1980s, Coors beers came up with the slogan decade of the Hispanic. That was a Coors beer promotional campaign. Why? Because they looked at the census data.

Census data said Hispanics were going to balloon. They were just going to balloon in terms of population. Coors was a controversial beer at that time. There was Boycotts, et cetera, but they sold beer like crazy to Mexicanos, to all the Chicanada that you could imagine. Okay, but the demographics were proven correctly.

Our population blew up in the decade of the eighties. What did California's medical schools do? Okay. They did nothing. They knew this population would grow substantially beyond what anybody could have estimated, and it was going to continue to grow. Did they change their approach to recruiting?

Did they change how they were going to prepare the doctors, as Mr. Garcia pointed to, that they prepare cultural and linguistic competency courses. California is the most diverse state in the union, and yet we do not train or prepare doctors to treat the patient population that we have in this society, not just ours.

But you've got a lot of small groups. You also have cultural challenges with the black community. You have lifestyle issues with LGBT communities. And yet the medical schools, because they're UC, and you can't tell them what to do because they're constitutionally independent. Okay, you have an option. Your option is start playing with the private schools.

If the UC does not want to move in this direction, then start doing business with the private schools. You have no other choices. We can continue to bring doctors from Mexico. No doubt they'll still want to come but there's no way that we can bring the whole infrastructure, which is what we need in this state, from Mexico.

We would be robbing Mexico of what it needs. So I think that the time to be constitutionally respective and correct in dealing with the UC. That time was over, in my opinion, from my perspective and my experiences over 30 years ago when that system failed to address what was a known fact.

And if you look at their efforts today, you don't see cultural and linguistic competency. You hear the word equity. I don't want to hear the word equity because it's just a word that kind of lets them off the hook. We want to see tangible, measurable results.

What languages are you teaching for the population of patients that you have? And we don't have that as of right now anywhere close to that.

I appreciate it. Just in closing, to Chair, again, appreciative. I know the work that you've done in this space has been extremely important.

I want to note that I caught from the testimony, and you and I have had private conversations about NAFTA being resigned in 2025, I believe, and there will be new, potentially new mechanisms put in place. Add to the list of things from California Mexico perspective is the doctor visas. I caught that.

I think it's something that as we perhaps engage in that conversation as Californians as to what we think is important in a renegotiated agreement, should be part of that agreement. So appreciate that feedback. Thank you for lifting that up.

I want to give the doctor a chance to comment and we'll be wrapping this up as well.

Okay, thank you. Only a comment for your question. What to do for the medical schools. When I was in Mexico, I was a professor in the faculty of medicine in Queretaro De Queretaro.

What I really know is that the student must be in love with the community and they must find all the opportunities here so that they don't think to go to other places. So they must have good residency programs here so that they can match after the steps.

And in the meanwhile get be involved and get in love with the community, love their culture, love their people. And I think that that's the only way you can retain the people here. Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Mr. Torres. And thank you Mr. Shapiro for participating today with us. Of course I want to thank the first panel as well for their participation. As you can see, there is a strong tie in. It was intentional from our part to have this type of a discussion and we look forward to some follow up on many of the things that were brought up.

I know there's some folks out there who heard Legislation Bills, and they were probably cringing in some form or another because these informational hearings are not necessarily to talk about current bills. But it's hard not to talk about the current circumstance of what's happening without making some references in the context of what's happened before.

Our intention is just to really uplift where things are at and the work that's in front of us. I really appreciate you all taking the time to be with us. I'm going to now open it up for public comments. Anyone in the audience wishing to address the Committee, you may do so at this time.

Your name, affiliation, and just any comment that you'd like to make. Muchas gracias. Thank you, Arnoldo. And again, just a big thank you to our first panelist. Really appreciate them for participating. Special thank you to also the dean of the San Diego State University and her team in Imperial County. So thank you. Any public comments?

Seeing no one come forward, then again, I just want to say thank you again for participating today. This select Committee hearing will adjourn.